Archive for October 31st, 2008

Wayne’s Desert Island Disks

sultan.jpgAll listed are on vinyl (LP), my only format.  However, some of them have been released on CD, which I have not listened to.  Many of these will be available only in used record stores or used online sources.  My listening bias is for live performances as they often are more inspiring than studio recordings, even though the studio recordings often have better sonics.  I think this is true especially on jazz and rock recordings.

JAZZ
Ltd. Ed. German pressing, Enja ENJ-80781
Dave Brubeck Quartet: The Great Concerts…Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Carnegie Hall   Columbia 44215
Miles Davis: Nefertiti   Columbia 9594    and    Sketches of Spain   Columbia 8271
Chico Freeman: The Outside Within    India Navigation 1042
Erroll Garner: Concert by the Sea   Columbia CL883  (wonderful live recording, get the original Mono “6 eye”, the later digitally re-mastered pressing is a sonic tragedy)
Hawkins! Alive! At the Village Gate: Verve V6-8509 – Classic Records
Dick Hyman: From the Age of Swing   Reference RR-59mann.jpg
Ramsey Lewis Trio: At the Bohemian Caverns in Washington DC   Cadet 741  and  Hang on Ramsey!   Cadet 761   (These are early 1960’s live recordings of Ramsey Lewis at his creative best IMHO.  Especially memorable is the cut “Billy Boy” on side 2 of Cadet 761…9+ minutes of marvelous improvisation)
Herbie Mann: Impressions of the Middle East   Atlantic 1475  and Memphis Underground   Atlantic 1522 (these are some of Mann’s best work, I think.  I own a lot of his albums)
Incognito.  Acid jazz at its best.  I own 3 albums, all excellent and I suspect all of Incognito (a British group) releases are comparable.
Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth   Impulse IMP-154   (find the analogue re-mastered release 180 gram)
George Otsuko: “You are my Sunshine”   Three Blind Mice TBM-35   (all the Three Blind Mice jazz recordings that I have heard are wonderful Japanese 180 gram pressings)  I also have Isao Suzuki: Black Orpheus  TBM-63 and Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio: Midnight Sugar  TBM-23.  I think these were also released in CD.

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