Name Me!
Known for the best Depending on who you are asking! My dear girlfriend thinks I’m a danger. Come to think of it, my dad did. Um, of course, yes, I know this, why it’s something known in advance. And WONDERLUST (wonderlusttravel.com). And if I’m being honest it usually annoys people.
The current city Milford, PA
Really want to stay Italy. Always Italy. Where I would be careful not to do more than the average Italian. Be culturally sensitive, you know?
Excited about I’m watching Spin Get out of his decade-long inertia and become kick-ass and meaningful again in that order.
I have a lot in my current music collection World music, classical and jazz, these three types of music I listen to the most. I have no country and almost no rap (except for the initial PE and ice tea. And the Ghetto Boys! Not to listen to the Ghetto Boys record, just a historical monument. The Smithsonian will come to me one day.)
And a little New Era and Surrounding – I love Windham Hill Records and Richard Claderman. And Steve Reich and Philip Glass and Music for the airport By Brian Eno. I have nice too The mystery of the Bulgarian voice. The first album is the best. And lots of African music. Fela, however, also handed over King Sunny Ade and Salif Keita and Angelique Kidzo, one of the worst faces I have ever met. I love him.
Don’t judge me Betty Midler’s debut album, Divine Miss M.. I am not at all embarrassed by it, to be clear. It’s suffocating “Do you want to dance?” And it was followed by bouncy pop “Chapel of Love” and then a version of “Superstar” that no one ever matched. The hit was “Boogie Woogie Boogie Boy”, which hit the Andrews Sisters – in the Beatles’ immortal words – before your mother was born.
Format of choice Vinyl and reel to reel! Put your hands down. Reel-to-reel is the best sound, but recordings are hard to find and equipment is not ubiquitous. There’s the warmth of the sound invisibly surrounding where the vinyl recording took place – a sound you can’t hear separately but the performance will float.
Follows Cassettes Seriously – Cassettes are great, when they last. CDs aren’t bad, someone develops gratitude for those who hear about their oral diarrhea, aptly known as “streaming” in that context. Compressed digital music is like wet shit in your ears. I mean, I imagine it’s like that – I didn’t actually put wet shit in my ears. But I’ve heard streaming and want to get as close to it as I can.
I can’t live without 5 albums
D
Mast mast
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party
This is a good record. Nusrat was the ultimate Qawwali singer and actor, and the album, produced and played by guitarist Michael Brooke, introduced Western spelled Pakistani spiritual music to Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. The sound, and the instrument that makes it, are unique. The main instrument is the voice of the lead singer, which transmits a religious experience to the mesmerized and enthusiastic listener. That, by the way, is not an exaggeration. Part of the song is religious text and part is mumbo jumbo, consisting only of a combination of words for overall effect, sound and rhythm, not meaning.
2
Hit against the empire
Paul Cantner, Jefferson Starship
This is my first album that I bought, my cousin after it almost ran to me in a degree of brainwashing. I was fascinated by it, a sound-hippie space age, semi-symphonic rock ‘n roll? – And I’ve never heard a song before. The album is aerial based on Robert A. Heinlin’s science fiction, which Paul Cantner of Jefferson Airplane conceived as a side project, hence the spin-off name, which the band co-incidentally adopted four years later after some key members left. It was airplane musicians Grace Slick and Jack Cassadi, and others who were touring the studio recording, such as David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, Graham Nash, Mickey Hart and David Friberg of Quicksilver Messenger. (It is rumored that Carlos Santana also starred in the film but could not be credited due to the record company’s ban. Who knows, who cares?)
This is a brilliant album! The theme is basically, stealing a starship (they were around me, enduring) and leaving Earth, because this planet is ruined, and look elsewhere to survive and start anew. Funny, isn’t it? The unimportant-songs are so good, and you can get lost in their mesmerizing poetic embrace: the percussive, aggressive-lyrical opening track that sets the revolutionary mood, the sweet fantasy of “Mau Mau (American)”, “The Baby Tree” (yes, you Thinking so), Ethereal “Sunrise” and the beautiful “Tonight You Saw the Stars,” “Home” and “Let’s Go Together.”
Incredibly – at least to me – this album is sometimes referred to as one of the worst albums ever recorded! It’s a poppy rooster. Those who say they are Philistine (and include some Rolling stone Critic – I rest in my case). However, I would say that the CD version is not as good as the original recording of vinyl and I don’t know why. This is not a sound quality issue, I think the audio track is missing from the original performance, probably because the artist’s permission has been revoked. The CD version seems thin.
3
Brandenburg Gate: Reconsideration
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
An authentic masterpiece. Jazz performed on the same spiritual plane as the greatest classical music. I think it was intended as a remake of the nominal Bach Brandenburg Concertos, but it stands on its own point. The first aspect is the title track and as a teenager I once, every day, sometimes through the transport of headphones, sometimes just lying on a sofa, listening to the big wooden speakers come through, it fills the room like a cloud. I still play it. The second aspect consists of four perfectly beautiful songs, but nothing really compares to the ever-fresh, dramatic opening aspect.
4
Carmina Burana
The London Symphony Orchestra, led by Andre Previn. Carl aka, composer.
There are many recordings of this iconic cantata of medieval poetry on the Latin set, but it is the best. It’s awesome, and you know the version you don’t know – “O Fortune,” the opening (and ending) track of King Arthur Movie Excalibur’s dramatic, vibrant theme music and nearly 3,000 TV commercials. One of the other recordings does not reach mysterious heights.
5
Astral week
Van Morrison
It’s hard to understand that this was only Morrison’s second solo album. It’s perfect, from the first soft guitar strum of the title song to the last track of “Slim Slow Slider”. The whole, Van’s voice, is not what he’s singing, it’s poetry. The four middle songs “Cyprus Avenue,” “The Way Young Lovers Do,” “Ballerina,” and “Madame George” are the four greatest songs ever recorded. It’s weird that they’re on an album, like they keep the door of the adjoining paradise saloon open and for about 2 minutes you hear the angels off duty, singing together.
Honorable mention
Because David Crosby did it, I’m going too …
Playing by heart
Chet Baker, John Barry and Chris Botty
It’s actually a soundtrack by John Barry for a long-forgotten movie of the same name, and features Botty more than Baker, but it’s Baker’s painful trumpet that inflates this gorgeous record and sucks it and us, the common world before slowly releasing us.
Mahlar’s ninth symphony
Gustav Mahler
One of the most powerful, lofty, purest classical works of all time.
Bridge over turbulent waters
Simon and Garfunkel
So the heart is full of pain and hope. Every song is great, but the title track, “The Only Living Boy in New York” and “The Boxer” are immortal recordings.
Sketch of Spain
Miles Davis
Master’s most masterful record, I think the brightest jazz record ever made.
