Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers

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jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #120 on: 19 Jul 2008, 10:39 pm »
Mosaic Records - The Complete Verve Roy Eldridge Studio Sessions



Roy Eldridge is one of the four most influential and important trumpeters in jazz: the other three are Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis.  Eldridge is probably most remembered for his stint during the early 1940s in Gene Krupa's band and especially for his performance of the song "Let Me Off Uptown" with a very young Anita O'Day.  After the big band swing era came to a close in the late 1940s he recorded prolifically on the Verve label throughout the 1950s.  There are several important 1950s swing dates on these discs that are very much worth having -- such as those with Oscar Peterson and Herb Ellis in the early 1950s, also with Buddy Rich, Ben Carter, and then there are the numerous recordings he made with Dizzy Gillespie.  This is the only place you are going to find all of this music, and Mosaic as usual rolls out the mastering red carpet and provides you with 7 CDs that sound phenomenal.  If this music is important to you and you don't have this set, then you should buy it without delay.  It is on Mosaic's "Last Chance" list, which usually means it will be sold out fairly soon.  Once it's gone that will be it.  True, it isn't cheap at $119, but these things will show up on eBay for $300 to $500 within a few months after the last sets are sold by Mosaic.  It's better to get it now while you can do so for a sensible price if it is something that you may want.

UPDATE: These are now sold out so don't bother checking with Mosaic.  Hopefully those who were truely interested got one while they could.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 26 Jul 2008, 08:07 pm by jsaliga »

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #121 on: 21 Jul 2008, 11:15 pm »
Susannah McCorkle - I'll Take Romance



Chronic depression led Susannah McCorkle to tragically end her life in suicide in 2001.  But she left behind a recorded musical legacy that proves she ranks among the finest jazz singers and lyrical interpreters to ever to grace a stage or recording studio.  Like Billie Holiday, Susannah McCorkle had a way of interpreting torch songs and ballads that seemed natural, and not forced or contrived.  She could not only tell the story of a particular song, but she could also create and develop the emotional context of the story.  Unlike Billie Holiday, McCorkle could also swing.  Perhaps not like Ella Fitzgerald or Anita O'Day, but she had a fine sense of rhythm and knew how to pace a swing tune.  I'll Take Romance is an album of mostly torch songs and ballads.  All the songs are superbly sung, but the standouts are My Foolish Heart, Taking a Chance on Love, That Old Feeling, Where Do You Start, I Thought About You, and a simply breathtaking reading of Lover Man that I think is at least as good as the version that Billie Holiday did in the 1940s.  Required listening for any jazz vocal fan.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 22 Jul 2008, 11:23 am by jsaliga »

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #122 on: 22 Jul 2008, 01:27 am »
Little Feat - Dixie Chicken



Little Feat is one of my favorite bands, and I can give a hearty recommendation to any Feat record that was recorded while Lowell George was with the band.  They were still a good band without him, but it just wasn't the same.  It was a great loss when George died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of just 34.  Dixie Chicken brought us the fully formed Southern-Fried-Rock meets New Orleans R&B sound of Little Feat and it became their marquee record, with many of its songs in heavy rotation in the band's live performances.  The title cut gets things moving and the great songs just keep on coming and they never let up until you lift the needle at the end of side 2.  If you have a analog rig then I strongly suggest that you find yourself a vinyl copy since they are cheap and plentiful -- it also sounds considerably better than the CD.

--Jerome

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #123 on: 26 Jul 2008, 08:12 pm »
Jeff Buckley - Live at Sin-e



People familiar with Jeff Buckley might suggest that the album Grace was a masterpiece created by an artist who died just as he was on the cusp of stardom.  For the most part I agree with that assessment.  But if you really want to get to know and understand something of what Jeff Buckley was all about as a musician (and a person) then I think Live at Sin-e is a much better choice.  Recorded at a time when Buckley was still paying his dues and developing as an artist on the New York cafe circuit -- this is as up-close-and-personal, as intimate, as it gets.  The singer, alone with only his guitar, a microphone, and an amplifier creates a musical experience tailor made for music lovers.  There is no slick production here, and you aren't going to find sound that was recorded by the best equipment and sound engineers available.  That is not suggest it was recorded by amatuers.  Buckely was a recording artist for Columbia at the time, but this is a no frills production and it shows it.  And yet, this is compelling music that stirrs the soul and is likely to make you fall in love with music all over again.  It is vital, alive, and vibrant.  The sound is great despite the amplifer buzz and occasionally excessive reverb.  Buckley's amazing voice, his wity banter, and his personal charm are the stars of this show.  When people ask me if I could turn back hands of time and attend one performance I missed in days gone by, this one is at the top of my list.  There are some surprising songs here that delight the listener and demonstrate the extent of Buckley's knowledge and love of music, such as a spellbinding reading of the controversial song Strange Fruit that was originally recorded by Billie Holiday.  All of this wonderful music is spread across two CDs on this Columbia/Legacy Edition package.  There is also a DVD included with peformances of Kick Out of the Jams and The Way Young Lovers Do.  Even the liner notes are a great read.  It's an awesome set and a terrific value.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 22 Nov 2009, 03:45 pm by jsaliga »

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #124 on: 26 Jul 2008, 09:34 pm »
Come - Eleven: Eleven



Anyone here who is familiar with Thalia Zedek will probably remember her from bands like Uzi and Live Skull.  I have the Live Skull album Positraction on vinyl and love it for its No Wave influences.  But Zedek's work with Come is far removed from the extremes of Live Skull.  This is blues rock that recalls The Rolling Stones at their creative best (Beggar's Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers), but this is a much darker, and disonnant interpretation of what blues rock should be.  Some might find this a little too noisy for their liking, but most people who enjoy indie rock and like bands such as Pavement and Guided By Voices should warm up to Come and find a lot to like.  The main attraction is obviously the multitalented Thalia Zedek.  She is not only a great singer in the way she interprets blues rock, but she is an accomplished songwriter and talented guitarist.  This album features 10 original songs and a splendid cover of the Stones tune I Got The Blues from the album Sticky Fingers.  Out of the originals, Submerge, Dead Molly, Off to One Side, and Sad Eyes are the highlights -- the entire album is strong and it should find a comfortable home in the collection of any music fan who enjoys blues rock.

--Jerome

Canyoneagle

Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #125 on: 1 Aug 2008, 11:33 pm »
Just checked this out on CD from the library, and I am very pleased with it!



The combination of arabic/Punjabi-based Qawwali and Flamenco in these 3 CD's is phenomenal.  The recording quality is excellent (live) and the emotion is palpable.

Recommended!!!!!!!

el dub

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #126 on: 2 Aug 2008, 12:07 am »
canyoneagle: Wow! We want this one. Qawwali? Flemenco?

Who are the Qawwali artists on the discs? I can't read the credits on the photo.

We had the honor of catching Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan live in Chicago before he died. We really appreciate his somewhat modern interpretations of the Qawwali tradition. His nephew had been apprenticing with him and sure sounded like he had the pipes to continue the tradition.

We have a pretty extensive collection of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's work if interested in suggestions. Have you checked out Gaudi/Nusrat's, "Dub Qawwali" yet? (Produced after Nusrat's death.)

Thanks for the tip.

scott

Canyoneagle

Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #127 on: 3 Aug 2008, 04:29 pm »
Hi Scott,
The Qawwali artist is Faiz Ali Faiz, and the others (Flamenco, other) are Juan Cortes (Duquende), Miguel Poveda and Juan Gomez (Chicuelo).
These artists are backed up with a fantastic percussion section (tabla, etc).

Fantastic stuff!!!!!

...and yes, I'd love some recommedations in this genre!!!!

The CD set is available on Amazon......

Cheers,
Michael

el dub

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #128 on: 6 Aug 2008, 06:10 pm »
Michael: A couple of Nusrat's more traditional discs that we really enjoy would be "Shahbaaz," and "Qawwali: The Vocal Art of the Sufis (1)."

While Nusrat made a few crossover discs, my favorite is "Mustt Mustt." Its mostly traditional but has a little techno flavor on a couple of cuts, one which became fairly popular in the club scene in India and Pakistan.

I'll be buying the qawwali/flemenco set soon. Thanks for the recommendation.

lw

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #129 on: 12 Aug 2008, 02:26 am »
Firebird Suite/Marche Slave/Night on Bald Mountain



One of the things that I truly love about vinyl is that you can buy great classical music by the bucketload for a mere pittance.  I recently bought a box of 140 LPs for $30 that was advertised as a mixed bag with mostly classical music, but also some jazz and a few pop music records.  The seller said that the records all graded to VG+ or better.  The seller was true to his word, but what he didn't say was that some of the recordings were scarce RCA Victor and RCA Living Stereo first pressings from the 1950s and 1960s.  There were also a handful of Columbia 6 Eye jazz records in there, and most of them were in fine shape.  I threw a few bad ones in the trash, but at a per-record cost of 74 cents each I really don't mind.  Most of them were simply excellent.  I want to single out this London Phase 4 Stereo release in the Concert Series from 1971 as what should be a model of how a classical music recording should sound....not just on vinyl, but on any medium.  The instruments are vibrant and alive on this record, and if I close my eyes for a few seconds I actually feel as though I am at a concert hall at a live performance and not sitting in my home office.  The soundstage is wide and enveloping, but directional as well and I could pinpoint the location of specific instruments in the mix.  It takes a truly superb recording for me to be able to do this.  The horns were crisp and clear, the timpani was firm with excellent texture, and the strings had great definition and weren't muddled.  There are three powerful pieces of music presented here, with stormy and evocative emotional content.  Powerful stuff indeed.  Grab a copy if you can find one.

--Jerome

rajacat

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #130 on: 12 Aug 2008, 03:44 am »


Very nice studio recording of the master and his student. Not only is the playing superb but the dialog between them is interesting and adds a feeling of intimacy that includes the listener in the performance. The recording quality is definitely a step above Stevie Ray Vaughn's usual offerings.

-Roy

rajacat

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #131 on: 12 Aug 2008, 04:06 am »
Jerome,

Where do you find these bulk vinyl offerings? Just kidding :P, you don't have to share your sources. :lol:

-Roy

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #132 on: 12 Aug 2008, 05:09 am »
Roy,

I started looking for ways to get the most out of my music dollar.  Someone on Head-Fi suggested to me many months ago that I should give up on buying expensive audiophile vinyl pressings and look to buy records in bulk lots.  I blew him off at first, thinking it was too hard to find records in quantity or that most of these albums were beat to death and ready for the landfill.  And then I found a box of 63 albums at a Salvation Army Thrift Store that was three miles from my home.  The box was marked "Records $1.50 each."  I asked a store employee if they would consider taking $1 per record if I bought the entire box.  Fifteen minutes later I was back at home sifting through the vinyl booty I just hauled in.  Of those, ten records went in the trash, but that left me with a little more than 50 albums that were great at a cost to me of about $1.25 each.  So after that experience I started going to Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, local yard sales and flea markets, and occasionally a good deal will turn up on eBay from time to time (but watch out for auctions because bulk lots can get bid up pretty high).  I have even found some nice lots from local classified ads (and here I thought that no one even read newspapers anymore ever since the internet was created.) :lol:  I did manage to win an auction on eBay that featured 12 still sealed boxed sets of Operas on Decca's London Label.  I won that auction for $1 (I was the only bidder), and shipping came to about $20.

So now I am buying most of my music on vinyl in bulk lots in boxes of 100 or more.  I won't pay more than $1 per record, and even at that price they have to be pretty special.  I consider a per-record cost between 65 and 75 cents each to be in the magic zone that will have me reaching for my wallet.

--Jerome

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #133 on: 24 Sep 2008, 03:29 pm »
The Oscar Peterson Trio - The Sound of the Trio



Bill Evans, as I have said earlier in this thread, is the perfect jazz pianist.  I stand by that assertion.  His chord voicings and stylistic interpretation have a profound depth and emotionalism to them that is unmatched by any other jazz pianist before or since.  If swing's your thing, however, then Oscar Peterson reigns supreme in that musical realm.  The Sound of the Trio is without question the greatest swing album recorded by a jazz trio, and anything else is just a distant second.  While I am a big fan of nearly all of Oscar Peterson's work, you find that on many of his recordings, especially with Ray Ellis on guitar in the 1950s and some of his early Verve sides, he is holding something back.  Peterson was great at interplay and a master at weaving his piano lines in with Ellis' gentle guitar.  By the early 1960s Ellis was gone and the second incarnation of the Oscar Peterson Trio featured a drum kit that was helmed by Ed Thigpen.  On this recording you see what a difference having drums can make to the swing sound, as Thigpen just lets it fly.  Ray Brown rounds out the rhythm section on bass.  With these cats doing their thing, Peterson uncorks one of his greatest performances ever.  The notes just jump from his fingers as they dance across the keyboard.  If you aren't tapping your toes and snapping your fingers after the first few bars of the opening track, then get yourself to a doctor right away -- you don't have a pulse.

--Jerome

el dub

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #134 on: 24 Sep 2008, 06:25 pm »
I'm no whizz at posting pics on the net, but my ears tell me that all four of Jim White's releases on disc sound wonderful through the Omega 6.5's. This is alternative country at its finest. Jim White is a wordsmith extraordinaire who marries uniquely atmospheric musical compositions with his lyrics. Hick-hop, if you will.

Jim's latest release, Transnormal Skiperoo, took me awhile to appreciate, but has become a listening staple. Imo, his "Drill a Hole" cd, released prior to the latest, would prolly be the most accessible. But all four are full of southern wit, humor, fire and brimstone.

Jim's compositions sound great through the omega alnicos and tubes, breathing life into the otherworldly tunes.

lw   

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #135 on: 27 Sep 2008, 08:00 pm »
Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin Ballades and Scherzos



Another wonderful RCA Living Stereo Hybrid SACD title for your consideration.  Chopin ranks among my favorite composers for piano, followed closely by Liszt, Ravel, and Debussy.  I feel that Arthur Rubinstein is the finest interpreter of Chopin among 20th century piano virtuosos, though ironically enough there is a 1960s performance of Ballade No. 1 in G Minor by Vladimir Horowitz that in my humble opinion simply cannot be bettered, not even by Rubinstein.  Still, the performances on this disc are splendid and the recording quality is superb.  If you enjoy this sort of music then I encourage you to browse through the RCA Living Stereo Hybrid SACD catalog now and get them while you can.  Some of these titles are starting to go out of print, and for $10 each the value proposition is very high since a lot of these recordings are seminal works.  I have every SACD in the series with the exception of a few Italian operas, and I intend to snag those as well while they are still available.

--Jerome

rajacat

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #136 on: 9 Oct 2008, 04:30 am »


Vinyl

This LP is incredible. My favorite, so far, on my new vinyl setup. Perhaps my limited experience with records clouds my judgment but I find the sound quality to be very high, so high that it almost matches the superb musicianship displayed with this masterpiece. :thumb: A friend gave me the honor of borrowing Projections for a little while. :)

-Roy


jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #137 on: 16 Oct 2008, 07:25 pm »
Roy, what did you end up with for a vinyl rig?  Inquiring minds want to know!

--Jerome

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #138 on: 16 Oct 2008, 07:55 pm »
Jacqueline du Pre/John Barbirolli/LSO - Elgar: Cello Concerto



There have a been a number of brilliant 20th century cellists to grace the classical music scene: Pablo Casals, Janos Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Jacqueline du Pre.  I find that each has to their credit some definitive work: Starker with the Dvořák Cello Concerto, Casals with the Bach Cello Suites, Rostropovich for the Brahms Cello Sonatas.  Jacqueline du Pre gets the nod for her breathtaking reading of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor.  This is not only the definitive interpretation of that work, but this CD also sets a benchmark for sound quality.  Highly recommended.

--Jerome
« Last Edit: 22 Nov 2009, 03:46 pm by jsaliga »

jsaliga

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Re: Music - Food for Your Omega Speakers
« Reply #139 on: 17 Oct 2008, 12:19 am »
Sviatoslav Richter/London Symphony Orchestra - Liszt: The Two Piano Concertos; The Piano Sonata



This CD quite possibly contains about 65 minutes of the greatest Liszt concertos ever recorded.  Richter was, in my opinion, usually a fairly measured pianist.  He did many, many things extremely well, had a vast repertoire, and his interpretive skills were immense.  Still, he was regularly regarded as jack-of-all-trades insofar as did a little bit of everything, but there aren't many piano works where Richter is acclaimed as providing a definitive performance of that work.  When we think of Arthur Rubinstein we think of Chopin, when we think of Vladimir Horowitz we think of Scriabin, Scarlatti, and Chopin, when we think of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli his name recalls Debussy and Ravel.  That's not to say that Richter wasn't highly regarded.  He was one of the greatest virtuosos of the 20th century.  And if you are looking for that definitive work, then look no further because here it is.  Richter provides a lot of shock and awe in these Liszt performances.  The piano concertos are played with a fire and passion that you simply will not find anywhere else, and the orchestra is fully up to the task.  This is an essential CD for classical music lovers.

--Jerome