Playlist Week of 2014-11-01

* Cage: Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano (Vandré) (Mode CD)

* Berio: String Quartets (Arditti) (Montagne/Naïve CD)

* Miles Davis: The Bootleg Series Vol.3: Live At The Fillmore 1970 (d.3) (Columbia/Legacy 4CD)

* John Coltrane: Live In Japan (Impulse!/GRP 4CD)

* Jimmy Giuffre 3: 1961 (ECM 2CD)

* Herbie Hancock: The Prisoner (Blue Note CD)

* Herbie Hancock: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (Warner Archives 2CD)

* Bobby Hutcherson: Cirrus (Blue Note LP)

* George Benson: In Concert – Carnegie Hall (CTI LP)

* Bobbi Humphrey: Satin Doll (Blue Note LP)

* Pharoah Sanders: In The Beginning 1963-1964 (selections) (ESP-Disk’ 4CD)

* Mark Nauseef/Ikue Mori/Evan Parker/Bill Laswell: Near Nadir (Tzadik CD)

* Kip Hanrahan: Vertical’s Currency (American Clave LP)

* Kris Davis: Massive Threads (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Ravi Shankar: Chappaqua OST (Columbia Masterworks LP)

* Anouar Brahem: Barzakh (ECM CD)

* Osibisa: Heads (Decca LP)

* Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life (Tamla 2LP+7”)

* Grateful Dead: Dave’s Picks Vol.12: Hamilton, NY 1977-11-04 + (selections) (GDP/Rhino HDCD)

* Cat Stevens: Tea For The Tillerman (MCA/Analogue Productions LP)

* Steven Halpern: Spectrum Suite (Halpern Sounds LP)

* Steve Roach/Keven Braheny/Richard Burmer: Western Spaces (Innovative Communications LP)

* Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Playback (d.1-3) (MCA 6HDCD)

* Swell Maps: Collision Time Revisited (Restless 2LP)

* Keiji Haino/Jim O’Rourke/Oren Ambarchi: Only Wanting To Melt Beautifully… (Black Truffle LP)

* Mick Karn: Dreams of Reason Produce Monsters (Virgin LP)

* Yo La Tengo: Fade (Matador CD)

* Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar LP)

* Sunn O))): Black One (Southern Lord 2LP)

* Sunn O))): White 1 (Southern Lord CD)

* Sunn O))): White 2 (Southern Lord CD)

* Sunn O))) & Ulver: Terrestrials (Southern Lord CD)

* Wye Oak: The Knot (Merge LP)

* Wild Nothing: Nocturne (Captured Tracks CD)†/‡

* Chris Forsyth: Solar Motel (Paradise of Bachelors LP)

* Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band: Intensity Ghost (No Quarter LP)

* Pig Destroyer: Mass And Volume (Relapse EP)

* Inter Arma: Sky Burial (Relapse 2LP)

†=iPod/iTunes

‡=car

Commentary: 

Hard to believe it is November already. The mid-term elections are finally upon us and it looks to me like things are gonna get really stupid. Will we ever learn? Apparently not.

Whatever!

I turn 51 in a couple of weeks - how the hell did that happen? I never expected to live this long. Accordingly, I got to have an overdue colonoscopy on Friday - an unpleasant experience to say the least. But it's just a harbinger of what is to come, should continue to live into old age. I guess it beats the alternative!

Soon it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Year's...Then who knows what 2015 holds in store?

Excuse me, but the change of seasons makes me a little melancholy.

Anyway, in the near-term, I'm registered to attend the annual Recording Summit at Welcome to 1979 this coming weekend. As you know, they are the folks who cut the lacquers for Cosmologies and they are devoted to all things analog. There will be all kinds of interesting workshops and panels - but I'm most looking forward to the "listening session" with Richard Dodd on Saturday night. We will audition Tom Petty's magnificent Wallflowers album (on vinyl LP, natch) - which was engineered by the esteemed Mr. Dodd - and get an opportunity to hear how worked his magic. Of course, I am honored that Richard Dodd mastered both Indeterminate and Cosmologies and I am really looking forward to learning more from him.

I'll have a full report for you next week!