📜 Feature The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

Feature article
Sza's Ctrl is good---she has a solid voice and a sense of melody. There are some elements to it (language, production choices) that aren't my thing, but overall, a very listenable album.

Now playing: Charles Mingus' Cumbia & Jazz Fusion , but not for long. It's interesting, but very in my face and I see this first cut runs 28:06 and the second 22:22. Not at 5:43 in the morning. I'll hang onto it and listen to it another time.

Moving on: Cunku Ask, by Cuneyt Tek. Not only do I have no idea how to pronounce that, I have no idea why I have it. Related artist to someone else in the collection? Something I overheard in a cafe in Europe and pulled into the collection?

On deck---Richie Havens' Cuts To The Chase.
 
Impulse buy yesterday...I got a copy of the new Leon Bridges album, Leon, that came out a couple of weeks ago.

I played through it twice. It claims to be largely autobiographical, as there are a lot of scenes from Bridges' childhood throughout the songs. So the songs are heartfelt and resonate more than his other album I own, Coming Home, which is still excellent of course. The music might be a little more modern, but it's still rooted more in the 60s soul vibe. Highly recommended. And now I need to catch up on his second and third albums.

A couple of minor things, though. The production values seem to lean towards the 60s which is usually a good thing, but it also makes his voice sound a bit distorted or disconnected. I thought it was a dull mastering but I flipped through the songs a third time via Qobuz and it sounds the same.

Annoying trait on a couple of songs--it seems like his voice has that same robotic quality as many modern recordings, meaning a producer probably had a bug up his ass about running it through Autotune or whatever they use. Bridges and Prince are the only two I would make exceptions for, and neither of them need it by any means.
 
Cunku Ask is a lovely album---Turkish, and probably something I heard in a cafe in our travels and grabbed. Glad I did.

Everytime I play a Richie Havens album I haven't heard before I marvel at just how good he was. Cuts To The Chase was meant to be released in conjunction with Woodstock '94, which of course, wasn't anything like the original, so the album didn't sell. It's terrific, though. Just finished playing

Now: Cuz I Love You, by Lizzo, with Djavan's D on deck.
 
Donald Byrd's Kofi was released in the Tone Poet series recently and I've been playing a downloaded version of it over the past couple of days. I believe it was recorded prior to Electric Byrd (that album being a little more "electric"), but released after, as these two albums plus Fancy Free were that Miles-inspired transitional period prior to heading in funk/jazz with Ethiopian Knights and the five albums he recorded with the Mizells.

Also had an LP snafu--I'd ordered Born Under a Bad Sign (Albert King) from Amazon. For those who have ordered vinyl from Amazon in recent years, they place the records into what almost look like cardboard mailers, which are then shipped inside of a larger box. Those inner boxes are labeled with a barcode and Amazon's ASIN (their product number).

I opened it up and....inside was a KISS record. Not quite what I was expecting! 😁 Needless to say, I've already entered it for a refund. I don't want to wait too long to try and order this again as it may go out of print.
 
So, Lizzo's album (Cuz I Love You)is just tremendous. A major talent.

Djavan's D (from 2022) is marvelous. Brazilian music continues to delight me.

Five minutes ago, I started Snoop Dogg's Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told. Snoop has grown on me as a personality over the years, and he absolutely has a pop sensibility when it comes to melody.

That said---what's a white guy my age doing listening to a song with that many "N" words in five minutes and 20 seconds?

Oh, and the second track has more.

With SO much drama in the LBC.
It's kinda hard being Mike Hagerty


Forgive me, Snoop (or as I called him once when I was doing TV news, "Mr. Dogg."). Can't do this.

Now Playing: James Taylor's Dad Loves His Work.
 
I was credit surfing something I was looking at this morning and came across Ronnie Foster. I'd seen his name on numerous sessions in jazz and popular music, but never looked into his albums. So I'm correcting that right now.

I'm currently listening to Reboot which was a new album he recorded for Blue Note in 2022--it goes back to his roots at Blue Note in the mid 70s where he recorded five albms, then switched to Columbia for two more in 1978 and 1979. The mid 70s albums are supposed to be in the same funk/jazz spirit of others I've been listening to lately, so I'll be checking those out today as time allows.

1729607032187.png

Interestingly, one of his 70s Blue Note albums is Live: Cookin' with Blue Note at Montreux, which was a series of records released from the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival. I already have the Donald Byrd release in the series (which was released only a few years ago), while there are others by Bobbi Humphrey, Marlena Shaw, and Bobby Hutcherson, all with the same cover art theme.

1729606965094.png
 
Heehee...

1729610279354.png

Jazz Sabbath (1968) were considered to be at the forefront of the new English jazz movement. Their self-titled debut album would be released on 13 Feb 1970, but on Feb 12th founding member and pianist Milton Keanes was hospitalized with a massive heart attack; leaving him fighting for his life. The record company shelved the album and cancelled the scheduled release out of financial uncertainty of releasing a debut album from a band without it's musical leader. When Milton was released from hospital in September 1970, he found out that a band from Birmingham, conveniently called Black Sabbath, had since released two albums containing so-called metal versions of his songs. His recalled albums had been destroyed in a warehouse fire in June 1970; leaving only a few bootleg tapes of Jazz Sabbath's live performances as proof of existence. The master tapes, believed to be lost in the fire, were found last year. These songs will now finally be heard; proving that the heavy metal band worshipped by millions are in fact nothing more than musical charlatans, thieving the music from a bedridden, hospitalized genius.

Milton Keanes is actually Adam Wakefield, son of Rick Wakefield, who played keys for Ozzy Osbourne and played offstage keyboards during a 2013 Black Sabbath tour. Someone on the staff of the tour challenged Wakefield to play the band's set on the piano in a hotel bar in Berlin and to make a long story short, the idea for this album came about, along with an alter ego and entertaining backstory to go along with it.

I think I've mentioned this one before. I'm finally listening to it now.

The songs come off surprisingly well. I've heard other jazz albums that were covers of rock songs, and a lot of the time the melody is so twisted and buried that the album becomes pointless. On this one, you can clearly make out the original Sabbath melodies, yet Wakeman has stylized these versions enough that the songs take on a life of their own.

"Iron Man" is a great example of a song you could play at a party where Sabbath fans might be in attendance--"Wait! Isn't that....'Iron Man'??" The first half of the arrangement is Wakefield caressing the melody on the piano with clusters of chords, while the second half breaks into brisk improvisation with the trio, followed by a restatement of the melody and a final two minutes of the outro to the original "Iron Man" in similar fashion. "Faeries Wear Boots" is more a direct translation but has layers of chords and improvisation to keep it interesting. The main riff of "Changes" almost comes across as a gospel song before the melody is stated. It's also interesting hearing how the trio winds its way around the riffs of "Children of the Grave."

This album would play well with a jazz listener completely oblivious to the original source of the songs. But for someone like me who is familiar enough with Sabbath's catalog to recognize most of the songs, it's a kick to hear them reimagined on Jazz Sabbath. A fun listen!
 
Heehee...

1729610279354.png

Jazz Sabbath (1968) were considered to be at the forefront of the new English jazz movement. Their self-titled debut album would be released on 13 Feb 1970, but on Feb 12th founding member and pianist Milton Keanes was hospitalized with a massive heart attack; leaving him fighting for his life. The record company shelved the album and cancelled the scheduled release out of financial uncertainty of releasing a debut album from a band without it's musical leader. When Milton was released from hospital in September 1970, he found out that a band from Birmingham, conveniently called Black Sabbath, had since released two albums containing so-called metal versions of his songs. His recalled albums had been destroyed in a warehouse fire in June 1970; leaving only a few bootleg tapes of Jazz Sabbath's live performances as proof of existence. The master tapes, believed to be lost in the fire, were found last year. These songs will now finally be heard; proving that the heavy metal band worshipped by millions are in fact nothing more than musical charlatans, thieving the music from a bedridden, hospitalized genius.

Milton Keanes is actually Adam Wakefield, son of Rick Wakefield, who played keys for Ozzy Osbourne and played offstage keyboards during a 2013 Black Sabbath tour. Someone on the staff of the tour challenged Wakefield to play the band's set on the piano in a hotel bar in Berlin and to make a long story short, the idea for this album came about, along with an alter ego and entertaining backstory to go along with it.

I think I've mentioned this one before. I'm finally listening to it now.

The songs come off surprisingly well. I've heard other jazz albums that were covers of rock songs, and a lot of the time the melody is so twisted and buried that the album becomes pointless. On this one, you can clearly make out the original Sabbath melodies, yet Wakeman has stylized these versions enough that the songs take on a life of their own.

"Iron Man" is a great example of a song you could play at a party where Sabbath fans might be in attendance--"Wait! Isn't that....'Iron Man'??" The first half of the arrangement is Wakefield caressing the melody on the piano with clusters of chords, while the second half breaks into brisk improvisation with the trio, followed by a restatement of the melody and a final two minutes of the outro to the original "Iron Man" in similar fashion. "Faeries Wear Boots" is more a direct translation but has layers of chords and improvisation to keep it interesting. The main riff of "Changes" almost comes across as a gospel song before the melody is stated. It's also interesting hearing how the trio winds its way around the riffs of "Children of the Grave."

This album would play well with a jazz listener completely oblivious to the original source of the songs. But for someone like me who is familiar enough with Sabbath's catalog to recognize most of the songs, it's a kick to hear them reimagined on Jazz Sabbath. A fun listen!

Added to my library. Thanks, Rudy! There's also Jazz Sabbath, Volume 2.
 
Okay, so...

James Taylor's Dad Loves His Work was every bit as good as I remembered (the harmonies on "Her Town Too" get me every single time).

After that, it was St. Vincent's Daddy's Home. She's another artist I discovered when she guested on SNL. Again, it's aimed at people in their 20s, but it's accessible. I liked it.

Now Playing: Dafos, an album by Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead with Airto and Flora Purim. It's from 1989, and from outer space. Not working for me.

So...now playing: Janet Jackson's Damita Jo.
 
Now Playing: Dafos, an album by Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead with Airto and Flora Purim. It's from 1989, and from outer space. Not working for me.
The Däfos LP (and later CD) was a huge deal as it was a 45 RPM audiophile release on the Reference Recordings label. Typical of many audiophile releases, it's well-recorded with music that is (to put it nicely) less than listenable. It was released in 1983, reissued in 1984 on CD, then it was punted to Rykodisc in 1989 for another reissue, then reissued again in 1997. Punted again to Smithsonian Folkways in 2010 and sold as a CD-R, then reissued as FLAC files a year later.

Maybe someone "gets" this music (or percussion workout) but I don't. Airto and Flora are largely wasted on this one.


First, let me begin by stating that I'm not a prude.

But, yikes. :shock:

I gave up on Janet Jackson with janet. largely because it wasn't as interesting as her earlier records.
 
The Däfos LP (and later CD) was a huge deal as it was a 45 RPM audiophile release on the Reference Recordings label. Typical of many audiophile releases, it's well-recorded with music that is (to put it nicely) less than listenable. It was released in 1983, reissued in 1984 on CD, then it was punted to Rykodisc in 1989 for another reissue, then reissued again in 1997. Punted again to Smithsonian Folkways in 2010 and sold as a CD-R, then reissued as FLAC files a year later.

Maybe someone "gets" this music (or percussion workout) but I don't. Airto and Flora are largely wasted on this one.




I gave up on Janet Jackson with janet. largely because it wasn't as interesting as her earlier records.

Glad it's not just me.

This is the trouble with advancing age. I'm never quite sure if this is the morning that I've awakened having lost my taste and good sense.
 
"Alright now!"

Kind of Black was playing earlier, by the Casualties of Jazz. Any guesses? It's based on what I was listening to yesterday. 😁

This one is a B3-based jazz trio covering Black Sabbath. Some of the songs feel like literal translations, like "The Wizard" and "N.I.B." But "Sweet Leaf" is turned into a slow burner (no pun intended), and "Iron Man" is also turned down several notches. There are some good tracks on this one.

Having played that, I've moved on to Ozzy. No More Tears. This was a slightly more pop-based album (as Ozzy goes) than his previous albums and featured his ballad "Mama, I'm Coming Home" which was a Top 20 hit. I'd say it's a little slicker than Diary of a Madman or Blizzard of Oz.
 
Wroking on a few last things before shutting down the computer for the night. Streaming this right now:

1729727974753.png

A buddy of mine in Maine is the afternoon DJ for this station.

I added this to Roon Player--as usual, I had to dissect their site's streaming link to find the source of the broadcast so I could add it. But I did, and I also grabbed their logo.
 
"Alright now!"

Kind of Black was playing earlier, by the Casualties of Jazz. Any guesses? It's based on what I was listening to yesterday. 😁

This one is a B3-based jazz trio covering Black Sabbath. Some of the songs feel like literal translations, like "The Wizard" and "N.I.B." But "Sweet Leaf" is turned into a slow burner (no pun intended), and "Iron Man" is also turned down several notches. There are some good tracks on this one.

Having played that, I've moved on to Ozzy. No More Tears. This was a slightly more pop-based album (as Ozzy goes) than his previous albums and featured his ballad "Mama, I'm Coming Home" which was a Top 20 hit. I'd say it's a little slicker than Diary of a Madman or Blizzard of Oz.

I like the modern bluesy sound of Jazz Sabbath, a lot actually. The Hammond B3 on Kind of Black, Casualties of Jazz seems somewhat underwhelming to me, but I should really take another listen. N.I.B.is okay. They remind me of the "Doors" a bit.

This "Iron Man" video below was done live and it blew me away. It is called Jazz Sabbath - Iron Man (Live from London 1968). The title is a made up back story or rather a parody about a fictional band in 1968 called Jazz Sabbath.

 
The Hammond B3 on Kind of Black, Casualties of Jazz seems somewhat underwhelming to me, but I should really take another listen. N.I.B.is okay. They remind me of the "Doors" a bit.
That one is IMHO hit or miss--the tracks where the songs are almost literal transations of the originals are somewhat average, but there are a couple of good ones in there.
 
James Taylor's Dad Loves His Work was every bit as good as I remembered (the harmonies on "Her Town Too" get me every single time).

After that, it was St. Vincent's Daddy's Home. She's another artist I discovered when she guested on SNL. Again, it's aimed at people in their 20s, but it's accessible. I liked it.
Dad Loves His Work is excellent, I'd agree. Of his post-'70s albums, that's the one I find myself reaching for the most often. "Her Town Too" and "That Lonesome Road" are especially breathtaking.

I've not heard Daddy's Home, but I own and love her self-titled album from '14 with "Digital Witness" and "Birth in Reverse" on it. Very arty stuff, but still just hooky and accessible enough to appeal to my pop sensibilities. I may have to check that one out!

First, let me begin by stating that I'm not a prude.

But, yikes. :shock:
Yeah, I had the same reaction to Damita Jo. I loved her music during her years at A&M, but her albums since then have been a bit of a mixed bag for me. There are a lot of great individual tunes scattered throughout some of the post-A&M albums (I love, for instance, "What'll I Do," "Whoops Now," and "Again" on that first album she did for Virgin, or "Someone to Call My Lover" from All for You), but the overabundance of spoken interludes between tracks really works against the records, for one, and, while I'm not a prude, the suggestive content of the albums can really get a little much at times, I'd agree, especially on Damita Jo and a couple of the racier tracks on All for You. It's kind of a shame, really, 'cause I do think that, with a little bit of editing, some of those post-A&M albums had the potential to live up to the greatness of Rhythm Nation, at least, though Control will always be my favorite and one I don't think she'll ever top.
 
Since last time, I've listened to Sergio Mendes' Dance Moderno, which is an interesting listen to young Sergio before he came to America.

The album on Apple Music is bundled with an album from Ed Lincoln called Orgao Espectacular and it's essentially a prototype of what Walter Wanderley eventually became famous for---organ-based Brazilian jazz.

There are also six tracks by Astor Selva e Seu Conjunto, which feel a lot more of the moment than the Lincoln tracks, which are pretty stuffy-feeling even by 1961 standards.

After that, Ramsey Lewis' Dance of the Soul (1997), which I enjoyed.

Now playing: Sly & The Family Stone's Dance to the Music. I always forget just how revolutionary it was. And it holds up pretty well.
 
but the overabundance of spoken interludes between tracks really works against the records,
That is what ruined janet. for me (the first album on Virgin)--the interludes dragged the whole program down and made it lose momentum. With Control and Rhythm Nation, it was one song right after another and it kept the pace moving along. And I'll admit that despite being a fan of Jam and Lewis, the production on this album was so unusual that it never clicked for me.
 
Last night I gave a listen to Shorty Rogers' Afro-Cuban Influence, followed by side one of Perez Prado's Voodoo Suite (the two are related in that Rogers was involved with both, and many of the same musicians appear in the band on both records). And for whatever reason, I've been wanting to hear Lee Morgan's Caramba, and have played it a few times this week.

Also reading Nik Bärtsch's book Listening: Music – Movement – Mind a second time, paying more attention to the musical theory behind his moduls. Although the other parts of the book are quite interesting as well. I also read about the names used for his albums, and recognize a couple that are used in Aikido.
 
Well this is interesting... 😁 I kept forgetting to listen to this single even though I know for years that it existed. Comparing both versions, this one really kicks butt!



It's part of the Internet legend where a teenager started an online push to get Weezer to cover "Africa." Weezer relented, first released a cover of "Rosanna" before their version of "Africa" only a week later. Toto, in turn, covered "Hash Pipe" from Weezer's "Green" album (hence the green cover of the Toto single in the same font Weezer uses for their self-titled "color jacket" albums.

The original.



Weezer's cover of "Rosanna" remains a single, but "Africa" leads off their Teal Album, which is a covers album. (No sweaters were destroyed in the making of that album.)
 
Back
Top Bottom