Playlist, Week of 2025-04-20

I barely go for Christmas music at Christmas time, much less the rest of the year, but damn if Ellington and Strayhorn's version of the Nutcracker cuts through all that crap and swings mightily... I can take that all year round... "Princess Blue" is a relatively minor piece, pleasant enough while it's on, but I'm having a hard time getting a melodic handle on it...  A solid free jazz session from New Ting, with Fred McGann back on keyboard (it's been a while)... Meanwhile, the "Dark Stars" are getting longer... 

Playlist 2025-04-21:

*[Ahmed]: Giant Beauty (disc 5)
*Art Ensemble of Chicago: 1977-01-28 Philadelphia (CDR)
*Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (Glenn Gould) (disc 3)
*Beatles: Revolver (Super Deluxe 4 LP Edition 2022) (side 7)
*Beatles: The Alternate Anthology Part 1 (disc 2)
*Beatles: The Alternate Anthology Part 2 (disc 1)
*Anthony Braxton: The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton (disc 4) "Opus 76 (Version 2)"
*Gerald Cleaver: 22/23
*Gerald Cleaver: The Process
*John Coltrane: 1966-07-02 Newport (CDR) "Leo"
*Sylvie Courvoisier: 2025-03-29 Big Ears, Knoxville TN (CDR)
*Miles Davis Quintet: Miles in France 1963 & 1964: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 (disc 2)
*Bob Dylan/Various artists: Theme Time Radio Hour S01 E32 "Moon"
*Duke Ellington: 1938 (side 3)
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Newport 1958 "Princess Blue"
*Duke Ellington: Anatomy of a Murder
*Duke Ellington: Les Girls! The Girls Suite & Toot Suite Premieres (1958-1963)
*Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington Live! At the Newport Jazz Festival '59 "Idiom '59"
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Three Suites "The Nutcracker Suite"
*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Three Suites "Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2"
*Michael Formanek Quartet: Pre-Apocalyptic
*Michael Formanek Quartet: Other Zones
*Gang of Four: Solid Gold (side 2)
*Gentle Giant: Sampler (CDR compilation)
*Gentle Giant: Interview
*Grateful Dead: 1969-04-22 Boston (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1969-04-23 Boston (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks 26 (1969-04-26/27) (disc 2) "Dark Star"
*Grateful Dead: 1969-05-07 San Francisco (CDR) "Dark Star"
*Darius Jones: fLuXkit Vancouver (i̶t̶s̶ suite but sacred)
*Darius Jones: Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye)
*Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II
*Brandon Lopez: Nada Sagrada
*New Ting: 2025-04-14 "Heat Pad" (wav)
*Zeena Parkins/Wobbly: Triplicates
*Ivo Perelman: The Art of the Improv Trio, Vol. 3
*Ivo Perelman: The Art of the Improv Trio, Vol. 5
*Ivo Perelman: The Art of the Improv Trio, Vol. 6
*Wadada Leo Smith: Big Ears, Knoxville TN (CDR)
*Sun Ra: Disco 3000 (Complete Milan Concert 1978) (discs 1, 2)
*Sun Ra: Uncharted Passages
*Cecil Taylor Workshop Ensemble: Melancholy "Sphere No. 1"
*Various artists: Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music vol. 2: Second a-chronology 1936-2003 (disc 2)
*Frank Zappa: Apostrophe (50th Anniversary Ed.) (disc 3)