45. NIKHIL BANERJEE - Live at De Kosmos Complete recording of a 1972 concert from Amsterdam. This is one of the first CDs of Indian music I ever got, and I return to it frequently. The first raga "Manomanjari" is a raga created by Banerjee (the overwhelming majority of ragas are anonymous compositions, so this is a bit of a rarity.) The 2nd raga though, "Sindhu Khamaj" is one of the most fun performances I've ever heard. Nikhil is absolutely on fire. He makes some of the coolest runs I've ever heard on the instrument. Great stuff.
Well, I haven't made it to the "J" section yet, but I will go ahead and let you know, there will be no Michael Jackson.
46. NIKHIL BANERJEE - India's Maestro of Melody: Live Concert Volume 5 Recording of a concert from San Francisco on September 18, 1976. It features two ragas you don't hear everyday: "Sindhura" and "Bhoop-Kalyan." Tabla is played by Zakir Hussain, the one tabla player many westerners have probably heard of. He played in Shakti with John McGlaughlin and in Mickey Hart's Planet Drum group.
47. NIKHIL BANERJEE - The Genius of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee Live concert recording from London. 78 minute rendition of raga Puria Dhanashree. The alap on this one is long (38 minutes). I like a long alap. Great way to chill out. (btw...the end of the Banerjee CDs is nigh.)
48. NIKHIL BANERJEE - Immortal Sitar of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee The only studio album I own by him, and it's fantastic. It's a shame he didn't record more, because he really laid it down on this one. Three ragas included here: Purabi Kalyan Zila-Kafi Kirwani The Zila-Kafi is otherworldly. One of my favorite sitar recordings. Not that you can't help but notice, but check out the outfit he's sporting there. Very cool...or something. ...and this brings the Nikhil Banerjee portion of our program to a close.
49. DEVENDRA BANHART - The Black Babies MeridianFC got me into Devendra Banhart via the BigSoccer Mix CD club. This short 8 song disc is pretty scratchy and lo-fi. I think it was when the guy was still recording himself of shoddy 4-track recorders and then somebody snapped 'em up and put 'em out. I imagine his music is a love it or hate it kind of thing, but I dig it.
50. DEVENDRA BANHART - Rejoicing in the Hands Well, they finally went and got the guy some proper recording equipment and someone else to sit around with him and push the record button. Much cleaner recording and much better in my opinion. I like really lo-fi, but it's ridiculous to keep putting that kind of stuff out if someone will pay for the real deal. He's got another album or two out, and I'd like to pick them up at some point. Basically this is a bunch of quirky songs with acoustic guitar and voice only on most of them. Every now and then, they throw in some percussion or a cello. Good stuff, but different.
51. BUJU BANTON - 'Til Shiloh Once again, another thanks must be given to Mad Bishop for turning my ears to Buju Banton. Buju does a kind of rap/reggae hybrid that's pretty intense and equally awesome. It took a little while to grow on me, but I've been wearing this thing out lately.
52. BAOBAB (CASACAIS) - Roots and Fruit Senegalese band that was a remnant of Orchestra Baobab. Still featured guitarist Barthelemy Attisso and sax player Issa Cissokho. A few other originals appear on some tracks. The first half of the album is really solid, and then the record company just threw some junk filler on it to fill up 80 minutes. I HATE when they do that. They made a five star album a four or three star album by adding all of that garbage. Good stuff on the first half. Laid back, great guitar and sax solos. Orchestra Baobab material is much better, but this is still worth owning for the first half of the record. I love the tagline of the album: Reminiscin' in tempo. African dancefloor classics.
53. SAMUEL BARBER - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andre Previn. Gil Shaham is the violin soloist. complete list of works on this CD: Samuel Barber - Concerto for Violin & Orchestra Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Concerto for Violin & Orchestra [*]Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Much Ado About Nothing Best performance of the Barber concerto I've ever heard, and I've heard about half a dozen versions. The Korngold concerto is great too. I can take or leave "Much Ado About Nothing" though.
54. SAMUEL BARBER - Orchestral Works, Volume 1 Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop Works included: The School for Scandal Overture Symphony no. 1 First Essay for Orchestra Symphony no. 2 Barber (1910-1981) is an underrated composer in my opinion and one few Americans know outside of Adagio for Strings and his Violin Concerto. It's a shame, these are two excellent symphonies and he also wrote some great choral music as well as solid concertos for piano and for cello.
What's great about following your A-Z while I'm doing mine is that we may have very few CDs in common. BTW - I'm almost done with the letter G, then Hall and Oates and George Harrison.
First of all, let me say I'm glad somebody's following along. It's truly incredible just how much music is out there. A friend of mine had brought her new boyfriend to my birthday party last year, and he was looking at my collection and said something to the effect of, "Over 1,000 CDs and I don't own any of it, and haven't heard of half of it." I'm a long way from the letter G. I'm probably 75 CDs away from the letter C!
55. SAMUEL BARBER - Orchestral Works, Volume 2 Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop. Works included: Cello Concerto Medea Ballet Suite Adagio for Strings
56. SAMUEL BARBER - Cello Concerto Cello soloist is Yo-Yo Ma. Performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman conducting. Works included: Samuel Barber: Concerto for Cello & Orchestra Benjamin Britten: Symphony for Cello & Orchestra
Just check out my sig. I'm not nearly as ambitious as nico in creating an entire thread devoted to it.
57. ANTHRAX - State of Euphoria (made a few purchases on vacation, so we will have two out of alpha order here just to get back on track.) The album that got me into metal. I first heard it in 7th or 8th grade (thanks James.) I remember this guy loaning me a tape of this album and being blown away. When I got into hippie rock in college, I ditched most of my metal CDs, but wish I hadn't. I'm going back now and rebuilding the metal collection (I'm sure much to my wife's general annoyance.)
58. BUJU BANTON - Friends for Life (we'll be back to alpha order after this one.) Man, this CD is just not nearly as good as 'Til Shiloh. This sounds like one of those efforts to break a good Caribbean artist in the US by overproducing and "Americanizing" it. There are a handful of really good songs on it, but it is SO WEAK compared to the other material I've heard by him. It's a really mixed bag and it's stylistically all over the place. Quite a disappointment.
59. BELA BARTOK - Concerto For Orchestra Works included: Concerto for Orchestra Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Hungarian Sketches Performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Fritz Reiner. These are some early stereophonic recordings (made in 1955 and 1958.) Early enough in the history of stereophonic sound to where that is heavily advertised on the packaging. Even more incredible, is the fact that they sound like they could've been recorded this year. The technicians must've been amazing on these RCA Living Stereo recordings. Great recordings and performances of some of Bartok's finest works.
60. BELA BARTOK - Concerto for Viola and Orchestra Works included: Bela Bartok: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra Peter Eotvos: Replica Gyorgy Kurtag: Movement for Viola and Orchestra Viola soloist: Kim Kashkashian Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Eotvos Kashkashian is probably the only thing in the world close to a "famous" violist. It's usually a pretty anonymous instrument and not a lot of music has been written for it. This disc collects three works written in the 20th Century (two of the composers are still living.) ECM puts out another great disc.
61. BELA BARTOK - Viola Concerto Works included: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (revised and edited by Peter Bartok) Two Pictures Concerto for Viola and Orchestra (completed by Tibor Serly) Tibor Serly: Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra Viola soloist: Hong-Mei Xiao Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Janos Kovacs Two versions of the same work. I believe Bartok died before it was completed, so there's been a few different version of it by those close to him to complete the work. Two versions are included here along with some other minor works. I like the Peter Bartok version better than the Serly version.
62. BELA BARTOK - Solo Piano Works This closes out the Bela Bartok portion of our show. However, it's going to take a while to plow through as it is a 4-CD set. I think four CDs of 20th century solo piano music from Hungary would be the ultimate torture device on AFL. Performed by Gyorgy Sandor. Disc I For Children The First Term at the Piano Disc II Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs Three Hungarian Folk Songs Three Hungarian Folk Tunes Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs Three Rondos on Folk Tunes Romanian Christmas Carols Romanian Folk Dances Two Romanian Dances Suite For Piano Andante Disc III Sonata Sonatine Fourteen Bagatelles Four Dirges Petite Suite Songs and Dances Ten Easy Pieces Disc IV Allegro Barbaro Out of Doors Seven Sketches Two Elegies Three Burlesques Nine Little Piano Pieces Studies