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Shark
Jun 5, 20246 min read
Enigmatic Ocean by Jean-Luc Ponty: flawless playing and utterly fluid transitions and interplay
With Understanding Comes Appreciation If you don't have this album/CD, get it. It could change your life. It is one of the best Jazz-Rock...
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Shark
May 27, 20245 min read
Starring Rosi by Ash Ra Tempel: the definitive trip into cerebral space land
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Yes, this album sounds nothing like any other Ash Ra Tempel album. Yes, this album is light and...
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Shark
May 23, 20247 min read
Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderley: this music is so cool and so smooth, that it is infectious working its way into the mind, body and soul of the listener
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Somethin' Else is an anomaly in that Miles Davis actually chose to appear as a sideman on another...
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Shark
Apr 11, 202416 min read
The Complete Music of Anton Webern —Recorded Under the Direction of Robert Craft: hugely influential recordings of jewel-like works
With Understanding Comes Appreciation In the years following his death in 1945, Anton Webern’s works became the Rosetta Stone of post-war...
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Shark
Apr 7, 20246 min read
Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte by Popol Vuh: an ability to create music that's simultaneously delicate and powerful, detailed and expansive, earthbound in its origins and cosmic in its reach
With Understanding Comes Appreciation For the sake of new comers, first things first. Of the many legendary artists to emerge from the...
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Shark
Apr 2, 20245 min read
Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock: considered to be one of (if not THE) vanguard recordings that gave birth to funk/rock jazz fusion
With Understanding Comes Appreciation In many ways I equate Herbie Hancock with the legendary Bob Dylan as far as being an enormous...
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Shark
Apr 1, 20248 min read
Per Un Amico by Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM): jaw dropping musical acrobatics with ease which never lose the pace of a sophisticated graceful poetic dance of sounds
With Understanding Comes Appreciation While the big bang of progressive rock was only a few years old, it is astonishing how so many...
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Shark
Mar 31, 20248 min read
Roxy Music by Roxy Music: from an art school project to the most adventurous rock band of the early '70s
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Roxy Music debut with the eponymous album was epochal. There had never been any pop songs with such...
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Shark
Mar 21, 202415 min read
The Velvet Underground & Nico: its experimental fingertips and legacy permeated the whole pop/rock realm
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Once upon a time there was the story of the greatest irony of all-time in music, known as The...
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Shark
Mar 20, 20245 min read
Solar Music Live by Grobschnitt: mandatory for space rock cadets and beyond
With Understanding Comes Appreciation If you are into Krautrock or guitar driven space rock, I've got a record for you: Solar Music Live...
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Shark
Mar 14, 202429 min read
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók; Part 1: seemingly contrasting properties of science and art are inextricably bound together to form the essence of genius' music
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Composed for nine instruments (2x pianos, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle,...
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Shark
Mar 13, 20246 min read
Metal Fatigue by Allan Holdsworth: prepare to be dazzled by the most futuristic guitar playing this side of the universe!
With Understanding Comes Appreciation In one million years from now, it would not surprise me in the slightest if Allan Holdsworth were...
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Shark
Mar 12, 20248 min read
Darwin! by Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso: passionate vocals, complex song structure, fantastic keyboards, tranquil moments and powerful passages
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The reason why Banco del Mutuo Soccorso so much deserves their status as an epitome of the best...
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Shark
Mar 11, 202415 min read
2112 by Rush: conjuring up the kind of sci-fi images and otherworldly magic that would later become the hallmark of the band
With Understanding Comes Appreciation 2112 achieved a triple feat: 1) it saved Rush's career. It was like Rush was at the plate with two...
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Shark
Mar 10, 20249 min read
Time Control by Hiromi: refreshing the jazz-rock fusion airs by an extremely talented virtuoso piano player
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Modern Jazz-Rock/Fusion is the true progressive music movement of our time. It makes no...
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Shark
Mar 10, 202410 min read
If I Could Do It All Over Again... by Caravan: a healthy dose of the psychedelic scene of the era, smooths things over with pop sensibilities and dresses it all up with progressive rock workouts
With Understanding Comes Appreciation As the 60s abruptly became the 70s, the psychedelia of the former era was transmogrifying into...
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Shark
Mar 9, 202414 min read
Third by Soft Machine: an ambitious album, which push back the frontiers of space modal jazz-rock far beyond while defining the Canterbury Scene moving forward
With Understanding Comes Appreciation From start to end, this album is an absolute killer. Every single second is just excellent, the...
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Shark
Mar 8, 202417 min read
Le Sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky: sophisticated handling of primitive rhythms anyone ever thought up —dissonances, asymmetries, polytonalities and polyrhythms
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein said of one passage, "That page is sixty years old,...
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Shark
Mar 7, 20247 min read
Blow by Blow by Jeff Beck: a powerhouse of jazzy funk rock fusion with nine strong tracks by a Guitar God
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Lots of jazz guitarists have veered into the world of rock and roll on occasion, but the number of...
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Shark
Mar 7, 20246 min read
Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk: innovative and idiosyncratic approach to composition and performance; angular melodies, unexpected chord progressions, and intricate rhythmic patterns
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners stands as a testament to the genius of one of jazz music's most...
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