The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

I have the original promo 45 of "Also Sprach Zarathustra". It's currently in WAV format on the computer. If you need it, I can OneDrive it. 5:07
 
Thanks. My requirement is that it has to be available for streaming, since I'm using these playlists in multiple places. I swore I saw it as a "single edit" at one point on a CD, perhaps on the album itself, but the two versions I show of this album don't include it.
 
So here's the same Qobuz playlist that I created at YouTube Music:




FYI: I installed the YouTube Music page as an "app" on the computer (using Chrome or the new Chromium-based Edge), which does nothing more than create a shortcut to it that opens in a "chromeless" browser window without all the controls--it is a progressive web app, so it behaves like a music player app without actually having to install anything. The Chrome and Edge versions look identical. Other browsers might offer this also. You should get prompted to install it, either as an overlay in the window or you may see a hint for it in your browser's address bar.​
 
So yeah, first thing in the morning I hit Qobuz and streamed the new Pat Metheny album released today, From This Place. I've already been streaming the pre-release tracks, but today the rest of the album (six remaining tracks out of ten) is available. This is his first full studio release since 2014's Kin (<-->), and the live-in-studio The Unity Sessions from 2016. Which is an uncommonly long stretch between recordings, as he was releasing at least one record per year.

I have to say that Pat's bassist here, Linda May Han Oh, is incredible--she really stands out at the end of "Wide and Far," and has an incredible technique I've never heard on any of Pat's albums in the past. She and Gwilym Simcock (piano) are two young musicians who were part of his Side Eye band, the band being a project where he works with up and coming new artists who were influenced by his music. Gwilym is also a fine player.

As I mentioned earlier, this album has an orchestral backing to it, featuring The Hollywood Studio Symphony (conducted by Joel McNeely). Pat went with this unit since he wanted that cinematic feel to the orchestral parts, and felt this particular unit provided it best. String arrangements on alternating tracks are by Gil Goldsten and Alan Broadbent, with Pat contributing one of his own (on "Everything Explained").

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I'll have more impressions once I get the formal review written. One neat hack I have with Roon Player is that I can hide tracks--I've had to do this with the title track, "From This Place," which 1) is a vocal track that I don't care to hear on an instrumental album, and especially 2) due to its political content. (It's not blatant but still, knowing the catalyst behind it, it's nothing I care to hear. There's enough butthurt out there today and I'm not party to any of it.)
I just got it today. It is reminiscent of the past but only in a fresh way. I'm really getting into it in a way I haven't in a while.
 
Finally had a couple of hours to sit down with some rekkids this evening. After spinning the new Stonebone twice, I gave Freddie Hubbard's First Light a spin, and currently have my Sony Legacy pink vinyl copy of the Pink Panther soundtrack playing. Even at a lower volume, it sounds a bit flatter and less detailed than the 45 RPM version from Analogue Productions. It still sounds quite good (it was mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant), but the AP pressing goes that extra distance. I wish AP had done a few more Mancini titles, but Chad Kassem told me a couple of years ago that he won't be doing any more of them. I'd love to hear a 45 RPM treatment of Breakfast at Tiffany's and a few others.
 
I just received my copy of the ABBA’s 40th Anniversary half speed master vinyl of Super Trooper. It was mastered at Abbey Road studios, and pressed on 180g vinyl in Germany. Really heavy records. The sound is amazing. My cartridge is extremely unforgiving. It picks up any flaws, which can be good and bad. The sound it reproduces is amazing. Pretty darn quiet and smooth. It’s a two disc set, as it plays at 45rpm. 3/2 and 2/3 is how they divided the songs up. My grade is an A. Definitely a must have for big fans. Pricey. P.S. @Chris May. Please ask Richard to do the same for A Song For You and Horizon. Then CTY if he has time????
 
P.S. @Chris May. Please ask Richard to do the same for A Song For You and Horizon. Then CTY if he has time????
I would buy those myself. I also would hope that somehow the analog masters were saved so they'd make for a good LP presentation. If they're cut from digital, they probably wouldn't sound as good.

Those 45 RPM sets I've purchased for the most part have been excellent, even though they're spendy. I have a few from Analogue Productions including some Mancini titles and I've never heard them this good. Got a couple other labels also (ORG--Original Recordings Group--Bernie Grundman mastered many of those, and Impex I believe did the fantastic Belafonte Sings The Blues). I managed to get the first Santana album on Mobile Fidelity as well as the Miles Davis Kind of Blue, and Peter Gabriel's Real World label reissued his seven studio albums at 45 RPM. It can be a little inconvenient to get up twice as often but trust me....I need the exercise. 😁
 
It goes back to the mostly European 12” singles in the 70’s and 80’s that played at 45. A few US pressings too. Then the classical and high end albums from Mobile Fidelity and Nautilus. I have the Randy Sharp one on that label I believe, with styrofoam outer sleeves! Then there are the Southern Cross soundtracks, Label X vinyl. John Barry’s Body Heat is great. Probably the sexiest soundtrack ever recorded. It’s pretty rare. The cd recording is a bit longer. Both expensive. The price came down a few years ago. Heavily bootlegged. Most people are skeptical about buying them anymore. The vinyl plays at 45, but it’s a lower quality audiophile recording. Pick one up if you see it under $35. The blue one.....CD or vinyl.
The Silver Age Classics is not the original.
 
One set I'd really like is the Bill Evans 45 RPM Riverside box set that Analogue Productions put out a few years ago--it's his entire output for the label. Chad mentioned last year or the year before that even though he's willing to throw some money at the label to license them again for a repressing, they've never responded. But the SACDs are excellent as well, so I'm not completely left high and dry.

I have a few 45 RPM 12" singles here also. I probably have at least 200 12" singles overall, with most at 33⅓. I miss those days in the mid to late 70s when they were as cheap as $2.99 each, new. The only ones I really kept up on were the Prince 12" singles, since there were always non-album tracks on the B-side, and local radio played those often.
 
Erotic City!!!!! One of the best ever.
I have about 75-80 left. Some disco, dance, the rest 80’s synth 2 finger bands. I sold 2/3 of my vinyl in the 90’s. 100’s of pieces. Who knew?
 
Working through a stack of new arrivals tonight. My next batch is probably a few days away yet (which includes a sealed Soul Flutes Trust in Me on A&M/CTi).

Toto Live in Japan EP. This was an RSD release this year, pressed on red vinyl, dating back to the Hydra album. Musically it's pretty good, and has the non-album track "Tale of a Man" (which is one of my favorites of theirs--I would have replaced "All Us Boys" with this one).

Basia Time and Tide--finally got a vinyl copy of this one. Alas it's still on the bright side of the spectrum, but at least some of that digital glare is gone from that old CD version. Needs a cleaning. Thankfully it wasn't worn.

Artie Johnson, Have You Missed Rhett Butler? ....errrrmmm....okay..... Artie Butler, Have You Met Miss Jones? Mmmkay, not too bad and an interesting curiosity, but I won't be listening to this one much. Nothing really grips me here. I can see why it was never reissued. But it was sealed, and a good one to help fill out the A&M/CTi collection.

Jazz Meets the Bossa Nova by the Paul Winter Sextet. Now this is a good one! This was early in the history of Bossa Nova, probably within a year of Joao Gilberto's "Chega de Saudade" and at about the same time Stan Getz latched onto the sound and brought it stateside. Paul Winter and the sextet were only a year or two out of college when this was recorded, and it was inspired by President Kennedy's cultural exchange program which sent them on a tour of Latin America. I recognize all of the tunes here. This one was released on Columbia in 1962. And it's in nice condition for a used record.

Finally, the Roland Mesquita Bresil 72 album. Very much in the style of Bossa Rio, but without the English cover tunes I usually skip on the Bossa Rio records (more so on the first one than on Alegria). Bossa Rio kind of took over the Brasil '66 style when Sergio changed things up with his group, and this one extends the Bossa Rio sound even further. This one's a winner. New vinyl so this one plays nice and quiet.

If I'm still awake when this one is done, I've got Tamba 4's California Soul and Milton Nascimento's Courage (AM+ reissue) ready to go.
 
Erotic City!!!!! One of the best ever.
And it backed the extended version of "Let's Go Crazy." Killer 12"! The one that took me the longest to find was "Gotta Stop (Messin' About)" as I think I only had the Controversy album at that time, and by then the single was already pretty much sold out everywhere. (It was the B-side to the extended version of "Let's Work.") I also bought the "Little Red Corvette" remix on an import 12" single since it was not released in the US, at least that I could find. Still have the purple vinyl single of "Purple Rain," and that 12" that had the oversized label (I think it was "I Would Die 4 U").

I've been trying to find the promo 12" of "Side by Side" by Earth Wind & Fire since it is a remix (despite the label erroneously showing the album's timing). Radio played it here, but it never appeared in my usual used record store where I used to buy these promos from. (I found the EW&F "Getaway" extended version there for only a couple of bucks; who knew it would become a rarity?) I did manage to find the Holiday Remix of "Let's Groove" though, back in the mid 90s, from a DJ who was selling off all of his duplicate copies. It wasn't in his list, but I asked and he still had it. This was back in the days of Usenet on rec.music.marketplace. Long before the spammers and trolls overran it.
 
Artie Butler, Have You Met Miss Jones? Mmmkay, not too bad and an interesting curiosity, but I won't be listening to this one much. Nothing really grips me here. I can see why it was never reissued. But it was sealed, and a good one to help fill out the A&M/CTi collection.

I'm not surprised. It's my fate to really grab onto the ones that others find nothing in. I've looked at past threads here when it was an AOTW and many dismissed it as a near-embarrassment in the CTi canon. I find it charming, and quite a nice listen in the car as I'm riding around here.

Though my copy wasn't sealed, it wasn't far from it. There's just a bit of dirt on the outer white cover that's yellowed a bit, and the disk itself is really clean and free of use. The original innersleeve was intact there's a punch hole indicating it was a cutout. I'm happy with it, and it made a nice needledrop.

With the RONALD MESQUITA, I'm torn with what to do with the packaging. The copy I got as a CD is in a very thin paper/carboard sleeve as it is a promo copy from 2018. My initial thought and action was to scan the sleeve and make standard jewel-case artwork so it won't get lost on the shelf. I think I'll just stand the paper sleeve next to it in between jewel cases.
 
Rockin' some Nelson this morning:

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I've posted this before, but it's an interesting compilation.

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It's mostly performances by the composer (Lalo Schifrin) but has a few stray tracks like "The Fakir" by Cal Tjader (from his Asian-themed Several Shades of Jade that Schifrin arranged and wrote for), a Cole Porter cover tune "Just One Of Those Things" performed with Bob Brookmeyer, and a recording by The Incredible Jimmy Smith, "Theme from Joy House" (which was from his album The Cat which Schifrin arranged and conducted for Verve).

Amusingly, the opening drum part to "The Man from Thrush" made me do a double-take. The drum part was sampled by Nicola Conte for the hit "Bossa Per Due". Just listen to the first ten seconds of each one. 😁



 
Well I doubled down on CTi LPs this evening.

Tamba 4: California Soul
Artie Butler: Miss Jones
Freddie Hubbard: First Light
J&K: Stonebone
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Wave
JJ&K: Israel
Milton Nascimento: Courage

I'd keep going once Milton finishes up, but it'll be after 1am.
 
Well I doubled down on CTi LPs this evening.

Tamba 4: California Soul
Artie Butler: Miss Jones
Freddie Hubbard: First Light
J&K: Stonebone
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower
Antonio Carlos Jobim: Wave
JJ&K: Israel
Milton Nascimento: Courage

I'd keep going once Milton finishes up, but it'll be after 1am.
That's some very Mighty Fine Listening there
 
Taking a break from the turntable tonight. It's one of those nights where I'm using Roon to surf around my collection and pick whatever tunes I'm in the mood to play. Kind of lost in the Brazilian tunes tonight...
 
Taking a break from the turntable tonight. It's one of those nights where I'm using Roon to surf around my collection and pick whatever tunes I'm in the mood to play. Kind of lost in the Brazilian tunes tonight...
I admit the Brazillian music is quite infectious as well as addictive sometimes
 
I admit the Brazillian music is quite infectious as well as addictive sometimes
For sure! I just finished up Bossa Rio's Alegria and am part way into En Español by The Mavericks. Still can't get over what a great album this is--it's a "career" album for the group. And it's a musical tour of Latin America, covering Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, even Italy (the Italian tune "Cuando M'Innamoro" with Spanish lyrics as "Cuando me Enamoro") and France (the tune "Me Olvide de Vivir" originally performed by Julio Iglesias with Spanish lyrics). Anyone familiar with a Baja Marimba record will instantly recognize "Sabor a Mi."
 
in the 80s when I first heard BMB s Sabor A Mi it was the first time I heard the song in the 90s I heard Richard clayderman's version of it on music choice before the title hit the screen I knew what it was. its one of those songs that is very easy to recognize
 
Guitarist Eddie Perez (who has Mexican-American heritage) says that when he was growing up, "Sabor a Mi" was one of those tunes that the family would play together when the guitars and percussion would come out at family gatherings. Eydie Gorme and Trio Los Panchos had the hit version in 1964. The Mavs give it almost a lounge arrangement.

 
While fixing the database upgrade this evening...

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Nelson Riddle is sending it!! 👍👍
 
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The original and still the best, arranged and conducted by Schifrin himself. (He also plays piano throughout.) This contains "The Plot," which was always the music played at the beginning of the episode. There is also the closing tune, "Mission: Accomplished." The rest of the tunes are from specific episodes.

There are dozens of his albums on Qobuz, many of them Latin/Bossa Nova. Plenty for me to work through over the coming months.

 
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