CD Recommendations

I just got Greg Mathieson Live at the Baked Potato 2000. The disc was recorded live at the baked Potato in North Hollywood, Ca and was recorded by Robert Bradshaw and mastered by Bernie Grundman. It is a must have and guarenttedd to blow you away musically as well as sonically. Michael Landau, Abe Laboriel and Vinnie Colaitua make up the band and what more can I say...these are the top session guys in LA and the playing is absolutly incredible. The disc might be difficult to find. I purchased mine from audiophileimports.com Let me know what you think...BTW it sounds great on my Lev 331.

Here are a couple of gems I haven't seen recommended before: Jai Uttal "Footprints" and John Huling's "Spiritlands - Musical Visions from the Southwest". If you want something a little more funky -- kind of new age goes inner city -- try Patrick O'hearn's "Mix-up" (if you don't already have it). Don

Daniel, in the spirit of sharing ideas and being true to my own belief system, as concerns what I feel is great music; I would like to respectfully suggest that rather than trying to find listening satisfaction in new examples of music in your mentioned preferred genres, that you reevaluate those genres instead. Please forgive me if I sound overly opinionated, but IMO someone with 750 cd's that sometimes feels that he "has nothing he wants to listen to" has been buying a lot of the wrong cd's. I find that the best "proof" of a recording's true musical value is wether it stands the test of time. Do you want to listen to it many , many times, perhaps over a lifetime? Or do you listen to it a couple or even a few times and then forget about it? Or more concretely, are people going to want to buy it forty years from now? I listen to something like Miles' "Kind of Blue", and it sounds even more interesting today than it did when I first bought it twenty years ago; and I never NOT want to listen to it. As one's musical horizons broaden, one of the symptoms is dissatisfaction with one's music collection; at the same time, we are able to appreciate deeper and deeper levels of a recording's merits, but the good stuff has to be there to begin with. I realize that it is (and partly correctly so IMO) politically incorrect to in any way criticize a member's musical tastes, but from my vantage point this seems like a great opportunity all the way around; it is also part of what I believe this site is (should be?) all about. The process of discovering new and deeper music is a pretty cool thing. All the best.

Dumb question, is The Baked Potato still owned by Don Randi? I remember that he did a Sheffield Lad disc and he owned the club at that time.

Frogman, I can relate. I have at times pull out a cd that I have not played in a couple of years and as I hear something new in it or just get mooved in a new way I say to myself why has it been this long.

Lev, I also like the Rippingtons and I feel that "Black Diamond" is one of their best sonically. It is well done but the older music is more to my likeing. Jeff (early member on sax ) has a couple of disc out that you my like. John Kleemer's "Touch" is very well done and never fails to 'touch' me.

On the contemperary jazz side The remastered "Take Five" of Dave's is stunning. Grover Washington done an upbeat version of "Take Five" that I really like. Incase you do not know about the label check out some disc from Concord Jazz it is very tastefully recorded!

Chris