I listen to Pandora whenever I am in my office.  It does a pretty good job of finding music that matches my taste, sometimes a really good job.  In the past few weeks I’ve found some stuff that was completely new to me that I really liked.  I created a station based on these tunes:

  1. Beep! Marty’s Mishap.  I have never heard of this trio and as far as I can tell google has not either. The rhythm is an instrument if that makes any sense.  This is exactly the kind of music I like.
  2. Nels Cline, Alstromeria.  I don’t know how to classify this music.  The guitar playing is virtuosity without showing off.  The composition is academic without feeling pretentious.
  3. Tomasz Stanko Quartet, Kattorna.  I first learned of this quartet in a roundabout way.  The rhythm section has a few albums as a trio (The Marcin Waslez-somethingPolish-ski Trio) that I found on Pandora and really like.  Then I learned that their main gig is this quartet led by trumpeter Tomasz Stanko.  The quartet may be even better.  Listen to what the piano is doing during the trumpet solos.
  4. Erik Friedlander, Quake.  He plays cello.  Lots of other people play lots of other instruments.  Sometimes all at once.  The music ranges from controlled chaos to the beautifully melodic.
  5. Rolf Lislevand, Toccata. Nuove Musiche with a modern sensibility.  Beautiful.
  6. Moraz & Bruford, Living Space.  Piano and drums, that’s it.  But the pianist thinks he is playing the drums and the drummer thinks he is playing the piano.

All week this will be my music to read job-market files to.  Join me.