A Windham Hill Retrospective
Will Ackerman doing the Will Ackerman thing. Sometimes with other musicians, all on acoustic instruments, all sounding very accomplished. A very calm, meditative, somewhat boring album. I like it though. It suits a mood. But this ain't no party record.

Giant Steps
A very famous album, but somehow it kind of bores me. There's alot of originals that have become standards, and for that reason alone it's worth getting to know, since it's always fun when you hear someone else play a song you know. But as I said, it's not one of my favorites. But don't trust my opinion; I know nothing about jazz, I only know what I like. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent album. Naima is wonderful, and there's plenty of strong tracks.

My Favorite Things
This is one of My Favorite Albums, particularly for the first two tracks. It's a nice bit of melodic, adventurous jazz recorded before Coltrane went off the deep end. McCoy Tyner has some epic piano solos.

The Gentle Side of John Coltrane
This is a retrospective, chronicling exactly what the title says it does. This is one of my favorite albums to listen for going to sleep. Some really beautiful piano and saxophone. There are two vocal tracks from the album with Johnny Hartman, and both are simply incredible. The album ends, somewhat uncharacteristically, with an a cappella sax solo that absolutely burns. Sometimes it wakes me up after I've fallen asleep, but I don't mind as it puts me into this wonderful trance-like state.

Kind of Blue
This album has no need of any piddling praise on my part. Probably the most famous jazz album ever, beloved by all. Two words: get it.

Sketches of Spain
Another absolutely wonderful album. Very different from "Kind of Blue," but still great. Wonderful solos by Miles, and the compositions are excellent.

Bitches Brew
Electric Miles. Lots of spooky effects and great sidemen. Long crazy jams.

Endtroducing...
This is worthwhile listening on several levels. First and possibly foremost, are the great beats, which range from just being superbly funky to being really abstract and heady. Then there's all the nostalgia from the decades of vinyl that he samples. And then it's interesting just to think about what he's doing to music, with this extreme cut-and-paste technique.

Live 1966
This is a good, indeed very good album. It didn't live up to my expectations, though, because I had heard so much hype about it. The acoustic set is very good, but a trifle boring. Earlier and later in his career, Dylan's guitar playing could be riveting, but here it is very straightforward accompaniment, and the whole fifty minutes of it makes you want him to hurry up and get his band on stage. It would still be incredible, except that we've already heard these songs before. The electric set is much better, although the crowd doesn't seem to think so. The band really rocks, and Dylan really seems charged by the oppressive atmosphere the angry crowd creates. This would be a great introduction to Dylan's music of the mid-60's except that both "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde" are such perfect albums.

UFO TOFU
...is a palindrome, by the way. This is my favorite Flecktones album. Howard Levy is still in the band and he keeps things interesting with his piano and harmonica. And "the Yee-Haw Factor" simply has to be heard to be believed.

Tales from the Acoustic Planet
A solo album, it nevertheless features the Flecktones on most of the tracks as well as a bevy of guest musicians including Chick Corea and Branford Marsalis. This is my favorite album by Béla Fleck. A lot of beautiful tunes, wonderful jamming with Corea and Marsalis, and a great bluegrass number, "Cheeseballs in Cowtown."

Low Symphony
The first in a trilogy of symphonies ("Heroes Symphony" was released recently) loosely echoing the Bowie-Eno "Berlin" records of the late seventies. Philip Glass at all times sounds like Philip Glass, so there isn't much to say except that I like it, but he's done better stuff. It's also a pretty big departure from the original Bowie album, so there isn't much satisfaction in comparing interpretations.

Glassmasters
A three disc retrospective. It's pretty good, but I can't give it a whole-hearted recommendation. For one thing, I've only given two of the discs a good listen, I think I've listened to Disc 1 maybe once. Which is the curse of box sets, for me. There's alot of good stuff here, but some of it is a little hard to listen to. It also includes some very hokey songs (with lyrics by David Byrne and Paul Simon!). On the plus side, it's got "Mad Rush," which from the first time I heard it in concert two years ago, has been my favorite Glass composition. I love it.

Kronos Quartet
My first ever CD of "modern" classical music, it's one of my favorites. I love all the pieces, particularly the string quartet by Philip Glass. It's actually the recording that got me into Philip Glass, along with the track "To P.O." off "Hydrogen Jukebox" that was on a sampler CD I had.

Black Angels
Very experimental. This one was given to me and I've only listened to it once. It could be interesting... I'm not sure. But the person who gave it to me hated it. It's certainly not very accessible.

Russell Malone
It's a decent album, but not one I can listen to all the way through. This probably has to do more with taste than anything. But I'm not really interested in long jazz-flavored guitar showcases. Both "St. Louis Blues" and "I Don't Know Enough About You" are really cool, though.

Life is Sweet
I really, really like this album. I love its harsh attack, its penetrating lyrics, and its piercing singing. It's a concept album of sorts, dealing with the most personal of subjects: growing up. And in every song she is convincing. She's a singer-songwriter, and singer-songwriters are successful insofar as they can convey some sort of feeling that the listener has felt before, or can apply to their life. All the songs on this album do this for me.

On the other hand, one person's favorite musician may not please another person, and this holds especially true for singer-songwriters. Also, the arrangements on this album are truly bombastic and sometimes a little overbearing. Of course, with my old prog-rock leanings, I can deal fine.

Mingus Ah Um
A very good album, notably for "Better Git it In Your Soul" and "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." The former is an absolute delight to hear, and the latter's main theme imprints itself in your mind permanently.

live 93
I picked this up because I had heard of the band for quite a while, and the cover was a really funny parody of the Pink Floyd album "Animals." There are a number of Pink Floyd references contained in the music as well, from samples of Shine On You Crazy Diamond to a woman saying over and over again, "we don't need no education." Strangely enough, I find this album most interesting when I'm travelling, in my discman. It somehow makes me look at the new things I'm seeing in an interesting light. And "Little Fluffy Clouds" is a great track to wake the neighbors up with.

Sympathique
This album is not as campy as I remember seeing them playing live, but it's still great fun. About half the tracks are sung by the delicious China Forbes, though only two are in English. There are songs in Spanish, French, Greek, and Japanese! Excellent musicianship all around. A truly fun album.

The Automatic Box
Man, this was a ripoff. It was like $40 and it only contained 45 minutes of music! Deceptively spread over four CD's. But it all fits on to one Minidisc, with room to spare. Included are some B-sides which are fun but unnecessary, some truly awful instrumentals, and some inspired covers (including a hilarious "The Lion Sleeps Tonite"). If you're an R.E.M. fan this is pretty good but otherwise there's better stuff to get.

Talking Heads '77
Their first album. I've heard glowing reviews of this album, but I find it drastically inferior to "More Songs about Buildings and Food." "Psycho Killer," "Don't Worry About the Government," and "No Compassion," are all really good, but the rest is spotty and not terribly interesting.

More Songs about Buildings and Food
This album is very similar to "'77," except that it is a better album in every respect. First of all, the music suddenly got much better, with great drumming, and a superb rhythmic attack on the guitar. The songs are punchier, the hooks are catchier, and the lyrics more memorable. Byrne is as maniacal as I've ever heard him, just as he is on "Stop Making Sense."

Closing Time
Critics (and Winona Ryder) seem to really like this album. The All-Music guide calls it a "minor key masterpiece," and I've seen it recommended over his subsequent albums. While it's a good album, in my opinion it's one of his weakest. To begin with, the sound quality on the CD is considerably worse than his other albums, and since many of the arrangements are very spare, it's a little annoying when listening with earphones. This album features more of Tom's piano than his other albums; unfortunately, his piano playing isn't as good as it gets to be later. His later albums get jazzier, and eventually blusier, than this, and it's a welcome change.

That said, there's alot of great songs here, which is why the critics like it so much. "Ol' 55" is well covered, and seems to linger in mind for a rediculous amount of time. "I Hope I Don't Fall in Love With You," is another great song, but the album lapses too soon into filler, resurfacing only for a few tracks.

The Heart of Saturday Night
This album begins where "Closing Time" left off, exploring Waits' world of bars and lonely hearts a little further, and a little more interestingly. The title track is probably his most-covered song, and "Diamonds on my Windshield" is a real gem, his first recorded foray into the jazz-raps that would hold a prominent place in his next few albums. But what's really impressive about this album is it's remarkable absence of filler. Waits' albums are typically a little uneven, but his sophormore effort is remarkable consistent. There's a lot of great songs here.

Nighthawks at the Diner
This is my favorite Tom Waits album. It was also my first, which may have something to do with it. It's a "live in the studio" album, and it's great to hear his onstage patter with the crowd. He's really funny, and really loose. He could easily have been a comedian had he wanted to. The band is great, a jazz quartet backing up Waits' piano and occasional guitar. As for the material... well, none of his more conventional songs are fantastic; at least, they're not the sort of things that would end up on a best-hits album. But they all fit the rather cohesive mood of the album, and they are by no means filler. This is another unusually consistent album for Waits. Where he really shines is in his jazz-raps, which started in "The Heart of Saturday Night" with "Diamonds on My Windshield," but which really take off on this album. There are several, but my favorite is "Putnam County," (not really jazzy at all, but it's spoken word to music) which is an amazingly vivid portrait of small-town America. Or at least a small town in America. All in all, a great album.

Small Change
This album is almost as good as "Nighthawks." In many ways, it's better. The opening track "Tom Traubert's Blues" is incredible, and "Invitation to the Blues" just may be my favorite Waits song ever. There are other great tracks here; you can tell the songs are good by their names: "The Piano has been Drinking," "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart." And "Step Right Up" is downright hilarious. Unfortunately, the poetry tracks aren't nearly as interesting as they were on "Nighthawks," and there's a few tracks that are really, really boring. So it's a case of a few bad apples spoiling the batch, but really they only spoil it a little. It's still a great album, my second favorite, behind "Nighthawks."

Foreign Affairs
Of the ones that I own, this is my least favourite. Not an altogether bad album, nevertheless, it isn't very good. It begins with "Cinny's Waltz," which is about the least-engaging instrumental this side of R.E.M.'s "Automatic Box." Then there's "Muriel", which is a pretty decent song, except that its themes of heartbreak and drinking are finally starting to wear a little thin, and he's written better songs that say the same thing. The duet with Bette Midler, "I Never Talk to Strangers," is easily the best thing on the album. Davis is "colossal" on the track, and it's really nice and cute. Unfortunately, the album languishes after that. I like "A Sight For Sore Eyes" quite a bit, but I have to wonder if I would like it so much if it were on one of his more richly appointed albums.

Heartattack and Vine
This album has a rawer attack than his earlier albums, forsaking the jazz influence with something more akin to rock and blues. His voice is even gravelier now, and his references to cocaine and prostitutes portray a different nightlife than his "Heart of Saturday Night" days. Which isn't to say he is no longer capable of a tender ballad, as "Jersey Girl," and "Ruby's Arms" amply show. Still, the harder songs such as "Mr. Siegal" are just as interesting, and the album an edge that had been missing in the preceding albums.

One From the Heart
This one is a soundtrack album, and most of the songs are duets with Crystal Gayle. It's got a couple throwaway instrumentals, and Gayle's voice is not exactly to my liking, but there are many strong songs. More than I recommend the soundtrack, however, I recommend seeing the movie. It's really great. And it features a young Nastassja Kinski. I mean, how can go wrong?