22769. (George Frederick Händel) Dank sei dir, Herr!
22770. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) Vesperae solemnnes de confessore, K.339: “Laudate Dominum”
22771. (Giuseppe Giordani) Caro mio ben Read more »
Category Archives: C - LISTENING - Page 21
First-time listening for September, 2011
Posted by Phil Paine
on September 30, 2011
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First-time listening for August, 2011
Posted by Phil Paine
on August 31, 2011
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22763. (Fall Out Boy) Split EP
22764. (Elliott Brood) Mountain Meadows
22765. (Big Macceo Merriweather) Worried Life Blues [The Blues Collection #38] Read more »
Fake Shark — Real Zombie!
Posted by Phil Paine
on August 1, 2011
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I didn’t know about this appealingly scruffy Vancouver punk band until just now. Listening to their 2008 debut album Zebra! Zebra!, I can hear a logical descendant of old Vancouver punk bands like Skinny Puppy, which I was very fond of in the 1980’s. There’s a substantial techno influence, and much more rhythmic and structural complexity, but the mood they produce is as punky as anything done in the Archaic Punkal Age. The drumming is to the click, the vocals harsh, but not irritating.
First-time listening for July, 2011
Posted by Phil Paine
on July 31, 2011
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22756. (7 Seconds) Out The Shizzy
22757. (Junior Boys) Begone Dull Care
22758. (Jordan Rudess) Notes on a Dream Read more »
Beethoven’s First
Posted by Phil Paine
on July 8, 2011
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Haydn is the fountainhead from which both Mozart and Beethoven sprung forth. Written in 1799 and 1800, Bethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 could be described as “sarcastic Haydn”. It sounds something like a mature Haydn symphony, but it has a weird opening meant to confuse you about the key. It has a minuetto movement that sounds like it’s being danced by methamphetamine addicts. It has a kind of fake “start” in the last movement. All quite weird. We tend to think of Beethoven as humourless, but he did occasionally show a sense of humour — sort of a Scottish put-piss-in-your-beer-glass kind of fun. Some of the standard Beethoven features are already there, like the strong role for woodwinds and the addiction to sforzato, which seem to have distinguished him from Haydn right from the beginning. But the debt is really obvious in this first symphony. It’s only in the third symphony that Beethoven really broke loose from the fold. I haven’t actually listened to this one closely for years (it’s probably Beethoven’s least popular symphony), so it came at me like a fresh piece.
First-time listening for June, 2011
Posted by Phil Paine
on June 30, 2011
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22753. (Fake Shark-Real Zombie!) Zebra! Zebra!
22754. (Jitendra Abhisheki) Raga Shivmat Bhairav
22755. (Jitendra Abhisheki) Raga Puriya
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Augustín Barrios, the Great Paraguayan
Posted by Phil Paine
on June 5, 2011
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If you are bored with the familiar repertoire for classical guitar (what you might call the Segovian Canon), then you might try the compositions of the Paraguayan polymath Augustín Barrios (1885–1944). Guitarist John Williams has led the revival of his work. A poet, mathematician and journalist, as well as a performer and composer, Barrios was a Paraguayan mestizo, fluent in the Guaraní Indian language as well as Spanish. His compositions are warm, imaginative, and virtuosic enough to challenge and excite any guitarist. Yet underneath they have a solid architecture. For example, the piece called La Catedral seems as delicate as a snowflake, but it’s structure is as strong and disciplined as a Bach partita. Most of the pieces that I heard have this “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” quality. Other pieces that especially move me are Una Limosna Por el Amor de Dios, Aconquija, Maxixe, and Chôro da Saudade. But, they are not exceptions: every piece I’ve heard is worth listening to several times. Paraguayan folk music influenced his work as much as the familiar baroque and classical sources, giving it a flavour you won’t find elsewhere. Williams offers several recordings. I’m listening to The Great Paraguayan, which offers seventeen representative pieces.
First-time listening for May, 2011
Posted by Phil Paine
on May 31, 2011
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22747. (Kinks) Kinks
22748. (Rosebuds) The Rosebuds Make Out
22749. (Jimmy Smith) Jimmy Smith [Verve Jazz Masters #29]
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Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong
Posted by Phil Paine
on May 20, 2011
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I’ve played the Blue Suit Records compilation of Louie Bluie’s country blues about twenty times since I got it. Armstrong had an appealing personality, and was a far cry from the tragic and self-destructive fellows that fill blues history. Multi-talented, able to speak several languages and to engage audiences as a raconteur, he died at the age of 95, respected and comfortable though not rich. Between the two world wars, he played with Sleepy John Estes and Big Bill Broonzy, among many. His cheerful style on fiddle, mandolin and guitar, often accompanied by brilliantly-told personal anecdotes, distinguished him from the surlier, less articulate personas that dominated country blues. After serving in WWII, he worked for twenty-five years in a Detroit auto plant, then started to perform and tour extensively when public interest in old blues revived. Check out, if you can, his unusual and delightful fiddle version of Gershwin’s “Summertime”, which segues elegantly into a beautiful rendition of the old hymn “When He Calls Me, I Will Answer.”
First-time listening for April, 2011
Posted by Phil Paine
on April 30, 2011
No comments
22737. (Jimmy Rogers) That’s All Right [The Blues Collection #54]
22738. (The Verve) A Storm In Heaven
22739. (Kishori Amonkar) Samarpan ― The Joy of Surrender Read more »