Greatest Albums of All Time (Rock & Jazz) - Music Diaries

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

@DelBocaVista

I would definitely follow any "Greatest Albums" (etc) log/list if you got one going again, like you did at listology.
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

On my overall chart I gave the following response to Young Punk in regards to Jazz music, and included a brief summary of A Love Supreme, which I thought might be of interest so am including here:

@ YoungPunk

re: Jazz

Every Jazz work is different, so one has to be willing to put in the effort so to speak... Aside from realizing that, fundamentally, it is important to hear that the instruments are not so different than the expressive force (or subtlety) of the human voice -- and really all music/art is an expression of emotion(s)/concept(s)... A Love Supreme may be the best "gateway" album, as it is right in between structured and free jazz, and has a clear purpose throughout. It also doesn't hurt that it is perhaps the most astonishing Jazz album of all time, and among the most incredible religious works in all of art.

The key to the album is recognizing that all of the instruments are progressing into and through a metamorphosis of transfiguration, and in doing so encompass a passing and synthesis of Jazz history. It is essential to realize that Coltrane's sax is not just playing notes with a lot of effort/intensity, but that he is passing through an epiphanic, spiritual metamorphosis that is overwhelming and cathartic but also spilling over with spiritual irresolution, anguish, pain, self-reflection, immolation and existential quandary. It is perhaps just as essential to recognize that each phrase of outpouring from his sax is a technically amazing feat in its own right: Coltrane is mimicing the human voice, and has taken each line into care and consideration to articulate with the elocution, gesture, elaboration and syllabic, conversational (both extroverted speech and inward contemplation) phrasing of sentences, outpourings/questions to God and inward to himself, anguished/cognizant answers or queries (alternating and struggling between this throughout). Furthermore, it is a multi-ethnic mass that calls forth his history and anthropology as a black man, merged with his spiritual calling, and so seems to reflect on and parallel his intense, heart-breaking struggle to forgive and rise above slavery and oppression and racial inequality in his quest for God. Furthermore, all the other instruments make their own passages through their own metamorphosis/transfiguration/spiritual renaissance, while simultaneously ruminating off of, interweaving among, or exploding from Coltrane's "center". The work becomes an astounding, multi-level stream-of-consciousness, expressing multiple planes of thought/expression that are both individual and unified in a combined succession of spiritual journeys. The whole work marks a tremendously moving and profound portrait of Coltrane trying desperately to articulate the word of God/his words to God, finding this unutterable, impenetrable and overwhelming throughout (until the Psalm). Each phrase is a different variation/attempt/utterance, extending from and upon the first, before the miraculous epiphany and bowed, solemn prayer of the finale where the words are finally articulated as intended, in correlation with God, in breathtaking unity.
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YoungPunk

O.K. so I listened to some of a love supreme and really concentrated on the sax part instead of the nifty background part like I probably would have without your help (comparing the sax to the voice). I can now see why you and others like it so much (It's kinda like classical music Smile

). I guess people like me being exposed to comparative garbage like La La Land really isn't fair to Jazz Smile

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

YoungPunk wrote:

O.K. so I listened to some of a love supreme and really concentrated on the sax part instead of the nifty background part like I probably would have without your help (comparing the sax to the voice). I can now see why you and others like it so much (It's kinda like classical music Smile

). I guess people like me being exposed to comparative garbage like La La Land really isn't fair to Jazz Smile

Good to hear, though I would say the rest of the instruments are just as or almost as important to its overall conveyance. Very cool that it is improving for you.
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

@ Young Punk

...meaning, the rest of the instruments altogether are approx as essential as Coltrane's sax by itself.
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

I just upgraded Joanna Newsom's Ys to a 9/10, a rating I've long been unsure that any album (or work of art) from the 2000s or 2010s (so far) would attain. I'm sure most anyone serious about music has heard Ys by now, as it is already quite legendary among independent music fans (a phenomenon that has only been expanded in correlation with the boom of the internet) -- but if you haven't, it goes without saying that I strongly recommend immersing oneself in this astounding masterpiece. I will say more about it some other time, but for now just know that I feel the key to opening up much of the significance of the work is to focus one's primary attention on Newsom's constantly changing vocal contortions/modulations, how her mercurial emotional character fluctuates through multiple facets of expression, often even along the same line/phrase. The expressive, theatrical malleability of Newsom -- constantly articulating, fluctuating and narrating -- is often on the verge of grief, of epiphany and/or exhaustion, with a sense that she is continually gathering herself and summoning the nobility and fortitude to carry on. It should also not be lost on the listener that the backing instrumental nuances/orchestration and Newsom's harp add a dimension to the work that gives it a sense of narrative sweep, turning its verses into like that of epic, mythic poetry (such as TS Eliot, Paradise Lost, Homer...), story-telling into the depths of her imagination, highly metaphoric (from romantic to suspenseful) -- always in a nuanced, restlessly articulate, intellectual, magical lyricism that keeps the proceedings moving, enigmatic and profound.
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Last edited by AfterHours on 03/21/2018 01:47; edited 3 times in total

JackCox

Gender: Male
Location: Toronto, Ontario

YoungPunk wrote:

O.K. so I listened to some of a love supreme and really concentrated on the sax part instead of the nifty background part like I probably would have without your help (comparing the sax to the voice). I can now see why you and others like it so much (It's kinda like classical music Smile

). I guess people like me being exposed to comparative garbage like La La Land really isn't fair to Jazz Smile

The drumming that begins track three of this album is incredible. Easily my favorite part of it.

YoungPunk

@Jack
haven't heard that part yet... looking forward to it Smile

YoungPunk

[quote="AfterHours"]9/10, a rating I've long been unsure that any album (or work of art) from the 2000s or 2010s (so far) would attain. quote]

cuz music is so commercial and popular now...

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Fwiw, I corrected and polished up my notes about Joanna Newsom's Ys above. Before, it contained many errors, even incorrect words ... an unfortunate repercussion sometimes when typed from my phone and in haste Rolling Eyes

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