Maestro Barenboim via Wikipedia
I have a big backlog of recordings I haven't yet listened to, especially today after I combed the Amoeba Hollywood classical bargain bin.
In order to focus i.e. plow through a zillion recordings, let me change my diary format to albums rather than tracks. I'm sad for the decline in consistent, rigorous detail this represents, even if it is easier to read and write and more entertaining to boot.
But first, I need to clear out the tracks I listened to this morning as I wandered around West Hollywood! (e.g. Book Soup! on Sunset Boulevard! where the outdoor magazine stand still sells The Wire magazine! and then where I noticed some UK progressive band named Strangers on a Train! on the bill at the Whisky a Go Go! plus numerous vegan restaurants!) before my big Amoeba Hollywood! visit after I missed the store in 2010 for various reasons!
(A 2008 aworks hollywood travelogue is here complete with a photo of the sidewalk star for at least one artistic hero! No, not Journey! And a "good old days!" 2004 blog comparison of Amoeba and the now defunct Tower Classical Annex in both SF and LA here. And finally, a short 2004 text snapshot of LA behind the wheel here!). Seven years ago. Yikes!
The long-promised track diary starts here!:
- A Son of a Gambolier. Charles Ives! - Cary Parker, Ryan Macpherson, Douglas Dickson, Etc.
- Crippled Symmetry. Morton Feldman - California Ear Unit!
- Symphony No. 10! Dmitry Shostakovich - Simon Rattle
- Vulture. Jewellry. Micachu!
- Lips
- Skies of America. Verona Jazz. Ornette Coleman!
- Arsenal of Democracy. Julia Wolfe!
These are the albums I listened to today, sorted from best! to worst:
- Leon Kirchner - Continuum. Chamber Works
- William Whitehead. Leo Sowerby - Symphony in G Major
- Chick Corea. Solo Piano - Improvisations; Children's Songs (3 CD set)
- Jon Gibson. Visitations I & II + Thirties
- The Cardigans. first band on the moon
- Altrice. Stem
- Art Ensemble of Chicago with Cecil Taylor. Thelonious Sphere Monk: Dreaming of the Masters Vol. 2
- Daniel Barenboim and Guests. Tribute to Ellington
- Why I'm on a Kirchner kick lately is not well understood.
- Sowerby - sleeping American giant of organ composition, if there is such a category.
- In general, the Corea album is good but I am not sure what to make of the keyboard flourishes of Departure from Planet Earth. Is this related to Chick Corea's religion?
- The Gibson album is variable: Visitations I is great; Thirties is beyond tedious, and Visitations II somewhere in between.
- The Cardigans album is courtesy the Amoeba clerk who said I had three bargain CDs and so could go get a fourth free while she rang up the thousand other CDs I bought today. We also had a discussion about the merits of the Nick Lowe CD I was buying but despite her age, she knew way more about the subject than I did. Still, this Cardigans recording contains the hit lovefool, a sweet cover of Black Sabbath's iron man and much drek. By the way, when I was immersed in my Amoeba CD digging, some hipster woman asked me about the "Avant-Garde" section. I said it was "modern classical music" and that remains my final answer. Now if only someone could hold my hand and explain what I am seeing as I walk through Amoeba Hollywood's metal section.
- Altrice is the artist whose Stem remixes Caribou'sSwim.
- Art Ensemble + Cecil Taylor + Monk should have been interesting. Alas.
- Daniel Barenboim's talented guests are Don Byron and Dianne Reeves but this is only one notch above a Reader's Digest Ellington collection. The liner notes give evidence "Maestro Barenboim" may not understand the fundamental difference between jazz and classical i.e. what you play vs. how you play:
Together we have evolved a very particular style of playing this music. This is what fascinates me in this music, this is the reason I did this recording. I do not mean to say that this is the only way to play Ellington, of course not. But it is consistent and it is exactly what I had imagined.
Again, I have many more CDs to, uh, consume, but frankly, the Barenboim recording merits more attention.
And for the record, I tried to not look at the car that rolled over on 580 in Pleasanton this evening but just as I was fascinated how all that grass got wedged on top of the bumper, I can't help but look again at Tribute to Ellington.
The full diary: April 4 April 5 April 6 April 7 (ownership edition) April 8
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