Wow I'm jealous. I wish there were more genuine experiences like that nowadays; spontaneous campfire music! It's hard to articulate but I hope you know what I mean.

Very cool video, qhrjk! 👍

I love it! It was so cool when they were playing music from Japanese video game/anime I had the biggest smile on my face.
Thank you so much!

I love Joe Bonamassa! Also, I just recently watched a video about mixing jazz with japanese music. You might like it, so here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFXcw...

iirc, Leon appeared several times on Saturday Night Live. Those were rare occasions when I enjoyed the SNL musical guest. Leon is already missed.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/co...
On Johnny Carson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1OD1...

Yes, I heard that sad news yesterday, too. He was only 69 and somewhat of a mystery. YouTube has most of his music. He shall not be forgotten. There is a treasury of his work. We can be grateful that he existed.

I heard that Leon passed away either yesterday or the day before. He will be missed. Guess that I will play his CDs this weekend.

I have the Google Mini which I set up every AM to play Smooth Jazz (my wife likes it) as background music. As for myself, I'll play Japanese Anime theme music, but I also like Sturgill Simpson, Joe Bonamassa, Yes, Jeff Beck-Beck's Bolero, some older pieces of pop music Apache & Ghost Riders in the Sky.

My favorite music is Italian opera and that is what I listen to most of the time. My favorite singers are:
soprano: Maria Calls
mezzo: Fedora Barbieri
tenor Giuseppe di Stefano
baritone: Tito Gobbi
basso: Boris Christoff
conductor: Tullio Serafin
My favorite opera composers, in order of preference are: Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini etc.
I also like Frank Sinatra (Siriusly Sinatra).
Other music I like very much is by Chopin, Paganini and Offenbach.
Musicians I like the most are: Rubinstein on piano, Jasha Heifetz on violin, Louis Armstrong on horn, Arty Shaw on clarinet and Ella Fitzgerald's voice.

As you can tell, I think that human voice is by far the best and sophisticated musical instrument. All other instruments are poor imitations.

Dear qhrjk, this is probably much more than you asked. I always prefer the whole picture over a glimpse.

Best wishes!
Maritimus

That's a great system, Gary.
I use some mid-80s Carver solid state amps most of the time, but I have a tube kit that I'm about 1/3 finished building and a Sansui 9090 receiver that I'm going to fix when I have time..
My business partner was in Vietnam in the 60s servicing Air Force jets for missions. His electronics purchases are long gone though.

Greetings, qhrjk. I engaged in Civil War reenacting for over 20 years and first met the guys in 2nd South Carolina String Band in the mid to late '90s. I was part of a Confederate artillery unit at the time and we were walking down a dirt road at a reenactment in Virginia on the way to the artillery line and off to one side was an infantry encampment and a few of the guys were sitting around the campfire practicing and just having a good time. They sounded great and we all stood around for a while to have a listen and it turned they were the 2nd South Carolina String Band. They became rather famous in the reenactment community and began to play at the period dances at the larger events and gained quite a following. Their sound is very authentic using instruments of the time, that is nothing electric.

I've enjoyed their performances at many events and purchased a number of their albums. Light up the campfires on a nice night in a Civil War era encampment and have these guys start playing and there's a wonderful experience you'll never forget.

We started out with Glenn Miller and picked up some Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman albums.

Glenn Miller is our favorite, though.

You must hear Miss Russell sing a quartet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUvdF...

Lou Reed .

I wholeheartedly agree. Fantastic.

I fell in love with Altec speakers while at the Woodstock festival in 1969 which was right down the road from me. When I got out of the USN after Vietnam I bought my first pair of 19s and still have them. Heathkit tube amps are just plain sweet behind any of the Altec high efficient speakers. My Luxman TT with a nice Denon MC cartridge and SME arm is about as nice as I will ever hear good music played on. I always wanted a MacIntosh system but never did spring for that set up and now at 67 when I could actually afford better gear I can't hear for shit anyway. I brought back a Sansui G-9000 receiver and the tank simply won't quit working.

I had to laugh..."heard them for 9 months in the womb...I did, too. You come from a talented family. I know that my mother was a little disappointed that neither my sister or I had any musical talent, but I told her that I at least could appreciate people who did. Well, as the old song goes, "It seems like old times." Enjoy your CDs. I enjoy mine.

I knew it, mccannon! 😁

My business partner loves his Heathkit W6A driving the Altec 19's, too. Great speakers!
(We sell the Ten Octave Audio LP-1 tube preamplifier that we designed and build here in the USA. I should have the website working this weekend;^)

I agree, it's such a passionate piece of music. I rarely get emotional- but something about it brings me to tears. I can definitely imagine Richard Halley as Rachmaninoff!

My dad was in a big band, so I grew up loving Glenn Miller, Fitzgerald, Sinatra. In the 50s it was Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson into the Jackie Gleason Orches. and Bobby Hacke and his horn.Loved the Beatles, Johnny Rivers Gary Puckett in the 60s. 70s got into country, loved George Strait, Montgomery Gentry, Trace Adkins. Also, pop Rupert Holmes ("Escape") Got into Bon Jovi via our daughter. Huey Lewis' "He Don't Know" as fantastic sound.Hate rap and Hip Hop. Always like Al Hirt, Errrante and Teicher, and instrurmenttals.To this day, I like to create mixed CDs or playlists combing the right song from each genre, and it can flow great. Take "Looking for Lve" Johnny Lee next to as Huey Lewis, next to a big band ("Harlem Nocturne"), hrhow in Dino, Rod Stewart ("Infatuation" , it really can work, and leaves you really happy, as they or not exclusive, but all part of what makes you tick.

My parents played big bands, too. I think I heard them for 9 months in the womb and I was hooked; the melodies and harmonies still give me so much happiness.
(Dad sang with Hal Kemp when he was in college, iirc. My aunt was a "hot" singer on the radio in NYC about 1947 with Milton Berle.)
Benny Goodman was such an amazing talent. So was Pete Fountain. There's nothing compared to hearing the details: the clarinet reed buzz and bass players softly mumbling as they get into the swing of the music. It's the real music instead of the carefully packaged modern thump-thump sound.
Hearing Linda Ronstadt sing all the jazz standards can still bring tears to my eyes. (She's singing in my living room right now.)

I don't see how that can be done. Gilbert & Sullivan are gone; I love their work, but there never will be another Gilbert or Sullivan.

Some of the other pieces I like:

Dvorak New World Symphony
Mendelssohn The Hebrides
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody
Brahms Hungarian Dances
Offenbach Barcarolle in this performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is0Lb... (the mezzo is stunning)
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto
Chopin Etudes
Wagner Tannhauser
Puccini Turandot

and many others.

When I work out...Revolution Saints, or Jeff Scott Soto. Otherwise, all kinds of stuff. I love music. Played guitar since I was 12. Played in a rock band until my kid got sick. My prize guitar still hangs in my home office...13 years later. I like good country (as opposed to that sappy stuff), jazz, Amy Weinstein (incredible talent), bluegrass! I listen to something very strange too...KLF Chill Out, when I'm working.