A
lifelong passionate lover of music - you can credit Mom's affinity for
every Italian male vocalist growing up - rare is an album, or CD, that I
would play i order. An exception is Thelma Houston's "Sunshower" (1976)
written by Jimmy Webb prior to her taking the disco world to storm.
Marvin Gaye, including but not limited to "What's Going On" comes to
mind as well and I am sure there are others that fail to come to mind at
this very moment.
Needless to say, in the LP area I
would make cassette tapes from albums in my preferred order and with
varying artists suiting my whims of the moment. The CD era allowed the
same but soon I wasn't bothering with cassettes, disappointed at the
technical quality and a 5 CD changer allowing me to set a program of
songs from 5 CDs at a time and I can't remember the maximum number of
songs allowed.
And now after years of copying more, but
still not all, of my collection onto my computer, there seems to be no
limit for the length of a playlist. I have playlists, mostly Diana
Ross, approaching 40 hours. Lately I have been creating playlists of
recordings I feel like hearing for a period of time, then changing based
upon mood or boredom. For example, I recently made playlists of my
favorite Billie Holiday recordings, my collection of live Billie Holiday
recordings. Due to their prolific output and my obsessed collection,
the most challenging have been Dinah Washington and Nancy Wilson. I
recently got a Dinah playlist down to manageable length. It's not that I
listen to either often, but I find both mesmerizing and addictive.
My
favorite playlists are those of female recording artists many of them
jazz oriented. I even recently tackled Judy Garland and Peggy Lee now
that I think of it. And a recent re-release of a Frank Sinatra
recording had me studying his output and learning his career
chronologically.
My recent addiction to writing more than
reading has led me from a thought to post my current, 24 hour playlist,
to this lengthy background introduction. You should have realized by
now you can skip it and go to the list. I like many but not all genres
and this one in particular resulted from an effort to include many
genres and then to select the section I felt like listening to at any
particular time. In reality I just let it run and restart my computer
every 24 hours.
Some of the above is to explain the
absence of certain artists, namely Dinah, as well as the absence of so
many favorite jazz vocalists too numerous to mention, absent from my
list but not my collection, Anita O'Day, Carmen McRae, Cassandra Wilson -
my favorite current live and recording vocalist - Diana Krall, Ella,
Esther, 2 Ettas, Karrin Allyson - another current fav, Ledisi
outstanding live yet to reach her recording potential, SARAH VAUGHN
perhaps THE greatest vocalist ever, a few peeking at my file has brought
to mind.
Special mention to JACKIE RYAN, AND SWEET BABY
J'AI, the best unknown recording artists working today, google each of
them and buy their CDs; you won't regret it.
Most recently,
due to release of expanded editions I was making lots of Diana
playlists and then spent time making some fabulous girl group era
songlists. Which reminds me I have a You Tube page with many playlists,
I'll link it here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8MRbvv3f_9VK1wnqwKk4Kg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8MRbvv3f_9VK1wnqwKk4Kg/playlists
But
all that is my overwrought way of saying that absence from this list
doesn't mean I don't have it or haven't listened to it lately.
Another
reason for posting is this could be my most diverse playlist ever,
formerly limited each to a particular genre, artist, or theme, this one
has some of almost everything. And there is a core at the beginning
that was based on my memorial playlist for Beau, my canine companion of
close to 17 years, departed April 1, whose removal of the catheter
holding his final injection caused the Vet to remark "He just wrote the
book" reminding me of the iconic Dinah song and starting my playlist the
final version of which I have yet to publish.
My to do
list, includes that, research on 2 songwriters I was conducting at the
time, an organized photo album of Beau and my recent gardening
accomplishments. Rather than list almost 400 songs I am listing the
recording artists. Well if i keep commenting on each one this will take forever.
Art Pepper (only recently got out my fav straight ahead jazz collection from the '50s
Teri Thornton - masterful vocalist, rediscovered after Beau, she returned late in life to recording,
winning a prestigious Thelonius Monk award - am i mixed up - she won
a presitigious award at a vocal competition, then succumbed to a fatal illness
Thelma Jones (more when i publish my songwriting research Beau inspired
Nancy Wilson - favs from throughout her stellar career (so that means a lot)
Frank
Sinatra - from wonderful recent compilation Ultimate Sinatra covers
early and mid career and a live concert recorded in December 1961 in
Sydney Australia. I just googled to verify the date and found many
editions including a 4 CD edition spanning his career and the Australian
edition a 2 CD package which is the one I have which includes the
concert.'
Billie Holiday! the exclamation mark because I
noticed several songs recorded (separately of course) by Frank and
Billie, in fact i think i have a playlist with just these 2, this list
includes the songs each recorded back to back and my favorite live
Holiday recordings.
Betwixt and between my frequent dilemmas
over the order, initially i had electronic remixes of Billie Holiday
(understandably considered blasphemous by purists) but i moved them
somewhere.
Blackbird by Sylvester remained either cuz it fit or i failed to move it later, then
The Supremes - the list i postedon FB yesterday of my favs mostly in chron order
Diana Ross - well I asked but NO ONE requested my current list
GeeJayDeluxe and GJ2K1 remixes of Diana, some Supremes, some mashups, since i discovered him every one of my many Diana lists includes his work from his remixes of Promise, Symphony, For Once, Mr. Sandman I proudly segue to
Billie Holiday blasphemous electronic remixes by varied mixers followed by some old favs from the dancing days
I Can't Get No Sleep - India
I Like MW Shanice
Beautiful People - Barbara Tucker
Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne
Blackalicious - Make You Feel That Way and Day One
Sounds of Blackness - Optimistic
SYLVESTER - he lives on you tube, in my collection, in the recent musical "Mighty Real"
Dolores Peterson electronic On My Mind
Leelah James
Chelo
Prince - some of his recent recordings ingenious and topical
Madonna - love her latest
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Lopez
Mary J. Blige - love some of her recent release
Angie Martinez
Ricky Martin, some old favs, mostly latest release just nominated for several Latin Grammys
Enrique Iglesias - old and new, i can't help it
Romeo Santos - love his voice and his new gay friendly release promoting acceptance
Prince Royce - my favorite of the newbies
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