Music I've Discovered in the Last Several Weeks

[mresseguie]

In the last several weeks I have discovered some amazing musicians playing all kinds of music. I thought I'd share them with you. Who knows? You may have heard of one or two of them, or they may be new to you, too.

In no particular order:

Lee Ritenour: Rhythm Sessions Deluxe Edition
Melba Liston and her Bones
Dave Brubeck
Chet Baker
John Coltrane
Bill Evans
Roseanna Vitro
Art Pepper
Randy Weston Trio
Milt Jackson
Pat Metheny
Dianne Reeves
Ken Burns
Dave Grusin
Clifford Brown
Ry Cooder
Patty Griffin
Red Garland
Kathrin deBoer

Yeah. I know it's a long list, and you've probably never heard of them before  , but my head is a-whirl switching from this one to that one to a third and back to the first....over and over every day I can fit it into my schedule. There is so much awesome music out there that I was never exposed to while I was growing up, or I was too concentrated on 70s rock to pay attention. I dunno. I suppose I just wasn't ready for it until recently. Now, at 57, I feel as though I have to make up for all my lost years.

This is a really cool hobby filled with some really cool folks. I think I'll keep it for a while.

[mresseguie]

As I typed the post above (and this one), I'm listening to Lee Ritenour's Rhythm Sessions Deluxe Edition on Tidal. I'm floored by how good this music is - even on my travel system which consists of my Mac Mini, Nuprime IDA-8 integrated amp, and Adelphos monitors designed by Jeff Bagby.

[pumpkinman]

Check out Captain Fingers

[richidoo]

Each one of those has enough music to keep any intelligent listener busy for many months!

Congrats on your new discoveries... Many more await your open mind!

I'd like to do the same thing with classic rock. I've hardly listened to any of it.

[DRN]

Check out Burk and the Virtual Band.
There are 4  "Cool Jazz " albums in the series.
From Spain and recorded outstanding.
Some favorites redone just excellent.
On Spotify.

Also anything by Jessy J (sax) or Paul Brown (guitar) he produces\ plays her albums

[mresseguie]

Thanks for your suggestions, gang.

I listened to Captain Fingers a couple mornings ago, and decided (for me) it's better played in the late afternoon or evening. It would be awesome in a Jazz bar setting. 

Den,

I'll listen to some today since my wife will be gone in a few minutes and not return till after dinner.

While listening to KMHD Jazz Radio today, I heard "Two Fish and an Elephant" by Khruangbin on the "The Universe Smiles Upon You" CD.  It was nice in the car. Listening to the CD now via Tidal.

[pumpkinman]

Each one of those has enough music to keep any intelligent listener busy for many months!

Congrats on your new discoveries... Many more await your open mind!

I'd like to do the same thing with classic rock. I've hardly listened to any of it.

I might know a pumpkin who could be just a little helpful with this.

[richidoo]

I think I know of such a pumpkin too. 

Having a music streaming service sure makes exploring a new genre easy. All you need is some time, and remembering to step out of the usual habit music.

[mresseguie]

Tidal has been a Godsend for me. I am able to access so much music that I would otherwise never have been exposed to. I search for "A". If I like A, I can explore similar artists at the if I wish. I've found a number of artists this way. The only downside to having a Tidal subscription is that I purchase fewer CDs than previously. That's not a huge statement as my entire collection is <300 CDs.

I can barely wait to hear music on my <as yet> uncompleted system in Taiwan. My Apollos and my D Sachs KT88 Kootenay 120 amp won't be there until November. This winter is going to be really enjoyable.  Hop on a flight for a visit. 

[Nick B]

+1 on Tidal. It has allowed me to indeed venture out and discover lots of new music.
Nick

[richidoo]

I search for "A". If I like A, I can explore similar artists at the if I wish.

Does it suggest similar music, or just play it like Pandora, or are you self guided?

[StereoNut]

The Funky Knuckles

SN

[tmazz]

+1 on Tidal. It has allowed me to indeed venture out and discover lots of new music.
Nick

In addition to being able to just venture out on my own, one of the things I enjoy most about Tidal is the ability to use it in conjunction the boards and the audio press. For years I have been reading review in mags like TAS and Stereophile that talked about what they heard during the reviewing process with different recordings. I would often say to myself that sounds good, I should look for that album and then 90% of the time completely forget what it was next time I was in a record store.
It is also really nice to be able to access a good percentage of the albums they test with and listen to them in my own system as I am reading the review to see how much of the attributes they are talking about are already present in my rig.

Likewise, when somebody posts up an album in one for the threads here that I am unfamiliar with it is great to be able to give it a listen before deciding if it is something that I would be interested in tracking down.

Is Tidal my first choice for music, no, I have other formats that provide better SQ. But that said the quality is quite good and it sure is a whole lot of fun having access to all of that music at your fingertips.

[tmazz]

I search for "A". If I like A, I can explore similar artists at the if I wish.

Does it suggest similar music, or just play it like Pandora, or are you self guided?

No it is pretty much all self guides. But on the plus side it does allow you to pick and choose exactly what you are going to listen to including the ability to play entire albums.

I still keep my free Pandora account open and use it when the spirit moves me because sometime it is nice to check your brains at the door and just let Pandora program a playlist for you. (and I often end up finding some new things along the way)

I particularly like the Jimmy Buffett channel and not because they play Buffett music (which ends up being only about 10% of the songs.) Whatever parameters the y use to describe what Buffett type music is  outputs a whole lot of really nice other music. I think it must be categorized as singer-songwriter acoustic guitar based music because it pulls up a lot of artists like James Taylor, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, The Eagles etc. I think I like it more because of what it chooses to play outside of the Buffett catalog.  And I am not sure what is different about how the determine what other music to include, be cause I don't get as nice of a mix if I listen to channels centered around other acoustic artists like James Taylor of Jackson Browne.

But just like some of the mysteries surrounding some of the tweaks and cables and other things we talk about here I don't spend too much time worrying about why it works, I just sit back and enjoy the fact that it does work for me. 

Bottom line - Tidal and Pandora are both good at doing what they do, but they do different things. Both things are useful to me in different situations, so I keep both of them around.

[mresseguie]

Richidoo,

Case in point: someone with an orange pallor mentioned Brian Auger's Oblivion Express. I'd never heard of it before, so I typed it into my Tidal board. Sure enough, Oblivion Express and another album popped up. I listened to a couple tracks to get an idea of what kind of music it is. I clicked 'favorite' to facilitate my going back to it when I have more time and more curiosity.

Tidal offers "Artist Radio" (which I seldom use), Discography, Similar Artists, and Biography. If I click onsimilar artists, I see "Brian Auger"; "Julie Driscoll & the Trinity", and "Return to Forever". Zap! Pow! Boom, Batman! How long has it been since I heard or even thought about Return to Forever? Holy shit! Now I get to explore this great band from the past.

Of course, as soon as I click on Return to Forever, I get even more similar artists. I'll run out of time before I run out of interesting artists and bands to explore. It's good!