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What do ya'll like that doesn't have guitars (at least not prominently?)


polara

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Realize it's like asking a group of boat enthusiasts about their favorite bicycles but I'm increasingly digging stuff that is dominated by beats, samples, synths and even rappers. Interestingly, it's mostly old fogeys. Anyway, for those of y'all who are yet to get into stuff that is in the hip-hop or DJ world, these are pretty easy transitions there. And for those of you are deeper into it than me, please share so I can expand my horizons.

Run the Jewels. They kinda hearken back to the early 90s golden era of hip-hop but aren't really retro either. Pretty furious raps and a lean production style I like.

DJ Shadow. Pretty legendary. This is off his last album, and features the aforementioned RTJ. Very imaginative sounds and arrangements.

M.I.A. I know she's been around for ages but I think she's a bona-fide genius producer and sound artist. Live she is not exactly brilliant but her production is so crazy and complex I don't know how you could do it live.

 

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Just heard this younger jazz singer on XM Real Jazz this weekend:

He (IMO) has it.  He has albums of his own material, but the posted album of Billie Holiday material is a pretty good test for any vocalist.

Next, an odd choice for me, but I really like the production (sounds "new" to me)

And lastly, always looking for something to scratch the odd-meter / strange progression part of the brain that Rush used to hit.  This is in no way Rush, but it's interesting.  Some of it's atmospheric, some pop-ish, some math rock...  I don't know, it's different and I like it:

 

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Big Band music does it for me, both recordings and live shows.  The Glenn Miller Orchestra tours all year long and has the correct feel for what they are playing.  Cab Calloway was THE showman backed by a bunch of great players.  Benny Goodman really was as good as his reputation.  Artie Shaw was top notch, too.

I like this stuff, too. 

 

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I can spend a lot of time happily with big bands, as well as some of their offshoots into smaller groups. I can't let Goodman's contribution to music pass without noting bandmember Charlie Christian who had a big impact in taking the guitar from a background rhythm instrument to a solo instrument. Which, of course, needed amplification to be heard in the larger bands. Enter Les Paul hisownself (who did everything from C&W to jazz to pop to....You name it) to "rock" our world.

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LCD Sound System’s new album, “American Dream”.  There are some guitars, but big ol’ fat analog modular synths are front and center.  Kraftwerk meets Talking Heads, at least in some spots.  Plus,  “Emotional Haircut” may be the greatest song title ever.

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I went to the Sweetwater 420 Fest 2 years ago and was very impressed with a primarily synth band,  Awolnation.  They did have a guitar player but he was little more than window dressing.  I think I was enamored with how loud they were but the show was great and I really enjoyed their music..  The singer reminded me of David Byrne.  Not because of his voice but more because of his quirky onstage presence.

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Mostly jazz, both classics and newer stuff.  I also find myself listening to ambient music from time to time, although not enough that I can name drop.

 

On the old school hip-hop thing, check out the new release by Prophets of Rage, guitar heavy with Tom Morello I'll give you, but a great lineup and some decent material.

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Gangsta Rap from around the time I was in college 85-91, like NWA, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Dr Dre, Geto Boys, Blacksheep.

Some jazz stuff like Miles (small group stuff late 50s to mid 60s before it got too out there), Dave Brubeck, Coltranes Ballads album, and some piano/keyboard stuff like MMW, Bad Plus, & Ahmad Jamal.

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I listen to a whole lot of classical music with no guitars at all --Chopin, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Tchaikovski... For example, I've been listening to the new album from Joel Quarrington (contrabass) and  David Jalbert (piano), covering music from Schubert. I love it. You might like it too:

 

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I also listen to quite atypical stuff. Here are some examples:

This is Bola de Nieve, a piano man from Cuba who used to be a star there several decades ago. It's very lyrical and raw and musically bold, an absolute treat for my ears, as in addition I do understand the lyrics. He's actually one of my first two choices when I'm in the "celebrate my Cuban roots" mood (the other one is Ernesto Lecuona, a pianist who one could qualify as "the tropical Chopin"):

So, this is Ernesto Lecuona, the guy I mentioned above --just piano here, it's himself playing his own stuff:

And last (but not least), I like Stromae, from Belgium. It's kinda "electro-dance", sung in French. I love his lyrics and his music, very basic but at the same time very stimulating, at least for me. Here's his most popular album --I think he's also known in the States:

That's all for now, although I do listen to many other non-guitar musicians. Might share more of that later. :) 

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I’m into electronics quite a lot. Jean Michel Jarre still is a great. Old Tangerine Dream too. Also interesting to me are many sample songs I find in Native Instruments product adverts and of other sample product creators that sell Kontakt libraries. Modern string arrangements and mixtures of all kind of samples based compositions. There is some nice stuff coming out of that field.

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With several sharing favorites in jazz piano and classical, I thought I'd share something that I learned recently: the "Ragtime" style that Beethoven shared with the world in his Sonata No. 32, Second Movement, 3rd Variation:

 

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16 hours ago, gtrdaddy said:

John Coltrane Dead, Miles Davis Dead, Charlie Parker Dead, Thelonious Monk Dead, Herbie Hancock Not Even Sick!, Keith Jarrett Ain't Sick, and Woe Be Unto You if You Attend One of His Concerts With a Cough! *, Duke Ellington Dead, Chick Corea Still Kicking, Dave Brubeck Dead 

jazz is not dead...

Well, perhaps only 66.67% dead  :P

 

* Various Keith Jarrett fun:

Sorry for the language on this one, but he is who he is:

 

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I'm old too:

Bjork
Fiona Apple
Radiohead's non-guitar stuff (e.g. Pyramid Song, Spectre, Everything In Its Right Place)
As a father of 2 young girls we've been known to listen to Taylor Swift, Adele, Katy Perry and Alicia Keys without objection from me.

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