Gonna do my weekly indulgence of answering one of the questions featured on this week’s episode before I actually listen to the episode even if it means brazenly missing important context, but I think the first recording I ever owned was some absolute trash tier double tape mix of the best Classical music… ever! that I received as a Christmas present. In fact, I think that’s what it was actually called…
Wait, ok, I found it! It was indeed called The Best Classical Album In The World… Ever! There is a fascinating mix of some straight up bangers and, like, trashy movie soundtrack excerpts. It’s also just straight up crazy how a lot of these are probably edited for time, Ravel’s Bolero in particular does have shortened versions that are performed but I don’t think even the shortest one is 5 minutes long lol.
I don’t remember if this was precisely the first recording I ever personally purchased, or at least, if it was the first recording I chose for myself. I was young enough that I did not have my own credit card, but I do definitely remember it was also one of the first things I ever bought on Amazon, because I had to use my mom’s credit card. So, I maybe paid her cash for it and just used her credit card to order it. Nevertheless the first recording I remember choosing for myself was a live album of Earth, Wind, and Fire, simply titled Live in Rio, which I’m almost certain I’ve posted about some other time on this forum, such is its importance to me.
It is, in my opinion, one of the best audio recordings ever created, of anything. I had known and felt that Earth, Wind, and Fire were a good band, but, a good handful of their songs always felt a little unexciting, or a little too tame. It was and remains exhilarating to hear a recording of the band in their prime and just going ROCK and fucking ROLL, because the energy and joy and vitality is just sparkling in this recording. Even the songs that in studio/album recording form sound a bit anemic at a more laid back tempo just thrum with power when played at a faster tempo and with more structural sophistication on this album. I simply can’t listen to the studio versions of these songs anymore.
Also I will never shut up about this specific spot in the album, but, whichever of the two trumpet players who were in the Fenix Horns for this show (so either Rahmlee Michael Davis or Michael Harris, I’ll gladly put respect on both of their names either way) absolutely nailed that incredible, piercing A6 during the intro to September, which seems to have been one of the last if not the last song of the night, is an absolute god. Playing a brass instrument is physically strenuous, specifically on your lips, and the higher you’re playing, the more explosive physical power it demands to do well, or even at all. To play your guts out for what, unedited, was probably over an hour, and then bust out a sting like that, is the brass playing equivalent to nailing a high jump near the end of a long distance run, then completing the long distance run. I often get chills listening to that moment in particular!
