What CD are you listening to right now?

[DifferentLee]

Gabrieli Processional and Ceremonial Music on Vanguard SACD.

[Race Car Driver]

Umm... the menu song for the movie RAD on SVCD... :lol:
I think its called break the ice...

[Burke Strickland]

JS Bach - Goldberg Variations - Murray Perahia

EXCELLENT choice!!!! Outstanding musicianship -- Perahia's mastery of the piano puts his "Goldberg" in the top ranks, and the recording is superb -- a "must have" for fans of classical music.

For a colorful change of pace with this music, you might also enjoy hearing it played on a different instrument -- the harpsichord. Richard Eggar’s recording, which I am listening to right now, is available from Harmonia Mundi. The sound is exquisite and Eggar is an incredibly talented player, as well.

Burke

[Burke Strickland]

Gabrieli Processional and Ceremonial Music on Vanguard SACD

I've been looking for a surround SACD of Gabrieli's antiphonal music for some time now. It seems to me that his mutiple choirs and instrumental ensembles placed around the hall are what surround sound was made for. Unfortunately all I've found is two channel SACDs of his work, which kind of misses the point.

I usually prefer two channel music recordings if the alternative is having the instruments scattered around the sound stage, (with ambiance in the surrounds OK, but not instruments that wouldn't be there in a live performance). But in Gabrieli's case, that's the way he wrote it and intended for it to be performed.

So the big question: Does this recording make use of the entire surround space or is the antiphonal nature of the music limited to back-and-forth between the two main front channels?

Burke

[Bluespower]

Otis Spann... "I am the Blues". Very tasty.

[David Meek]

Fourth Estate's Finesse & Fury - a recommendation from Chris D. :T

[Chris D]

Soooooooooooooooooo, David, you like?

[David Meek]

I DEFINITELY like! :dancenana:

[Chris D]

Yeah, last week I placed an order for other Fourth Estate albums and the lead guitarist's (David Beegle) solo albums. Just got a message today that they shipped, so I'll let you know here in a week or so how they turn out.

[r100gs]

Michael Lington, "Stay with ME". Clean sax sound. Diffently can be classifed as smooth jazz.

[gd]

Mahler's 1st Symphony...

Next up, Tool's new one... :twisted:

[RenoReno2]

Stone Temple Pilots on DVD-audio

[Chris D]

I didn't know STP was on DVD-A. Which album?

[DifferentLee]

Keb Mo Peace...Back by Popular Demand.

Great performance and sonics.

[Ovation]

Chopin Polonaises--Maurizio Pollini SACD

[JKalman]

Wish You Were Here (remaster), Pink Floyd

[r100gs]

Wish You Were Here (remaster), Pink Floyd

That one is on my shopping list. ;x(

[JKalman]

That one is on my shopping list. ;x(

Definitely worth owning. Now I'm listening to Grateful Dead Reckoning, one of my all time favorites. Makes me miss Dead tour.

"Now the race is on and here comes Pride in the backstretch..."

[DifferentLee]

Gerry Mulligan MoFi SACD. The man is in the living room.

[DifferentLee]

So the big question: Does this recording make use of the entire surround space or is the antiphonal nature of the music limited to back-and-forth between the two main front channels?

Burke,

I only have a 2 channel SCD-777ES SACD player and 2 channels to listen back on. I'm building a home theater with surround but it will be finished in July.

[RenoReno2]

I didn't know STP was on DVD-A. Which album?

Core

[r100gs]

Lee Ritenour, "Wes Bound", Still sounding great to my ears.

[Burke Strickland]

Philip Pickett: "Alchemist" -- another magical classical CD with great sound on the Linn Records label.

Nearly an hour of music from as early as 1250 ("The King is Dead") to as recently as 1988 (Du Prez' "Celtic Dawn") superbly played on recorders, crumhorns, curtals, racketts, shawms, pan pipes, sackbut, cornett, natural trumpet, lute, baroque cello, medieval fiddle, baroque violin, curtal, gittern, cornamusen and organ, plus human voices on a few selections. Although an eclectic collection of numbers from many different time periods, it works.

I first heard it on a local classical radio station a while back and was only recently successful finding it - special order from overseas via Joel's Classical Shop here in Houston. (I swear they can locate anything classical that's ever been on disc.) But it was worth their effort and my wait. Very enjoyable.

Burke

[REOFan]

"Stealing the Devil's Guitar" by Popa Chubby
"Have A Nice Decade," a '70s compilation from Rhino (1998) - all the songs I remember hearing on WLS, Chicago when I was a teenager
"Survivor " by Randy Bachman
"Icon" by John Wetton and Jeffry Downes

[KeithM]

I think I'm the only one, but Educated Horses by Rob Zombie. Very different than past Zombie.

[David Meek]

Gino Vannelli's Brother To Brother

[BTB]

"Nightfall" by Charlie Haden & John Taylor on the Naim label... incredible recording quality, mostly moody jazz pieces feat. only piano and upright bass, also "Le voyage de Sahar" by Anouar Brahem on ECM, a near "spiritual" experience.

[David Meek]

Moody jazz? Okay, I'm there. I get tired of the "light" jazz that seems so prevalent and I'm not a real big fan of old-style like New Orleans. Gotta check it out. Thanks.

[BTB]

I get tired of the "light" jazz that seems so prevalent.

Me too... too much "style", too little substance! If you're feeling in a bit of a "dark" mood, you might check out "Suspended Night" by Tomasz Stanko also on ECM, that's pretty gloomy in places (indeed the words "ink black" come to mind), unless a trumpet led quartet is not your bag.

Funny, my wife and I had an extended listening session last night. Maybe because the weather here (in Cape Town) has been so bad for the past couple of days our selection was pretty downtempo (read : darker) ...David, not sure if your tastes extend beyond jazz, but two other suggestions I could make based on last night's listening would be "Medulla" by Bjork... maybe you've heard it already and love/hate it (I don't think that this is a disc you can be neutral about!), quite a "Gothic" effort, with towering massed voices (or solo's) which are quite spine chilling at times. In fact the entire disc features only sounds created by human voices (incl. some absolutely freaky "grunts" by an Inuit throat singer). If you know Bjork's voice/style and find it a bit taxing... AVOID! But by any standard this is not meaningless "background" music.

Another would be an album called "O" by Damien Rice... a "raw nerve" acoustic set in what could loosely be described as a "folk" style... guitars, cello's, voices... pretty emotionally charged stuff and a better than decent recording if slightly over damped and a bit dry (or maybe that's just my hi fi's contribution ), but moving nonetheless!

[r100gs]

The Rippingtons "20th Anniversary", Well done! Great music and another well recorded cd by these guys.

[r100gs]

As you can tell I bought some cd's today. First time I've bought something from Nick Colionne. "Keepin it Cool". I've been missing out. Nice guitar!

[Race Car Driver]

Last night I picked up Michael Jackson Thriller on SACD, just popped it in and it sounds even better!

Sorry, one of my favorite discs.

[Chris D]

Phil Driscoll's "I Exalt Thee". For those who don't know, he's a famous trumpet player and singer. He has a solo on this CD, on "Hosanna Holy Holy" that brings me to tears every time. Unbelievable.

[bigburner]

Teddy Thompson's "Separate Ways".

[gimpy]

Chris Botti's "To Love Again". I was pleasantly surprised by this cd.

Frank

[Burke Strickland]

Jimi Hendrix "Electric Ladyland" still sounds fresh and exciting after all these years. Although "Foxy Lady", "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "Are You Experienced" and a number of other songs made another of his albums the one to listen to over and over most often, "All Along The Watchtower" on this album is JH's performance masterpiece. (Even the song's author, Bob Dylan, agrees it is the best-ever rendition of the song.)

Burke

[dynamowhum]

Best of Beethoven Volume 1

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, op. 55 "Erocia" and Syphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 " Pastorale" by Madacy entertainment group. Enjoyed it very much but I must say I am no audiophile.
Blue Oyster Cult " super hits".
" Best of Ricky Nelson" good songs very sub par recording.

[r100gs]

Chris Botti's "To Love Again". I was pleasantly surprised by this cd.

Frank

Check out "A 1000 kisses deep".

[bigburner]

Although "Foxy Lady", "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "Are You Experienced" and a number of other songs made another of his albums the one to listen to over and over most often, "All Along The Watchtower" on this album is JH's performance masterpiece.
Burke

Burke, I agree, although "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" on the same album comes a pretty close second, or perhaps it comes third after "Red House" at Woodstock, or...

I watched the "Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock (2005)" DVD last weekend. Just wonderful.

Nigel.

[AptosJeff]

Bebo Valdes, Bebo de Cuba, Latin jazz.
Used to get this stuff on the XM Luna channel, but they dropped it. Really too bad. Anybody know an free internet radio site with latin jazz? Pandora.com is great, thanks to Martyn in the 'Expanding my taste in music' thread.

[Bluespower]

Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly". Just scored a copy in DVD-A.

[Burke Strickland]

Mari Kodama playing Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonatas No. 21 "Waldstein", No. 23 "Appassionata" and No. 26 "Les adieux" on a Pentatone classics Hybrid Multichannel SACD. Since I am playing it on my computer (via my HT sound system) as a test of system connectivity, I am listeing to the CD layer. The test could have taken 5 minutes, but her playing is so engaging, I've let the whole album play (and it saves walking over to the SACD player to start it up again). :>)

Burke

[bigburner]

Hendrix In The West. My goodness this is a good album.

[philly boy]

Bob Dylan's "Modern Times" Very good, even the reviewers agree.

[PewterTA]

Audioslave - Revelations. Well I've been listening to it over the last week. Pretty well produced in my opinion.