Super happy with the pressing quality
This has arrived along with other 7 records from recent trip to Istanbul 
Super happy with the pressing quality
This has arrived along with other 7 records from recent trip to Istanbul
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A favourite Violin Concerto has a new champion! Isaac Stern’s Brahms VC has long been certainly among my favourite renditions of that work, but this Sibelius VC may just be the best ‘whole’ performance I’ve heard.
I could probably pick individual movements and certainly particular sections of this Concerto that I’ve heard elsewhere that have moved me more, but it’s rare that the whole 3 movements flow like this. Stern is as technically skilled as any, but he never degenerates into showboating. It’s always in the service of the composition. SQ is extremely good too on this LP.
An £8 buy from Lilley’s in Midsomer Norton, a shop well worth a trip if you are remotely local btw.
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I have been thinking about getting this since it was first released. They had the double vinyl version in HMV today so I resisted no longer.
BTW there is a CD/vinyl sale currently in HMV.
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I didn’t easily get the Giant Sand reissue on Record Store Day that I wanted (“Tucson”, actually Giant Giant Sand) so while I was searching for it I realized that I could simplify things by simply hoovering up every new/reissued vinyl by Giant Sand and Howe Gelb that I could find, that I don’t have yet, and that won’t be in vols. 2 & 3 of the box set from the replied-to post of mine.
Plus the Inner Flame, a reissue of a tribute & benefit to Rainer Ptacek, a fabulous dobro and slide guitar player from Tucson, who was a friend of Howe’s and played on earlier Giant Sand records, and became a friend of Robert Plant’s as well after RP had seen him play once (which Rainer did not do often). Originally released to pay for treatment of Rainer’s brain tumor, to which he sadly succumbed not long after. (During his cancer treatment, Rainer first completely forgot how to play, then re-learned it, but then died. It was such a tragedy)
It’s been already 25 years (makes me feel really old but I still feel hatred for the US health system. Another benefit record had already been necessary in 1993 for Victoria Williams, another Giant Sand collaborator and folk/country singer from Arizona, after being diagnosed with MS)
Part 1; parts 2 and 3 are still in the mail.
Howe:
- The first solo album from 91, Dreaded Brown Recluse. RSD 2019 reissue
- Hisser, the second solo album from 98, recorded at home to 4-track not long after Rainer’s death and during the time when the rhythm section of Giant Sand started to defect and founded Calexico. First time on vinyl for RSD 2021
- 10 year Anniversary reissue of Alegrìas from 2010, older Howe and Giant Sand songs recorded together with a flamenco group, A Band of Gypsies (Raimundo Amador et al.), on a roof in Cordoba
- Gathered and Future Standards, two recent solo albums from 2019 and 2016
Giant Sand: Recounting the Ballads of Thin Line Men, a new release from 2019 and a re-recording/interpretation the second GS album from 1986, Ballad of a Thin Line Man, with the new Giant Sand line-up
Inner Flame: Some of the people on the record are Robert Plant (who also was largely responsible for making the record a reality, together with Howe), Jimmy Page, Emmylou Harris, PJ Harvey, Jonathan Richman, of course many Giant Sand members (Howe Gelb as well as John Convertino and Joey Burns who are also Calexico, and others), John Parish (of Eels among others, and engineer on 150 albums from Tracy Chapman to PJ Harvey), and many others
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Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis, Verve/Analogue Productions (2011)
A bit different in as much as this copy from Discogs only has record one of the 2x45rpm set but it’s my favorite of the two and at only £20 for a mint disc and cover it’s a no brainer.
Widely regarded as being up there with the very best ‘Audiophile’ reissues by George Marino at Sterling Sound and pressed at QRP. I’m not sure if the upcoming Acoustic Sounds reissue later this year will use the same cut or even if it’s a double or single.
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Willie Dixon - I Am The Blues, Columbia (1970)
A difficult one to date as the Columbia icons have been covered up on the labels I suspect due to import issues but it’s a pretty early pressing probably a Canadian 1st press.
Cover is a bit dodgy in places but the vinyl the most important part is listed as VG++ and at just over £11 it represents a bargain if the recording and mastering are good.
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Margaret Price - ‘Mozart Concert Arias’ (1975). Charity shop this afternoon.
Clive Zanda – Is Here With ’Dat Kinda Ting’ (Calypso Jazz Innovations) Cree Records (2017)
Originally a run of just 350 copies where released of this recording in Trinidad and Tobago back in 1975. Over the following years it became much sought after and copies changed hands for as much as £840.
German reissue specialist Cree Records then reissued it in 2017.
That’s why it was half price 
Great record though.
Actually more like a quarter of the prices now being asked
Yes, crazy prices!
Is that the 2LP edition with the remixes. Its v good but I dont think the remixes add much value
Yes, that’s it. I have only listened to the remixes on Apple streaming so far and would agree with you from what I heard. The double vinyl is only 2 or 3 pounds more than the original version, so I thought why not. As well as the gatefold there is leaflet as well, which I don’t think came with the original vinyl. My understanding is that the remix makes use of some of the recording that was done in phase 2 of the production of the original mix - after Hugh Masekela had died - so I don’t expect there is anything on the remix that was deemed essential to the music for the first mix.
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Yes, like you the album had been on my round tooit and I bought the 2LP set for the same reason. Nice album, presentation SQ and pressing.
Enjoy
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I’m usually indifferent to Record Store Day, I think its a bit like the record buyers equivalent to the Grand National.
Anyway, yesterday I was spinning my Analogue Productions Doug Sax mastered copy of Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section asking myself if I need bother with the forthcoming Bernie Grundman cut from the Acoustic Sounds Series.
Browsing tinterweb I discovered that there is a Bernie Grundman AAA Mono cut exclusive to RSD. Ah! Now that might be worth having methinks.
I find Resident in Brighton still have some stock
after driving the cab round in circles ducking and diving parking enforcement, they also have an RSD release/taster of the forthcoming AAA BG cut of Max Roach, Ah! But its clear vinyl, shall I shant I, sod it parking wardens circling like sharks, stick it in the bag!
To be honest, I think there overpriced and the sleeves a bit dissapointing, but what the heck its Bernie Grundman, its all analogue, lifes too short and Brightons parking enforcement too ruthless!
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