July 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »
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I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix)
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Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Original Demo)
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I Can’t Help It (Tangoterje Remix)
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Rock With You (House Remix)
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They Don’t Care About Us (DJ Lt. Dan Remix)
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Don’t get me wrong. I had only a grain-of-sand sized belief that Michael Jackson would ever be relevant to my life again, at least from a musical perspective. Certainly, the tabloid drama that was his life continues to enthrall, but it never overshadowed the breathtaking catalog of recordings that he drove into creation.
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Published in Music, R.I.P. |
April 13th, 2009 | No Comments »
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You Make Me Feel So Young
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All Of Me (Instrumental)
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Angel Eyes
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Album: Sinatra At The Sands (1966)
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It’s been awhile since I’ve spotlighted my collection of recorded live albums, so I’ve dug up a killer LP from the legendary Frank Sinatra. As if that wasn’t enough of a draw, he’s accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, with songs arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. Wow, that’s a lot of talent in one room.
Recorded in early 1966 at Las Vegas’s Sands Hotel (Sinatra had an ownership stake in the Sands until Howard Hughes bought it a year later), this was Sinatra’s first live album. Sinatra, Basie, and Jones had previously collaborated on the studio album, It Might As Well Be Swing, which produced the huge hit, “Fly Me To The Moon.
As you can imagine, Sinatra in Vegas was a huge event, and the packed crowd is ecstatic. As expressed by Stan Cornyn in the liner notes for Sinatra At The Sands, “Two thousand knees with nowhere to go.”
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Published in Music, Sorta Live |
March 15th, 2009 | No Comments »
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MF DOOM
Rhymes Like Dimes (Edit)
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Album: Operation: Doomsday (1999)
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Quincy Jones (w/James Ingram)
One Hundred Ways
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Album: The Dude (1981)
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MF DOOM may be my favorite rapper at this point in time. He is one of the best rhymers in the game, and the combination of his cryptic lyrics and hoarse voice makes him stand out from other MCs.
Formerly known as Zev Love X, MF DOOM first came on the scene as part of 90s underground hip hop group KMD, until the group came to an untimely end after his partner Subroc died tragically in a car accident.
Many years after KMD fell off my radar, I started hearing tracks from MF DOOM with no clue that he was Zev Love X reborn. Me being an obsessive sort, I started looking into this talented rapper/producer only to be confused by all the different names he recorded under. Was he MF DOOM? Viktor Vaughn? King Geedorah? It didn’t really matter, all incarnations were dope. (And big up to Wikipedia for helping me sort through all of MF DOOM‘s personas.)
One of the recordings I picked up was, Live From Planet X, a ferocious live set from 2005 that included a selection I hadn’t heard yet, “Rhymes Like Dimes.” As usual, MF DOOM’s rhymes and phrasing were amazing (e.g. “Classical slapstick, rappers need chapstick”), but what really got me pumped were the snaky keys. Where did I hear them before?
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Published in Music, Musical Cousins |
January 31st, 2009 | No Comments »
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Summer In The City
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Manteca
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“Sanford & Son” Theme
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Chump Change
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Album: You’ve Got It Bad Girl (1973)
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To mark the one month anniversary of gBlog, I’ve got a new feature that I hope you will enjoy: LP Classics, a tribute to the best records in my collection. The rules: each selection must have a few 4- and 5-star classics, and it can’t be a compilation or live album.
I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more auspicious debut for this feature than the LP I selected: Quincy Jones’s You’ve Got It Bad Girl. Released in 1973, it’s rarely mentioned among Q’s triumphs, but I’ve played and enjoyed this record countless times. I found it at a San Francisco sidewalk sale for $2, a deal that still makes me smile some 15 years later.
As you can see from the tags I assigned to this post, Quincy showcases his eclectic tastes on this LP. A few tracks originate from movies or TV shows, others are creative interpretations of other artists’ songs, and the liner notes detail several legendary session players providing support throughout the album.
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Published in LP Classics, Music |
