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April Album Listenings

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  I saw this glorious painting by  John Singer Sargent at the Met over the summer. At the time it was quite a scandal at the Paris Exhibition with Portrait of Madam X . 4/1 Kacey Musgraves Tiny Desk Concert YouTube 4/2 Deeper Well 2024 spotify . Her new album isn't on Spotify yet.  4/3 Joe McPhee's Nation Time spotify 4/4 John Scofield 2002 Uberjam spotify I've been listening to Uberjam a lot. I like Avi Bortnick on rhythm guitar. I looked through my past postings and I was surprised I hadn't included it. I was reading online about similar albums to A Go Go , which I absolutely love. The drummer reminds me of JD Beck and some Japanese anime music. He didn't drop Madeski, but he dropped Martin and Wood. There's a 20 second rap on the 4th track, "I Brake 4 Monster Booty". Reddit post of European jazz musicians: 4/5 Niclas Knudsen Trio (Denmark) 2025 Nostalgia spotify Guitar with  Anders Christensen (b), Kresten Osgood  (d) 4/6 Neil Cowley T...

March Listenings

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  3/1 Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy in Belgium - 1964 YouTube Charles Mingus: bass Dannie Richmond: drums Jaki Byard: piano Johnny Coles: trumpet Clifford Jordan: tenor saxophone  Eric Dolphy: alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet 3/2 Gabrielle Cavassa 2020 spotify Supposedly she's going to get a Blue Note release in 2026.  Switching to Classical music now 3/3  Vox Luminis Kantaten 2025 spotify The ensemble Vox Luminis, led by Lionel Meunier, specialises in English, Italian and German repertoire from the 17th and early 18th century and is internationally acclaimed for its unique sound. A core of vocal soloists is supplemented, depending on the repertoire, with an extensive continuo, solo instruments or a complete orchestra. Vox Luminis is artist in residence at Concertgebouw Brugge. 3/4 Edward Elgar Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 63 1994 spotify 3/5 BBC3 Radio is classical music. Great online station.  3/6 Piotr Anderszewski Brahms: Late Piano W...

February Album listenings

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Focusing on 2025 albums to catch up, keep things fresh and new. Spotify said my listening age was 88 in my yearly wrap.  I'm going to publish these when they're full, I just go ahead and put albums I listen to with the next open date. The amount of amazing music to be had on the cheap is heartbreaking.  2/1 Mary Halvorson, About Ghosts 2025 spotify Mary Halvorson , guitar (1-8), synth (Pocket Piano) (1–3, 8) Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone (1-2, 4-5) Brian Settles, tenor saxophone (1-2, 5, 8) Adam O’Farrill, trumpet (1-8) Jacob Garchik, trombone (1-8) Patricia Brennan, vibraphone (1-8) Nick Dunston, bass (1-8) Tomas Fujiwara, drums (1-8) Feel like Mary Halvorson is the jazz musician of the year for 2025 as the only artist with two albums on the best albums lists. There are other artists who play on multiple albums, sure, but she headlines two albums that top many lists.  2/2  Yazz Ahmed , A Paradise In The Hold 2025 spotify , YouTube 2/3  Emma Rawicz...

2026 January Listenings

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I hate that Spotify took money from ICE.  I watched Heart of Dog 2015, a movie about grief by Laurie Anderson, and while there's only a brief picture of Lou Reed, I'm sure the loss of him in 2013 is present, and the movie ends with a song off Ecstasy, and I realize I'd not listened to any albums since New York 1989, which I love.  1/1/2026 Ecstasy 2000 Lou Reed spotify 1/2 Set The Twilight Reeling 1996 Lou Reed spotify 1/3 Magic and Loss 1993 Lou Reed spotify 1/4 Songs for Drella 1990 Lou Reed spotify The movie Songs for Drella is on Criterion at the moment, and I quite liked that.  1/5  Mister Heartbreak 1984 Laurie Anderson spotify , YouTube "Gravity's Angel" borrows imagery from Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow (1973). Anderson had "wanted to make an opera of that book ... and asked him if that would be OK... He said, 'You can do it, but you can only use banjo.' And so I thought, 'Well, thanks. I don't know if I could d...

music revelations

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I don't like Chet Baker singing more than one song. I tend to like authenticity over precision and from just the neck up, but his flat tones are just too off for me after a while. I think listening to a lot of music has changed my appreciation some, my taste profile away from authenticity, to more precision and complexity.  I hate how drugs killed the life out of so many musicians. He took it up in 1957. He's singing these songs before he's the addict I'm wary of. Maybe I don't like the fame and money that came his way that made him think he could be a drug addict. I certainly don't like him being voted over Clifford Brown and Miles Davis in 1954, that's just pure racism. I mean he's not bad, he's allowed to be in the top 3, maybe top 10 at the time.  I watched Let's Get Lost  (1988), interviews shortly before he died, some footage when he was younger, lots of talking heads. He seemed quite haunted, a husk of a human. That's what addiction do...

December listenings

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I don't know how AI music is a problem if I'm going and looking for specific albums when I go to Spotify.  12/1/2025 A Flat, G Flat and C 1966 Yusef Lateef YouTube I was looking for a jazz album where the  theremin is played, and this one does, not in the first songs though, so listen further in. 12/2 Kuni Mikami 2018 Keep On Swinging spotify I looked him up because he's playing at Mezzrow the night I looked it up, not in December. I do these in advance. 12/3 Kuni Mikami 2023 Happy Birthday YouTube 12/4 Barry Harris 1957 If I Live Again spotify He was Kuni Mikami's teacher for 10 years. 12/5 Barry Harris 1960 At The Jazz Workshop (Live) spotify 12/6  Cynthia Erivo 2025 I forgive you spotify 12/7 Ariana Grande 2025 Brighter Days Ahead spotify 12/8 Wicked spotify 12/9 Wicked: For Good spotify 12/10 Wicked Original Broadway Cast spotify 12/11 The Stare (2024) by Consider the Source spotify 12/12 Thundercat: It Is What It Is (2020) spotify 12/13 The Y...

Favorite concert

I'm watching a man on the inside , and they ask what's the best concert you've been to. I've seen the Violent Femmes a few times, Neil Young, Rush, Van Halen. Seeing Neil Peart drum was awesome.  I've seen so many jazz concerts, operas. Since my memory has faded, I'd say seeing Eddie Van Halen doing Eruption was amazing, Rush, was amazing, Prince in Manchester was amazing. The last jazz set I saw was Ari Hoenig, and that was amazing.  I remember really enjoying Cosi Fan Tutte, a Mozart Opera at a small place. I saw John Lithgow at the intermission, I could have gone over and talked to him if I had a good question for him. I saw Satyagraha at the Met, Philip Glass came up on stage and took a bow. I saw Philip Glass do Wichita Vortex Sutra: Pt 2, and that was amazing. I shook Sam River's hand, when he was playing with Andrew Hill. I saw Phil Collin, Brandi Carlile. I saw REM at Madison Square Garden, and my wife said she'd never heard me yell so much. I we...