Whats on your turntable tonight?

A friend of mine gave me a bunch of LPs on the condition that I transfer them to my music server and burn him some CDs. So it may come as a surprise to those of you who know my classical tastes, but the first few evenings of this undertaking have consisted of listening to a box of the entire Beatles catalog (Japanese pressings of the English albums). Got through Beatles for Sale last night, starting with Help tonight. What I find to be a lot of fun is reading the liner notes for the first two albums and wondering if in his wildest dreams the writer would have predicted what the Beatles would have become.

Not all of the albums I'm recording are of this quality, of course. For example, I also recorded the multicolored vinyl of the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra's Thus Spake Kazoosthra, truly a high water mark of the US recording industry.

Cold weather has driven me down into my listening room this evening. Last three LPs: Coltrane Interstellar Space, Jaco Pastorius eponymous, Casino Royale original Colgems stereo pressing...

Murcof's Cosmos. Belle and sabastian's The man with arab strap. Underworld's Oblivion with Bells.

Tonight has been a jazz evening with:

Miles Davis, "Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet" Prestige 7166-45 (Analogue Productions 45 rpm reissue) - great recording, fantastic sonics.

John Coltrane, "Ballads" Impulse AS-32 (Speakers Corner reissue) - very nicely re-mastered.

John Coltrane, "Live at the Vanguard" Impulse AS-10 (Universal Japan reissue) - perhaps it's the quality of the underlying recording, or the live venue, but not as nicely rendered as the Speakers Corner reissue of "Ballads." Still, a great recording musically in 'Trane's more avant garde vein.

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, "The Big Beat" Blue Note 84029-45 (Music Matters 45rpm reissue) - just one word: GET THESE WHILE YOU CAN. This is going to be a great reissue series judging by what I'm hearing in the first two releases of the series. These will not last.

Playing now: Creedence Clearwater Revival from the 45 rpm box set. What? You didn't get this box? You're missing some sonics about as close to hearing the master tape as I can imagine. This is rock music about as well recorded as rock has ever been recorded, and available on vinyl with sonics I couldn't have imagined when I listened to this music so many years ago. Still available.
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Spyro Gyra, "Rites of Summer". Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever". Rickie Lee Jones, BSK 3296. Chuck Mangione, "Children of Sanchez". Donald Fagan, "Morph the Cat".