Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers

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rajacat

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #40 on: 26 May 2008, 05:06 pm »
Jerome,

This is somewhat OT but how do your copies of vinyl to CD or DVD compare to the originals? What gear do you use to perform this task?

Perhaps this would be a good topic for a separate thread. :idea:

-Roy

Canyoneagle

Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #41 on: 26 May 2008, 05:21 pm »
Willie and Lobo - "Caliente"



(This is the old artwork)


This is the updated artwork

Truly enjoyable flamenco/gypsy guitar and violin.  These two musicians (one German-born, the other a well-traveled Texan) collaborate to create some of the most enjoyable and listenable music I own.  This album is primo "morning coffee" or "late evening chill" music, and it offers up a variety of Spanish/moorish/gypsy-inspired music for your listening pleasure.  Some modern elements (i.e. keyboards, sampling) are used in a number of the tracks, but only to add ambience to this acoustic guitar and violin-focused music.
The vast majority of the album places you in a neo-gypsy camp overlooking the mediterranean, with Willie and "Lobo" providing music that is at once modern and ancient.

The fisrt few tracks offer a slow warm up to to a stunning pure acoustic piece (track 4, "El Anclote) with only the two musicians building to a breathtaking climax (on the climactic final note I can picture the flamenco dancer with her arm thrust upward, the other hand pulling her dress backwards as she drops her head to a pensive gaze downwards.....)
This is immediately followed by a smooth gypsy fiesta with the added contribution of trumpet and some sampled elements to give a party-like feel.  The album continues to move through various pieces that vary in style, but still tie together very well.

The recording quality is quite good and the performance is engaging and enthralling, with a bent towards simplicity and playful interplay between the two primary musicians.

In my opinion, this album's highlights are the 3-4 tracks where only the two musicains are doing their thing.  Breathtaking.

I can heartfully recommend this album to any fans of flamenco/gypsy music (a-la Ottmar Liebert, Shahin & Sepehr, etc).
« Last Edit: 26 May 2008, 11:46 pm by Canyoneagle »

lonewolfny42

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #42 on: 26 May 2008, 06:46 pm »
Yes....I own Omega's...their the A8's.



Their a good match with my RWA 30....or Sophia Baby...or the KR Audio ANTARES VA320.

As for food for them....they like Jazz...but they can Rock as well. :rock:

My selection.....



    Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd - "Jazz Samba"

Well recorded and very relaxing....I own both the Lp and Cd.

Quote
Guitarist Charlie Byrd was invited to travel and play in Brazil during a cultural goodwill tour sponsored by the Kennedy administration in 1961. He was completely enamoured by the music, and when he returned, he headed straight for the recording studio to make the now classic Jazz Samba. Collaborating with Stan Getz on tenor sax and backed by a band that included Gene Byrd (bass, guitar), Keter Betts (bass), and Buddy Deppenschmidt and Bill Reichenbach (drums), Byrd forged a new and brilliant sound. American record companies were to churn out hundreds of watered bossa-pop albums that have since given the style its lounge-addled image, but this album stands as a tribute to the vitality and adaptability of jazz. --Louis Gibson

If you don't own it....get it....a great album. :thumb:

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #43 on: 26 May 2008, 11:01 pm »
War - Why Can't We Be Friends?



There are days when you seem to struggle to find something to listen to, and it has little to do with the size of one's music library.  Today was such a day for me.  I started going through my music collection database and wanted to put on something that I had not listened to in a while, in this case it was something I hadn't heard in several years.  So there it was, this album by War that I had not heard in a very long time.  I know the music very well, or so I thought.  It's fair to say that probably everyone knows at least two songs on this album. :)  I knew the album was great, but aside from the two hits Low Rider and Why Can't We Be Friends? I was really hard pressed to remember anything special about the rest of the record.  After spinning this album all I can say is...daaaaaammmnnnn!  This album has it all.  It's got horns, it has bass (oh does it have bass my friends), and it has a funk groove and beat, with great vocals.  The songs are terrific to a tune.  It has excellent production values and just plain sounds awesome!!  I'm still trying to figure out why it has been so long since I last gave this wonderful album a listen.  Oh well, it won't be nearlly so long a wait for the next play, that's for sure.  If you have it, go and queue it up.  If you don't have it, seriously consider it.

--Jerome

genjamon

Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #44 on: 26 May 2008, 11:41 pm »
You guys are really killing me with all these great music suggestions.  At this rate I'll never be able to afford those new alnico drivers!   :duh: :thumb:

Canyoneagle

Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #45 on: 26 May 2008, 11:47 pm »
Ben,
 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
know whatchya mean!

How are the hemptones treating you?

genjamon

Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #46 on: 27 May 2008, 12:29 am »
They're pretty sweet!  But I'm still suffering from lack of dedicated room and placement flexibility.  They're still a little shouty, which I think is pretty heavily due to a cheap USB-SP/DIF converter and room acoustics/placement issues.  I'd also love to hear how those alnico's would affect the sound.  My new house in August should improve the options a great deal.  Since I have to accept the acoustics for the next couple months as they are, I guess I've got plenty of time to explore and enjoy new music in the meantime!   aa

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #47 on: 27 May 2008, 01:03 am »
If you don't own it....get it....a great album. :thumb:

And while they're buying Jazz Samba they might as well add the following to their shopping cart... ;)

Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto



Stan Getz collaborates with Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim to create a jazz masterpiece and the finest bossa nova album ever produced.  If you don't have this album you should be clicking right now!

--Jerome

lonewolfny42

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #48 on: 27 May 2008, 01:22 am »
I agree with Jerome....get both. 8)

I didn't mention "Getz/Gilberto".....thinking most people might have it already...because it contains "The Girl from Ipanema"....and other goodies... :drool:

Video Link..... :thumb:

zybar

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #49 on: 27 May 2008, 01:44 am »
If you don't own it....get it....a great album. :thumb:

And while they're buying Jazz Samba they might as well add the following to their shopping cart... ;)

Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto



Stan Getz collaborates with Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim to create a jazz masterpiece and the finest bossa nova album ever produced.  If you don't have this album you should be clicking right now!

--Jerome

Jerome,

Just hit play - thanks!

George

launche

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #50 on: 27 May 2008, 02:14 am »
Gilberto's daughter Bebel is most charming and offers a nice modern bossa nova sound.


Tanto Tempo

lonewolfny42

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #51 on: 27 May 2008, 02:35 am »
Another Jazz Classic....that swings...hard bop...1970 !! 8)

Freddie Hubbard - "Red Clay"........



Great lineup....Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Lenny White....and on the CD extra track George Benson and Stanley Turrentine.

Quote
Before Freddie Hubbard signed with CTI Records in 1970, he was already considered one of the most brilliant jazz trumpeters in the world. RED CLAY, his debut album on the label, is an exceptional set of plugged-in hard bop fused with funk - and reportedly the album he considers his best. Joining him on five of the six cuts, is a crack quintet featuring longtime colleagues Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock, on tenor saxophone and keyboards respectively. The final number, a previously unissued, extended live jam on the title tune, finds Hubbard fronting an all-star septet that includes such fellow CTI stars as George Benson and Stanley Turrentine.

Quote
This may be Freddie Hubbard's finest moment as a leader, in that it embodies and utilizes all of his strengths as a composer, soloist, and frontman. On Red Clay, Hubbard combines hard bop's glorious blues-out past with the soulful innovations of mainstream jazz in the 1960s, and reads them through the chunky groove innovations of 1970s jazz fusion. This session places the trumpeter in the company of giants such as tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Lenny White. Hubbard's five compositions all come from deep inside blues territory; these shaded notions are grafted onto funky hard bop melodies worthy of Horace Silver's finest tunes, and are layered inside the smoothed-over cadences of shimmering, steaming soul. The 12-minute-plus title track features a 4/4 modal opening and a spare electric piano solo woven through the twin horns of Hubbard and Henderson. It is a fine example of snaky groove music. Henderson even takes his solo outside a bit without ever moving out of the rhythmnatist's pocket. "Delightful" begins as a ballad with slow, clipped trumpet lines against a major key background, and opens onto a mid-tempo groover, then winds back into the dark, steamy heart of bluesy melodicism. The hands-down favorite here, though, is "The Intrepid Fox," with its Miles-like opening of knotty changes and shifting modes, that are all rooted in bop's muscular architecture. It's White and Hancock who shift the track from underneath with large sevenths and triple-timed drums that land deeply inside the clamoring, ever-present riff. Where Hubbard and Henderson are playing against, as well as with one another, the rhythm section, lifted buoyantly by Carter's bridge-building bassline, carries the melody over until Hancock plays an uncharacteristically angular solo before splitting the groove in two and doubling back with a series of striking arpeggiatics. This is a classic, hands down.

Produced by.....Creed Taylor....CTI records. Recording engineer - Rudy Van Gelder.... :thumb:

Lp or Cd....both sound very good.... :wink:

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #52 on: 28 May 2008, 01:27 am »
John Coltrane - Ballads



I can't really say that John Coltrane is my favorite saxaphone player.  I can't even say he's my favorite tenor player.  Truth be told there were just way too many great sax players from his generation to categorically say one was better than another.  Coltrane made a lot of unique contributions to music, and I really dig pretty much everthing he did.  But I enjoy the work of a lot of other sax players and luckily there is room enough in my library for them all.  With Coltrane I generally find myself listening to more of his later period stuff than his early quartet output -- though I love both.  I'm a fan of the avant garde and Coltrane was a giant of the art form.  So on any given day I am more likely to be listening to Ascension, Sun Ship, or Live in Seattle than I am Lush Life, Giant Steps, or Blue Train.  But today I am going to recommend this gentle set of ballads that Coltrane recorded in 1962.  I love the record because it shows that even amid all of Coltrane's later squonks, bleeps, and blurps, that he was very capable of being an extraordinarily lyrical tenor player.  Only Stan Getz and Lester Young were arguably more lyrical in their playing.  This is a beautifully recorded record.  If you're just getting into Coltrane, I can't think of a better place to start.  Highly recommended for all music lovers.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 28 May 2008, 02:11 am by jsaliga »

rajacat

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #53 on: 28 May 2008, 02:20 am »
Ah yes! aa Ballads is one of the five albums included in this exquisite boxed set (for only $32 @Amazon) which, I think, is a incredible deal for this immortal music. I also feel that the sound quality is superb and if you don't already own these recordings, this is a great way to bulk up your Coltrane collection.


-Roy

ZLS

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #54 on: 28 May 2008, 10:27 am »
I would suggest that if you like John Coltrane Ballads then you should investigate John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.  Johnny Hartman is a singer for grownups; his singing is to be savored like fine wine.  He is a baritone that sounds wonderful on Omega Speakers.

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #55 on: 31 May 2008, 08:37 pm »
Blood, Sweat & Tears



This is actually the second album by Blood, Sweat & Tears.  Their first album, Child is Father to the Man, was also terrific, but the group melted down shortly after its release due to internal struggles over control of the band's musical direction.  Co-founder Al Kooper, who is probably better remembered for the work he did on the album Super Session with Michael Bloomfield and Stephen Stills, left BS&T.  The band set out to find a new lead singer and brought in David Clayton-Thomas, whose rootsy voice provided a perfect compliment to the band's jazz inflected brand of rock.  While not as adventuresome as the band was under the stewardship of Al Kooper, this album is more accessible than their earlier work and had three chart topping hits: And When I Die, Spinning Wheel, and the truly outstanding You've Made Me So Very Happy.  This Hybrid SACD by Mobile Fidelity sounds wonderful.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 1 Jun 2008, 06:10 am by jsaliga »

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #56 on: 31 May 2008, 10:21 pm »
Arthur Grumiaux - Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin



I don't consider myself a classical music guru.  My knowledge of it is rather limited, especially when compared to my extensive knowledge of jazz.  That's not say that I don't have a deep appreciation of it.  On the contrary, what I have taken the time to explore and study I absolutely love.  But I am still an underclassman at Classical Music U :) , so I have a lot to learn and experience.  Take Johann Sebastian Bach, for instance.  His extant catalog of works is immense, and one could make a considerable investment in time and money to have him comprehensively represented by quality performances in a home music library.  I've barely scratched the surface with Bach: prefering his piano, violin, and cello works.  This two-disc set of Bach's violin sonatas and partitas from Philips Classics is outstanding.  Arthur Grumiaux is the soloist here, and the quality of the recording is quite remarkable as is the quality of the performance.  I have really come to love the Philips 2CD Duo series of classical music releases.  They are routinely sold at a discount even from Amazon.com, and most of these two disc classical music titles can be had for about $12.  So the value proposition is exceptional.  The quality of the performances is almost universally superb, especially on much of the chamber music in the series.  Highly recommended.

--Jerome

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #57 on: 1 Jun 2008, 05:52 pm »
Roy Buchanan - Guitar On Fire: The Atlantic Sessions



This ranks among the very best CDs in my music library.  In the microverse of electric blues guitar, Roy Buchanan had very few peers: Jimi Hendrix, Michael Bloomfield, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, and perhaps Eric Clapton.  After that there were a lot of really talented bluesmen such as Albert Collins and Luther Allison, but no one else was in his class.  Criminally underrated and relatively unknown (yep, you might be surprised to learn that when I mention Buchanan to my blues loving friends they almost all to a person go, "Roy who?"  Buchanan was not only an unrivaled interpreter of the blues, but he also was a geniune innovator on electric guitar technique and used harmonics like no other guitarist before or since.  I usually don't go for compilations and am reluctant to recommend them.  But Buchanan had a fairly bizarre and uneven recording career.  I have most of his original LP releases on vinyl, but I also have two compilations: this one, and a two CD set called Sweet Dreams: The Anthology.  Both are worthwhile since there is very little overlap between the two.  But start with Guitar on Fire.  This disc culls the best tracks from Buchanan's short stint at Atlantic Records, and has some scorching guitar work on tracks like: Ramon's Blues, Green Onions, Down by the River, If Six Was Nine, and The Messiah Will Come Again.  Beyond essential for any fan of electric guitar.

--Jerome

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #58 on: 1 Jun 2008, 11:45 pm »
Pascal Roge - Ravel: Piano Works



There's a lot of great music for classical piano to explore, and I can't think of a better place to start than this set of Ravel's piano works.  Wonderfully performed by Pascal Roge, this set kicks things off with the brilliant though haunting Gaspard de la Nuit -- which is one of my favorite piano pieces.  This 2 CD package is a great value from Decca's London label, which is also commonly discounted and can be snapped up for about $12.  The sound quality is great and you get a lot of music for the money.  There is also an excellent performance of Gaspard de la Nuit by Martha Argerich on the Deutsche Grammophon label, but aside from that piece the rest of the CD is pretty forgettable and in my opinion it doesn't represent her best work.  So I see the 2 CD set with Pascal Roge as being better value of the two.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 22 Nov 2009, 02:44 pm by jsaliga »

rajacat

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #59 on: 2 Jun 2008, 04:42 am »
This recording really has a huge dynamic range so don't have your refrigerator running in the background. The sound quality is quite good but I think that it really taxes my little T amps. I'm looking forward to the return of my Heathkit KT66 monoblocks which are being upgraded and rebuilt. They should provide the extra testorone required to play this recording more effectively.

Respighi employs a large gamut of textures and colors in this large orchestral work which makes for a very entertaining listen. I'd say that it is a good and demanding test for quality systems.

-Roy




« Last Edit: 2 Jun 2008, 02:50 pm by rajacat »