A friend was over the other night, and the stereo was on. Currently in the CD player: [ul]
[li]Momo Wandel Soumah, Matchowe – Senegalese sax player with a voice like a cross between Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits[/li][li]Either/Orchestra, Afro-Cubism – contemporary big-band jazz, this album with a heavy Latin influence[/li][li]Caetano Veloso, A Foreign Sound – the man usually described as “The Bob Dylan of Brazil,” in terms of his lefty politics and profound influence over the last 40 years or so – but he’s got a tenor you want to grab a handful of and rub all over your body. His first all-English album, a quirky collection of standards, plus songs by Nirvana, David Byrne, and, yes, Dylan[/li][li]David Byrne, Grown Backwards – his latest[/li][li]Prince, Musicology – his latest[/li][/ul]
My friend wanted to know – where do you come up with this stuff from, since you don’t listen to the radio?
And my answer was … uh…
Soumah I encountered on a 2-disk compilation set called “Desert Blues II,” of African musicians from around the Sahara. I got that album, I think, based on an Amazon recommendation.
Either/Orchestra – read a review, somewhere. Don’t know where, since I didn’t clip the review, just wrote down the name of the album, and ordered it a few months later. I do buy stuff based on reviews, sometimes – one of the rock critics for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Tom Moon, has taste very similar to mine, so I’ve gotten some outstanding stuff based on his recommendations – but he reviews rock, not jazz. I do read some reviews in Entertainment Weekly, but haven’t bonded with a particular reviewer in quite that way.
Caetano Veloso – first encountered a few years based on a mix CD from an online pal who shares my love of world music. She said, you like African and Caribbean? Check out Brazilian! (And a bunch of other stuff as well. I ended up going in a few directions from that CD.) This album got good reviews, and I’ve been digging it majorly.
David Byrne – I’ve loved him for 20 years – the Heads ARE the soundtrack of the '80s – and this got good reviews. A couple of killer tracks, the rest is okay.
Prince – again, I’ve loved him for 20 years. He’s so freakin’ prolific, though, that I can’t pretend to have followed his career totally closely. This album was hailed as “a return to the old Prince” – and I’m reminded of why I don’t listen to oldies. As I grow and change, so does my taste in music. I don’t hate it, but it’s going to end up in the library pretty soon, rarely to re-emerge.
So – the current collection is unusual in being new releases of favorite artists. I’m trying to figure out where I do come up with this stuff from:
[ul]
[li]Reviews, either from a trusted reviewer (Tom Moon), or, occasionally, some random reviewer (ended up with an Arto Lindsay album I lvoe based on the latter)[/li][li]Recommendations from a friend who likes the same sort of stuff (the problem, of course, is that my taste is pretty quirky – no one really listens to the same stuff I do)[/li][li]Catalogue descriptions – I get emails from a world music guy (dealer), and, believe it or not, I’ve gotten a couple of totally killer albums from Daedalus (remainder catalogue)[/li][li]AMG descriptions of artists I’m curious about – the problem is, of course, it’s not at all clear who’s making those picks – I’m often left thinking, “they liked this album better than that one?”[/li][li]Amazon recommendations. The more I buy through there, the better their recommendations are. I’m a little freaked by the big-brotherness of it, but hell, for good tunes, go ahead and stick your probe in my brain.[/li][/ul]
Where do you get your new music from?