Sunday Music Muse Day - Neil Cowley Trio, Nils Petter Molvaer

This Sunday Music Muse Day features some spacy music. First up is Neil Cowley Trio Spacebound Apes. The io is Neil Cowley on piano, Rex Horan on bass, and Evan Jenkins on drums. Addition musicians:  Leo Abrahams on guitar and efx and Angus West, Oliver Fitzgerald-Lombard,  Craig Macdonald, and James Mildred on french horns. All these guys are new to me. I admit bought this CD purely for the cover and insert art hinting at a sci-fi space theme.  It actually an interesting concept album developed as a multimedia project.  The music is as spacy as the images. I highly recommend checking out the website to view the videos that go with the music.

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The CD included a vinyl sticker.  I'll find a spot for it.

My second choice is Nils Petter Molvaer ER.  This CD is spacy in the modern Acid Jazz way. Again you can hear echoes of Miles Davis' electronic band explorations. I featured another release of his last month.  I'll have to look for more.

It actually feel like summer out today. Hope you get a chance to enjoy it.

World of Warcraft - Pop-Up Book video.

 This update on the World of Warcraft Pop-Up book, a video I posted to youtube. Enjoy.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Jan Garberek, Bobby Hutcherson

This Sunday Music Muse Day find us observing several religious holidays.  I wish everyone a happy and peace observance of your respective faith.  In that spirit, I share my musical selection for the day,  First up Jan Garbarek In the Praise of Dreams.  This is one of his many ECM recordings, as a leader,  and sideman he has note worthing and long career. I admit sometimes I find his saxophone playing a little shrill, but still overall enjoyable.  This is a good session.

My second choice is Bobby Hutcherson In the Vanguard.  This is live recording at the legendary Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City.  A veteran jazz player Hutcherson play vibes and marimba (which I love the sound of) leading a stellar group including Kenny Barron on piano, Buster Williams on bass and Al Foster on drums. Although this CD get 4/5 star from online jazz critic, I found the sound and mix of the CD to be troubling, rather muddy to my ear. Made in 1987, it might be a early digital recording.  So it goes.

So, again, hope everyone enjoys their weekend not matter how you observe it.  As long as you do it with love and music. Peace.

World of WarCraft Pop-Up Book , Batman Noir

More dumpster diving bargains at Ollie's Discount store. First. this massive World of WarCraft Pop-up Book. I not imagine the papercraft engineering the went into making and printing of this. List price: $69.99, going for $9.99. But folding it out to full size map was pain in the ass. The other book, The Art of Blizzard Entertainment, was a bargain find from B&N years ago.

Here's another of my bargain finds at Ollie's, Batman Noir, the B&W edition of the classic The Dark Knight Returns. List price: $34.99, I paid $7.99. That's too good to pass up.

I like browsing Ollie's for discounted books and other items.  The amount of unsold goods produced can be staggering and mind numbing if you think about the waste of raw material it represents.  So, let's not and just enjoy these few bargain gems.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Yotam Silberstein, Torben Waldorff

This Sunday Music Muse Day finds us experiencing another cloudy, and cool spring day.  We even had some light snow flurries for awhile this morning.  Not enough for a coating and not enough to stop from enjoying some new music from what I think of as the next wave of jazz guitarists, that is guitarists who comes after the musicians I latched on to in the 70s and 80s, like Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Pat Martino, Larry Coryell, John Scofield, others, who were at the start of jazz fusion, that bridge between Rock and Jazz.  First up, Yotam Silberstein Future Memories.  I've come across his name in several online jazz review sites.  This is nice session by this Israeli guitarist. Seems he has been on the jazz since his arrival 2005 where he made a big impression with critics and players alike.  I can hear some Metheny in his work, and that's not a bad thing. 

Next is Torben Waldorff Holiday on Fire, another younger guitarist, (in his late 50s)who was totally new to me.  My only hint as to his leanings was in the song title Our Sound of Love (and Charles' and Duke's), which I assume was a nod to Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington.  I can hear some Miles, from his electric bands, and other early fusion groups in the sound.  Still, very enjoyable. I'll keep on the lookout for more of his music.

It's nice to discovery new musicians by browsing the CD racks and taking a chance on something without overthinking it.  It makes the finding of a new diamond in the rough much more enjoyable.

 

Halo Infinity steel case, and others

The new Halo TV series just starting streaming recently, and being a fan, I couldn't resist buying this steelbook case for the Halo Infinity video game.  even though I don't have Xbox or PC to play the game.  I'm just a sucker for steelcase boxes for DVDs, Blu-Rays and games.  They might add some value in re-sale, but I really only buy ones of films I like.  Each one has a story.

The Halo infinity will join my collection that started with the Quake III Arena video game.  It was a PC release, but I only played Playstation games, so I the steelcase package and sold the PC game to co worker.

King Kong is my favorite all time movie, and this is the Peter Jackson digital restored version in a Collector Edition.  The Band of Brother is the complete set of the HBO series.  I got this after I watched the series on a set of DVDs borrowed from the public library, and wanted my own copy.

This Disney Treasures DVD set , Tomorrowland with extra goodies.

Call of the Duty, game, and RoboCop the movie definitely scratch my itch for armored battlesuits.

The added kick with Call of Duty is Glen Schofield, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, is an old friend co-worker on the Adventures of  The Galaxy Rangers animated TV series.  I think it might have been his first professional art job.   He did very well for himself. 

Immortal is a cool film by artist Enki Bilal from comic stories featured in Heavy Metal Magazine.  Worth tracking down if you haven't seen it. Watchmen -Tales of the Black Freighter is pulled from the graphic novel. Personally, I didn't for gory story in a story. I thought of selling the DVD many times.

Akira and Iria, two classic japanese anime.

These Appleseed anime movie are some of the first to go CGI.

Ghost in the Shell TV series.

Batman Gotham Knights is a shorts directed and animated by Japanese anime directors.  Spawn is collection of the HBO series, which buddy Frank Paur worked on. 

Fury are Das Boot are two very good war movies I enjoyed watching in the theaters. These are great collectible steelcases.

I almost forgot the other steelcase I got with the Overwatch Collector's set. Again, I never played the game, because I didn't own a Playstation 4. This set with all the extras was too good to pass up.

Well, as they say everyone needs a hobby.