1000 Recordings Sampler Episode 3

If the third installment of the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die sampler has a theme, it might be "rainy day," with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau's "When it Rains," the introspective stylings of Malasian artist Toumani Diabate, Chopin's Nocturnes, and the weepy, epic guitar solo of Funkadelic's Eddie Hazel (according to legend, George Clinton told Hazel to "play like your mother just died"). As before, though, I have tried to highlight a wide swath of genres while picking out tracks I enjoy and hope that you'll enjoy as well!

Play here on Spotify

1. Brad Mehldau - "When it Rains" (Jazz/Rock)
2. Sigur Ros - "Hjartao Hamast" (Indie Rock)
3. Rory Gallagher - "As the Crow Flies" (Blues/Rock)
4. Patsy Cline - "Lovesick Blues" (Country)
5. Toumani Diabate with Ballake Sissoko - "Bi Lambam" (Mali/Strings)
6. Frederic Chopin - "Nocturne No. 1 in B flat minor, Op.9 No.1" [Maria Joao Pires] (Classical/Piano)
7. Funkadelic - "Maggot Brain" (Funk/Epic guitar solo)

If you like the music, buy the tracks on Amazon: Mehldau, Sigur Ros, Gallagher, Cline, Diabate, Chopin, Funkadelic

Related posts:

• 1000 Recordings Sampler Episode 2
• One Week's Worth of Recordings
• Country Music Playing on the Radio

Classical Training

You may have noticed a trend in the recordings I tend to write about. I am not much of a fan (let alone expert) of jazz, showtunes, opera, or classical. While showtunes and jazz would be fun to see live, I don't care much for listening to them at home, and opera is a whole different challenge for my not-classically trained ears.

When it comes to classical music, I have no problem enjoying it. I have a problem distinguishing between the pieces: I wouldn't know Bach from Beethoven or Brahms, Mozart from Mahler or Mendelssohn. In fact, I often tend to "tune out" classical music, which makes it great for grading papers or reading, but not so much for "hearing" in the sense of 1000 Recordings to HEAR Before You Die.

My wife listens to a lot of podcasts because, as I've mentioned before, we spend a lot of time putting my son down for naps/bedtime, and after the "routine" (bath, pajamas, books, etc), all that is required of us while my son falls asleep is our presence. So while I often listen to music while I wait for him to stop thrashing around, she listens to NPR's This American Life and Radiolab.

She told me about a month ago that she heard a Radiolab episode she thought I might enjoy. I don't spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, but I started getting into listening to the 1000 Recordings Podcast while I wash dishes, and since there was none this week, I browsed the podcasts I had downloaded for her. As I was looking I came across the one she had suggested for me.

First, I highly recommend checking out this episode. It's well worth the 20 minutes. But here's the Cliff's Notes version if you don't want to commit the time. This guy, Bob Milne, claims to be able to hear two complete symphonies in his mind at the same time. When pressed by a neurologist, he upped that to four. I had the same response as the show's host, Jad Abrumrad: "That's total bull****." So the whole episode focuses on how they tested this claim.

What really amazed me was not just that this guy can do this, but the way he does it. He literally sees the orchestra playing the pieces as a 3-D movie that he can zoom in and out of, increase the volume of certain sections, change the speed. He also gets certain "emotions" from chords. As Abrumrad protests, everyone has a strong emotional relationship to music (although more and more I am realizing there is a large variance between people on that one). But Milne's experience sounds much closer to synesthesia (for example, how Tony of the 1000 Recordings Podcast sees colors when he listens to music).

Well, damn, if I could do all that then of course I would be able to discern between all the classical pieces. I could probably even differentiate between different orchestras! Here's the bottom line: I'm really jealous of Milne's brain, and Tony's, and anyone whose relation to music is that organic and natural. Because I feel like I have to be an intense listener. I study my music collection like a textbook: I know how many 5-star songs I have (133), how many of the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time are on my iPod (316) vs Pitchfork's list of 500 Best Songs of the Decade (185). I know songs by the first second of guitar feedback on a track. Songs that reference other songs are my favorite, because I feel like I'm in on a secret (check out "You Were Right" by Built to Spill for a great example) which may be a reason I love covers so much.

My brain is analytical about something that really should be, I feel, more emotional. I have a very good memory, not just about music, and I am into statistics (my brother and I used to keep stats while we played Nintendo's Major League Baseball, for entire seasons). I have a strong passion for music, but I feel like I am working extra hard at something that some people have a natural ability for. I hear a song and the first thing I notice is, logically, the lyrics. In 5th grade I excitedly memorized my first song ("2 Legit 2 Quit" by MC Hammer), but if you asked me to play the notes on a piano I'd be nearly hopeless. I'd probably get there, because I have an obsession with this stuff, but I'm without talent.

All this is to lead up to the four composers listed in the Radiolab podcast; Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. Two I've heard, two I haven't gotten to yet. My ears have adapted since I heard Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (the only notes I wrote in the book were "slow and boring") and Brahms' Four Symphonies (for which I wrote no notes at all, probably wasn't paying close enough attention). I think I'm getting better at identifying the patterns in jazz, taking pleasure in the lofty voices of opera, and finding the common threads that tie all the pieces in the book together, but for some reason, I still have a bad habit of drifting off when I listen to classical. Hopefully, by the time I get to Schubert's Ninth Symphony and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto (listed in the book under violinist Yehudi Menuhin), while I may not have 3-D, technicolor ears, I'll hear something in this genre that grabs my full attention.

I'm not sure what it's going to take, though, because it sure hasn't come naturally to me.

Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5: Beethoven

My life, and my mindset, is shockingly different than it was just a few years ago. When my wife and I lived in Texas we went to the health food store to shop, mostly because they had great prices on bulk foods, and we even brought our own bags (a radical idea just 5 years ago), as I spent more time outdoors and started noticing how many plastic bags end up in our nature preserves. We started to eat more organics and I jumped on board with that because I grew up eating my grandpa's fresh vegetables and fruits. Once my son came along, we were full swing on the organic bandwagon, even members of an organic CSA, and then after I read Disease Proof Your Child by Dr. Fuhrman, my family moved to a "plant-based" diet: we still eat meat and bread, but we try to get the majority of our intake from plants (we plan to buy 2 shares at our CSA next year). If, 3 years ago, you had tried to get me to eat the way I do today, I would have laughed. Slowly, though, this way of living has become easier and easier, and combined with playing basketball once or twice a week, I have lost almost 20 pounds in the last year.

Once you start down this path, though, it's hard to stop. Now I am learning more and more about the simplicity movement. One idea I come back to over and over again is how folks work overtime and have such busy schedules that they don't have time to make coffee, so they buy a $4 coffee everyday, so they have to work overtime to pay for the coffee, and so on. That's not necessarily a perfect example, but you get the idea. Is there value added with all this extra stuff in my life? What if we could just cut more out? Do less? What would we do with that extra time? I am reading Simplicity Parenting, and so much of it resonates with me. I think back on the highlights of my own childhood; so many of the things I am nostalgic for are the simpler times, just hanging out in the neighborhood with my brothers, or going to the park with my parents.

Beethoven: hippie music, right? Ok, maybe not, but I was trying to keep up with the 1000 Recordings Podcast guys, and heard one of the recordings I had skipped the first time through because I couldn't find it. And it's all about simplicity.

Artist: Ludwig van Beethoven
Album: Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5, Arthur Schoonderwoerd, Ensemble Cristofori.
Recording #511
Stream the album here


I started reading the entry in Moon's book, and right away, I went, "Whoa." "This recording offers an excellent encounter with the early-music philosophy, which shares a kinship with heirloom vegetable farming and other back-to-basics movements." Seriously? Could this have been better timed? Had I read that when I first started this project, I might have thought, whatever. But now I really paid attention to it.

Beethoven is pretty easy to like: it's like a song with a great hook. He always comes back to these perfect melodies, and when you have a orchestra of only 20 members (the standard size in Beethoven's day), rather than the typical 80-100, you can really focus on those melodies. In general, this book has made me realize what a purist I am when it comes to music; simple is good, and the original is often the best. Some of my favorite discoveries have been totally old school: Roscoe Holcomb, the Louvin Brothers, the Carter Family. So, yeah, I DO want to hear what Beethoven had in mind when he wrote these pieces, by hearing it on the instruments of the day. Fortepiano and catgut strings and whatnot. So if you are looking for a jumping off place on classical, as a guy who really doesn't know much about classical, I can say this is a pretty good start. I found the overall tone very warm and inviting. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Check out Moon's entry here.

Music Soothes the Savage Beast

Things are ramping up for the school year, both teaching and taking my master's classes. That combined with my son's continued sleep strike and all the standard household chores make every day a race against the clock to get anything done. So it's nice to come across a recording like this one that helps to smooth out my day.

Artist: Van Cliburn
Album: Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3, Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Recording #252
Stream the first concerto here and the second here

I have already stressed my general apathy towards classical music, but it turns out I really like the sound of piano soloists. The first concerto here is really good, particularly the "intricate fingerwork" in the first movement. It all sounds very nice, calm, steady; the right soundtrack for background baby music. The 2nd, however, sounds like the accompanying music to a silent film. If I had to use an adjective for it, it would be melodramatic-- like those new 1-800 Contacts commercials with the "overly dramatic reenactments." I felt like if I was a music critic I could MST3K this one. But I can recommend the first concerto if you need some chill music.

Buy the album here

One Week's Worth of Recordings

13 recordings in a week- I love the age of the free streaming on the internet.

Artist: Cecilia Bartoli
Album: The Vivaldi Album
Recording #238
Stream the album here

Another recording from the opera genre that I actually enjoyed. Tom Moon talks about her "agility," and I think that I know what he means-- the way she trills her voice is pretty incredible. And I like the tone of her voice, a little lower, which is different. The last track is the only one I recognized as a famous opera, but this one was pretty nice.

Artist: Paul Bley
Album: Fragments
Recording #239
Stream the album here

Another free jazz album- this was like the background music to a film noir detective film. It was equal parts annoying and weird.

Artist: The Chemical Brothers
Album: Dig Your Own Hole
Recording #240
Stream the album here

Back with another one of those block rockin' beats!" If you were a teen in the 90's you knew this song, even if you didn't know the sample was from Schooly D (I only know him as the rapper who does the intro to the TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force). The Chemical Brothers, while not my cup of tea, were a force to be reckoned with back then, along with like-minded bands Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk (the latter the only one to still have selling power currently). This album is a bit dated, but just like the title of Daft Punk's album, sometimes you have to do your "homework" to see why electronica is where it is today.

Artist: Clifton Chenier
Album: Bogalusa Boogie
Recording #241
Stream the album here

This is the 2nd cajun album, and this one is much preferred to the first, Buckwheat Zydeco. This album leans a lot more on the blues influence and really feels like a New Orleans party I could get into. If live music with lots of accordion is your thing, check this one out.

Artist: Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell
Album: Old and New Dreams
Recording #242
Stream the album here

Oh wow, this is pretty God-awful stuff. More free jazz, and clearly there is skill involved to squeeze the noises out of the instruments like they do, but this was bad. It started out pretty palatable, and quickly became unlistenable. Unless you are a free jazz connoisseur, tread lightly here.

Artist: Vic Chesnutt
Album: Is the Actor Happy?
Recording #243
Stream the album here

I really wanted to like this album-- it's 1995 but it really doesn't sound that dated. In the end though, this alt-rocker left me wanting a little bit more. The album starts out sounding a little like a slow Blues Traveler song, or the Flaming Lips at their most accessible, but eventually it sounds more and more like Patterson Hood's songs for the Drive-By Truckers. Despite the favorable comparison, in the end the songwriting wasn't as solid, even if the lyrics are interesting. Check it out though, if you like alt-country or just the country tinged pop song.

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED*
Artist: Chic
Album: C'est Chic
Recording #244
Stream the album here, search for the rest on youtube

Well I had heard this band on Saturday Night Disco back on the Q104 when I was a kid ("Le Freak"), but I didn't know the name of the band, let alone that they have some extremely catchy dance music. Disco may be laughed at now, but listen to your Franz Ferdinand or your Bravery or your Phoenix. Where do you think they got those funky basslines? This album comes screaming out of the gates with "Chic Cheer," built around a great guitar riff that just keeps becoming more and more compelling, and next is the more universally recognized "Le Freak." The rest of the album is solid, even if none of the songs are as memorable, and I need to hunt down a copy. If you want to start a dance party, put this one in.

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED*
Artist: Chicago
Album: The Chicago Transit Authority
Recording #245
Stream this album here

If "You're the Inspiration" is what you think of when you think of Chicago, I was right there with you. But on this debut the band has some muscle-- both with a stellar horn section and blistering guitar work. I did end up recognize a couple songs ("Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and "Beginnings") but most of the songs were new to me. I really liked this one, although the freestyle guitar was a little much, even though it was interesting, and I can see why Jimi Hendrix was a fan of Chicago's guitarist.

Artist: Frederic Chopin
Album: Ballades and Scherzos
Recording #246
Stream the album here

Unfortunately had to skip a couple recordings I couldn't find (including some interesting sounding Hawai'ian guitar) but on the bright side I found out that I enjoy Chopin. These Ballades and Scherzos are pretty and short, filled with lots of tempo and theme changes (the first has a tempo change that comes out of nowhere) and were overall very nice to listen to and a good introduction to this composer's works.

Artist: Frederic Chopin
Album: Nocturnes
Recording #247
Stream the album here

If the last Chopin was easy listening, this one is music for comas. In fact, the 2nd Nocturne is the music that plays on my son's mobile with bird songs. They can be a little slow and "one-note" at times, but they are often pretty. There are some nice piano trills courtesy of Maria Joao Pires, who is nice and steady throughout, but again, sometimes the whole thing is so quiet it's hard to hear much differentiating the songs. This was the perfect soundtrack, however, to a day when my son slept in my arms during an afternoon thunderstorm. So I will have fond memories of this recording, and when I need something to put me at ease, and possibly unconscious, I'll return to this one.

Another Cluster

As my son is trying to slowly erode my life right now through sleep deprivation, I will have to do another group of recordings to catch up (it's amazing how much music you can listen to while holding a baby and walking).

So #228, #231, and #232 are all Brazilian. I knew Brazil made a lot of music, but that's a pretty hefty chunk of the World music in this book (there are 21 Brazilian entries, compared to 1 Chinese, for example)

Artist: Cascabulho
Album: Hunger Gives You a Headache (Fome da Dor de Cabeca)
Recording #231
Stream album here

I like how this one charges out of the gates, with a very trippy sounding latin-fusion thing going on. Not your typical background World music. Track two, "Xodo do sanfooneiro, changes pace again with a weird Cajun sound. Unfortunately, the interesting songs don't continue through the whole album, and eventually it all starts to sound a bit mushy to me again.

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED*
Artist: Dorival Caymmi
Album: Caymmi e seu violao
Recording #232
Stream the album here and here

What a difference of sound this is! Still Brazilian folk music, but this guy is a real crooner. His voice reminded me of a Latin Bing Crosby, and the gorgeous acoustic guitar he plays is, in my opinion, too soft, but sounds virtuosic. I don't speak Portuguese, but there is clearly a theme here, which based on the appearance of the word "Mar," is the sea. I highly recommend this one, and I'm going to have to scrounge around and find it to add to my collection

Artist: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Recording: Requiem
Recording #233
Stream the symphony here

With all the awake at night time I am cruising through the IMDB Top 250 movies. I just finished "Amadeus," and it was one of the best yet. According to this movie, Mozart was CRAZY! The actor in the movie was incredible, and the storyline, although considered to be mostly fabricated, really got me interested enough to jump ahead in the book and check out what Wolfy did. Requiem, which was left unfinished due to Mozart's death, is pretty dreary. The voices are so airy, and at the same time eerie. Really, that's the highlight here, those somber, amazing voices. Evidently this was recorded in NYC only weeks after 9/11, and the mood carries over. Of all the recordings I've listened to lately this one really captures the mood around our house, with my son now sleeping for only a half hour at a time. Pretty good music for high-brow wallowing.

Artist: Manu Chao
Album: Clandestino
Recording #234
Stream the album here


This was pretty much as I expected. A french dude doing world music, again it really faded into the background. No high or low points really, just a bit bland.
Artist: Tracy Chapman
Album: Tracy Chapman
Recording #160ish
Stream album here
My wife was excited this one was included in the 1000 Recordings because she loves the song "Fast Car." It really is an incredible song, and I gotta respect Tracy as she is a native of Cleveland. Overall I liked this album, really good folk, and something a little different than other girl and a guitar acts, a different perspective and mood. I need to get this one.
Artist: Ray Charles
Album: The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years
Recording #235
Stream album here
Well if you haven't heard Ray Charles I'm not sure what rock you've been under. Most people at least knew a few songs before the biopic "Ray" came out, but Jamie Foxx's portrayal and great singing brought these songs to a new audience. This album has a lot of those familiar hits, plus a few you might not know. If you have the movie soundtrack, as I do, this is extraneous, and the soundtrack version of "What'd I Say" is actually better. But this is still a good introduction to the classic Ray Charles stuff you know.
Artist: Ray Charles
Album: Modern Sounds in Country and Western, Vols 1 and 2
Recording #236
Stream the album here
After the rousing Atlantic Recordings, this one is a buzzkill. I'm a little surprised at the popularity of this album, because I found it slow and sappy. It was just boring country, but there are still a few gems here. "Worried Mind" is a really nice version of the song, "Hey Good Lookin'" picks up the pace a little, and "Midnight's" vocal harmonies are hard to resist.
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Album: The Complete Hot Fives and Hot Sevens
Recording #237
Stream the album here
My second box set, and this is a recording I started back when I first got the book, but after 6 songs I really felt like I needed to move on. Well, I went back, and I still feel the same way. There are some very nice jazz pieces here (most of them much more enjoyable to me than most jazz, probably because this sound so classic) but 4 discs worth is a lot of Louis, even if he does play the trumpet like a maniac. I especially like the songs that highlight the trumpet versus the songs with singing. "Oriental Strut" is all trumpet solo and peppy throughout as an example. If you need some jazz in your life, you can't go wrong picking a few tracks off this one.
Wow, that was a lot of recordings. If I keep this pace I'll be done in a couple years!

Letting the Recording Interfere with the Recordings

I'm not sure I am going to be able to keep up the pace once the job actually starts, plus grad school. I can listen to a lot of music in a day, but to write about it takes a bit longer, so I am going to have to start clustering my posts I think. So in this post I will cover the recordings I heard in the last few days:

Artist: Pablo Casals
Album: J.S. Bach, Suites for Cello
Recording #230
Stream the album here
Basically dinner music. Very nice dinner music, but pretty much just a guy playing the cello. What makes this interesting is to hear so much Bach all in a row, you start to recognize it a little bit. And it's also a very nice recording considering it was made in the '30's. I especially liked Suite 1, which was the most dinner suitable. Suite 2 was cool because it was a little more melancholic and actually had a few discordant moments that I didn't know was really even a part of baroque music.

Artist: Neko Case
Album: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Recording #100ish
Stream album here
This is an album I got from my brother early on when I picked up the book. I already had Neko's album "Blacklisted" and all her work with the excellent band The New Pornographers. I had high hopes for this one because "Blacklisted" is one of my 100 favorite album (yes, there is a list), but I think Tom got it wrong on this one. Neko's voice is still a knockout on this album, but the songs are too homogeneous. On "Blacklisted" there are more tempo and style changes, with "Deep Red Bells" being the most surprising, but on "Fox Confessor" each song kind of rolls into the next. I would suggest if you want to hear who is carrying the torch from Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, start with "Blacklisted," and check this one out after that.

Artist: Johnny Cash
Album: At Folsom Prison
Recording #50something
Stream album here
One of the earlier recordings I heard, well before I bought the book. I had already been introduced to Cash through a "Super Hits" album and "American IV," so I was a fan of his classic style. He was the first true country artist that I enjoyed after I branched out from Alt-Country. "At Folsom Prison" is pretty awesome, just in the fact that his "Man in Black" persona really comes through. The sad songs are nice, but where he really makes his money is singing the outlaw songs, "Folsom Prison Blues," "25 Minutes to Go," etc. If you haven't heard him before, this is a great place to start!

Artist: Johnny Cash
Album: American Recordings
Recording #150something
Stream album here
I loved Johnny Cash's "American IV," which really brought him back into the spotlight with covers of "Hurt" and "Personal Jesus" (both better than the originals), but it all started with Rick Rubin producing the original "American Recordings" in 1994. This one has less recognizable covers, but highlight's Cash's voice and ability to bring a simple song to life. I would suggest "American III" (with covers of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and U2's "One") or "IV" first to really appreciate what Cash can do to a song, but this is one worth having, especially for songs like "Thirteen," a Danzig cover that really brings out the darkness in Cash's persona.

Vocals That Make You Go Hmmm

Artist: Enrico Caruso (Book Entry)
Album: Twenty-One Favorite Arias
Recording #229

Stream the whole album from Myspace

Wow. Ok, so every time I talk about the challenges of this book, I refer to how much opera there is. Somehow this is classified under the genre "classical" in the book, but clearly should fall under opera. Or maybe "vocals," because this guy has some pipes. I didn't expect much after reading the book entry, considering the recording was made in 1907, prior to the invention of the recording microphone. But when I heard I Pagliacci, walking the laps in my dining room at 3 AM with the lights dimmed to almost nothing, I got goosebumps. The emotion, even on such a scratchy recording, comes through powerfully. This sounds like the soundtrack to some sort of mobster movie, the climax scene, with the bullets and the church cutaways. More than anything else, I love how amazing Caruso's voice is. It's loud and clear, even though you can hardly hear the accompanying music. I never would have thought I would see much good come out of opera, but if you haven't ever heard any that you like, this might be the place to start. If I find a better opera recording in this book, I'll let you know. Until then, I could actually listen to this one over again. Wow.

Buy the album on Amazon

Cheesecake and Classical

My wife and I went out for our first date night since the baby was born 1 month ago. We went to the Cheesecake Factory, which for us is a little weird. In general we aren't really into chain restaurants, and there are definitely better places we could have gone, but we figured we needed to go somewhere loud with a booth just in case the baby decided to wake up and fuss. He didn't though. He slept like a champ through the whole thing. And that's how we get to the recording for today.

Artist: Elliott Carter [pg 144-145]
Album: Symphonia: Sum fluxae pretium spei; Clarinet Concerto
Album #225



Part 2 of Clarinet Concerto
Symphonia Part 1
Symphonia Part 2 [Not the full concert, be thankful]
I love the breadth of this book's scope. In the last 5 recordings I've heard mariachi, avant-garde rock, gospel, R&B, and now classical. I don't know much about classical music, but I know this album was an assault on my ears. If this album was a cheesecake, it would be a quiche. Similar ingredients, not the same result. "Modern" classical music tends to be so much more grating to me. While the clarinet playing in the concerto may have taken a lot of skill, the sounds being made were like someone was strangling a goose. It was so bad, in fact, that within 2 minutes my son had woken up from a deep sleep and started crying. When my wife came in and I told her how fussy he was being, she immediately looked at the computer, which was eminating an ungodly sound, and said, "I wonder why." On the bright side, missing his nap did help him sleep through dinner. The 2nd part of the recording is more of a full symphony, less minimalist (code word for "lazy" as far as I'm concerned). I still didn't find it very enjoyable, as every time I heard something nice starting to brew, the whole thing would get loud, and for lack of a better word, "clangy." Someone who enjoys classical music, can you help me here? I dealt with Bach, and actually enjoyed Beethoven, but this stuff is really out there to me. Oh, and I know you are wondering; yes, we each got a piece of cheesecake. Don't judge me, it was the first time out, we had to celebrate. I got chocolate coconut cream cheesecake, and my wife got Godiva chocolate cheesecake. Damn right.

Buy Symphonia at Amazon