Which CDs do you listen to these days? [Now Spinning 2009]

[Bruno]

My favorite for the last weeks was Barry Manilow's new album THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE EIGHTIES.

Yesterday, I bought the new album by the Pet Shop Boys, simply titled YES. The first single LOVE ETC. is receiving good airplay here in Germany.
I did not have the time to listen to the album yet, but when I did, I will write a little review.

Next week I will surely listen to ST.MATTHEWS' PASSION by Johann Sebastian Bach. Quite a change in style!

Bruno
happy, that spring has finally arrived in Germany, after one of the longest and coldest winters of the last hundred years over here

 

[Mike Blakesley]

It's not a music disk, but I'm currently enjoying Jim Gaffigan's new comedy album, KING BABY. It's hilarious and believe it or not, it's clean! Pretty rare these days for comedy.

Music? Haven't bought much of anything new lately. I think my most recent new music purchase was Sergio's ENCANTO. No wonder the economy's tanking!

 

[rickster]

Pat Metheny and Anna Maria Jopek - "Upojenie" (Nonesuch)

Randy Sandke - "Unconventional Wisdom" (Arbors Jazz)

The Natural - Soundtrack

Carl Saunders - " Be - Bop Big Band" - (Seabreeze)

 

[JOv2]

Jaki Byard -- Last From Lennie's
Luiz Bonfa & Maria Toledo -- Braziliana
Pharoah Sanders -- Izipho Zam
Freddie Redd -- Shades of Redd
NRBQ -- Scraps

 

[Mike]

Juan Oskar -- All Covers
Lisa Ono -- Cheek to Cheek (Jazz Standards From Rio)
Lisa Ono -- Look to the Rainbow (Jazz Standards From LA)
Frank Sinatra -- Come Fly With Me
The Beatles -- Love
The Ventures -- 10th Anniversary Album
Laurindo Almeida -- A Man and a Woman
Curtis Fuller -- South American Cookin'/The Magnificent Trombone of Curtis Fuller

All the best,
Mike

 

[Moritat]

Over the last 2 weeks I've listened to...

ESP / Miles Davis
I MISS YOU SO / Chris Connor
EASTERN SOUNDS / Yusef Lateef
GAROTA DE IPANEMA / Nara Leao
THE IN SOUND / Gary McFarland
TAKE A PICTURE / Margo Guryan
LOUDER THAN BOMBS / The Smiths
SKEETER DAVIS' GREATEST HITS
GENE PITNEY'S GREATEST HITS

For what its worth, I also listened to 2 lps...

BASICALLY BAGLEY / Don Bagley
LARRY NOVAK PLAYS / Larry Novak Trio

Hey, JO... About 3 weeks ago I listed to SHADES OF REDD. Great cd!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I guess this topic didn't really ask for NEW stuff specifically, so in the vehicle lately (where I do most of my music listening) I've recently heard:

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - FOOL ON THE HILL

Santana's CARAVANSERAI and BORBOLETTA and SANTANA III (got on a Santana kick earlier this week)

And currently playing a compilation of recent Rick Springfield material which I titled "IT IS WHAT IT IS." Don't laugh, his newer stuff is really good. He found his rock'n'roll roots.

 

[sbsugar]

I've been spinning Queensyche's new album "American Soldier" and Chicago's "Hot Streets"

 

[Michael Hagerty]

For my birthday a week and a half ago, I got:

Henry Mancini: The Hits
Meet The Beatles
The Beatles' Second Album
The Beatles: Something New
Beatles '65
Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding

Just filling in the gaps of the collection I used to have. I'm expecting George Benson's Shapes of Things To Come to arrive in the next day or two...and maybe Tell It Like It Is (reissued in the A&M Originals series last fall).

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Mike]

Seeing Michael Hagerty's mention of Henry Mancini reminded me of another CD I bought about two months ago and thoroughly enjoy:

"Hatari"

A great move and a fantastic soundtrack! Composed by the one-and-only Henry Mancini and performed by his orchestra. The 1962 movie takes place in Africa and Henry combines African rhythms with jazz and pop and comes out with some impressive tunes. While Henry never expected it, his song "Baby Elephant Walk" became an international top hit. My favorite song from the album is "Theme From Hatari".

Track list:

1. Theme from "Hatari!"
2. Baby Elephant Walk
3. Just for Tonight - Henry Mancini, Carmichael, Hoagy
4. Your Father's Feathers
5. Night Side
6. Big Band Bwana
7. The Sounds of Hatari
8. The Soft Touch
9. Crocodile, Go Home!

All the best,
Mike

 

[Rudy]

Great story about Baby Elephant Walk. Hawks had shot some footage of baby elephants and didn't know what to do with it, and gave it to Hank (Mancini). As he watched the footage, he got the idea of a boogie woogie beat, and a calliope (in this case, a rare electric calliope that did not run off of steam) giving the beat, and I believe an e-flat clarinet playing the melody. Also, the baby elephants became smitten with the actress in the film and followed her around constantly!

Love the main title, and the Sounds of Hatari (which I have heard opens the film).

Another favorite score of mine is Arabesque, which I've been listening to a bit since I loaded it on the Zune. (It starred Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren...directed by Stanley Donen.) It's darker than other Mancini scores, and it does have an odd mix to it (the orchestral parts are all on the far left), but it has some rich melodies.

What I'm listening to these days...

http://social.zune.net/member/Rudy1964

 

[toeknee4bz]

I've been spinning Queensyche's new album "American Soldier" and Chicago's "Hot Streets"

HOT STREETS, yes!!! One of the very best '70s Chicago albums. Although I have to play something else afterward or else "Marching into your heart, marching into your heart, marching into your heart, ya, ya" runs incessantly through my head!!!

Also, lately I have given Chicago's STONE OF SISSYPHUS a few spins too, although mainly for the title track, "Better Than Elvis" and "Plaid".

Having been tired of long hours at work, with no vacation in the foreseeable future, I am compelled to listen to Kenny Chesney's CDs LUCKY OLD SUN and BE AS YOU ARE (SONGS FROM AN OLD BLUE CHAIR). And any Jimmy Buffett material as well.

Wish I were in the islands...

Tony
____________________________________________________
"Nowhere to go and nowhere to be, Trinidad Charlie on the stool next to me... Readin' this book about the haves and the have-nots, and inbetween chapters we take another shot... One by one we slide from reality, nowhere to go and nowhere to be..." -Kenny Chesney

 

[Steven J. Gross]

...Lots of Herb and the TJB, and Steely Dan: Can't Buy A Thrill album-just sounds better and better.."Do It Again" is so awesome.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

Besides the Alpert and Mendes CDs that are always in heavy rotation here, also currently being played a lot are:

Bill Cantos - LOVE WINS
Chris Botti - IN BOSTON
Michael Bublé - CALL ME IRRESPONSIBLE
Dave Koz - GREATEST HITS
The Sax Pack - THE SAX PACK
Brian Culbertson - BRINGING BACK THE FUNK

 

[Rudy]

Last night I was all over the map (or the Zune, if you will):

TJB: You Smile
Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe
Randy Crawford: Best Of
Jean-Luc Ponty: Individual Choice
The Dramatics: Best Of (Stax/Volt years)
Edu Lobo: Personalidade and Sergio Mendes Presents

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Lately:
Valerie Carter - I forget the name of the CD but it starts off with "Crazy" - nice lite pop with members of Toto in the studio. (Sounds like a 1970s Boz Scaggs record with female vocals.)

And before that, Doobie Brothers - TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS

 

[Rudy]

Mike: do you have Cheryl Lynn's self-titled first album? It has "Got To Be Real" and "Star Love" on it. Basically, the Toto band backed her up on that one, and she returned the favor on "Georgy Porgy" from their first album.

 

[Harry]

I've been mostly listening to homemade CD-R's with lots of various tracks, most recently an A&M "hits" disc with various GOLD SERIES titles and DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST albums from Japan, all in .wma format since those play in my car.

Mendes
Bacharach
Alpert
Longet
Sandpipers
Baja Marimba Band

Putting it on shuflle is like listening to Radio A&M.

Harry

 

[sbsugar]

I've been spinning Queensyche's new album "American Soldier" and Chicago's "Hot Streets"

HOT STREETS, yes!!! One of the very best '70s Chicago albums. Although I have to play something else afterward or else "Marching into your heart, marching into your heart, marching into your heart, ya, ya" runs incessantly through my head!!!

Also, lately I have given Chicago's STONE OF SISSYPHUS a few spins too, although mainly for the title track, "Better Than Elvis" and "Plaid".

I agree with you regarding "Show Me The Way", and there is a lot to enjoy off of Sisyphus as well. The title track and "All The Years" are really great.

NJB

Moderator note: BBCode re-enabled to make the "quote" feature work correctly. To show these features please do NOT select "disable BBCode in this post."

 

[Rudy]

I've been mostly listening to homemade CD-R's with lots of various tracks, most recently an A&M "hits" disc with various GOLD SERIES titles and DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST albums from Japan, all in .wma format since those play in my car.

Which WMA compression do you use? For the Zune, I'm using the Windows Media Professional 10 encoder, 192kbps, variable bitrate. So far, so good--I can live with the tradeoff in file size for the better sound quality. It's pretty transparent, better than MP3 at the same bitrate. I know the version 9.2 encoder is pretty much standard, and it's good as well.

Wish I could send a test disc over--I'd see if you could play the Pro 10 files, along with the new lossless WMA files (just out of curiosity).

 

[Harry]

Which WMA compression do you use? For the Zune, I'm using the Windows Media Professional 10 encoder, 192kbps, variable bitrate. So far, so good--I can live with the tradeoff in file size for the better sound quality. It's pretty transparent, better than MP3 at the same bitrate. I know the version 9.2 encoder is pretty much standard, and it's good as well.

Wish I could send a test disc over--I'd see if you could play the Pro 10 files, along with the new lossless WMA files (just out of curiosity).

I'm using Windows Media Player version 11, and using the standard Windows Media Audio encoder at the 192 kbps bit rate.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

You're probably using the 9.2 codecs, then...I think you have to choose the "10 Pro" codecs manually, as the 9.2 were the defaults IIRC. I used WMP 11 to load up my better half's MP3 player.

 

[Bruno]

Thanks for your replies, guys.

It's interesting: None of the albums you mention are in the album charts nowadays. I guess, we like to stuck with musicians, who we began to like in our youth. In my case , those were Carpenters and Barry Manilow (and baroque music like Bach and Händel).

But in the Eighties, as a student, when music videos were made to promote singles and when I went to discos in Cologne (I was in my twenties then), I began to like some contemporary music as well. Pet Shop Boys were my absolute favorites. Their songs are very danceable, they have sophisticated lyrics, sometimes intellectually, and the videos are, sometimes, not just pop, but art.

There is a double CD compilation called POP ART, with all their greatest hits, and a single DVD with the same title, containing 41 hits with additional audio commentary, which is interesting and amusing at the same time.

Their new album YES is at No.11 in the German amazon charts at this moment. On June 24th they will perform at the COLOGNE PALLADIUM, for 52 Euro, and I will surely attend, as I have never seen them in concert live before!

Bruno
on a sunny Good Friday in Bonn

 

[Mark-T]

Buble and Chris Tomlin are in my player alot these days.

 

[Rudy]

I was "gettin' down with my BAD self today, playing the following:

The Time: Pandemonium, and their self-titled debut
Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
Steps Ahead: N.Y.C.
Robert Plant: Shaken & Stirred
Art Garfunkel: Breakaway

I also played a few tracks from Simon & Garfunkel's albums, as I'm reading a bio of their lives. One interesting tidbit I never knew, not having been a big S&G fan: Joe Morello and Eugene Wright of the Dave Brubeck Trio play on "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)". Never listened to it that closely before! A cool discovery tonight.