So, What Are You Listening To NOW?

[jlhoots]

Lage Lund: Most Peculiar (CrissCross CD)

[HutchFan]

One of my musical heroes, the composer Charles Ives, wrote a series of essays to accompany his Second Piano Sonata.  Logically enough, he titled these program notes Essays Before a Sonata.  Since many listeners (both then and now) consider his music to be "thorny" and "difficult,"  Ives hoped that these essays might provide a bridge for listeners to make their way in to his music by providing some insight into his thinking and his musical goals. 

Ives gave his sonata the subtitle Concord, Mass., 1840-1860, and he structured it around four New England Transcendentalist authors.  The dedicatee of the sonata's fourth and culminating movement is Henry David Thoreau.  In his essay on Thoreau, Ives describes how Thoreau once heard the ringing of the Concord Bell across a great distance while on Walden Pond.  Ives quotes Thoreau, describing how, "At a distance over the woods the sound acquires a certain vibratory hum as if the pine needles in the horizon were the strings of a harp which it swept. . .  A vibration of the universal lyre."   If I recall correctly, Ives later combined Thoreau's ideas in a new phrase, calling this exalted state of awareness (through music) the "vibratory hum of existence."  For Ives, the most important and most impressive music somehow captures this elusive, ephemeral quality.  A life vibration.

I'm just saying all this stuff about Ives and Thoreau and vibrations because it came bubbling up while I was listening to this music by Masahiko Sato.  Which is to say: I think it is magnificent, stunning, phantasmagorical music -- music that's as good as it gets.  And Ives' words somehow explain very well how certain types of music (like his and Sato's) work (in figurative terms, not musical terms) -- and how it affects us (or me, at least).

I hope these ramblings make some sense to you, and I'm touching on an idea with which you're familiar through your own listening.  . . . If not, my apologies for the long digression!  

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.  

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by HutchFan

[ghost of miles]

‘Tis the season:

[soulpope]

4 hours ago, HutchFan said:

One of my musical heroes, the composer Charles Ives, wrote a series of essays to accompany his Second Piano Sonata.  Logically enough, he titled these program notes Essays Before a Sonata.  Since many listeners (both then and now) consider his music to be "thorny" and "difficult,"  Ives hoped that these essays might provide a bridge for listeners to make their way in to his music by providing some insight into his thinking and his musical goals. 

Ives gave his sonata the subtitle Concord, Mass., 1840-1860, and he structured it around four New England Transcendentalist authors.  The dedicatee of the sonata's fourth and culminating movement is Henry David Thoreau.  In his essay on Thoreau, Ives describes how Thoreau once heard the ringing of the Concord Bell across a great distance while on Walden Pond.  Ives quotes Thoreau, describing how, "At a distance over the woods the sound acquires a certain vibratory hum as if the pine needles in the horizon were the strings of a harp which it swept. . .  A vibration of the universal lyre."   If I recall correctly, Ives later combined Thoreau's ideas in a new phrase, calling this exalted state of awareness (through music) the "vibratory hum of existence."  For Ives, the most important and most impressive music somehow captures this elusive, ephemeral quality.  A life vibration.

I'm just saying all this stuff about Ives and Thoreau and vibrations because it came bubbling up while I was listening to this music by Masahiko Sato.  Which is to say: I think it is magnificent, stunning, phantasmagorical music -- music that's as good as it gets.  And Ives' words somehow explain very well how certain types of music (like his and Sato's) work (in figurative terms, not musical terms) -- and how it affects us (or me, at least).

I hope these ramblings make some sense to you, and I'm touching on an idea with which you're familiar through your own listening.  . . . If not, my apologies for the long digression!  

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.  

Interesting thoughts .... thnx for sharing ....

[Gheorghe]

21 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Miles Davis “Water Babies” Sony Blu-Spec CD2 Japan 2023

Music that has been with me since 1976. I keep finding bits to discover and enjoy in these selections. One bonus cut on this disc, indicating it is a reissue of the US cd release mastering.

I love this Corky McCoy cover. When I was a kid in Philadelphia one of our neighborhood Dads would open up the fire hydrant every few weeks in the summer and we would frolic in the street until the City would come and turn it off. Sometimes I was the kid in clothes watching the fun unhappily as I was not allowed to participate. . . depended which parent was home. 

What a wonderful story about how it was. I also remember when it came out. I had seen Miles Davis for the first time in 1973 and those Corky McCoy covers were legendary, the covers of Bitches Brew, Live Evil, On the Corner, Live in Concert and so. 
But 1976, 77 and so on was also a time of sadness and sorrow for us kids, since we had heard that Miles doesn´t play or record anymore, and the fact, that the then brand new "Water Babies" album in spite of the "Electric Miles related cover art" had "old" music from the pre Bitches Brew era, betraied that fact. But of course the music is ideal for those who have "Filles" and "Silent Way"..... 

21 hours ago, EKE BBB said:

I think I have it on a Prestige 2 LP album which I bought in the 70´s. As much as I remember the strongest tune was that "There´s no business like show business". That´s really a long theme, just try to keep the song form in mind and play on it, really a challenge. All those things that was my most substantial "learning phase". 

Though, I think there are two ultra fast tunes at the end, and with "ultra fast" I mean faster than Bird´s "Cherokee" or Dizzys "Salt Peanuts" or "Dizzy Atmoshpere", and honestly speakin´ though it is super artistic saxophone playing, just from the musical impression it  is hardly enjoyable. Anyway I think it´s no written line but is based on other fast songs , if I remember right one basesd on Cherokee and one based on "The Way you look tonight" but I´m not sure, I have not heard it for many decades.....

On which album was the two vocals with Earl Coleman ? (Two Different Worlds" and "My Ideal" I think I remember). 

[Niko]

5 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Lage Lund: Most Peculiar (CrissCross CD)

Same here, I've been playing and enjoying this one quite a bit

[BillF]

9 hours ago, HutchFan said:

 

 

 

 

👍

Now playing:

[EKE BBB]

[jazzbo]

Miles Davis “In Person. Friday & Saturday Nights At The Blackhawk. San Francisco” Sony Blu-spec CD2, disc 1

 

[jazzbo]

Rahsaan Roland Kirk “The Return of the 5000 lb Man” Warner Bros. Japan cd

I think this is the last album recorded by RRK before his stroke. It’s a fascinating album with his brilliant mix of technical supremacy, black music history, and his verve and humor.

 

[soulpope]

25 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Rahsaan Roland Kirk “The Return of the 5000 lb Man” Warner Bros. Japan cd

I think this is the last album recorded by RRK before his stroke. It’s a fascinating album with his brilliant mix of technical supremacy, black music history, and his verve and humor.

 

Excellent late Rahsaaan indeed ....

[John Tapscott]

5 hours ago, BillF said:

👍

Now playing:

👍 (and to the McLean "Bluesnik as well)

Now:

[BillF]

3 hours ago, jazzbo said:

 

 

👍

[HutchFan]

9 hours ago, soulpope said:

Interesting thoughts .... thnx for sharing ....

 

8 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

On which album was the two vocals with Earl Coleman ? (Two Different Worlds" and "My Ideal" I think I remember). 

Gheorghe, the two vocal cuts with Earl Coleman are on Sonny's Tour de Force.  

 

[ghost of miles]

[mjazzg]

Matthew Shipp Trio invites Nicole Mitchell - All Things Are

[Rabshakeh]

37 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Matthew Shipp Trio invites Nicole Mitchell - All Things Are

Is this good?

[HutchFan]

More jazz from Japan:

Masahiko Togashi & Isao Suzuki - A Day of the Sun (Paddle Wheel, 1979)

 

and

Masahiko Togashi & Masahiko Satoh - Sōshō [Twin Crystals] (Trio, 1973)

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by HutchFan

[Rabshakeh]

Joe Arroyo Y La Verdad – Arroyando

Nice to be reminded how good this one is.

[soulpope]

10 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Joe Arroyo Y La Verdad – Arroyando😍

Nice to be reminded how good this one is.

😍😍 ....

[HutchFan]

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by HutchFan

[Peter Friedman]

Not sure why, but this is not one of my favorite examples of Sonny Rollins playing from that earlier period?

[Chuck Nessa]

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

Excellent ....

[jazzbo]

Miles Davis “A Tribute to Jack Johnson” Sony Blu-Spec CD2 2023