The best laid plans, etc. This is what I wrote a few weeks ago. What I thought was a bad head cold turned out to be COVID, my second bout. I do not recommend it. I had these things written and figured, might as well share and move on.
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As I mentioned in my previous posting, I was hit but a monster cold last week. (See follow up below.) It's hard to feel motivated to do anything under such circumstances. Today, we're basically snowed in and I might as well do some listening and writing.
01/26/2026 on CD
John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (on Naxos, Boris Berman performer)
Here's case where I wanted to find listening that seemed cold, or at least cool and chill. Feldman seemed like an easy choice, so instead I went with this old favorite. I have at least three recordings of his work, and it's easy to hear the differences in the results of the preparations. My favorite is the version played by Joshua Pierce on the Tomato label, though I recognize that it's probably because it was the first I heard. What might be most interesting is that despite Cage's fastidious instructions for how to prepare the piano, one can hear subtle but distinct differences. Perhaps, maybe I've even read, that this was one thing that led to his embracement of indeterminate techniques and the "giving up" of elements of control over his works.
Perhaps it's just my perception, but the digital recording and playback for this recording seems to emphasize the delicacy of these pieces. The piano is in some ways being muted and therefor is naturally quieter than the unprepared version. The pieces in this set are not as virtuosically difficult as much other piano literature. I am convinced that it takes a pianist with a a high degree of understanding and sympathy to Cage's work to play this convincingly. Intensely listening while performing would be essential.
I know some who don't care for Cage's prepared music, some who love them. I find this set of pieces quite beautiful.
01/29/2026 on vinyl
Clint Mansell: In the Wall OST (Death Waltz)
Well. Turns out that what I thought was a monster head cold turned out to be COVID. I'm in day eight, my wife is in day four +/-.
I don't know this movie. I don't know this composer. I think this turned up used, and being on Death Waltz, I wasn't going to pass it up. The vinyl is spattered coffee and cream colored. Attractive looking, though notoriously these pressings tend to have surface noise.
Looking over imdb.com, it seems I'm more familiar with Mr. Mansell's work than I knew. Pi, Requiem for a Dream, High-Rise. Anything sounding like an acoustic instrument, I suspect is sampled. There's some muted or prepared piano hits, which I will never not love.
This has a digital quality that is lacking in the great Italian soundtracks I love. But I can't hold it against the composer, it is the method at the time. The atmosphere isn't that far off from those Italian works, though.
So...Fabio Frizzi and Goblin > Clint Mansell > any other digital age Syfy channel movie.
Too harsh?
01/29/2026 #2 on vinyl
Jerry Goldsmith: Our Man Flint (20th Century Fox)
In the Wall led to In Like Flint, and I thought, I have the first Flint soundtrack, don't I?
Yes.
Our Man Flint and In Like Flint are two James Bond-style spy parody movies starring James Coburn as Derek Flint, super-spy. Except....they're only a step or two removed from the source material. The originals aren't that much sillier than these moves are. James Coburn, I don't know. I'd have to ask her how he ranks on the "sexy" scale, but I think she'd say he doesn't hold a proverbial candle to Sean Connery. He was rail thin at the time, reasonably handsome, so like I said I don't know.
Jerry Goldsmith is great here. 60s lounge and space vibes. When I played a James Bond-themed party with two friends, I passed out the main title theme to this movie as part of the material. Who would have known or even cared?
You know what? For some 60's groovy bachelor pad listening, this is pretty good stuff.
01/30/2026 on vinyl, 10", #1
Teddy Charles: N.D. Quartet (New Jazz)
First 10" LP of the day. This has my father's signature on the back, so I know the source. He had the Teddy Charles New Directions LP, reissuing this and presumably another 10" on the other side. He encouraged me to listen to it, and I never got into it. But...I'd keep coming back. I knew there was something there. When he sold his record collection, I was disappointed that the Teddy Charles album went with it, despite asking him to save it. (He did save the Monk vinyl for me though.).
The record: Lots of surface noise. I can only imagine the system my Dad listened to this on, probably the self-contained turntable system he gave to me and my sisters as kids.
It's a nice session. I like it. Vibes/tenor/bass drums, definitely sympathetic to the instrumentation. Nice performances. What was it I didn't like about this as a young man? Too cool perhaps. Time mellows one, no?
01/30/2026 on vinyl 10" #2
Daniel Lentz: After Images (Cold Blue)
I more or less remember meeting Daniel Lentz. It was at a Pittsburgh New New Music Ensemble gathering, Meet the Composer (or as Jason Gibbs would put it, Feed the Composer). Daniel came originally from Latrobe, PA.
It's sweet. Daniel is/was a big guy, smoking a big smelly cigar. His music sounds elfish even if he is not.
02/01/2026 on vinyl 10"
Music Department, Imperial Household: 雅楽 = Gagaku (Court Music) (Columbia)
I've written about another 10" LP from this series before. Certainly not the most valuable records in my collection, but I have a sense that someone combing through my materials in the future will say, "Oh!Hey! What's this? Clean original copies of 1950s Japanese Gagaku LPs in the original 10" format?"
And if so, they wouldn't be wrong. What a find these were, at Jerry's Records. With beautiful covers no less.
02/01/2026 on vinyl 10"
Sun Ra: Live in London (Blast First)
A late era Arkestra album, divided among three 10" records.
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