#6 Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Porgy & Bess

Porgy And Bess

This CD has to contain some of the most beautiful jazz singing on record - Ella is on amazing form. Not having heard it for a couple of years it also reminds me how endlessly fascinating Gershwin was as a composer. In every track some harmony, melody or counter melody tugs your ear and sounds modern yet classic at the same time. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Now, where's my CD of Miles Davis' Porgy and Bess...

#5 Lehar - Die Lustige Witwe

Lehár: Die Lustige Witwe

The first Disc of the Day that hasn't been dug out of a cupboard or drawer. I bought this for a couple of pounds from Ebay the other day as I don't know it at all and this particular recording has had rave reviews pretty much everywhere over the years.

On first listen I love it - packed full of melody and with some delightful singing (especially from Cheryl Studer). Definitely something I will be returning to again and a pleasant surprise for me to hear John Eliot Gardiner in repertoire from this period.

#4 Steve Earle & the V-Roys - Johny Too Bad

Johnny Too Bad

Short walk to the shop to buy booze (for dinner with friends tonight, not to drink at 2.30 on a Sunday...tempting though).

Couple of things on here I love and never listen to - Johnny Too Bad is great but this disc is especially a favourite for Steve Earle's beautiful Ellis Unit One, written for Tim Robbins' film Dead Man Walking.

Steve Earle, more than any other songwriter for me, is able to see the human angle to any story, however dark or uncomfortable and remind us that above all else we have a human responsibility to understand the elements of life we'd rather just consign to the dustbin and pretend never existed.

Moving stuff.

#3 Vasks String Quartets - Miami String Quartet

Peteris Vasks - String Quartets Nos. 1, 2 & 3
A few years ago I worked for a music publishing company and every now and then there'd be a clearout of cupboards which meant big boxes of CDs we could help ourselves to. Most of the classical and opera was ignored by everyone except lucky old me. This is one of the CDs I picked up back then and I listened to it quite a bit at the time (just as pure speculation, I'd never heard of the composer) but probably haven't done so for at least 5 years.

Listening again I'm reminded of what I really liked about the quartets - especially the 3rd. There's some great use of texture in the writing and an almost filmic quality, especially in the slower movements. Sadly I don't think this disc is available any more.

A welcome rediscovery.

#2 Kaia Urb - Russian Romantic Songs

Russian Romantic Songs

I was given this as a gift a couple of years (or more) ago and thought 'oh, that's nice', whereupon I shoved it on iTunes and my iPod swallowed it forever. Spotted it the other day and put it to one side to listen to.

Other than Tchaikovsky and Glinka I've never heard of most of the composers. There are 19 selections in all, accompanied by Heiki Matlik on guitar (4 of the tracks are solo guitar pieces).

It's a lovely, simple album full of beautiful tunes and it's a real shame I've not listened to it more. This is exactly the point of Disc of the Day though so it's working. There might yet be a 3rd disc today (or I might just listen to this one again!)

#1 Tim Buckley - Honeyman

Honeyman: Live 1973

So here it is, disc of the day number one and it's one I haven't heard for years (found it at the back of the cupboard this morning looking for something else entirely).

I first heard Tim Buckley around 20 years ago when I was working in a record shop in Lancashire. I had a mate who ran his own second hand vinyl and CD shop round the corner and I used to go and sit in there with him at lunchtime. He'd play me whatever he had in stock that week and that was where I fell in love with most of the singer-songwriters I've loved over the years. Looking back most of them had voices that were definitely acquired tastes (Richard Thompson, Roy Harper, Neil Young, Tom Waits).

I've never been a huge fan of the Tim Buckley studio albums (although bits are great) but his live recordings (Honeyman, Dream Letter...., The Peel Sessions) are much more engaging, even if everything isn't necessarily in tune all the time. There's something rough and real about Tim's voice and the playing that makes the songs come alive more than most of the studio versions.

A great start - I think today may have more than one disc of the day....

A new CD player and a flat battery

So, my lovely new (old) CD walkman was waiting for me when I got home last night. It's a lovely bit of design and has a great slim-yet-solid feel to it - looks like a cross between the Millennium Falcon and the discus shaped bit of the Starship Enterprise. Charged it up and headed out of the door this morning to begin my listening armed with Disc of the Day 1..... 30 seconds later the battery died.

Have ordered another rechargeable battery for it (no big hassle or expense - as long as the replacement works) but means my delving into the CD pile will have to wait another day or two.

Disc of the Day #1 will go back on the shelf and may still be the one I pick when I have a full battery - then again, I may fancy something else by then!

Beginnings

My iPod died recently - it's the 3rd one I've had that's given up the ghost just after the warranty ran out (there's a conspiracy theory in there somewhere).

One of the main reasons I like having an iPod is having all my music with me wherever I go but, as I've got over 100gb of music and podcasts in my iTunes library, I'd need to replace it with a 160gb model to fit it all on. Not sure I fancy spending £180 on a new iPod that'll only last 2-3 years before it needs replacing. So....

...I bought a CD Walkman off Ebay yesterday, it cost £20 and looks like this:

My plan is to rummage through my extensive CD collection every morning and take one disc (or two, depending on where I'm going) as my listening for the day. My aims in doing this are as follows:

1. Not buy another iPod
2. Listen to some of the music that gets swallowed by iTunes and you forget about
3. Hear some albums as albums, not as individual songs

I've got room on my phone for a small amount of music so I can still listen to podcasts and whatever I've got downloaded that I don't actually own on CD so this isn't a hard and fast 'must be a CD every day and must be a different one' thing. Just thought I'd delve back into the vast quantity of music I've got on CD and see what's hiding in there.

That's it - I'll be posting my Disc of the Day as and when I have one (the CD player should arrive tomorrow).
Cheers