So many wonderful recordings have been restored to me in the past few weeks of uploading the vinyl. I've never been without a turntable, but some old friends still somehow got neglected, came out now and then perhaps, but didn't get the constant play they once enjoyed.
In particular I'm finding the warmth between me and the old jazz LPs I bought at places like Ray's and Mole fifteen or twenty years ago has rekindled nicely, and I did go through a period of not often listening to this stuff.
Not sure that applied to this beautiful album, which I think survived all vicissitudes of taste, but boy is it good to have it on the iPo and to snuggle up with its intricate ripples and eddies on this quiet, cold Sunday night.
Though most of you will be reading this on Monday, and that's just fine, my foolish old romantic hope is that I catch a pair of sympathetic ears with it late night tonight, for this is music to hear when the crazy world's asleep.
Just a piano and a guitar.
Well, given these players, hardly 'just'....
Perfection; this is the LP's entire second side.
Bill Evans & Jim Hall - 'Romain' (1963)
Bill Evans & Jim Hall - 'Skating In Central Park' (1963)
Bill Evans & Jim Hall - 'Darn That Dream' (1963)
[Criminally cheap with bonus tracks here, but without those lovely crackles...]
I went through a patch of buying Blue Note albums almost purely for the covers. Best album covers ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is one of the very best - a 1947 photo by Toni Frissell.
ReplyDeleteSadly, mine is the UK issue (on World Records), which has a much less exciting image of a submerged acoustic (!) guitar on the front.
At least you know I bought the record for the music this time.
I used to love Ray's Jazz Shop - It was a great shortcut from Shaftsbury Ave to Monmouth St (on my visits to the Comics Showcase via Forbidden Planet) by the time I got 'on the Jazz' it had closed down. How's your luck?
ReplyDeleteThe ol' spoilsports at work have blocked these links so will grab later.
PS would recommend Octave 8 in Endell St as a great venue for evenings sipping to live Jazz sounds.
Nice Mondo, thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteRay's is now a 'concession' in Foyles, which is hardly the same.
It was a great store, smelling of old vinyl and cardboard sleeves and full of people who genuinely loved the music.
Even longer before there was a greasy spoon next door - sausage beans and a slice for £1.25.
We was poor but we was 'appy, tha knows.
I work around the corner from where Ray's used to be (it's a ticketmaster or something now) and Forbidden Planet is now by the zebra crossing there. Almost none of the old greasy spoons are around that area anymore.
ReplyDeleteI used to spend Saturdays when I was a youngster with my best mate at Forbidden Planet, buying my comics, then making a trip to a cafe for coffee feeling like we were in some old sixties movie.
Nostalgia. It smells faintly of old fried food. A bit like Blackpool.