Sonny Rollins, Without A Song. Live and gorgeous. This merritts a complete review it is that good. Best live recording I have ever heard in audio terms.

Keith Jarrett, Radiance. Free Form live recording solo Some excruciatingly beautifull/some atonal stuff.

Ahmad Jamal, Live in Paris 1996. Lively perfectly recorded Jazz from a true master.

Charlie Haden,Land Of The Sun; with Gonzalo Rubacalda. Slow Latino flavored ballads very smooth and gentle stuff.

Liciana Souza; Neruda. Bunch of Pablo's poetry put to music. It captivates but takes some time. Real singing voice.

Paquito D'Rivera. The Clarinetist. This is really a modern classical recording with jazz influences. I am still assimilating this one but it has some wonderfull arrangements.

This means no bedroom music.

One thing I'be been trying to get my local library to buy is
the dvd of _Calle 54_. This is all the things that the
Buena Vista Social Club isn't. I've only heard the vhs
of this documentary on modern Cuban jazz masters. The dvd
should give a better sound representation for included
works by Chu Chu Valdez in an amazing duo with... name I forgot
plus Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill. Gato Barbeiri is on there
too, but I mentioned no bedroom music.

In the up tempo combo work department the early work of
Monty Alexander can't be beat. I'm talking about out of print
stuff from his discongraphy going back to 1974.

The premiere artists in the combo field such as Oscar Peterson
fit in here plus Gene Harris and others I've become acquaited with
from listening to the Jazz With Bob Parlocha radio program available
from WGBH and elsewhere.

In the big bands, current work done by John Fedchock and Bob Florence stands out.
I'm partial to what I can only call 'classical big band arrangements'
the sort done by Stan Kenton with Bill Holman and also George Russell. The
Thad Jones Mel Lewis Band has also done some great things with compositions by Bob Brookmeyer who _did_ play bedroom music in small
groups with Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz and others. You can't have everything.

Duke Ellington defies classification. With the volume of work
Ellington did and its variety and complexity, I consider him
like Beethoven whose collected body of work will last for all time.

I wish I knew more about Roy Hargrove.

For sax players I take the time to listen to Dexter Gordon
more than Sonny Rollins. Don Sirley comes to mind as
a moody rather than up tempo pianist.

But as a soloist, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone
better than Martin Taylor's guitar. Maybe it's because I use
those mp3's to test my speaker builds. I'm most familiar
with Taylor's "Artistry" album.

Aside from 'sweet bands', I have just about everything the
English bandleader John Dankworth ever did. His "Zodiac Variations"
and "What The Dickens"-- themes on the works of Charles Dickens
would qualify as mood pieces. Claire Fisher and Lenny Niehouse are
well known for extended works as well.

Zodiac Variations is an example of 'classical big band music'
in that Dankworth gives notes on the compositional technique
used for each sign. Dankworth is less well-known than his
wife Cleo Laine. Together they did a recording called
"Shakespeare And All That Jazz: lyrics from Shakespeare plays
with melodies by Ellington from his Shakespeare work and
Dankworth originals.

There are a jillion things to remember for someone who has
listened this music a whole life. But I always return to
these.

Most of this is from the early 60's.

Recently I've been catching up on dvd those episodes of
the Star Trek spinoff Deep Space Nine which I had not seen.
I was amazed and delighted to find they had incorprated a character called Vic Fontaine played and sung by James Darren (yes, the one
from the Gidget movies.) The character is a holographic fantasy
replete with tuxedo, slot machines and the whole look of
1962 Vegas. This is a way to communicate those pop tunes
to several new generations.

That said, the best thing in the current market has been the
rip it up style of The Brian Setzer Orchestra.

Martin Taylor; all those British Guitar Wizards; John Martyn/John Renbourn/Richard Thompson/Martin Sexton, I like all of them.

I am a closet fan of English Folk-Rock.
Pentangle, Steeleye Span. I like the women that sing that stuff like Maddy Prior and Sandy Denny.

My point in rattling off all these names is there is a pretty rich repository of music that really does not get discussed at all.
Your thoughts on music are appreciated and we had a really good discussion going in the High Efficiency Forum with Brines and Dave. But there are no posts dealing with current picks available that might help expose others to stuff you know and vice-versa.
You have to wonder at the point of discussing how to play the sound without talking about the music.

The TV I watch outside of games and news is mostly the shows on pay channells simply because I cannot abide commercials. Constant battle in my home since I will not watch shows that have them.

Most jazz musicians make their living as session men
doing the swing music in Walt Disney cartoons (the best source
of swing music there is these days, or those Deep Space Nine
episodes i referred to which has full band original arrangments
for at least one of the Vic Fontaine shows.) New artitsts
and groups that I can think of like The New York Voices
even have a few years on them now.

Most if not all high school music programs are teaching
dance band music in the classical Glenn Miller and Tommy
Dorsey style with excursions into the works of other
arrangers who do charts specifically for teachers.

Through high school band and college band and with all the
special music programs such as the one at Lawrence college here has
and the North Texas State Jazz Ensemble and others, I've always
wondered why there wasn't more of a market for local concerts
of jazz bands in all sorts of venues. But there isn't.
And the radio doesn't play much but country and other stuff.

What saddens me is the fact that women in high school and
college do a lot of the playing in these bands. And yet there
seems to be no place in the professional world for
baritone sax players whose instrument is as tall as they are.

There are 2 or three "all girl bands" in the whole of the
United States which as 300 million people.

One of these is the Kit McClure Band. They do a tribute to
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm. They call it
the Sweethearts Project about the only all girl band to
do a European USO tour in World War II.

Every year an NPR Show called Riverwalk--Live From The Landings does
a special tribute to the Sweethearts usually in March during
women's history month. Look it up. You can stream the audio
on the week of the broadcast.

The new performers are out there. Some 'age out' after
high school and college because there's no place for them...
sort of like what happens to those who are in drum corps.

New material to watch for by seasoned performers that I've
been watching for after tour is by Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy,
Kevin Mahogony and Jon Hendricks. You've heard of the
Three Tenors. These are The Four Brothers that Elling put
together with inspiration from Woody Herman to spotlight male vocals in concert. I've seen no info on a recording date for this group.

Where's the Brines and Dave thread?

• Riverwalk-- previous broadcast of The Sweethearts Project

Ever listen to Fela Anikipulta Kuti? Man that was a big band. over one hundred members.

It would be nice if the powers that be could re-surrect the concerts in the park where local talent used to perform in large bands. Insurance costs killed that one.
Like the insurance companies are destroying everything of value and blaming lawsuits as a bogus excuse for their rapacious habits.