Johnny Smith: Walk, Don't Run Trying to take it easy this evening.... (From DROffline MkII) (Johnny Smith - Walk, Don't Run! )
Spinning a Rollins classic this evening. Sonny Rollins - Way Out West - 2 LP 45rpm (Analogue Productions 2003)
Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico (RCA ND-71784) Released in 1972, Per Un Amico is the second album of P.F.M. Italian prog-rock at its best.
Interestingly (or maybe not), I'm currently enjoying an in-house (perhaps..aka bootleg) recording from Martyrs in Chicago, 1998. Solid playing from the group. Nice music for a cold, cold night in the woods....
"Italian prog-rock at its best." Indeed! I didn't discover PFM until this century.... boy, was I missing out. Truly great stuff there.
Stanley Cowell - Regeneration Stanley Cowell - Musa-Ancestral Streams Today, it was time to dive into some Stanley Cowell. For no reason in particular, I started with 1975's Regeneration and lets just say Mr. Cowell and I didn't quite get off on the best foot together. The opening vocal number needed far stronger lyrics for a song dependent on them, and the underlying music did little to lift the song further. Fortunately, the rest of the album showed better variety, yet it still never really grabbed me. I didn't get bored as songs changed from style to style, mood to mood, but nothing said "you gotta' listen to this again!" At the end of this album long introduction, I felt like this is okay, but nothing I'd bother to seek out more of. Still, I know this is a respected artist and I wanted to give him another go. So I moved back one album and two years time and grabbed Musa-Ancestral Streams. Not having cared much for Regeneration, in which Cowell is backed by a competent rhythm section and had other musicians to carry the load, I had little hope for this album, pure solo piano. Well, Gimme' a dress and call me Shirley fellas, because boy was I wrong! This is probably one of the most sublime solo piano albums I've ever heard in any genre. All the spirit missing from the latter release is here, in spades, and captured my soul through the entire length of the album, as it continued to do on my second complete listen. Really glad I stuck with this artist! I suppose more exploration is now in order.
This is an excellent album. Grabbed the MOV pressing - a bit noisy between tracks and quiet parts, but overall pretty good. The music is just phenomenal!!!
1956 - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis cleaned up a scan of an original pressing while listening to 1987 CD (825 373-2)
I just got home from playing an acoustic showcase at my friend’s cidery. I did one set with an acoustic bass player friend of mine and then sat in with another guitarist/singer to play some slide and then played some hand percussion with said bass player and a guitarist including Song For My Father. Had to get a jazz mention in the post.
I feel the same about Musa: Ancestral Streams. Another I really love is Equipoise from 1979 on Galaxy. A trio album with Roy Haynes on drums and Cecil McBee on bass. It saw CD release only once in Japan (2013), but you do vinyl, right? Stanley Cowell - Equipoise
My cd copy released in Italy (2001): Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico I Dischi D'Oro: "Series of BMG Italy, for historical and best albums of the Italian repertoire, reissued at a very special low price. All albums of this series are issued on 24-carat gold, digitally remastered with original digipak covers. By proposing quality music on high quality medium and at a competitive price, "I Dischi d'Oro" objective was to fight piracy. Please note that the series name usually doesn't appear on the release itself, but on a sticker. The existence of this series is nevertheless acknowledged by the record company in their official communication."
Context : Miscellaneous events in U.S. during First few weeks of 1961 (few weeks after Coleman’s Free Jazz recording sessions ): -Race riots in Georgia -JF Kennedy Inauguration -Patsy Cline I Fall To Pieces is released -Premier of The Dick Van Dyke show - Berry Gordy signs The Supremes -Show Girl opens in NYC - Are You Lonesome Tonight Presley hits #1 -Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe divorce - To Kill A Mockingbird First publication
NP: Ahmad Jamal Trio - Jamal at the Pershing, Volume 2 From next weekend onward, I'll start traveling around to see family and friends once more before the end of the year. This weekend I have planned to hardly do anything at all, except for some housekeeping tasks, a walk, a bike ride, and taking some time off to quietly listen to music. This afternoon started with the January 16, 1958 recording of But Not For Me: Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing and I've now moved on to the next day, enjoying the January 17 recording of the same trio at the same venue. Jamal, of course, doesn't need any further introduction!
