Playlist, Week of 2025-02-02

Maintaining this blog (and these lists) is starting to feel more and more like fiddling while Rome burns, but for now I am gonna keep going... I have really taken to Brian Wilson's At My Piano, so much more than when I first heard it... speaking of Brian Wilson, Gardner Campbell has two excellent radio specials on Wilson here... he does a great job giving overviews of Wilson's "spiritual odyssey" and his work in the studio... John Zorn's sax playing keeps getting better and better... at times his blistering alto work on New Masada Quartet Vol. 3 is like he's channeling Marshall Allen... Superb George Coleman sax work on the latest Miles Davis box... not to mention the rest of the band!... 

Playlist 2025-02-03:

*[Ahmed]: Giant Beauty (discs 3, 4)

*Area: Crac! (side 2)

*Beach Boys: Friends

*Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (Anniversary Ed.) (disc 1)

*Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere

*Blood Sweat & Tears: B, S & T; 4

*Anthony Braxton: Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997, Vol. 3 (disc 2)

*James Brown: Hot Pants (side 1)

*Gardner Campbell: The Epic Journey of Brian Wilson (podcast)

*Gardner Campbell: In the Studio with Brian Wilson (podcast)

*Chicago: Chicago Transit Authority

*Miles Davis Quintet: Miles in France 1963 & 1964: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 (discs 2, 3)

*Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 (disc 2)

*De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead

*Bob Dylan: Planet Waves

*Bob Dylan/Various artists: Theme Time Radio Hour S01 E20 "Musical Map"

*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Treasury Shows, Vol. 10 (disc 2)

*Duke Ellington: The Great Concerts: Cornell University 1948 (disc 1)

*Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Masterpieces by Ellington (sides 1, 2, 4)

*Stan Getz: The Complete Roost Recordings (disc 3)

*Grateful Dead: 1968-01-20 Eureka CA (CDR) "Spanish Jam > Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) > Dark Star"

*Grateful Dead: Dark Star Comp 6 (1991) (CDR compilation)

*Grateful Dead: Dark Star Comp 7 (1991) (CDR compilation)

*Grateful Dead: Dark Star Comp 8 (1991-1992) (CDR compilation)

*Grateful Dead: Dark Star Comp 9 (1992-1994) (CDR compilation)

*Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis

*Joseph Holbrooke Trio: The Moat Studio Recordings (disc 2)

*Ty Karim: The Complete Ty Karim: Los Angeles' Soul Goddess

*Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: Louis Armstrong's America, Vol. 1 (disc 1)

*Brian Marsella’s iMAGiNARiUM: Mediatas (disc 3)

*Roscoe Mitchell: Solo [3] (discs 2, 3)

*Mothers of Invention: Burnt Weeny Sandwich (side 1)

*New Ting: 2025-01-20 "Swipe the Not Enough of Too Much" (wav)

*New Ting: 2025-01-27 "Less Opaque" (wav)

*Elvis Presley: The Complete '68 Comeback Special (disc 1)

*Red Trio/John Butcher: Summer Skyshift

*Matthew Shipp Trio: New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz

*Wadada Leo Smith/Peter Kowald/Bobby Naughton: 1981-10-07 RAW, Richmond VA (CDR) track 01

*Wadada Leo Smith & Roscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra: 1979-06-03 Moers "track 3"

*Soft Machine: 5 (side 2)

*Bruce Springsteen: Winterland, 1978 (Live In The Promised Land) (selections)

*Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live/1975-85 (side 3)

*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Jazz in Silhouette (Expanded Edition) (sides 1, 4)

*Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: Secrets of the Sun (side 1)

*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Omniverse (side 2)

*Cecil Taylor: In Florescence

*Cecil Taylor Orchestra Humane (Ubuntu): 2005-12-18 (CDR) (disc 2)

*Lennie Tristano: The Complete Atlantic Recordings of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, & Warne Marsh (disc 2)

*McCoy Tyner: The Real McCoy (side 1)

*Various artists: That Devilin' Tune (Vol. I, disc 6)

*Various artists: Turn Me Loose White Man (discs 1, 2)

*Weather Report: Live in Tokyo (side 2)

*Brian Wilson: At My Piano

*Yes: Tales from Topographic Oceans (2016 remaster) (disc 2) "Ritual"

*Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Rust Never Sleeps

*Frank Zappa: Orchestral Favorites (side 2)

*John Zorn: New Masada Quartet Vol. 3

Playlist, Week of 2023-06-04

Here's the thing-- music is always going on in my head... usually it's a random melody I've been thinking about, or a song I've heard recently on the Magic Jukebox, or from my weekly directed listening (as documented in these Playlists)... but occasionally I'll wake up and there'll be a song in my head that I haven't heard or even thought about in... weeks, if not months, if not years... when that happens I take it as a message from the Music Gods that I need to listen to it again, as soon as possible... case in point: this past Sunday it was "Walkin' the Line" from Brian Wilson's first solo album... where on earth did that come from?... so I played the album, and it was sooo enjoyable... despite the fact that most of the songs have snatches of melody with eerie resemblances to earlier Beach Boys songs, or other ones (like "Little Children" and its nod to "Mountain of Love"), these songs are just wonderful... even the outdated overproduction can't stop them... the album is a worthy successor to The Beach Boys Love You, with its simplistic melodies that are, well, simple and almost amateurish but oh so catchy... easily his best solo record, Brian Wilson has a special place in my heart, and I guess my brain was reminding me of that...  Other than that, I ended up hitting Sun Ra pretty heavily this week... 

Playlist 2023-06-05:

*AMM: Laminal (disc 1)

*Beatles: Revolver (Super Deluxe 4 LP Edition 2022) (side 1)

*Anthony Braxton: 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 (disc 7)

*Anthony Braxton: Quintet (Tristano) 2014 (discs 6, 7)

*Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young: Take My Hand (Fillmore East 1970-06) (disc 2)

*Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (side 3)

*Deerhoof: Miracle-Level

*Grateful Dead: Blues for Allah (side 1)

*Jefferson Pilot: The Return of Troubled Youth Orchestra

*Merzbow/Keiji Haino/Balázs Pándi: An Untroublesome Defencelessness

*New Ting: 2019-09-30 "Emulsify My Desires" (wav)

*Annette Peacock: I'm the One (side 2)

*Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (2016 mono remaster)

*Sparks: The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte (sides 1, 2)

*Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra: My Brother the Wind, Vol. 2

*Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra: Space Is the Place (previously unreleased tracks) (streaming)

*Sun Ra & His Arkestra: The Cymbals​/​Symbols Sessions (New York, 1973) (sides 3, 4)

*Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Voice of the Eternal Tomorrow

*Sun Ra: Hiroshima (side 2)

*Sun Ra: God Is More than Love Can Ever Be!

*Sun Ra Arkestra: Reflections in Blue

*Sun Ra Arkestra: 2023-04-01 Big Ears Festival, Knoxville TN (CDR)

*Horace Tapscott with the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: Live at I.U.C.C. (disc 2)

*Tarbaby: Fanon

*Cecil Taylor: Conquistador! "With (Exit)"

*Cecil Taylor: garden (disc 1) "Elell"

*Cecil Taylor: 1997-03-06 Oberlin, OH (CDR)

*Various artists: '60s Far East Pop and Rock n Roll (CDR compilation)

*Various artists: WSAM: Grab Bag of Joy (CDR compilation)

*Anna Webber: Idiom (disc 2)

*Tony Williams Lifetime: Emergency!

*Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson

*Work: Live in Japan

*Neil Young: Twisted Road (CDR compilation)

*Frank Zappa: Hot Rats

*John Zorn: The Dreamers