Music I have Loved
- Moving Pictures by Rush is surely a candidate for "Greatest album in the history of rock." Signature songs like Tom Sawyer and YYZ are well known, but my favorite is "The Camera Eye." Minor and major, melancholy and exuberant, serene and intense.
- Live at Budokan by Dream Theater is surely a candidate for "Most talented performance in the history of rock." The solos in "This Present Life" bring my brain cells to a boil.
- One by Neal Morse is a masterpiece of progressive rock, combining rock opera and scintillating percussion with a deep spiritual theme.
- Meet the Flower Kings is a flawless live performance combining the intensity of rock, the complexity of jazz and the soulfulness of blues
- Deadwing by Porcupine Tree is the perfect companion for the long dark night of the soul. Virtuosity, texture and force.
- Graceland by Paul Simon is one of the greatest pop albums ever, with memorable tunes, superb musicianship and rich harmonies of South Africa.
- Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by the English Concert is one of the best classical performances of any kind and certainly the best rendition of Vivaldi I’ve ever heard.
- Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos 1-3 by the English Concert is a superb recording and like the Four Seasons is perfectly paced and finely layered.
- A Soulful Celebration by Quincy Jones- It’s a black version of Handel’s Messiah and it ROCKS. Everybody oughtta have a favorite Christmas album and this is mine. Take 6, Stevie Wonder and a host of other superstars under one roof.
- Back on the Block by Quincy Jones – Nobody but Quincy could pull of an album like this. With Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Joe Zawinul, Take 6, Chaka Khan, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and more, this is a superb arrangement of jazz, bebop, hip hop, R&B, rap and pop all rolled into one.
- A Liturgy, a Legacy, a Ragamuffin Band by Rich Mullins – Mullins passed away shortly after making this album and it’s both musically and lyrically deep, with conviction that goes all the way to the soul.
- Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris is haunting and melodic, soft and jagged at the same time. A country singer from my parent’s generation keeps up with GenX just fine – and she rocks too. "All my tears" gives me goose bumps every time.
- Time by ELO is one of the first albums I ever loved. Music, love lost and science fiction collide in this refined theme album.
- The Desert Speaks by Yosefa – East meets West in this album of Israeli pop. Listening to this caused parts of my brain that had never met each other to suddenly be introduced.
- Kind of Blue by Miles Davis – is this the most popular jazz album of all time? It deserves to be. 100% improvised on a Tuesday afternoon in the late 1950’s, it still puts me in a mood all its own.
- SMPTe – the Roine Stolt Mixes by Transatlantic – a challenging blend of progressive rock a la Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer mixed with Beatles influence. I love the 30 minute epic "All of the Above," and who could forget "We all need some light"?
- The Nightfly by Donald Fagen is one of the most polished pop/jazz albums in print.
- The Live Concert by Don Francisco is almost hopelessly obscure but one of the finest live performances I’ve ever heard. "Too Small a Price" brings the house down.
- Matters of the Heart by Bob Bennett is similarly obscure (I bought it directly from the artist himself) but worth hunting for. Try iTunes. Bob may be the best lyricist in Christian music.
- Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 2 by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had everybody who was anybody in country music at the time it was recorded, including Johnny Cash, John Denver and Roy Acuff. Fabulous tunes.
- Time and Tide by Basia has got to be the best produced pop album in my collection. Beautiful voice, arrangements and recording.
- Hecho a Mano by Chano Dominguez – I heard these guys at the Chicago Jazz festival and just had to get this album. I listen to it more than almost any other jazz album I’ve got.
- Women of the World: Celtic by Putumayo – if a compilation like this can make a list like this, it’s got to be good, and good it is. So cohesive it could almost be by a single artist.
- Njalo by Pure Magic – Laura brought this home for me from South Africa and it just inspires me every time I listen to it. Life in Africa is hard but the soul shines through loud and clear.
It's always fun to find someone else who's musical taste is broad and eclectic. Off to check out some of your recommendations.
Very interesting list. I might have to check out a few of these. I'm intrigued by the Pure Magic album. Have always had a hard time with Jazz for some reason. Maybe I should start with______??? Love the Rush, Donald Fagan. You're also heavy on the Live performances – they have to be something special for me to appreciate. Even in my Grateful Dead days I still prefered the studio recordings over the live tapes. Who wrote the track "Wrecking Ball"? Neil Young does an excellent version on Harvest Moon I think.
I generally prefer studio to live too. A live band has to be truly exceptional. But there are those exceptions. I remember this bass player I used to know, he said the tightest band he ever saw was the Dixie Dregs. I'd never heard of 'em. Well I've got a couple of their albums now and their keyboard player was Jordan Rudess. Who is now the KB player for Dream Theater.
DT pulls off the tightest live show I've ever seen. Three hours of fabulously sophisticated arrangements played to absolute perfection. Rush is a close 2nd but DT is even more ambitious than they are. The "Live at Budokan" DVD has moments that are almost beyond belief. In those examples the live performance has an intensity that few experiences ever match. Oh, and Neal Morse is in the same talent category. (Not only that, he performs Christian music – and a lot of Xian stuff is usually so lame it makes me wanna puke.)
Yeah, if you can ever catch any one of those bands live it is quite an experience.
If you like the Dregs, you'll like the Steve Morse Band as well or better. He wrote and produced almost everything for the Dregs, and his namesake band is generally more mature. The unbelievable chops are front and center but the compositional consistency and melodicism are fuller. He's not afraid to develop a sweet and slow melody, he doesn't usually dazzle for its own sake. But he melts eyeballs with his speed and controlled power when appropriate. The "Live in New York" CD is very satisfying. Morse plays solo classical guitar including Bach's Jesu, acoustic and electric duets with his bass player, and with a trio. He jokes to the audience about how "this new format, you know, the duets, hasn't caught on just yet", but some of us will take as much as we can get.