h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some of you may know I have bought a new (for me) car. Being the top of the line spec, when it came out four-odd years ago, it has lots of little gadgets and gizmos. Apart from the four-wheel-drive, anti-skid and ABS and all that safety stuff it actually has something *useful*, a CD autochanger.
This is important because over the past few years I have *stopped* listening to music. I have too much to do in the evenings. But having a 30 to 40 minute run into and out of work now means I have been picking up stuff I had completely forgotten about or never bothered listening to in the first place.

Currently on the jukebox are
* Stokowski's Bach Transcriptions (inspired by an entry of mine currently in PR)
* Duke Ellington
* Tapestry by Carol King
* Shostakovich's 7th Symphony (again, inspired by a PR entry)
* Arvo Part
* John Addison's film score to A Bridge Too Far
This is a pretty eclectic mix. I was listening to the Shostakovich this morning and noticing I was driving faster and faster as the famous second movement got louder and louder and more insistent. I think I topped a ton easily before I realised.

I'm looking for suggestions for new CD's to listen to, as I am now rediscovering the joy of being able to listen to music. Seeing as it's a Czech motor I thought I start off with some Janacek or Dvorak and then make my way slowly westward.

Dunno where South Africa fits east-west, but my roommate Peirigill claims that Paul Simon's Graceland is good travelling music.

That is one album I am going to have to get. I never really got into it when it came out twenty-odd years ago. His most recent track, 'Father and Daughter', I thought was fantastic, because that just the way I think about my daughter.

'Under African Skies' is an earlier, specific version of 'Father and Daughter', in that it has the mix of roots-of-things and care-for-other. The one on the album has specific verses for Linda Rondstadt, but I have also heard a version with Miriam Makeba, so the song changes or has a Cage-ian element.

'Bookends' and 'Mother and Child Reunion' show that this is a recurring theme in the stuff he writes.

On a shallow level, just hearing it in the background, I didn't like "Father and Daughter", as it seems too similar to, but not as good as the Graceland tracks I new and loved.

One listening suggestion (if you can find it) is "La Llorona" by Lhasa (on Warner Bros France, I believe). All in Spanish, but you don't have to understand every word to get the emotion.

Lyrics are in the CD booklet in French as well as Spanish if that helps.

JT

Not sure what to think of "Father and Daughter" I'm leaning towards the thought that it's not quite as good as it should be. I've not heard the rest of the album so I won't comment on that.

Lhasa's second album "The Living Road" has some songs sung in English (the sublime "Anywhere On This Road" is one) as well as those songs in Spanish and French (lyrics translated in the CD booklet).

Arvo Part seems to get linked with Henryk Gorecki and John Tavener for their minimalist style religious compositions. MC would know more about this though, so I'll ask her to pop over and have a look to see if she can add any more suggestions for you FM.

Janacek and Dvorak are good, storytelling, lyrical, gorgeous stuff. Can't imagine much music I'd call as pleasant as Dvorak. Schubert and Mendelssohn come close.

Steve Reich is fascinating, though it is possible that if you haven't the leisure to pay attention it may become annoying. Repetitive, with surprising effects that emerge slowly from a barely-changing texture.

The only Dvorak I know is the 9th, which I came to hate because I was stuck, many years ago, on an exhibition stand next to another where the last movement was playing on an endless tape loop. the only other Czech composer I know of is Smetana, which I seem to remember is some kind of yoghurt one rubs on athlete's foot.

Since you appear to have rather eclectic taste in music, I'd like to recommend a wonderful jazz CD (I had it first as a 33, but after modernizing I got the CD). The title is Legrand Jazz; Michel Legrand is the moving force behind it. The CD I have is on the Philips label; the original 33 was on the Columbia label. This album is a remarkable assemblage of brilliant artists and arrangement of some wonderful jazz standards. I think you'd find it to be a welcome addition to your collection.

Oh, and now of course we're both terribly passe; anybody who is anybody these days has tossed out their old CD players and replaced them with iPods. Those I know who have them wouldn't think of going back to CDs. Technology marches on!

PS: I loved your entry on S-OB; that's how I happened to find my way here.
JCNSmith

Oh good! I do feel appreciated when new faces like my entries. I'll try the Legrand. It's about time I bought something new.

I have a flash-powered MP3 player. It only holds about 20 songs but that's because I don't feel the need to carry my entire song collection around with me. It should also be enough to get me around the block when jogging.

It was very enlightening to go to a business meeting recently when we discussing with another division about sharing some new configuration management servers we had put in, in order to save money. These hold the whole of the source code base of my company, a huge amount of intellectual property. I was chatting to my counterpart, a very capable lady, who had brought out her iPod. I've never really seen or used an iPod so I had a play with it. I asked her much storage it had: 'Oh, about 60 Gb'. 'And...er..how much storage do the new servers have?' 'Oh...er...about 50 Gb'. Quite.

If you do pick up the Legrand CD, please let me know what you think. It's always a dicey business recommending such things as music to people whose taste you can only guess at. Nevertheless, this CD has been a perennial favorite of mine. Showcasing jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Ben Webster, and others, it's hard to go too far wrong.

Perhaps I shouldn't ask (as in, "if you need to ask the cost, you can't afford it"), but who the devil is Bill Stickers and why would anyone want to prosecute him? (Just so I'll know what to look out for should I find myself sharing an elevator (a lift, as you'd probably say) with this chap. After all, forewarned is forearmed, and one can never be too careful these days.)

I've heard that the Ride of the Valkeries is the most dangerous music to drive to.

TRiG.

It must be what the cops around here put on in their S80s, Imprezas and Octavias before they go chasing people up and down the M1. I have a vision of a Robert Duvall-like character in a traffic cop's uniform saying 'Diesel - the Smell of Victory'

I can definitely recommend Legrand. I have a couple of his CDs - 'Paris Was Made for Lovers' and 'Legrand Piano'. He wrote 'The Windmills of Your Mind' (theme tune for The Thomas Crown Affair) if my memory serves me right. In fact you've stirred me to put one of them in the CD player right now!