Miles Davis - Amandla (1989)

Not my favorite Miles album, but there's still some interesting stuff going on. The album was mainly co-produced by Tommy LiPuma & Marcus Miller and while I definitely hear Miller's influence, I can't tell if LiPuma had much input at all. In the late '80s, R&B became much more reliant on synths and drum machine and, for me, that move seemed to dehumanize the soul of the music. And while the music on this album isn't R&B, it is heavily influenced with those trends of the time (FWIW, Wikipedia claims that "the album mixes elements of the genres go-go, zouk, funk and jazz" and I had to look up 'zouk.'). The music has tight grooves, brief solos, and the playing is fantastic, but, save for the final tracks, it mostly runs together. Then again, Miles' output in the '80s frustrated many of his fans and that statement would probably bring a wry grin to his face.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "Miles may not be creating the same groundbreaking work that was the hallmark of his first three decades, but that doesn't mean that his current material isn't wholly enjoyable."
• Musician: "those looking for a more natural consolidation of vintage and electric Miles will be pleasantly surprised."
• CashBox: "Miles talks about moving ahead, but he's in a rut."
• DownBeat (★★★★): "I'm glad that Miles remains committed to making music that's modern (or post-modern) - especially when he does it this well."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #177
• Billboard Contemporary Jazz: #1
• CashBox Jazz: #2

Tracks: My favorite track is the title track, followed by Jilli and Mr. Pastorius. In other words, the last half of the disc is better than the first half.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I saw Miles on tour promoting this album (Dallas, June 10, 1990) so I probably heard at least one of these tracks live.

5th row!

Previously revisited for the blog:

At Newport 1958 (2001)	Bitches Brew (1970)
Panthalassa Remixes (1999)	In A Silent Way (1969)
Complete Birth of the Cool (1998)	At Carnegie Hall (1961)
Acoustic (1996)	Sketches of Spain (1960)
Live Around The World (1996)	Kind Of Blue (1959)
The Hot Spot Soundtrack (1990)	Milestones (1958)
Music from Siesta (1987)	'Round About Midnight (1957)
Tutu (1986)

Béla Bartók - Concerto For Orchestra (2004)

Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recorded 1955 & 1958

It's a landmark day here at blog headquarters as we feature our very first Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD). Just so you know what you're getting into, I'm predicting this post will run long and hardly mention Bartók. To begin, here's the lowdown on the SACD format straight from from Sony Corp. and Philips Electronics in the year 2000:

For more (somewhat dated) info: livingstereo-sacd.com

And, of course, the new format demanded a new and improved jewel case, given the name "Super Jewel Box." It was designed to be more durable than the traditional CD jewel case, incorporating such features as rounded corners, stronger hinges, a locking clasp, and thicker material. They are definitely more sturdy, and for what it's worth, I prefer them to the larger cases used for rival surround sound formats such as DVD-Audio.

I inherited this Bartók SACD from my father and when I play one of his CDs, I always wonder how it came into his possession. He didn't have a SACD player, he never spoke of the format, and he never mentioned a love of Bartók or any 20th century classical work. Did he buy it or was it a gift and, if so, from whom? Questions that can no longer be answered but that doesn't keep me from asking them. In any case, SACD players have become quite pricey as the format has waned but I wanted to hear the full range of the disc. After searching for a bit, I discovered that certain older Sony Blu-ray players support the format. A quick trip to eBay and $28 later, I was in possession of a Sony BDP-S570 (with remote!), manufactured in 2010.

And I was in business! Now let's spin this thing.

Recordings of three works by Bartók:

1. Concerto For Orchestra (1945 revision)
2. Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta (1936)
3. Hungarian Sketches (1931)

Although I was using a multiple speaker set-up, I hardly consider myself an audiophile, but the difference in sound is readily apparent to my aged ears. This particular recording of Concerto For Orchestra has been praised since the get-go and rightly so:

Stereo Review, November 1958, p. 81

Everything is crisp and clean - hard to believe this was recorded in the '50s. I've stated before that I'm not wild about the first piece, writing "this is the kind of music which is more fun to analyze than to perform and more fun to perform than to listen to." I will admit that the 4th movement caught my ear this time 'round, though. The Hungarian Sketches were new to me and I greatly enjoyed the brief, folk-like melodies; reminded me a great deal of Liszt.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: See above. Next side quest: Dolby Atmos.

Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye (1996)

CD single

Back in 1996-97 - spurred on by Scott, a close friend since junior high - I went through a dance/disco phase in which I purchased a lot of dance CDs, both full albums and CD singles. I liked Naked Eye so much I bought the Fever In Fever Out CD without batting an eye. To my recollection, none of the other tracks measured up to Naked Eye so that CD wasn't on my shelves for very long. Heck, I probably just gave the thing to Scott. Fast forward a couple of decades and I see this single in the clearance bin and figure it's worth $1.

Billboard single chart peaks:

• Hot 100: #36
• Adult Top 40: #33
• Modern Rock Tracks: #18
• Mainstream Top 40: #24

It didn't place on the dance chart, so I guess it's "officially" more of a rock track than a dance track but that's not how I'll remember it. Come to think of it, maybe that's why I didn't care for the album: it was rock when I was expecting dance. Now that I (re)listen to the tune, it's more of an attempt to blend rock and hip-hop. But it's easy to dance to, nonetheless, and I really dig the chorus hook with its backing vocals and simple but effective arrangement/instrumentation.

Tracks:

1. Radio Edit (4:10)
2. Totally Nude Mix (5:12)
3. Suntan Knee-Hi Mix - Instrumental (4:38)

In this case, the order of play is also my order of preference.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see above

Dave Holland Quartet - Extensions (1990)

I picked up this used disc at the local Half Price Books simply because it was on the ECM label. I also recognized several names on the cover including Holland, Kevin Eubanks, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith, the latter two were playing in The Tonight Show band at the time of this release. This music, however, bears little resemblance to anything that was played during the commercials of Jay Leno's show. The critics liked it (see below), but it's a little too avant-garde for my tastes. I like my ECM releases a bit more...what's the word I'm looking for...atmospheric? relaxed? conjunct? ambient? moody? I'm not saying it's bad - Eubanks, in particular, brings his A game throughout the album - it's just not my bag, man.

Holland - bass
Steve Coleman - Alto Saxophone
Kevin Eubanks - guitar
Marvin "Smitty" Smith - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• DownBeat (★★★★★) : "stretched to the breaking point with engaging sounds"
• Musician: "These guys git it."
• Billboard: "a first-rate all-star session."
• New York Times: "an often brilliant album"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #6

Tracks: My top pick is track 2, Processional, written by Holland.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Selected Recordings :rarum X (2004)

A Donny Hathaway Collection (1990)

As one with any knowledge of Donny Hathaway (1945 - 1979) would expect, this is one of those "all killer no filler" compilations. The disc would be worth seeking out if all that were on it were the duets with Roberta Flack, but we're also treated to other Hathaway classics such as The Ghetto and Giving Up plus some non-singles that took on lives of their own as deep album cuts, including Someday We'll All Be Free and To Be Young, Gifted And Black.

CashBox, June 2, 1990, p. 10

So it's not just me that gets frustrated by poor/lazy packaging decisions. My other complaint about this disc deals with the song sequencing - if you're not going to do chronological order, why start the compilation with three consecutive slow/midtempo songs? I will readily admit, however, that putting the Christmas tune at the end was smart: you can quit the disc early if you're not ready for holiday tunes.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart upon original release in 1990 but continues to chart on occasion around Christmas, peaking at #108 in 2023.

Tracks, including Billboard chart peaks:

Title	Year	R&B	Pop
A Song For You	1971
I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know	1972	20	60
You Were Meant For Me	1978	17
Back Together Again (with Roberta Flack)	1980	8	56
Where Is The Love (with Roberta Flack)	1972	1	5
For All We Know (with Roberta Flack)	1972
Someday We'll All Be Free	1973
Giving Up	1972	21	81
The Closer I Get To You (with Roberta Flack)	1978	1	2
You Are My Heaven (with Roberta Flack)	1980	8	47
What's Goin' On	1972
The Ghetto	1970	23	87
To Be Young, Gifted And Black	1970
You've Got A Friend (with Roberta Flack)	1971	8	29
This Christmas	1970		34

Have mercy! How good is Where Is The Love??? One of the best soft rock tunes of the '70s plus it won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. And I'll admit to welling up today at hearing Someday We'll All Be Free.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Just regret that I didn't pick this up in 1990.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Extension of a Man (1973)

Various Artists - Telarc Sampler, Volume 2 (1984)

If Discogs is to be believed, my disc is a 1986 Digital Audio Disc Corp. pressing.

An early CD sampler that people would buy to show off their new $700 CD player to friends and family (see also Hear The Light On Philips (1984), et. al.). Telarc was well-known for their "pure digital" classical discs, so it makes sense that they would use such samplers as marketing tools. I couldn't find any prices, but I'd wager these sampler discs sold for about half to ⅔ the going rate for CDs at the time.

I recently picked up this copy for 50¢ as a curiosity but it turns out to be a fairly useless disc, even as a sampler. In order to pack more music on the disc, most of the tracks are brief excerpts of works so, for example, after spending 4 minutes building up the first movement of Beethoven's famous Symphony No. 5, it stops just short of the recapitulation, so there's plenty of frustration to go around. There's also a fair share of awkward fade ins/outs. But I guess "leave 'em wantin' more" was the point.

In short, the quality of the recordings here is exceptional, but I would have preferred 10-12 tracks with complete movements instead of 20 brief excerpts.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Classical CD: #8

Tracks:

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When I was a young music major, ca. 1985, we had music history classes in which we had aural quizzes commonly called "drop the needle" tests.  In these tests, the professor would play a brief excerpt - literally dropping the needle in the middle of a vinyl record - and we were expected to identify aspects such as composer, title, era, or specific musical elements such as instrumentation, form, or time signature. If the professor was feeling particularly saucy, we were required to justify our responses. Such requests led to writing bs answers like "the chromaticism in the inner voices, particularly the violas, plus the use of folk melodies lead me to believe this piece was written in the second half of the 19th century, most likely by Tchaikovsky." That's worth an eyeroll, for sure, but that's the kind of superfluous skill that's hard to shake, so now, 40 years later, I find myself going through the same thought process when I hear a classical piece I don't recognize. Anyway, the excerpts on this CD reminded me of such tests.

Various Artists - Blue Movies: Scoring For The Studios (1999)

Blue Movies? Well, not quite. Some of the cuts are not from movies but from TV shows (allegedly) plus the selections are taken not only from Blue Note releases, but other Capitol (now Universal or Warner) acquisitions such as Pacific Jazz, Roulette, and Tower. But these are minor quibbles - how's the music? I can appreciate the effort involved in trying to put together a theme disc, but unfortunately, this CD is not one of the better compilations in the "Blue Series" CDs from the 1990s:

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, with my favorites indicated:

1. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free - Billy Taylor (1968) ✔
2. James Bond Theme - The Leroy Holmes Orchestra (1965)
3. Kojak - Willie Bobo (1977) ✔
4. Bullitt - Wilton Felder (1969)
5. From Russia With Love - Count Basie (1965) ✔
6. The Shadow Of Your Smile - Lou Donaldson (1967)
7. Down Here On The Ground - Grant Green & Dianne Reeves (1996)
8. Blow Up! - Bobby Hutcherson (1990) ✔
9. Star Trek - The Three Sounds (1968)
10. Mission Impossible - Billy May (1967)
11. Alfie's Theme - John Patton (1969)
12. Midnight Cowboy - Lee Morgan (1969)
13. Last Tango In Paris - Marlena Shaw (1973)
14. Moon River - Nancy Wilson (1963)
15. Theme From Love Story - Richard Groove Holmes (1971) ✔
16. Theme From MASH - Bobby Hutcherson (1975)
17. The Windmills Of Your Mind - Bud Shank (1969)

Track 7 has its basis in a live track taken from the 1970 Alive! album by Grant Green. The vocals from Dianne Reeves were later added for the 1996 compilation, The New Groove (The Blue Note Remix Project Volume 1). Track 9 is not the theme from the TV series Star Trek, but instead a Gene Harris original with the same title.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

Blue Bacharach (1999)	Capitol Rare (1999)
Blue Brazil (1999)	Capitol Rare Vol 2 (1999)
Blue Break Beats (1992)	Capitol Rare Vol 3 (1999)
Blue Beat (1991)	Blue Bossa (1991)
Blue Boogie (1999)	Blue Bossa Vol 2 (1999)
Blue Series Sampler (2001)	Midnight Blue (1999)
So Blue So Funky (1994)	Blue 'N' Groovy, Vol 2 (1999)
Blue Valentines (1999)