Playlist Week of 3-20-10

* Handel: 12 Solo Sonatas, Op.1 (AMM/Egarr) (Harmonia Mundi)
* Debussy: Piano Music, Vol.1 (Thibaudet) (Decca 2CD)
* Debussy: Orchestral Music (disc 1) (New Philharmonia, et al./Boulez) (Sony 2CD)
* Cecil Taylor: Jazz Advance (Transition/Blue Note CD)
* Cecil Taylor: Looking Ahead! (Contemporary/Fantasy CD)
* Cecil Taylor: Love for Sale (United Artists/Blue Note CD)
* Sun Ra: Delft, The Netherlands 11-11-71 (FM 3CDR)
* Anthony Braxton 12+1tet: 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (d.2) (Firehouse 12 9CD+DVD)
* Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone: Thin Air (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Matthew Shipp: One (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Matthew Shipp Trio: Piano Vortex (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Bob Marley & the Wailers: Catch a Fire (Island/MFSL CD)
* Johnny Cash: Unearthed (d.3) (American 4CD)
* Jimi Hendrix: Valleys of Neptune (Experience Hendrix/Sony CD)
* The Mothers of Invention: Absolutely Free (Verve LP)
* Led Zeppelin: Mothership (d.1) (Atlantic 2CD)
* Grateful Dead: Fillmore East, New York, NY 4-27-71 (SBD 3CDR)
* Grateful Dead: Marin Co. Veterans Memorial Aud., San Rafael, CA 3-29-84 (SBD 2CDR)
* Reconstruction: The Keystone, Palo Alto, CA 7-07-79 (first set) (SBD CDR)
* Big Star: #1 Record (Ardent/Classic LP)
* Big Star: Radio City (Ardent/Classic LP)
* Big Star: Keep an Eye on the Sky (d.3) (Rhino 4CD)
* New Order: The Fulcrum, Slough, England 12-07-85 (SBD CDR)
* Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted (Deluxe Edition) (Matador 2CD)
* Beck: Odelay (Bongload Custom LP)
* Guided By Voices: Mag Earwhig! (Matador LP)
* Guided By Voices: “Bulldog Skin” (Matador CDEP)
* Guided By Voices: “I Am a Tree” (Matador CDEP)
* Guided By Voices: Do the Collapse (TVT LP)
* Guided By Voices: Daredevil Stamp Collector (FCS 12”EP)
* Guided By Voices: Isolation Drills (TVT LP)
* Guided By Voices: “Glad Girls” (TVT CDEP)

Commentary:

This week I finally picked up the “new” Jimi Hendrix CD, Valleys of Neptune. As much as I really wanted to purchase this from good old Grimey’s New & Pre-Loved Music, I was just too tempted by the two bonus tracks (totaling almost eleven minutes) tacked onto the limited edition version sold exclusively at Target -- of all places! It’s a good thing we made a last minute decision on the way home from work to exit the interstate and take a trip to a nearby strip mall. They only had a handful left -- and they were hard to find! If you want this, I suggest you act now. Anyway, Valleys of Neptune is a worthwhile collection of orphaned studio tracks that were either widely bootlegged or previously tacked onto posthumous LPs such as Crash Landing, Midnight Lightning, and War Heroes, all now long out of print. As such, this is a welcome addition to the catalog. But be forewarned, these are, for the most part, unfinished recordings that only hint at their ultimate potential as the elaborate studio creations Hendrix no doubt envisioned. Or, worse (perhaps), they are re-creations conjured up via digital wizardry (“Stone Free”) or the result of inexplicable 1987 overdubs by Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell on tracks recorded in 1967 (“Mr. Bad Luck”) and 1969 (“Lover Man” and “Crying Blue Rain”). That said, Hendrix’s own ineffable brilliance shines through on every track and it demonstrates his (semi)successful attempts to capture the improvisatory edge of a live performance in a studio setting. Hendrix’s meteoric career was brutally snuffed out at its peak, leaving behind only a handful of finished albums and if you don’t own these records, you really should; they are masterpieces of Twentieth-Century music. If you do, then I assume you also have the South Saturn Delta compilation and the monumental “purple velvet” box set on MCA, which are way more essential than this. In that case, I wholeheartedly recommend Valleys of Neptune as a useful appendix. Oh, and those bonus tracks are worth the trip to Target, especially the searing instrumental jam, “Trash Man,” an extended display of slash-and-burn guitar heroics over a proto-funky groove. Good stuff.