What are you listening to right now?

[tmazz]

Mozart: Requiem - Martin Pearlman/Boston Baroque

Telarc CD

[richidoo]

Fritz Kreisler Beethoven Violin Concerto

London Philharmonic Orchestra - Sir John Barbirolli cond.

Great Recordings of the Century series by Angel Records

goodwill LP $1 Perfect condition with 16 page booklet and textured jacket. ooolala

Sound quality is OK, but I guess it is awesome for 1936 when it was recorded. LP issued in 1957.

[richidoo]

Original RCA Victor Red Seal LP, but no Khachaturian, just Prokofiev and Liszt. I can't find the original LP art online. Apparently it is a rare LP.

Kapell's playing is supreme. Prokofiev piano concertos are very difficult, rhythmic and percussive. It takes a lot of practice to develop the special technique to be able to play them.

Judging from the reviews posted on Amazon of the CD reissue, Kapell was the greatest American classical pianist of all time. Died in plane crash 31 yo in 1953. The CD's Khachaturian apparently is the recording that made him famous. Gotta get that one.

This is a goodwill $1 special, noisy but playable. The grooves seem shallow, signal strength a little lower than normal.

[richidoo]

Original Capitol Stereo LP. I've had this one for almost 30 years. Nice to hear it clean and on a good system to handle the big sound. 

[richidoo]

Menuhin plays Sibelius Concerto and Paganini Concerto

RCA Victor Red Seal  1956

Can't find a picture

Yehudi Menuhin is a monster on the violin!

[richidoo]

I won this from WGBH in 1980. "Eric in the Evening's" first season on the air. It arrived a couple weeks later and I was pretty disappointed with the content. Typical avant garde free jazz BS of the day. Art Ensemble of Chicago was the top "jazz" act in the country back then. Pathetic. No wonder George Butler marketed Marsalis as messiah.

But as I discovered yesterday this LP from ECM has awesome sound quality. Probably the best sounding vinyl I own, and the only ECM album I own. It is fun to listen to it as a sound effects record. There are a few track with real music, but mostly just crap.

[richidoo]

This is a great Dizzy record. His playing is sharp and bright and strong. His arrangements are smart and witty. Sound is excellent on this Jap reissue from the 80s. One of my best Dizzy records, and my wife's favorite.

[richidoo]

My old copy, 70s printing. Probably 1000 hard miles on these grooves but still going strong.

[tmazz]

My old copy, 70s printing. Probably 1000 hard miles on these grooves but still going strong.

45 RPM version due out soon from Chad Kassem's Ananlogue Productions label.     

[richidoo]

Mine is really worn, I might break my no 180g rule and check that out.  Thanks Tom

I have a gold plated, 20 bit mastered, superdeeduper CD of this. I have become bored of listening to this music since I switched to the CD 10 years ago. I rarely play it anymore. Now listening to it again on vinyl, it is interesting and meaningful to me again. The old feelings come out again with the vinyl. So worn it almost sounds like mp3, loud notes growl from a decade of daily ceramic cart abuse. But it still "works."

[tmazz]

Mine is really worn, I might break my no 180g rule and check that out.  Thanks Tom

I have a gold plated, 20 bit mastered, superdeeduper CD of this. I have become bored of listening to this music since I switched to the CD 10 years ago. I rarely play it anymore. Now listening to it again on vinyl, it is interesting and meaningful to me again. The old feelings come out again with the vinyl. So worn it almost sounds like mp3, loud notes growl from a decade of daily ceramic cart abuse. But it still "works."

If you come across one the 180 or 200g 33 1/3 rpm pressing from Classic Records is also very good but it is out of print and I would not be surprised if the collectors have driven the price for it over the $50 you will have to pay for the new 45 version.

[etcarroll]

Original Capitol Stereo LP. I've had this one for almost 30 years. Nice to hear it clean and on a good system to handle the big sound. 

Love me some Kenton, never saw this one before.

Just yesterday was listening to "Live from the Las Vegas Tropicana, '59", love the tune 'This is Always'.

[richidoo]

Why am I not surprised that you like Kenton too? 

My Dad gave me his Kenton LPs last summer. I haven't listened to them yet. I'm in denial that he thinks he won't use them anymore. I gave most of them to him when I was a little boy.

[allenzachary]

...I discovered yesterday this LP from ECM has awesome sound quality. Probably the best sounding vinyl I own....

You'll find the entire ECM catalog to be remarkably well recorded.  Some of the music is excellent too. 

Pat Metheny created an entire genre of folky/proggy/Brazilio-Latino/jazz that regrettably has be reproduced by a bevy of under-talented musicians...yet Metheny's music is the real deal.  It's melodic, meandering and rhythmically complex.  I liken a lot of his stuff to early Genesis...it sounds like background music until you've given it several listens, when themes and details begin to emerge.  Eventually, the music tells a story with a beginning, middle and end.

Visit the ECM site and you'll be surprised how many artists have recorded for them.  Most of the music is overly mellow and new -agey, but their sound quality is impeccable.

[richidoo]

Thanks Allen.  I have the solo guitar album "One Quiet Night."
It is very good. I listen it pretty frequently. You gotta be in the right mood for it though. The baritone guitar sounds delicious.

Speaking of undertalented musicians playing Metheny-esque music, I was in a college jazz fusion band back called The N-Tet back in 84, we played a lot of Metheny type music because the leader studied piano and music with Lyle Mays and loved Metheny. He was trying to get me to listen to Metheny back then. We didn't play any Metheny tunes, it was all originals of the leader Jamshied Sharifi, now a big time hollywood film composer. Notable as the first MIT student to graduate with a music degree in 82, his thesis project a hauntingly beautiful original composition programmed into MIT mainframe with mathematic formulas in raw code, no Midi. He ran the program and the computer created a waveform. I may still have a recording of it. Wild stuff!