The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

[Michael Hagerty]

On another forum, the topic of bachelor pad/lounge music, I had brought up Nicola Conte's Jet Sounds album (called Bossa Per Due in the US).

So many parts of that album sound familiar. Some are easily identifiable, and others are like right on the tip of your brain where you think you know it, but can't quite remember exactly where.

Last summer, my wife and I were in San Francisco and went to an Italian restaurant in the Richmond District, Bella Trattoria, that has sky-high reviews on Yelp.

The food is fantastic, but so is the music, and there was about a five-song string of stuff from Nicola Conte. Loved it all, added it all immediately to my Apple Music library.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

This morning: Alison Moyet's "Alf". I had forgotten how much I loved "Invisible."

Thanks, jfiedler!

 

[Rudy]

The food is fantastic, but so is the music, and there was about a five-song string of stuff from Nicola Conte. Loved it all, added it all immediately to my Apple Music library.

Jet Sounds is actually an outlier in his catalog, as the following albums were more jazz oriented. He's always had something interesting up his sleeves (beside arms, of course).

He also curated a series of compilation CDs (the Viagem series, in five volumes) that took a deep dive into rare bossa nova and Brazilian jazz.

 

[Rudy]

This morning: Alison Moyet's "Alf". I had forgotten how much I loved "Invisible."

I first got to know her through the Yazoo album Upstairs at Eric's. "Situation" and "Don't Go" were the big hits that got played locally.

 

[Rudy]

You have it! They were originally on three separate vinyls, looks to be a total of 1 hr 47 minutes, same as you have:

OK, that's good! I have all the tracks then. The CTI AotW series hasn't gotten to that point yet, but it should be up in the coming weeks (I haven't scheduled that far ahead yet). CTI had some strange release ideas at the time--double albums were often released as singles, and as doubles. So it's hard to follow at times. For something like this, I'll probably do all three in a single entry.

 

[Rudy]

Yesterday's arrival. Been waiting for Silver's Serenade since the end of 2023 (when this Tone Poet release was announced). This was the final LP of the classic quintet front line with Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook. Kevin Gray has done another excellent job. I still wonder when he sleeps--his name is all over everything these days! (I'll ask him next weekend. ) His work is one reason these releases sound so good--the original tapes appear to be in excellent condition, and every naunce is there. I don't own many original pressing Blue Notes but even those, hallowed as they are, don't have this extra detail that Kevin gets into the grooves.




It has the nice "tip-on" gatefold jacket that the original had.

 

[jfiedler17]

This morning: Alison Moyet's "Alf". I had forgotten how much I loved "Invisible."

Thanks, jfiedler!

I tend not to hear that one very often out in public or on the radio (it did reach the Top 40 here in the U.S., but just barely, so it's been a bit forgotten to time on these shores), but, even if it's not as famous as some of her songs with Yaz, it's a greater testament to her vocal abilities, I think, both in terms of range and power. Her vocals on "Invisible" never cease to make my jaw drop - I'd put that right up there with any Annie Lennox performance I've ever heard.

I first got to know her through the Yazoo album Upstairs at Eric's. "Situation" and "Don't Go" were the big hits that got played locally.

Wonderful album. "Only You" is my personal favorite track, but "Situation" and "Don't Go" are great as well, and "Too Pieces," "Bad Connection," and "Bring Your Love Down" are all surprisingly infectious for not having ever been issued as singles.

 

[Rudy]

Don't judge. But it's the one Manilow album I can listen to. 40 years old. I feel like an antique.

 

[Bobberman]

Don't judge. But it's the one Manilow album I can listen to. 40 years old. I feel like an antique.

I like this album and I like Barry Manilow's music ( mostly his 70s and 80s plus his album of covers called Summer of 78.) You will get NO JUDGEMENTS from me whatsoever

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Don't judge. But it's the one Manilow album I can listen to. 40 years old. I feel like an antique.

Yep. That's the one.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

This morning: As We Speak by Bela Fleck, Edgar Meye and Zakir Hussain (feat. Rakes Cahurasia). I won't even attempt to describe it, but I love it.

On deck: Santi Debriano and Arkestra Bembe's Ashanti.

 

[Rudy]

I like this album and I like Barry Manilow's music ( mostly his 70s and 80s plus his album of covers called Summer of 78.) You will get NO JUDGEMENTS from me whatsoever

I don't mind listening to a "hits" record every so often.

One I didn't do well with was Swing Street. The idea was OK, but when the first song opened with screaming synthesizers instead of a real big band, I knew it wouldn't end well.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I don't mind listening to a "hits" record every so often.

One I didn't do well with was Swing Street. The idea was OK, but when the first song opened with screaming synthesizers instead of a real big band, I knew it wouldn't end well.

I’m fine with (most of) Barry’s hits. I have a soft spot for "It's A Miracle", "Can't Smile Without You" and "The Old Songs". I can go the rest of my life without hearing "Copacabana" again and I think we should replace capital punishment with forced listens of "Could It Be Magic" (especially the original).

What I can't do, apart from 2:00 A.M. Paradise Cafe, is an entire album of Barry. And yeah, Swing Street was not good.

 

[Rudy]

I can go the rest of my life without hearing "Copacabana" again

I always mix up the lyrics.

"His name was Rico/He was a showgirl..."

I have a double LP of his hits, plus a single CD anthology. With that and Paradise Cafe, that suits me well enough.

This review of Swing Street nails it, IMHO. As far as the music and the style, his heart was in the right place...but the execution fails with the synths. "Techno-swing album" though...owwch.

 

[Harry]

Never listened to SWING STREET as an album, but I dearly love one track on it, "Brooklyn Blues". I used to turn that thing up on the radio every time we played it.

 

[Rudy]

That one featured Diane Schuur.

 

[Rudy]

Wish me luck this weekend. With AXPONA on the menu, chances are there will be some very tired demo tunes being played in many rooms. One tends to get tired of hearing Patricia Barber and Diane Krall after one of these weekends. Thankfully I don't stay to listen long anymore. In the past, I had buddies who went from room to room. I'm on a couple missions this year, so it's more about Q&A than demoing any equipment.

The press releases have been overwhelming...it's tiring but I get it. They're just trying to sell product.

 

[Rudy]

This was a short/broken-up day, and I'm spinning The Jody Grind right now. Seems I lucked out on this copy, as it's a really good player.



The CD (and streaming) version had some strange ticking throughout. Not sure what's up, but there's no ticking on this record. The runout is stamped "VAN GELDER" and I would think this might be an earlier pressing. The only thing I hear during "Blue Silver" is actually Horace Silver tapping his shoe 1-2-3-4 during the ending.

 

[jfiedler17]

I don't mind listening to a "hits" record every so often.

One I didn't do well with was Swing Street. The idea was OK, but when the first song opened with screaming synthesizers instead of a real big band, I knew it wouldn't end well.

Yeah, the synths on Swing Street were a really bad idea. But I've also had a really hard time getting into anything he's made since 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe. As far as the earlier part of his catalog goes, I tend most often to just stick to his hits packages (mainly his 1978 double-disc collection; that period from 1979-1983 is definitely more hit-and-miss as far as the singles go, though I like "Somewhere Down the Road" and, while they may not have gone over well with some fans, "Read' em and Weep" and "Some Kind of Friend"). I have picked up a small handful of his studio albums, though, for the sake of having those deep cuts that I like more than the actual singles from that record. ["I Write the Songs" I rarely ever listen to, for instance, but I really enjoy Tryin' to Get the Feelin''s "Why Don't We Live Together" and "A Nice Boy Like Me"; similarly, I rarely ever listen to "I Made It Through the Rain" but like a lot of the non-singles from Barry, especially "Dance Away" and "Only in Chicago."]

 

[Rudy]

Yeah, the synths on Swing Street were a really bad idea. But I've also had a really hard time getting into anything he's made since 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe. As far as the earlier part of his catalog goes, I tend most often to just stick to his hits packages (mainly his 1978 double-disc collection; that period from 1979-1983 is definitely more hit-and-miss as far as the singles go, though I like "Somewhere Down the Road" and, while they may not have gone over well with some fans, "Read' em and Weep" and "Some Kind of Friend"). I have picked up a small handful of his studio albums, though, for the sake of having those deep cuts that I like more than the actual singles from that record. ["I Write the Songs" I rarely ever listen to, for instance, but I really enjoy Tryin' to Get the Feelin''s "Why Don't We Live Together" and "A Nice Boy Like Me"; similarly, I rarely ever listen to "I Made It Through the Rain" but like a lot of the non-singles from Barry, especially "Dance Away" and "Only in Chicago."]

That could be an interesting rabbit hole. Many artists I like have albums tracks I prefer to the hits. Even a current-day favorite, The Mavericks, often have album tracks I like way more than what they choose as singles.

It's just trying to fit more music into the other thousand or so things I want to listen to.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

That could be an interesting rabbit hole. Many artists I like have albums tracks I prefer to the hits. Even a current-day favorite, The Mavericks, often have album tracks I like way more than what they choose as singles.

It's just trying to fit more music into the other thousand or so things I want to listen to.

I come from that era (late 60s-early 70s) where often, the singles weren't the best songs on the album. Take AJA. Is "Peg", "Deacon Blues" or "Josie" really better than "Black Cow"?

Not in my book, but your mileage may vary.

 

[Murray]

Yeah, the synths on Swing Street were a really bad idea. But I've also had a really hard time getting into anything he's made since 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe. As far as the earlier part of his catalog goes, I tend most often to just stick to his hits packages (mainly his 1978 double-disc collection; that period from 1979-1983 is definitely more hit-and-miss as far as the singles go, though I like "Somewhere Down the Road" and, while they may not have gone over well with some fans, "Read' em and Weep" and "Some Kind of Friend"). I have picked up a small handful of his studio albums, though, for the sake of having those deep cuts that I like more than the actual singles from that record. ["I Write the Songs" I rarely ever listen to, for instance, but I really enjoy Tryin' to Get the Feelin''s "Why Don't We Live Together" and "A Nice Boy Like Me"; similarly, I rarely ever listen to "I Made It Through the Rain" but like a lot of the non-singles from Barry, especially "Dance Away" and "Only in Chicago."]

Here's three of my favorite Manilow album tracks.

Co-written by Manilow in 1978, but sounds like it came right out of the 1940s:


Originally recorded by Harry James and Helen Forrest in 1942:


Another cover... How can anyone possibly sing that fast?:

 

[jfiedler17]

I come from that era (late 60s-early 70s) where often, the singles weren't the best songs on the album. Take AJA. Is "Peg", "Deacon Blues" or "Josie" really better than "Black Cow"?

Not in my book, but your mileage may vary.

I'd agree with that, actually. "Black Cow" is probably my favorite track on Aja. When I really think about it, I think I tend to like the deeper cuts better on at least half of the Steely Dan albums: "Black Friday" was the lone hit from Katy Lied, but my favorite cuts on that album are "Dr. Wu," "Bad Sneakers," and "Everyone's Gone to the Movies"; "Don't Take Me Alive" is my favorite track on The Royal Scam; and "Razor Boy" and "Bodhisattva" are probably my favorites on Countdown to Ecstasy.
Billy Joel is the same way for me. I like a lot of his singles, too, but the songs of his that I love the most are almost all ones that I can't say as I can recall ever hearing on the radio dial, like "Sleeping with the Television On" (my very favorite) or "All for Leyna" from Glass Houses, "Rosalinda's Eyes" from 52nd Street, "This Night" from An Innocent Man, "Code of Silence" from The Bridge, or "Blonde Over Blue" from River of Dreams. Nine times out of ten, when I'm the mood to listen to him, I end up picking one of those songs.

That's the most fun part for me of listening to studio albums, discovering those songs within that are every bit as infectious as those that were actually selected as singles, especially if you're listening to an album where all the hits are placed on Side One and it's consequently less likely that Side Two was listened to as much. (A few examples I can think off of the top of my head: Styx's Paradise Theater is pretty front-loaded as far as the most famous songs from that disc go, but the track I listen to the most and can least avoid singing along with is "She Cares"; all the singles from Rick Springfield's Working Class Dog are on Side One, but the tracks I find myself revisiting most often are the second-side opener and closer, "The Light of Love" and "Inside Silvia"; nearly all of the hits from Hall & Oates' Private Eyes are on Side One of that album and the second side consequently gets little to no airplay, but I may actually like "Head Above Water" and "Tell Me What You Want" even more than "I Can't Go for That" or the title cut).

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Originally recorded by Harry James and Helen Forrest in 1942:

I hadn't listened to the album when "I Don't Want To Walk Without You" was released as a single, so it was a pleasant surprise. I was programming KOLO in Reno, and while I usually did evenings, I was filling in for the midday (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) personality, who was on vacation. I listened to "I Don't Want To Walk Without You" that morning before the show and decided it was going on the playlist that day.

Then I went into the library, which had a bunch of material from the station's old-school MOR days that we no longer played, and pulled out the "Singin' in the Rain" soundtrack album.

I promoted the new Manilow single for the first hour, and then in the 11:00 hour, I played "Singin' in the Rain", at 2:35 (where the extended instrumental for Gene Kelly's dance begins) segued into "I Don't Want To Walk Without You" and then as the fade on Manilow began, cross-faded back into "Singin' in the Rain" at this exact point:



The phones went nuts. Extremely gratifying.

Another cover... How can anyone possibly sing that fast?:

Here's the original:

Cloudburst

Provided to YouTube by Columbia/LegacyCloudburst · Lambert, Hendricks & RossThe Hottest New Group In Jazzâ Originally released 1959. All rights reserved by C...

www.youtube.com

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I'd agree with that, actually. "Black Cow" is probably my favorite track on Aja. When I really think about it, I think I tend to like the deeper cuts better on at least half of the Steely Dan albums:

I think for me, it's all of them. Some of that may be due to overplay of the hits on the radio, but from Can't Buy A Thrill, my two favorite cuts are "Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)" and "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again". After that would be "Reelin' in the Years" and "Do It Again".

On Countdown to Ecstacy, absolutely "Boddhisatva", with "My Old School" second.

On Pretzel Logic, "Any Major Dude Will Tell You", "Parker's Band" and "Pretzel Logic", then "Rikki Don't Lose That Number".

For Katy Lied, it's "Dr. Wu", "Bad Sneakers" and "Chain Lightning".

Aja is "Black Cow", "Aja" and then "Peg" and "Deacon Blues" in a tie.

Gaucho would be "Time Out Of Mind" (a single but not the big one), "Babylon Sisters", "Gaucho" and then "Hey Nineteen."

I'm the weird Steely Dan fan who does not revere Two Against Nature. In fact, I don't much like it. I've never warmed up to it, don't have an explanation for it, and every few years will dig it back out again and try to listen with fresh ears.

And finally, from Everything Must Go, it's "Everything Must Go", "Blues Beach", "Things I Miss The Most" and "The Last Mall".