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I am not sure there is a thread on what Sonos is truly about - the music, so this might be an interesting thread. I have left out classical because that deserves a thread of its own and modern pop because it all sounds the same to me.

I have Phil Keaggy strumming Solitude from his Acoustic Sketches album right now in the bedroom on a play 1 pair and sounding very good indeed.

Recently heard and equally good music and mastering:

1. Michel Petrucciani and NHOP

2. Beyond the Missouri Sky - Metheny and Haden

3. Chiaroscuro - Fresu and Towner

4. Jan Johannsen - Jazz pa Svenska

5. The Astounding Eyes of Rita - Anouar Brahem

6. Last Dance/Jasmine - Jarrett and Haden

7. Saturday Morning - Ahmad Jamal

8. Melos - Paolo Fresu

All but the last are ITunes 256kbps purchases, the last a lossless CD rip.

Very little lost in translation for the lossy thing and Sonos convenience.

Any recommendations on similar music that uses the silence between the notes effectively?
Yes, it's one of the best ballads album out there, IMO. Alan Broadbent provides the perfect accompaniment, another jazz treasure. Tessa had several gigs with him in Manhattan last month; wish it wasn't 3,000 miles distant! A Broadbent/Souter album would be fascinating.
Broadbent is also good in jazz piano trio format - I have his Gianelli Square and Pacific Standard Time. Both very good efforts.
And as part of a Quartet. He was a longtime member of Charlie Haden's Quartet West. Listening to their Haunted Heart album now, in fact.
Only read part of the thread, but for my diverse taste I can recommend best of Stan Getz the Verve Years and any 1985 or prior Dead Kennedy's.
First listen of Kurt Elling's new album tonight. Excellent, recommended to any jazz vocal fan. Here's Will Friedwald's review: http://kurtelling.com/news/press_article_948.php
I find that my preferences in jazz seem to cycle through piano trios through small jazz combos with horns and then to guitar led trios/quartets. Currently I have piano trios in heavy circulation and recent excellent discoveries:

1. Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell - Azure and Amaryllis

2. Gary Peacock led trio - Now This

3. Giovanni Guidi - City of Broken Dreams

4. Jarrett/Peacock/De Johnette - Somewhere

Largely quiet and contemplative music, that works equally well for ambient, but good for attentive listening as well. All ECM records, and to their usual standard of mastering quality. Recommended.
Testing YouTube link. It won't accept m.youtube.com links from my iPad, has to be the PC link, apparently.



My favorite of the Novo Fadistas



All I see is a black rectangle.



No, I had to set my browser, it works fine now! Music always sounds better when the singer is beautiful!
And now I have Rdio, I have the album on play right away! Excellent.



Is the Spanish or Portuguese?
And now I have Rdio, I have the album on play right away! Excellent.



Is the Spanish or Portuguese?



Portuguese, but Katia probably speaks Spanish, too! She speaks perfect French, there's an hour long video of her performing in the more traditional Fado style for French TV. And she's an MD, who apparently still practices! Dunno how she finds the time.
I find that my preferences in jazz seem to cycle through piano trios through small jazz combos with horns and then to guitar led trios/quartets. Currently I have piano trios in heavy circulation and recent excellent discoveries:

The box set (6 cds) from the Brad Mehldau Trio, which is modestly titled The Art Of The Trio :8, contains some great music.
I have a couple of albums from that - Brad leads an excellent trio too.


Portuguese, but Katia probably speaks Spanish, too! She speaks perfect French, there's an hour long video of her performing in the more traditional Fado style for French TV. And she's an MD, who apparently still practices! Dunno how she finds the time.

Nice clip. I like fado.

I have seen Mariza live. Portuguese by way of Mozambique. A very powerful concert. Great grace and passion.



I have seen Kurt Elling in concert too. Was good, but the Mariza one is one of the most moving I have been to.



An hour long clip of a great concert of hers here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6LdDqvrIHE



But this a shorter taste.
Yep, Mariza's star certainly shone brightly for several years. I think she's the only fadista besides Amalia Rodrigues to have sold more than a million records. The current critics favorite is a young girl from up north, with tattoos, tennis shoes, and a powerful, emotionally charged voice, who grew up listening to Amalia and loving the poetry of Fado: Gisela João. Enjoying her one and only (so far) self-titled release. Much more to come from this talent.



A couple of recent Charlie Haden albums found, duos with piano. The very recently released Tokyo Adagio, recorded live in Japan in 2005 with Gonzalo Rubalcaba and an older one, Nightfall - John Taylor on piano. Excellent late night music with the lights down low. Master musicians at work, and highly recommended for jazz piano fans.
And another Haden/Rubalcaba album, The Land of the Sun, with a Latin flavour and a larger ensemble. Also very listenable.
I just got around to listening to the only Miles Davis from the 1950s that I had not heard till now, and it is brilliant, moody and evocative music. Soundtrack from the Louis Malle movie Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud, improvised by Miles and company while watching relevant parts of the movie in the recording studio, with little advance prep. No one but Miles could have pulled this off, capturing the dark themes, and it makes for great late night listening to a master of the trumpet. Recording quality is as good as from today's best studios.
Time to rediscover Monk with two excellent live albums and Monk seems to do best in a live format:

1. Live at the It club

2. In Tokyo

Both very well recorded too.

And some new finds with the horn players as lead artistes:

1. Stan Getz - Anniversary, Serenity and People Time. All recorded live in Copenhagen towards the end of Stan's life. As good as he ever was, even when suffering from terminal cancer.

2. Scott Hamilton - many excellent ones. I liked Nocturnes and Serenades as well as his album with Harry Allen, Stompin the Blues. Jazz Signatures is also good.

3. Jane Ira Bloom on the soprano sax on Sixteen Sunsets.

4. Excellent trombone jazz from John Allred, In the Beginning.
Lucy Ann Polk isn't well known these days, but she was a pretty good jazz singer with a sexy voice. Her Lucky Lucy Ann album on the Mode label is her best work, IMO.



Also Beverly Kenney, for all you playboys. 😉. Good singer, sad story.



Good timing, this blog just posted on the above two "forgotten" singers today.



http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-girl-singers-that-time-forgot/
Listening now...



Playing me some Hank Jones: Complete Original Trio Recordings, and I Remember You. Great, eloquent, understated player. Loved his more recent recording with Roberta Gambarini, too.
Just a bit more rowdy here. Playing the Miles Davis official bootleg from the Fillmore in 1970.

It is weird hearing music which I know well in the edited version, sounding foreign suddenly.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/miles-at-the-fillmore-miles-davis-1970-the-bootleg-series-vol-3-mw0002619823





Just finished the Thelonious Monk set at the Blackhawk in 1960. A great live album. It always strikes me as surprising that there is so much audience chatter through much of the concert.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/at-the-blackhawk-mw0000194844
The Blackhawk is a very good set, but perhaps trumped for overall production quality in two other live Monk records - Live at the It Club and Monk in Tokyo. Blackhawk probably has the definitive Round Midnight, certainly the longest one.
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