San Francisco

Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho
Short Tales of the Black Forest - Paco de Luc Al di Meola, Al di Meola, John McLaughlin
Frevo Rasgado - Paco de Luc Paco de Luc , Al di Meola, John McLaughlin
Fantasia Suite for Two Guitars: Viva la Danzarina/Guitars of the ...
Guardian Angel [Studio Recording]

Album Description

Featuring John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola and Paco DeLucia on acoustic guitar. The Great Guitar Trio's Classic Original Recording! Great photos of the trio in performance! 20 BIT digitally remastered. Superb new sound!

Customer Reviews:

Gorgeous Recording with Playful Musicians.......2006-08-16

Undoubtedly one of my favorite recordings in SACD format, I only wish there was video as well, because it would be great. These gentlemen truly understand the music and their improvisational skills are fantastic, as they're able to play along with each other and the audience, the latter which seems to be thouroughly ecstatic. Unfortunately this is not a hybrid recording, which means if you want to transfer it to a portable device or play it in your car, it requires tremendous effort.

Stereo SACD, not Multichannel!.......2003-10-13

This is a great performance. My review is mostly based on the fact that this is a stereo SACD, not multichannel. I am learning more about SACD every day, but was very disappointed that it is only presented in stereo.

"Too Many Notes...".......2002-11-29

That was Emperor Joseph's simple-minded estimation of any music he didn't understand in the Academy-Award winning movie "Amadeus." I never thought I would ever find music that would actually fit that description... until now.

If you think this is some sort of super-charged California Guitar Trio or a Narciso Yepes-type forray into flameco-guitar, forget it. That is not to say most every review you see here is wrong. In fact, they are all correct about these guys being virtuoso guitarists.

However, songs that consist almost entirely of 32nd and 64th notes are at first impressive, but very quickly become tiresome. And this isn't an album full of "songs" so much as it is a forty-some-odd-minute-long jam session featuring testosterone-fueled duels and improvs with a Flamecan flare.

So if you're a guitarist who thrills to the repeated use of the same techniques over and over for close to an hour, this is a great album for you. If you're a normal guy just trying to find some high-fi SACD pyrotechnics, maybe this is still for you. But if you're just someone looking to be entertained, this may disappoint.

Amazing, amazing, amazing.......2002-09-03

"Friday Night in San Francisco" is one of those rare CDs you'll listen to and just laugh out loud from sheer amazement at the virtuoso guitar work of Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucia. Here are three friends, all guitarists, who are clearly having the time of their lives showing off their astonishing instrumental skills and jamming together on, well, a Friday night in San Francisco back in the 1980s.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to this album by a cousin many years ago, and after having treated myself to it, I played it on at least a weekly basis for months. Far from getting sick of it eventually, I found myself noticing new things almost every time I played it. Of course it's wonderful to listen to yourself, but there is also a profound pleasure to be had in introducing a novice to the album. Watch their eyes widen and their jaw drop as they turn to you and say, "Who IS this? I gotta have this!"

All three men share composition credits on the album. "Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho," the song that opens the album, is a Spanish-influenced piece that sends notes scattering like raindrops on a sunny day--the aural effect is one of sparkling light. Chick Corea's song "Short Tales of the Black Forest" gets a work-out here, and McLaughlin and DiMeola do it proud as they build the musical tension to an almost unbearable point before exploding into the heart of the song a minute or two into the piece. "Frevo Rasgado," an Egberto Gismonti piece, is a complex song which swings effortlessly back and forth between major and minor keys, and McLaughlin and DeLucia go along for the ride with a kind of manic joy in their playing.

The three men don't all play together until the final two songs. On "Fantasia Suite," a DiMeola composition, they follow the notes but go further into that realm where they are in their own little universe, egging each other on and on until the music reaches an almost sublime climax. On "Guardian Angel," much the same thing happens and it's a privilege to hear this kind of creative collaboration in action. If you haven't already, make room on your CD shelf for this outstandingly great album!

SACD SUPERIOR to redbook CD.......2002-04-29

I own both, SACD and CD. The sound of the SACD is so much more clear, articulate, three dimensional. Before I got the SACD I hardly ever listened to the redbook as acoustically there wasn't much to distinguish it from the other pressings (even when played back on a Sony SCD-C555ES). Playback of the SACD offers such listening pleasure. I close my eyes and just listen to the great LIVE music. The playback experience will depend on the quality of your audiogear.

Average customer rating:

Heart of Gold, Genuine Talent, Icon Song of the 60's...
Still holds up almost thirty years later
Scott McKenzie
Taking us all back 40 years
Lovely to hear you again my friend

San Francisco
Scott McKenzie
Manufacturer: Sbme Import
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music

Pop | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

It Never Rains in Southern California
San Francisco
Superhits
Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield
The Byrds - Greatest Hits

ASIN: B000007224
Release Date: 1999-06-03

Tracks:

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)
Celeste
It's Not Time Now
What's the Difference (Chapter 2)
Reason to Believe
Like an Old Time Movie
No, No, No, No, No
Don't Make Promises
Twelve Thirty
Rooms
What's the Difference (Chapter 1)

Album Description

1999 compilation featuring 11 of the greatest hits by the '60s pop-star who co-wrote 'Kokomo' with the Beach Boys, including his top five smash 'San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)' & the top 30 'Like An Old Time Movie'. Sony.

Album Details

Scott McKenzie, who co-wrote the 1988 Beach Boys hit 'Kokomo', originally released this album in 1967. McKenzie's well-known smash, 'San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)' along with other John Phillips (the Mamas & the Papas) tunes ('Like An Old Time Movie', 'Twelve-Thirty' & 'Rooms') are here with seven others.

Customer Reviews:

Heart of Gold, Genuine Talent, Icon Song of the 60's..........2007-03-12

Scott McKenzie was a neighbor of mine for nine years and let me just say, he is one of the nicest, men I have ever met.
Not only is he mega-talented, but he is a soft spoken, humorous guy who occaisionally flys over to Europe where they celebrate his music and lyrics in a very big way. And he still writes lyrics for today's musicians.
America has trouble celebrating it's own history, be it music, architecture, culture....maybe we should take note from Europe and leave some old buildings up, and celebrate the musical pioneers that created "LOVE" and "Peace' songs which we need the most right now!
Enjoy ths CD!
In Mexico there is a Disco Remix of "San Francisco" w/ Scott and 1 year ago I danced to it at a fun place where everyone was singing along to those classic lyrics.
Cheers Scott!

Still holds up almost thirty years later.......2006-11-13

This album was obviously thrown together in 1967 to maximize the financial return from the mega hit "San Francisco". The fact that it is solid thruout was a huge surprise to me in the 60's and it still holds up today. His voice really fits the Tim Hardin songs, the John Phillips songs are well done, and his original song "What's the difference" is excellent.

If you like the song "San Francisco" you should love this album. I recommend it to any ex-hippy or ex-hippy wannabes.

Scott McKenzie.......2006-03-03

Scott Mckenzie's version of "San Francisco" is so much better than Tony Martin. He is a very great talent!

Taking us all back 40 years.......2002-01-13

I saw Scott McKenzie as an opening act at the Hollywood Bowl where the Mamas and the Papas were performing. I dropped my jaw listening to this man sing. I bought the album immediately, have loved it and the music for a long time. When I found it released on CD, had to have it....but had to reconstruct the album cover (Thank you PhotoShop) to make it look like the original record...

"Celeste" is beautiful, "Rooms" is stirring...even both versions of "Whats the Difference" are great. Actually, there isnt a song on the album I don't like, and don't remember fondly.

Lovely to hear you again my friend.......2001-03-09

I was alive, well, and a year out of high school when "San Francisco" hit the air in Houston. The song is one of the true time & place classics in my memory. Others being "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"-Righteous Bros, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"-Walker Bros. and "Nights In White Satin"-Moody Blues. Some fans don't know that McKenzie and John Phillips were friends and when Phillips needed an anthem for his '67 Monterey Pop Festival,he tapped on Scott McKenzie's shoulder. The album was recorded in one night and was produced by Mamas & Papas and Johnny Rivers producer Lou Adler. Phillips sang chorus and harmony on several of the album's cuts. McKenzie's singing is unique in pop music. His huskey, plaintiff voice draws you in and truly wins your emotions to the point of view of his material. Although "San Francisco" was his most popular and remembered song, "Twelve-Thirty", "Like An Old Time Movie" and "What's The Difference Pt II" (later recorded by Johnny Rivers for his Realization album) are great examples of McKenzie"s ability to win a listener's heart. Scott's follow-up album "Stained Glass Morning" didn't come close to the mark he had set for himself with his first effort and most of us lost track of him. I have both albums on LP and was deighted when "San Francisco" (originally titled "The Voice of Scott Mckenzie") became available on CD. His "Anthology" is now available and I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival from England. The inability to find McKenzie's music until just a few years ago represented a large void in my CD collection-now filled. Scott McKenzie is one of my favorite singers and this album is well worth the asking price!

Rachmaninoff for Romance: Passionate Music for Love and Desire

Average customer rating:

Tear Time
The Beauty of Rachmaninoff
Applause
Beautiful
Rachmaninoff for Romance

Rachmaninoff for Romance: Passionate Music for Love and Desire

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Chopin and Champagne: Set Your Mood for Romance
Liszt for Lovers: Piano Dreams of Love and Passion
Tchaikovsky At Tea Time: A Refreshing Blend For Body And Spirit
Debussy for Daydreaming: Music to Caress Your Innermost Thoughts
Bach for Breakfast

ASIN: B0000041DX
Release Date: 1995-10-17

Tracks:

Vocalise For Orchestra
Rhapsody On A Theme By Paganini - 18th Variation: Rhapsody On A Theme By Paganini - 18th Variation (Excerpt)
Symphony No. 2 in E minor: Symphony No. 2 In E Minor - Adagio
Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor: Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor - Adagio sostenuto
Prelude In D
Piano Concerto No. 3 In D Minor: Piano Concerto No. 3 In D Minor - Intermezzo (Adagio)
Symphonic Dance: Symphonic Dance - I. Non Allegro (excerpt)
Piano Concerto No. 1 In F - Sharp Minor: Piano Concerto No. 1 In F - Sharp Minor - Andante
Prelude In E-Flat
Piano Concerto No.4 In G Minor: Piano Concerto No.4 In G Minor - Largo
Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor: Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor - Allegro scherzando (Excerpt)

Customer Reviews:

Tear Time.......2007-05-09

Find your loved one, get some tissue and escape into a world of desire and fantasy. All ages will love this music. Tender, soft, and relaxing with the hint of being alive again.

Donald Lindsey

The Beauty of Rachmaninoff.......2006-11-10

This album contains some of Rachmaninoff's most beautiful and romantic music which should appeal to everyone, even if you're not a classical music fan. The performances are first rate and you may even shed a few tears listening to this very emotional music. These excerpts from some of Rachmaninoff's major works may induce you to want the entire compositions for your collection.

Applause.......2002-03-12

I'll add my applause to these reviews. It's an elegant collection of Rachmaninov pieces. Simply beautiful.

Beautiful.......2001-05-21

If you are a Rachmaninov fan, this CD is a must. Of all the CD's I have of Rachmaninov, this is my favorite. The orchestra's that perform capture the essence of what he composed. It is a beautiful CD guaranteed to please. As the back of the CD states, "Rachmaninov and romance go together like Romeo and Juliet"

Rachmaninoff for Romance.......2000-04-25

I purchased this CD primarily for Trac#2--Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini-18th Variation. I wasn't disapointed! The whole cd is very relaxing and definitly puts you in the mood. I thought the cd would contain only piano music but there are many well-orchestrated and dramatic tracs.

The Ligeti Project II: Lontano / Atmosphères / Apparitions / San Francisco Polyphony / Concert Românesc - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Jonathan Nott

Average customer rating:

Some major orchestral "micropolyphonic" works and a fun early piece
One of the best CDs of contemporary music.
Excellent, but only for a willing ear
Very Good Intro To Gyorgy Ligeti
Stunningly insightful performances of Ligeti's orchestral works

The Ligeti Project II: Lontano / Atmosphères / Apparitions / San Francisco Polyphony / Concert Românesc - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Jonathan Nott
Gyorgy Ligeti , Jonathon Nott , and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Teldec
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Latin Music | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Ligeti Project I: Melodien / Chamber Concerto / Piano Concerto / Mysteries of the Macabre - Schönberg Ensemble / ASKO Ensemble / Reinbert de Leeuw
The Ligeti Project IV: Hamburg Concerto (Horn Concerto) / Double Concerto / Ramifications / Requiem
The Ligeti Project III: Cello Concerto / Clocks & Clouds / Violin Concerto / Síppal, Dobbal, Nádihegedüvel
György Ligeti Edition 3: Works for Piano (Etudes, Musica Ricercata) - Pierre-Laurent Aimard
György Ligeti Edition 2: A Cappella Choral Works - London Sinfonietta Voices

ASIN: B00005Y34N
Release Date: 2002-06-11

Tracks:

Lontano
Atmospheres
Apparitions: I. Lento
Apparitions: II. Agitato
San Francisco Polyphony
Concert Romanesc: I. Andantino
Concert Romanesc: II. Allegro Vivace
Concert Romanesc: III. Adagio Ma Non Troppo
Concert Romanesc: IV. Molto Vivace

Amazon.com

The five extraordinary works on this disc will captivate Ligeti fans and entrance even those who don't know his music. The focus in Lontano on refined tonal colors makes it one of the most elegant pieces in the modernist canon. Atmosphères is more static, holding interest through subtle changes in color and dynamics. Apparitions was Ligeti's first success in the West after his escape from Hungary during the 1956 Soviet invasion. It's a ghostly two-movement work. The first, Lento, is creepy in a dynamically subdued way. The second, Agitato, surprises in its violence, the orchestral crashes fulfilling the fears embodied in the Lento movement.

San Francisco Polyphony, from 1974, is the most recent Ligeti composition on the disc, and it packs more into its 12-plus minutes than many full-evening works. It teems with dense orchestral figures and dynamic contrasts. Under its colorful façade, the work demonstrates how uncompromising modern music can enchant both ear and mind. It should become a concert staple as we move deeper into the 21st century. Finally, an early 1951 work, Concert Românesc, harks back to Bartók's transformations of folk material. Rich in color and vitality, its four movements are full of the dissonances of village bands and melodies rooted in Romanian folk music and in Ligeti's fertile, sympathetic imagination. The playing of the Berlin Philharmonic under conductor Jonathan Nott is outstanding, as is the engineering. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Some major orchestral "micropolyphonic" works and a fun early piece.......2006-06-20

Teldec's THE LIGETI PROJECT II continues the collection, started by Sony's "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition", of Ligeti's complete works in performances overseen by the composer himself. This second disc contains four orchestral works, three of which were written in his "micropolyphony" style of the 1960s and 1970s, and the fourth a recently-rediscovered gem written as a student in 1951. These are performed by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the young talent Jonathan Nott, and can be considered definitive.

The earliest piece here is "Concerto Romanesc" (1951), a bit of juvenalia inspired by folk melodies the composer heard during musicological expeditions in Romania. Dating from before his use of micropolyphony and overtly modernistic techniques, these pieces may sound like they came from a different composer entirely. Indeed, there is a frank tonalism here, broken only by the occurance of a single F# in the context of F minor, which, as Ligeti painfully recalls in the notes, was reason enough for the Communist government of Hungary to ban it. The opening "Andantino" is among the most emotionally moving of Ligeti's works, and might be compared to his early "Sonata for solo cello." This and the second movement "Allegro vivace" may sound familiar, as portions appeared arranged for two violins as "Balada si joc" on "Gyorgy Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets".

A bit before before leaving Hungary in the aftermath of the suppressed 1956 revolt, Ligeti had already begin experimenting with total chromaticism, which due to political restrictions made for pieces consigned to the desk drawer. Once free in the West, his first orchestral piece was "Apparitions" (1958-59), which in its first movement displays a use of all twelve-tones, and then in the second introduces the new technique of "micropolyphony", interwoven textures of such complexity that one can hardly make out the individual strands. While entertaining, it is clearly an immature work in this new style, and I rarely come back to it. Maybe that is because the next piece here is one of Ligeti's sure masterpieces. "Atmospheres" (1961) is the piece which really brought Ligeti to international recognition, not only through the sensation of its premiere under Hans Rosbaud, but also because of Stanley Kubrick's unauthorized use of it in the film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Eschewing traditional rhythm and melody for a series of shifting tone colours, one might think "Atmospheres" doesn't even qualify as music, but what music it is! Packed with thousands of individual little cells, the piece offers something new on every listen, for one can, if one wants, go behind the great whoosh of orchestral sound and concentrate on individual lines.

"Lontano" (1967) is closely related to Ligeti's a capella work "Lux Aeterna", and indeed the same melody appears "hidden" in each. The composer skillfully gives the impression of a great object approaching from far-off, seeming to move slowly but ultimately zooming past the listener. The orchestral texture is very dense and generally even, Ligeti reportedly wrote the piece while addicted to painkillers, which explains a lot. One very interesting thing about "Lontano" in Ligeti's overall output is that he abandons total chromaticism here, and however avant-garde his technique of micropolyphony might be, the piece is nonetheless diatonic. "San Francisco Polyphony" (1973-74) was written during Ligeti's stint teaching at Stanford. It's a little-known work in comparison to others in the micropolyphonic style, and I think that's a real shame because Ligeti introduces a major innovation here. Instead of seeming static on the surface like "Atmospheres" et al., there is great activity and rhythmic experimentation, and there are countless overt melodies like in the composer's 1971 piece "Melodien".

This disc makes one of the single best introductions to the music of this great and sorely missed composer, although THE LIGETI PROJECT IV with its performance of the "Requiem" and larger view of the composer's career serves well, too.

One of the best CDs of contemporary music........2006-06-07