Matthew

Miss Helen Forrest: "Voice of the Name Bands"

Count Basie: The Complete Atomic Basie

Whenever the Giants are on Apple TV+, I turn off the sound and listen to music, it's the worst announcing team I've ever heard. The Giants pre /post game show announcer come close in awfulness, which is a shame as they use to have great teams in their hey-day. Both are examples of baseball trying to be hip and youth orientated, which never works. You're not going to get younger by throwing a bunch of stats at people and expecting to attract anyone. MLB leadership flat-out hate the game. Sorry, turned into an Old-Geezer-Get-Off-My-Lawn-Rant!

The Epic: Kamasi Washington. A minority opinion here, but I really like this one.

Citizens Bop: Dexter Gordon & Wardell Gray

I loved Simon's Glenn Miller bio, Miller comes off as... difficult, not warm and fuzzy by any means.

Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era 1935-1955. Nothing earth shattering, but a nice look at a long gone era.

The Board of Directors: Count Basie & The Mills Brothers After the listen: This is truly a wonder album.

CTI Records: The Cool Revolution

Well, heck to heck, talk about being way out of the loop, this is the first I've heard of the passing of Creed Taylor. Put me down as a fan of a lot of CTI jazz. Taylor took chances at times that worked out well, Don Sebesky did fine work, I liked his Giant Box, though that leaves some people cold. He definitely had an approach to records, in some ways it seems to me he led the way to the "smooth jazz" sound, but that's just one person's opinion. He added joy to my life with some of the CTI Records, most of which have been mentioned here, and for that, I am thankful.

Al Stewart: Time Passages

The Style Council: Cafe Bleu

Bobby Hutcherson: Farewell Keystone Bobby Hutcherson: Four Seasons

Echo and the Bunnymen: Live in Liverpool

Old Hullabaloo shows.

A Flock of Seagulls S/T. I've been revisiting a lot of 1980's stuff, and gladly (for me at least), it's stood the test of time. When I first heard I Ran, I thought it was one of the coolest songs I ever heard.

Been going down a New Order rabbit hole, now on Power, Corruption and Lies.

California continues to be a mess, my mother, who is 82, can't even get an appointment on-line or by phone, just keep getting the message that appointments are full. Meanwhile, I get stuff like this:

Marc Almond: The Stars We Are

I hear you, V-8 tastes terrible!

I'm reading Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem The Wreck of the Deutschland tonight, such a great poem! Can you imagine what Hopkins thought when this poem was rejected by a fellow Jesuit? Didn't think it was good enough for some Jesuit journal. Just the opening stanza alone shows the wondrous creativity of Hopkins. Thou mastering me God! giver of breath and bread; World's strand, sway of the sea; Lord of living and dead; Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fastened me flesh, And after it almost unmade, what with dread, Thy doing: and dost thou touch me afresh? Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.

Thought Forms by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater. Read about this reprint in Dangerous Minds and it is fascinating. A Theosophical work from 1905, and it revolves around the question: what do invisible realities look like? Has fifty-three illustrations and it is a wonderful book to ponder over.

Ray Price: The Essential Ray Price 1951 - 1962. A confident singer, I'm amazed every time I listen to this.

David: I've been listening to Strum and Thrum while driving around, and it's great! Right now, I'm going through videos of the Sadistic Mika Band, wild and creative.