Showing posts with label 100 best albums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 100 best albums. Show all posts

Saturday, November 9, 2013

***** My Favorite Things by John Coltrane – Tasteful Excellence for Anyone and Everyone

My Favorite Things gets my highest recommendation. It is a timeless classic. You could pull this cd out 1,000 years or more later, and this cd would still be cherished by listeners, both tone deaf and those with perfect pitch, and everyone in between. From start to finish, everything about My Favorite Things, the compact disc, remade from the original, is every bit as worthy of cherishing. If someone said, “I’m interested in jazz. Where should I start?” This would be one of probably the top 10 cds I would recommend.  I would say, “If you are looking for jazz, My Favorite Things won’t let you down, and if it does then you might consider yourself as some sort of new species, other than human.”

I actually purchased this disc a long time ago, back when I was at college and in my John Coltrane phase. That would be roughly the year 2001. That disc, the original, got scratched. However, I had burned a copy of it for the car, and that disc, the one I am reviewing, has no scratches. The original got tossed in the trash. That brings me to an important issue. The issue of duplicating cds, which I believe is completely okay to do in the same way people duplicated cassette tapes back in the day. Having a back up is an important thing! I currently have at least one cd in my 100 disc changer that can’t be duplicated for whatever reason, such that if I try to burn a copy, computer won’t comply. If that had been the case with My Favorite Things by John Coltrane, I wouldn’t have been able to have even a copy to write a review, all these years later, because the original would have been scratched. That’s just food for thought, and really almost aside from the review of this cd.

This disc is definitely one of my favorites by Coltrane tied with discs such as, Giant Steps, that are among my favorite discs. This disc is among my favorite things. I love music, and My Favorite Things is a sonic jazz treasure. However, it didn’t spend that much time in my 100 disc changer this time, not because I don’t like it anymore, but because I have much of it memorized. I don’t like to listen to the same thing over and over, and I tend to favor music that does not have a lot of repetition, as I could definitely say I am not sick of this disc. It is just to say that it is time to move one.

Much if not all of this music is in the Real Book. Honestly, I can’t quite remember if everything from this disc made it in. I often overlook the local jazz musicians, who have not composed their own music, and continually play the same stuff from the “Real Books,” as opposed to Fake Books, where it is thought that what makes a Fake Book, “fake,” is that somehow the original has been perverted just a little bit, such that copyright infringement has not occurred.

When it comes to jazz, there is no danger in writing a Real Book, because of the nature of jazz. Jazz is not supposed to be played the same way, and also to argue before a tone deaf jury of tone deaf walkers that the Real Book was indeed copyright infringement would probably be impossible, as there is just simply not enough information about the songs in the Real Books, because it is jazz, that one could arrive at the original completely through just copying the music.

Jazz is a music that by nature must have improvisation. The Real Book provides what is called the “head,” of the song, which is sort of like the theme of the song, almost like a chorus, though perhaps it is only played only once, twice, or thrice during a song.

Friday, February 3, 2012

1st 100 Disc Changer 2008 The Key to Enjoying Music Is to Develop Your Ears


This is a part of the 100 Disc Changer series. A part of being a good musician involves listening to good music. Even if you want to be in the audience, listening to music will help you enjoy music. However, sometime it is not obvious what is good. So I invite you to check these out because if you listen to them enough, they will improve your ear. Every so often I update my 100 disc changer list. I try to review the albums I take out of it. I also post album reviews at Facebook.com, Amazon.com, and Rdio.

Queensyrche – EP and The Warning

Wes Montgomery – On The Go and Movin’ Wes

Wes Montgomery – Fusion

Simon Phillips – Another Lifetime

Queensyrche – Rage for Order

Queensyrche – Empire

Eric Johnson – 7 Worlds and Souvenir

Eric Johnson – Bloom

Eric Johnson – Ah Via Musicom

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Soup

Megadeth – Rust In Peace

Megadeth – Greatest Hits: Back to the Beginning

Megadeth – Cryptic Writings

Jimi Hendrix – Blues

Jimi Hendrix – South Saturn Delta

Planet X – Quantum

Derek Sherinian’s Planet X

Planet X – Moonbabies

Plantet X – Universe

Tony MacAlpine – Freedom to Fly

Iced Earth – Days of Purgatory disc 2

Metallica – Ride the Lightning

Dream Theater – Once In a Livetime disc 2

Dream Theater – Live at the Marquee

Dream Theater – Live Scenes From New York disc 2

Tony MacAlpine – Chromaticity

Tony MacAlpine – Madness

Chroma Key – You Go Now

Tony MacAlpine – Evolution

Iced Earth – Days of Purgatory disc 1

Chico Hamilton – Man from 2 Worlds

King Crimson – In The Court of the Crimson King and In The Wake of Poseidon

Chick Corea’s Elektric Band – Light Years

The Misfits – Walk Among Us

Greg Howe – Introspection

Iced Earth – The Dark Saga and The Melancholy EP

The Best of The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Iced Earth – The Blessed

Dream Theater – Official Bootleg: A Saucerful of Floyd

Fates Warning – Disconnected

Dream Theater – Score disc 2

George Benson – Beyond The Blue Horizon

Al Di Meola – Land of the Midnight Sun and Tour de Force

A mix of pop radio music, like stuff you hear on WPXE

Porcupine Tree – Deadwing

A mix of metal music

Led Zepplin – A mix of live songs and songs that were scratched from my Led Zepplin cds

Gipsy Kings – Greatest Hits

The Best of Kenny Burrell: The Blue Note Years

Shadow Gallery – Prime Cuts

Hammer Fall – Glory to the Brave

Return to Forever – This is Jazz 12

The Very Best of Testament

Iced Earth – The Damned

The Very Beast of Dio

Herbie Hancock – Manchild and Dedication

James LaBrie – Elements of Persuasion

A Nirvana bootleg

Fates Warning – No Exit and A Twist of Fate

King’s X – Gretchen Goes to Nebraska

An Evening with Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci

Drained – No One In Control

Rush Tribute – Working Man

Sting – Ten Summoner’s Tales

Rush – 2112 and Hemispheres

Apocalyptica – Plays Metallica by four cellos

Transatlantic – Live In America

A mix of Jazz standards

Liquid Tension Experiment

Fear Factory – Soul of a New Machine and Fear Is The Mind Killer

Greg Howe – Five

Scorpions – 20th Century Masters

Victor Wooten – A Show of Hands

A virtuoso guitar mix including, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteem, The Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and George Benson

Korn – Greatest Hits Vol. 1

Simon and Garfunkel – Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme

The Very Best of Santana

Richie Kotzen/Greg Howe – Project

A mix of Miles Davis and John Coltrane

Return to Forever – Romantic Warrior

Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Roy Hanynes – Question and Answer

Derek Sherinian – Blood of The Snake

Van Halen – 1984

Bela Fleck and The Flecktones – Greatest Hits of the 20th Century

Alter Bridge – One Day Remains and Creed – Human Clay

Dennis Chambers – Outbreak

Hammer Fall – Legacy of Kings

Garsed, Helmerich, Willis and Chambers – Uncle Moe’s Space Ranch

Rush – Caress of Steel and Counterparts

Emerson Lake and Palmer Tribute – Encores Legends and Paradox

Van Halen – Van Halen II

James LaBrie’s Mullmuzzler – Keep It to Yourself

Django Reinhardt – Retrospective 1940-1947

The Best of Chick Corea

Judas Priest – British Steel

Steve Morse – The Introduction

Wes Montgomery – Ultimate

Skid Row – Slave to The Grind

Evanescence – Fallen

Medeski Martin Wood – Last Chance to Dance Trance