“Without music, life would be a mistake” – Friedrich Neitzsche

Ok.  So you’ve got a high-end audio system, properly set up and producing great sound.  You’re tuned in to high-end audio magazines, blogs and forums, keeping up to date with the audio tech, news and reviews. And you’re always on the lookout for an audio bargain to upgrade your system.  Great … but that’s all just a means to an end. 

It’s the music! Music that moves you … and makes you move.  Music crafted by gifted composers, songwriters and performers, presented with excellent sound quality.

That’s what Seriously Good Music is all about.  It offers music recommendations, each accompanied by a brief introduction, and provides a place for us to discuss the music, sharing our opinions and insights.  The recommendations are not all mine.  I’ll just be the curator of selections provided by you, the readers. And what kind of music will we be recommending?  Any music that the recommender chooses to introduce us to or offer to us, from classic recordings to new releases, from major artists to gifted unknowns, from popular genres to less familiar ones worthy of greater attention.  What they’ll all provide is musical enjoyment and seriously good sound.

Seriously Good Music will appear simultaneously on both the Serious Music Blog, which provides more space and easy archiving, and on the Serious Music social media pages, which provide the immediacy and convenience that some may prefer.  Both will support the lively discussion that we seek to encourage.

For the initial installment here are some albums that I recommend to you:

 

“Nameless” – Dominique Fils-Aimé (2018)

  

“Nameless”, is the debut album by Dominique Fils-Aimé, a Canadian singer of Haitian descent.  It’s the first of a trilogy exploring black American music. She brings a fresh interpretation to the classics “Strange Fruit” and “Feeling Good”.  All the other tunes on the album are her own compositions. For me the standout track is “Birds”.

 

“Ten Easy Pieces” – Jimmy Webb (1996)

  

Jimmy Webb is the Grammy-winning composer of such classic songs as “By the Time I get to Phoenix”, “MacArthur Park”, “Wichita Lineman”, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” and “Galveston”. In this album he performs ten of his well-known compositions.  Accompanying himself on piano, his performances often dig much deeper into his compositions than their better known popular interpretations.

 

“Saint-Georges Violin Concertos, Vol. 2” – Qian Zhoun Toronto Chamber Orcestra, Kevin Mallon (2004)

  

This album presents three violin concertos composed by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, and expertly performed by Qian Zhou with the Toronto Camerata under Kevin Mallon.  All Caribbean people, and certainly all Caribbean music lovers, owe it to themselves to know about Chevalier de Saint-George.  He was born in Guadeloupe in 1745 to Nanon, a slave from Senegal, and Georges de Bologne Saint-Georges, a French planter and slave owner. His father took him to France and had him educated as a French gentleman.  A composer and violin virtuoso, Saint-Georges was also a champion fencer, and soldier.  This album serves a great introduction to this remarkable Caribbean man and his music.

 

“This Time” – Al Jarreau (1980)

  

“This Time” showcases Al Jarreau’s prodigious vocal abilities. Earl Klugh’s playing on the title track, which he composed, is special.  Also particularly noteworthy as are Jarreau’s interpretation of Chick Corea’s classic “Spain” and Jarreau’s own composition “Distracted”.

 

“Star Tracks” – Yuri Honing Trio (1996)

  

I was introduced to this album via the standout track “Walking on The Moon”.  “Star Tracks” Features the Dutch trio of Yuri Honing on tenor sax, Tony Overwater on bass and Joost Lybaart on drums.  The album features jazz interpretations of European pop tunes from the 1970s to 1990s, along with the classic “Body and Soul” and Overwater’s composition “Some Unexpected Visitors”.

© 2020 Wayne Butcher. All rights reserved.