DIGITAL TO ANALOG CONVERSION

Day 86. John Coltrane.

Posted on Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 at 9:54 pm in Jazz by josh

Tonight I made one of my own picks and chose the ‘Heavyweight Giant’ box set that Rhino put out that collected John Coltrane’s albums on Atlantic. Mostly, I had ‘Ole’ in my head earlier today and was surprised not to have it ready to play yet. What I think is a LOT of the fun of this set is Coltrane’s transition into full-time band leader, and starting to stretch out more and more. Tunes stretch out, and you start to see Coltrane tighten up in the technical realm as well. The playing on ‘Giant Steps’ is phenomenal, tight and clean. But by the time you get to ‘Olé Coltrane’, ‘The Avant-Garde’ and ‘Coltrane’s Sound’ you can start to see where his future taking shape (especially as McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones start to appear on the scene).

For most of my time through college, this set was the Coltrane I listened to and enjoyed the most. As I finished up college (and started to compose more) the later Coltrane on Impulse! took on more of a focus for me. I started to understand and enjoy the REALLY out there stuff quite a bit, so this set has sat on my shelf for quite some time without me listening to it as much.

And that is really too bad, because now that I have started to listen to this set again, I am remembering how amazing it is. Just amazing jazz, and I really appreciate all the alternative takes that show how different each play through of a tune can be. You also see a very melodic Coltrane on some of these tracks as well. ‘Central Park West’, ‘Naima’, and ‘Cousin Mary’ all stand in great relief to the staggering virtuosic playing on ‘Giant Steps’ and ‘Countdown’.

All the music in this set was recorded between early 1959 to mid 1961. ‘Kind of Blue’ was also recorded during this time. Within 2 years, he was signing with Impulse! and finalizing ‘the Quartet’ that would record ‘A Love Supreme’ in 1964. In other words, it is a serious time of transition for Coltrane (even more staggering to think he would be dead by 1967). It is also some of the most polished recordings that I think he made. By the time he goes to Impulse!, he also returns to Rudy Van Gelder to do some of the recording (which I don’t mean to imply is ‘unpolished’, but that the engineering is as much a part of the recording as the playing is… in a good way!). These albums seem to exist out of the rest of his works in a strange way, as though the Atlantic recordings were a chance for Coltrane to get a start away from the collaborative surroundings he had been in to start and discover who he would be as a band leader. And these recordings show some amazing steps being taken. None of the work is poor… these albums are great. These discs are the glue between Coltrane as up and coming sideman and the late Coltrane (and I mean ‘late’ as in ‘late’ Beethoven… where so much exploration and forward looking greatness is found by the artist), and to see the change happen over the course of two years is quite stunning.

Tags: John Coltrane, Rudy Van Gelder
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Day 85. U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and The Clash.

Posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 2:37 pm in Rock / Pop, Tamiko by josh

Today’s rips were a few CDs brought in from the car from recent car trips to Seattle. These included The Clash’s ‘London Calling’, ‘Mother’s Milk’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Achtung Baby’ by U2 and the ‘Every Breath You Take’ Police compilation. Let me start off by saying that I love the Police, especially the first few albums. Sting I hung with for a couple of albums, but by the time the 1986 remix of ‘Don’t stand So Close To Me’ came out I was rather disappointed. The original version is SO much better then the remix (which simply seemed to me to be a way to try and get new Sting fans to buy a Police record). But what surprised me on this recent listening to the compilation as well is that it is MOSTLY geared towards that audience. Where is ‘So Lonely’ and ‘Bring On The Night’? Well – that is the problem with compilations in general. Oh well.

And it is for those same reasons that, even though I have already ripped ‘Clash on Broadway’, I sure am glad to have ‘London Calling’ (and a few others) to rip as well. One of my earliest record cover memories is of ‘London Calling’ from when I was about 5. Or maybe I should rephrase that… it is one of my earliest memories of being struck by an album cover. I remember my first record (a copy of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Terrapin Station’ that I was given after putting a scratch into ‘Estimated Prophet’), and I remember seeing other covers that kind of scared me (David Grisman’s ‘Hot Dawg’, for some reason, terrified me as a little kid). But ‘London Calling’ was one that I remember staring at. I kept expecting the picture to move, and for the guitar to finally fall to the stage and shatter like glass (a vivid imagination… the result of smashing a bass onto a stage actually results in a rather clumsy situation) but on this cover there was so much potential for beautiful destruction. I can’t imagine that the moments after this picture was taken are in existence, and if they are I bet they aren’t as exciting as this one. And as I grew older and got into The Clash, this is also one of the albums (in it’s entirety) that I grew to like the most. How many double albums are in existence with such a high level of music on just about every track? I don’t really think there is a single throw-away or side filler on the record… and on top of that there is a GREAT hidden track! You get ‘London Calling’ all the way to ‘Revolution Rock’ which is a fabulous 18 songs… then there is ‘Train In Vain!’. Damn.

The copy of ‘Achtung Baby!’ I have is one of the first pressings, in the eco-friendly paper packaging. I’ll never forget a quote I heard by Bono shortly before the album came out. When asked about ‘the FLY’ (as it is printed on the CD track listing) he said ‘that’s the sound of four guys chopping down a Joshua Tree’. And if there is anything I respect the most about U2 up through and a bit past ‘Zooropa’, it was the fact that they weren’t afraid to strike out in new directions, even when popular trends would suggest doing the opposite. After the huge success of ‘Joshua Tree’ (and a little more of the same with ‘Rattle and Hum’, who would guess that the same band would come back with ‘Achtung Baby!’. And though ‘the FLY’ and ZOO station’ certainly seem to be a departure, ‘ONE’ certainly exists as a bridge between the two worlds, and ‘LOVE IS blindness’ with a little re-working certainly could have existed in that earlier world. But what I remember most about this album was the sense that it was pushing into some sort of unknown territory, and with that there could be excitement. Of course I later realized that the territory was well trod by others (and having Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno and Flood working on the production certainly helped with that).

Tamiko and I were able to get tickets to the Zoo TV tour. Cars hanging from the roof for spotlights, huge multi-screen television displays and all. It was great. The show was expected to sell out quickly, and I worked at Tower at the time, so I figured I had an in. I would show up at 6am (the earliest we usually allowed people to line up for tickets) and I would kick everyone out and grab a spot at the front of the line. Now in reality, this would have led to a pretty bad ass kicking for myself. Lucky for me, when I got to the store at 6am there was already a line of a few hundred people, and I wasn’t the first Tower employee to show up. All the store management was already there, and I went to stand in line like everyone else. I still got tickets (though not on the floor) and Tamiko and I saw a great concert (with the Pixies opening!!!). And in spite of the promise by the band to not play anything pre-‘Achtung Baby!’, we had some nice helpings of ‘Running To Stand Still’ (probably my favorite U2 song) as well as ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’ and ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ (complete with ‘Rattle and Hum’ like strobe effects for the beginning of the song).

Finally – ‘Mother’s Milk’. First heard some track off of it on a band trip, and Dave Lasley had it on his portable CD player. Oooh… how I wanted a portable CD player back then. As the bus was moving, I would hear 20 seconds of a song… skip … 20 or so more seconds… but in between was some bass playing that Dave really admired, and it blew me away. So I decided to try and by the CD the next week and had to back off when I saw the cover. No way my parents were going to let me walk up to the register with a naked women conveniently holding 4 guys across her mid section. The disc had to wait until I was working (at Dairy Queen) and I had my own car to get me back and forth to the record store. Still an album that was very much worth the wait. And damn it… now I can’t get ‘Magic Johnson’ out of my head again… ergh…

Tags: Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Clash, The Police, U2
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Day 84. Mozart.

Posted on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 at 9:48 pm in Classical, Mira, Tamiko by josh

Mira’s box-set fascination continues with the complete Mozart Piano Concertos (period instrument recordings with Malcom Bilson and John Eliot Gardiner). While Mozart’s symphonies are great pieces and are rightfully seen as a pillar in his oeuvre, along with his operas I see Mozart’s Piano Concertos as his most important works. Mostly because they are the most operatic of his purely instrumental works. The standards he helped set up and solidify for the classical concerto are on the same level as Haydn’s contribution to the sonata-allegro form. And the dramatic contrast of the soloist and the orchestra is developed to a very deep level. Since there is no text and they are more abstract then the operas, that these works have such strong dramatic form is even more impressive to me. And that the piano writing basically defines lyrical (for an instrument where the attack is so univocal) is even more impressive to me.

The first one I heard was on one of Tamiko’s Music History tapes (while I was still in high school and hadn’t heard much classical music yet). Number 20 in d minor is a pretty dark piece. Between that, what I had heard of the Requiem and snippets of the ‘Amadeus’ soundtrack, I though Mozart was one dark guy. Dark and intense! And while he does have those moments, that certainly isn’t the case for 95% of his music. So when he does write some dark music, it almost seems like he is saving it up. Mozart’s light is often quite pleasant, but when he gets dark he knew what he was doing.

I got the Bilson / Gardiner set after I knew Mozart’s work much better. I put on the disc with number 20 first and I was shocked at how different it sounded on the older instruments. The piano’s sound is thinner, and the thundering low octaves in parts of the first movement take on a different lyrical quality on the older instrument (where the octaves just help the line come out of the texture in a more balanced fashion. It was amazing to hear how much the same instruments (but in a much younger form) changed how a piece sounded. The music is intense in a different way. But with the older instruments the intensity actually works on a much more human level. Where on modern instruments it feels like the doom of the world, the older instruments make it feel like the doom of a man. The period instruments make the whole body of work more personal, and in some ways even more tragic. But it is also what makes the second movement even more beautiful. It is the voice of someone who has come through a storm. And it is strange to me that, at this more personal level, the works in general feel more universal.

Tags: Mozart
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Day 83. Corelli.

Posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 8:55 pm in Classical, Tamiko by josh

Corelli’s music (mostly summed up in six 12 piece collections) has resonated with me for some reason since I first heard it. During my History of Western Music classes at UC Berkeley, he was introduced just after Purcell’s drony Fantasias. Then, after Corelli we were given another example of Purcell’s music after he came into contact with Corelli’s music. The change is startling, and the difference comes from the strong tonal (dominant-tonic) structures that show up so distinctly in Corelli’s music. The strong dissonances in his counterpoint also struck my ears, and I remember heading to the record store that same day to see what there was. Eight discs. Op 1. through Op. 6. … 48 sonatas for two violins and continuo, 12 sonatas for violin and continuo and 12 concerti grossi.

And while I remember pretty clearly the first time I heard Corelli in class, the strongest memory I have of Corelli’s music comes from a drive up the California coast on Hwy. 1. One Friday afternoon after class at Berkeley I picked Tamiko up at work with enough clothes for the weekend, and headed for I-80 and the Bay Bridge. Tamiko had until we got to US 101 to decide if we would turn left or right, and Tamiko chose right (north) and we headed off toward the Golden Gate bridge. Once on the other side I would head toward Highway 1 and we would head north until we found a place to stay for the night. As luck would have it, I accidentally missed the turn-off for Highway 1 and we would up in Mill Valley (where the next weekend Tamiko and I would head for since we found it so cute… and eventually we decided that is where we would get married!). I eventually found my way to Highway 1, and we were driving past Stinson Beach as the sun was setting. We kept driving and as Bodega Bay, Corelli’s C minor Concerto (Op. 6 no. 3) was on the cd player. The driving rhythms seemed to match up with the moon flickering through the trees and reflecting off the water. It was a beautiful moment at the beginning of a great trip. Tamiko and I finally found a place to stay in Jenner (where the Russian River and the Pacific meet up)… it was a cabin with a piano, hot tub and a kitchen. The trip would continue up the coast to Mendocino and we got back to our apartment in Albany by Sunday night. And whenever I hear that concerto know, my memory of that trip comes right into my mind.

Tags: Corelli
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Day 82. Anonymous 4, Dufay Collective, Ensemble Organum and Fretwork.

Posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 8:36 pm in Classical, Tamiko by josh

The past couple of weeks have been very busy. I’ve been working with Richard Karpen on a couple of projects that involve a different approach to composing that involves a much more oral transmission of musical ideas to performers rather then a written medium. The results become pieces in much the same way that written scores do. For instance, we have started to notice with his guitar and electronics piece ‘Strand Lines’ written for Stefan Östersjö that there is a correct way to play the work as well as the danger of making mistakes. One of the conclusions Richard has come to as a result of this process is, if there can be mistakes and if there IS a right way to play the piece, then there must be a piece (even without it being written down).

The ephemeral quality of music in general (even when it has been written down, it is over once the air ceases to vibrate) is one of the most magical aspects of the medium. And tonight’s rips (recordings of music that is hundreds of year’s old) made me connect Richard’s music to how we choose to perform ‘ancient’ music. And in many ways, any music at all. The first disc was a collection by the Dufay Collective called ‘Music for Alfonso the Wise’. Alfonso being an Iberian king from the 13th century, and this collection is a reflection of of the music that was performed in his court. Sometimes the composer isn’t known, and I imagine all the instruments used for the performances are recreations of original instruments. When I was playing it in the background the other night, Tamiko asked if it was music from India, and sure enough once she said that I could hear the influences very clearly (not that this was music that was influence by the subcontinent in the 1200s, but that they must have some common ancestor, probably from the Middle East??? I really don’t know but am guessing). I also thought the Portland group ‘3 Leg Torso’ must get quite a bit from this kind of music. The instruments are more nasal string instruments and buzzy winds, and often have some thumpy drums as accompaniment.

Obviously, we have absolutely NO way to know exactly what this music sounded like, and I imagine there are a number of levels of translation between the written notation that does exist and what the performers on the disc are used to perform from. But I also imagine that with some practice and informed knowledge, these players are presenting (with modern fingers for modern ears) what we probably think the music may have sounded like. But I don’t think there is a belief on anyone’s part that what we are hearing is exactly what Alfonso the Wise would have been hearing. The musicians are creating now from a set of instructions what they can produce. They have direction, and need to shape what they can from the materials that they have. And once I find that I can accept what these ideas, I of course see that, really, this is what all music is. Richard’s work from the past couple weeks, when someone plays Beethoven, when someone uses a recording of a Stockhausen piece as part of their research into how to perform something or when a garage band gets together and starts off playing ‘Louie Louie’. What a great tradition to be part of… no?

So the rest of tonight’s rips are in this mode… music so old that we can’t even ask someone with connections of a couple generations back to its performance what they heard. Not that it would really matter… ask me what a concert a week ago sounded like, then ask someone else at the same concert and I think you would get two different takes on the performance, but when we are dealing with music that is 500 years old, I doubt we can find anyone around who can say ‘ah, yes, my grandfather heard that performed at the premiere and this is what he said it sounded like’ (this being a phrase that is not out of the question for Stravinsky or Debussy). The other discs are Anonymous 4’s ‘1000: A Mass for the End of Time’ (or the music that would have been around when people were worrying about the y1k bug, ‘La Bele Marie: Songs to the Virgin from 13th-century France’. Fretwork’s disc of Ottaviano dei Petrucci’s “Harmonice Musices Odhecaton” and Ensemble Organum’s ‘Le Chant des Templiers XIIè siècle : Manuscrit du Saint-Sépu’.

Pretty amazing that I can simply grab a disc with 0s and 1s on it and hear music performed that has over a 1000 years of history. I can only imagine what will happen by the year 3000.

Tags: Anonymous 4, Dufay Collective, Ensemble Organum, Fretwork
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Day 81. The Sugarcubes, The Cardigans and Frente!.

Posted on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 9:44 pm in Rock / Pop by josh

Tonight’s rips were The Cardigans, Sugarcubes and Frente (or – somehow I randomly pulled out my favorite girl-fronted bands from the late 80s and early 90s). And actually, I can kind of chart a course through these CDs from high school (The Sugarcubes) into my last year at Tower in Sacramento (Frente) into my years in Berkeley (The Cardigans). Of the CDs I’m ripping tonight, the Frente album has probably not quite stood the test of time as well as the others, but the more acoustic hits on the disc (“Labour of Love” and their WONDERFUL cover of “Bizarre Love Triangle”) are great. But when I listened to the rest of the album recently, I was much more lukewarm about it. The Cardigans have pretty much shown up on my mix discs or stereo pretty regularly since I first heard them. While the cover of ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ on Frente’s album is basically genius, the Cardigan’s cover of ‘Iron Man’ is on equal footing. What great covers of great songs.

The first Sugarcubes album though is still a favorite of mine. I first heard it with my friend Josh from high school (though I had heard “Birthday” before), and was even more impressed with the rest of the album. Unlike the quirkiness that Bjork would become in her solo career, the Sugarcubes had a different kind of quirkiness (along with a Johnny Marr like guitar sound, some trumpet and think Icelandic accents singing about sick toys). And what surprises me most (about some of those high school memories) is the fact that I could some how bounce between the Sugarcubes and Ministry and didn’t see anything wrong with that. When the girls get older and I start to prep them for the confusion that is adolescence, that may be one of the examples from mine… “Here is ‘Motorcrash’ by the Sugarcubes… fun, boppy… now, imagine your mood going from this to…” (and I put on ‘Stigmata’ by Ministry) “and believe it or not, you’ll think changes of mood like this are normal!’. Now – I need a couple days usually between switches like that, and I rarely feel the NEED for Ministry. But when I do hear them, for some reason I always lead back to the Sugarcubes and being a teenager… go figure.

Tags: Frente!, The Cardigans, The Sugarcubes
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Day 80. Grateful Dead.

Posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 10:14 pm in Rock / Pop by josh

Today has a stack of Grateful Dead discs (mostly concerts) getting added in to the server. Most of the concert recordings are from the 70s (via Dick’s Picks), a few recordings I downloaded some time ago from archive.org and a few actual album releases. Right now I have ‘History of the Grateful Dead Vol. 1, Bear’s Choice’ on. I don’t many people who would list this among their favorite Dead discs, but I think Bear chose well. The mostly acoustic set reminds me of the early 80s disc ‘Reckoning’, but with even more of a folk feel, but then you also get the bluesy feel of Pigpen singing ‘Hard to Handle’ as well.

Hearing recordings of Pigpen singing is always pretty exciting to me. He passed away before I was born, and a few of his songs were performed by the Dead through the 80s and 90s, but the energy and gravelly sound he gave to the band never really was replaced. Among the live recordings I pulled off tonight there were also a couple of recordings of ‘Turn on Your Love Light’. In the 80s, Bob Weir sings the song and it lasts about 10 minutes and has a good groove, but in the 60s Pigpen sang the song, and tried to find hook-ups for everyone else in the audience. You hear him pointing out people, telling them to check and see if someone else already has someone to go home with that night. He throws some suggestions for what to do in as well. After Pigpen, in spite of the drugs and drunkenness that would be seen at a concert, you rarely had the band telling people to actively start getting it on. For some reason, I think if Pigpen had been with the group into the 80s, I don’t think my parents would have been taking me to Dead shows (though the drugs and drunkenness were not worries for them in the same way???).

I went to LOTS of Dead shows growing up, and now, having the benefit of being able to hear good recordings of shows from before my memory, I can see how much their shows changed after the early 80s. The shows from the 70s really are amazing for the most part. But the shows from the 80s usually have the more expanded ‘Drums and Space’ that I still enjoy quite a bit (and these are also the parts of the show that probably sound the most like my own music at times!). So – I know it all influenced me, and while I can’t see going to concerts now, it sure is fun to listen to old recordings. Thanks to all those people who, for decades, taped and digitized one pretty amazing archive or work!

Tags: Grateful Dead
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Day 79. Bob Weir, James Brown and Eddie Hazel.

Posted on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 at 8:39 pm in Rock / Pop by josh

So after a week of simply an amazing amount of work happening at UW, I decided to take 30 minutes or so tonight to at least get something added to DAC and write a post. Tonight’s additions were Eddie Hazel’s ‘Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs’, James Brown’s ‘Soul On Top’ and Bob Weir’s ‘Ace’.

‘Ace’ is an album I pretty much remember from being a kid, and for all intents and purposes it is really a Grateful Dead record. Many of their concert staples come from this record (most notably ‘Playing In The Band’, but my faves are ‘Greatest Story Ever Told’ and ‘Cassidy’). And like most Grateful Dead studio albums, the studio versions don’t stand up as well as live performances. Not that the album is bad, just that if I want to hear just about any of the songs on it, I’d rather dig up a live show from ’77 then put on ‘Ace’.

While I was familiar with Eddie Hazel and his playing with Parliament, it was during a drive around Tacoma one night with KUPS on (the best thing about UPS is its radio station). They played Eddie’s cover of ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and I think the car slammed to a halt because my jaw dropped onto the brake pedal. SUCH a funky version… and so soulful. I found the recording the next day and was more then pleased to discover the genius of the rest of the disc, including an even more amazing cover of ‘California Dreamin’. These covers are everything that covers should be. The artist makes them their own, and the songs grow because of that ownership. While testing sound this morning I put ‘California Dreamin’ on and was floored again. What an amazing guitarist, and the arrangements (horns and vocals) are great.

‘Soul on Top’ is another great example of what an artist can do with cover songs. The twist here is that in many ways it is James Brown covering some greats (Kurt Weill and Hank Williams) it is also James Brown covering James Brown. The group consists of a big band along with a couple of the standard James Brown contingent, and the results are mixed. The size of the group sometimes makes some of the songs lumber a little, but on ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ and ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag’ the re-arrangement works very well. Not ‘better then the original’ but for these tracks it feels like James Brown re-thinking his music with the new performance forces. And the version of ‘You’re Cheating Heart’ is simply one of the best covers ever done.

Tags: Bob Weir, Eddie Hazel., James Brown.
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Day 78. The Shins and The Decemberists.

Posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at 9:20 pm in Rock / Pop by josh

A bit of music from the aughts tonight… I must say that my discovery of newer music (particularly pop and rock) in the decade took a pretty big hit. I wasn’t working at a record store anymore, I WAS buried neck deep constantly in graduate school, and though the first half of the decade was bad, as CDs disappeared and Celia and Mira showed up, my music shopping became more and more restricted to iTunes and eMusic. Plus – I just wasn’t hearing too much that I found interesting (getting older and set in my ways??? Hell no! But… yeah). There are exceptions of course, and two of those groups were ‘The Decemberists’ (from just south of us) and ‘The Shins’.

‘The Crane Wife’ is a pretty great album. And while I generally stay away from 70s prog-rock, the best parts of that genre found their way into ‘The Crane Wife’. The 12 minute second track (‘The Island’) has moments of ELP keyboard rockin’ that sound simply amazing. And the first three tracks are perfection. And though she doesn’t understand the words, I get a kick that it is one of Celia’s favorite songs (though she will take Kylie over the Decemberists any day). Though I do really like this album (and their first few as well), I was surprised that I didn’t jump and buy their latest once it came out. I actually was turned off a little bit by the uber-NPR promotion of ‘the next great’ concept album by the baroque rockers. It’s over-seriousness was a little too much for me. At some point though I really should pick it up. I imagine I’ll love it if it does pick up where ‘The Crane Wife’ leaves off.

The Shins on the other hand have really held my interest, and when ‘Wincing The Night Away’ came out, I DID get it the same day. And though there was a wave of fan disappointment over ‘the new sound’, it caught my ear right away. And part of what I really like about The Shins is that there is progression among all three of their albums. The mostly acoustic sound on the first one was a winning formula, but by the second one things have changed a bit. Still quite melodic, but also more electric and pop-y on one hand (‘Girl Inform Me’ is one of the best songs of the aughts in my opinion) and even more acoustic songwriter on the other (‘New Slang’ which, in spite of its cheesy usage in ‘Garden State’ really IS a great song). Then ‘Wincing The Night Away’ starts with synthesizers and vocals with effects… quite the surprise, but a wonderful one. I was sold on it about halfway through the first song, and thought the album was definitely a great step forward. It’s been about 3 years since its release, and I can’t wait for the next one.

Tags: The Decemeberists, The Shins
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Day 77. Isaac Stern.

Posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 9:44 pm in Classical, DAC Project by josh

Started to dig into the historical recordings I rediscovered a few weeks back finally, starting with the 6 discs of early concerto recordings with Isaac Stern on Columbia. Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven (the standards) with Bernstein, Sibelius and Ravel’s ‘Tzigane’ thrown in as well. These are all older mono recordings, and the violin tends to stand out quite a bit from the rest of the orchestra. Usually this would bother me, but it is part of the recording style from the period. And in this case it works out nicely… I have good recordings of all these pieces, but none of them are from a young Isaac Stern. The tone of his violin is a bit gritty, but it is hard to tell how much of that is the recording technology of the day or if it is extra sticky rosin on his bow. The Sibelius and the Ravel recordings stand out for me. ‘Tzigane’ is ALL about technique, and it is on brilliant display here. The piece feels fresh in this recording (not quite a show piece yet… still a very challenging work for the performer). And the Sibelius (with some of its darker tones, especially in the third movement) sounds great on the older recording. Plus – violinists just don’t play like this anymore… lots of fun.

In other news about the project, I just filled up the 250 GB drive that I started off with, and picked up a new TB drive to become the main drive. It was yesterday, when both drive were plugged in and I started to make the new backup (the backup is now the main drive) that I noticed something a little startling. The data transfer was SSSSSSSLLLLLOOOWWWW. Really slow. Just remembered that the old PowerBook must have USB 1 ports, and compared to the old Firewire drive data transfer is much worse. I plugged the two drives into my current laptop (with USB 2) for the initial transfer. This took about two hours (compared to the 7 days I estimate the PowerBook would have taken). I imagine these are the two drives I will end up with for some time now, and that the next component to go will be the old PowerBook. I’m actually amazed the thing is still ticking (going on 8 years now with a broken monitor and the original 1 GB of RAM in it!).

Tags: Isaac Stern, Ravel, Sibelius
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Day 86. John Coltrane.

Day 85. U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and The Clash.

Day 84. Mozart.

Day 83. Corelli.

Day 82. Anonymous 4, Dufay Collective, Ensemble Organum and Fretwork.

Day 81. The Sugarcubes, The Cardigans and Frente!.

Day 80. Grateful Dead.

Day 79. Bob Weir, James Brown and Eddie Hazel.

Day 78. The Shins and The Decemberists.

Day 77. Isaac Stern.

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