Quality Recordings - Cat Steven "Tillerman" 200g vinyl, Freddie King vinyl reissues!

As ORG/Original Recordings Group seems to want to emulate Classic Records quality control reputation (as in, no quality control) - out of the ashes of Classic comes Quality Recordings, a part of Chad Kassem's Acoustic Sounds empire.



First up - some Freddie King, Getting Ready and Texas Cannonball, both originally on Shelter (Leon Russell's old label) and featuring the Russell/Muscle Shoals crowd. Both fine, hot blues rockers well recorded and given excellent, warm, vibrant if a bit loud and brash remasterings.



But I'm sure what readers want to know about is the pressings.



Well, they are dead perfect. Flat, centered, quiet, visually perfect, in MOFI style inners. Just simply perfect, the way it should be.



The much delayed Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman is the title I imagine most are wanting to know about.



Again, I have a flat, perfect 200g pressing that is totally quiet - perfect in every way. Classic never really could get 200g right. Quality Recordings seems to have it nailed.



Marino's remaster is warm, big sounding, detailed, tonally excellent. Perhaps Marino's weak spot is that his remasters tend to sound rather unsubtle (to mangle a perfectly good word) - a bit brash, lacking some delicacy and inner quality that a better remastering engineer like Bernie Grundman can achieve. He is far better than Steve Hoffman, though - maybe on a par with Gray. But that's not to take away much from a very fine achievement here - this is a splendid reissue, a bargain at $30, and a fine start to Quality Recordings that looks towards a fine, long future.

WTF is with ORG - another train wreck pressing!

Just arrived yesterday - a fine box from Soundstage Direct with 11 slabs of vinyl, from MOFI, Music On Vinyl, Porcupine Tree, and ...Original Recordings Group (ORG).



I dumped all over ORG for their shitty pressing of Weather Report - Heavy Weather on 45 rpm vinyl. I figured it was an aberration, but noted that ORG appear to have changed from Pallas to RTI for their pressings - not necessarily a good sign.



Now arrives the 45 rpm Albeniz Suite Espanola, from the London reissue program that so far I haven't bother with (insipid, listless group of titles really).



I should have stayed away.



Look at what I received for $60 plus shipping - freakin' skid marks across the vinyl!! This is just so disappointing, so ugly, so unnecessary. It's just purely crappy quality control and both ORG and RTI are to blame.



Maybe it's a great remastering (Bernie Grundman), I have no idea. The sound is pure garbage.



Stay away from this one, too, as well as the ORG Weather Report. Looks to me like Original Recordings Group, the highest priced reissue company in the market, has decided to go the way of Classic Records and keep buyers in an endless loop of frustration, returning product endlessly in search of a passable pressing.



Not this boy. New policy - when they are this bad, I'm sending them back for a refund, no second chances. For $60, they can do their own quality control checks instead of leaving it to the customer.

Classical CD roundup - 2011 so far...

Rounding up briefly the highlights so far in 2011, on the classical side. There is still lots of life left in the classical CD business, even if it's been pretty much over 5 years since I have bought anything from DG, Decca, Philips or EMI!

Valery Gergiev has been recording Shostakovich symphonies at quite a clip lately, here we have numbers 2 and 15. The sound in the series, with his Marinsky Orchestra, is outstanding and of demonstration quality - deep, warm, analog like, zero string

harshness, a realistic acoustic and dynamics in spades. Gergiev's readings are definitive. I love Haitink's earlier readings on Decca, but that sound is nowhere in the class on offer here, and Gergiev is perhaps more idiomatic, and much more dramatic. Highly recommended.

Naxos is a label that has come along way from it's roots as a deep budget label that offered a wide range of repertoire from third and fourth rank orchestras with no-name conductors in serviceable, bland sound. For sure, they still do some of that. But recent cycles of Bax, Vaughan Williams, Rousell, Stanford and others feature first rate orchestras, up and coming conducting stars, and first rate sound typically from displaced former Decca and EMI engineering teams. Case in point - the Sibelius symphony cycle from Inkwan in Helsinki. Here we have symphonies 1 and 3 in outstanding interpretations - easily the most fresh, insightful readings in decades - that eclipse totally modern recordings from Ashkenazy, Oramo, Vanski, Jarvi and others - even perhaps Berglund. The sound is glorious - not quite reference class, but extremely good.

And it costs under $10. I have the entire cycle, and there is not a single mis-step, and not a single one that I would not place right beside Berglund, or Karajan, or any other favorite. Inkwan's Naxos 2nd in my opinion is right up with Karajan's Philharmonia account.

Pierre Boulez conducts the magnificent Lucerne Festival Orchestra in a brisk, dry

reading of Mahler's 6th, as well as Webern and Stravinsky's Chant Du Rossignol. The Mahler is likely the main attraction here, and listeners' feelings about Boulez overall will likely be the deciding factor. The recording is quite good, and far superior to Boulez' DG version, sonically it is not demonstration quality, but is admirably transparent and natural, if lacking a bit in weight and body. Boulez can seem cold and clinical, and this version certainly has greater passion and feeling that his earlier Mahler for DG. It is not sentimental,yet it can frequently be exciting, and often I find Mahler's 6th (and 5th) to be conducted with an eye on having the adagio sliced out to go on those endless, cheesy romantic compilations for the easy listening classics crowd. Boulez will never be one for that, and his reading places Mahler squarely where he should be, in the modern, neo-classical tradition. It's worth hearing, and the Stravinsky in particular is very good. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is young, highly committed, and never plays by the numbers. They eschew vibrato, and are highly individual. Perhaps not recommended as a first choice, or for all listeners, but recommended nonetheless.

I haven't picked up hardly and BIS titles in a couple of years, as none have really interested me, but for some reason, there have been quite a few excellent titles released by BIS this year. The label always produces exemplary, natural sound with full dynamics, and lately, pretty much all are being released in dual layer SACD format.

A disc of Eino Tamberg orchestral music from Neeme Jarvi - the ballet suite Joanna Tenata is rather abstract, tonal, challenging - highly charged, dynamic music making full use of

the orchestra's colors, particularly brass and percussion. Beautiful music. The Symphonic Dances and Concerto Grosso are a different matter, largely concertos for saxes and woodwinds, the Estonian folk elements less at the fore, showing greater influence of Bartok, Prokofiev and obviously Tubin.

Thomas Dausgaard is one of the best conductors around today. Consistently interesting, fresh and honest, and willing to take chances. He offers a fine Swedish Chamber Orchestra reading of Schubert's 8th and 9th, the smaller chamber orchestra (on modern instruments) bringing a freshness and vitality to music which, with traditional orchestras, often seems hackneyed and overwrought. The same forces bring a reading of the 1877 version of Bruckner's 2nd that just blows the doors off early Bruckner, it's briskness aided by the opening and unravelling of textures brings an entirely new, fresh view to this work, placing it far closer to middle Beethoven than to Brahms, and bringing it out of the reverberant church context Bruckner is typically placed in, out into the open with a dry, open sound.

Both these are totally, highly recommended.

Now we have Owain Arwel Hughes conducting his father's works,

including Anatiomaros, the Suite For Orchestra and Glyndwr legend. This is exemplary British music, very much coming out of Vaughan Williams, Holst, Bax and so on.

In many ways, unknown and/or long neglected composers like Arwel Hughes (and Tamberg, Tubin, and many others) offer flawed, but far more adventurous and unpredictable experiences than their more celebrated contemporaries. It's the flaws that prevented them from achieving greater popularity, as well as the slightly more challenging or offbeat aspects of their music. They didn't write for the mainstream, they wrote what they heard in their minds, and that's what makes them so interesting, and in many cases, much more relevant today. If you are into British music at all, and I have to say that I am as much a lover of British music as I am of Nordic and Scandinavian composers, you should hear this very fine disc.

Typically at an industry or products end of life, price is lowest and quality is at it's peak. Also typical of many product life cycle end periods, the niche manufacturers come to dominate as the larger players have abandoned the business as their need for economies of scale can no longer be met.

That is largely what we see in the classical segment today - almost universally the sonic quality is at an absolute peak, and more 'niche' or less mainstream repertoire is dominant, and this is what we are seeing in these excellent new releases. It's never been better.

Hans Werner Henze is a perfect example of a composer for whom the leaps in CD sonics benefit massively. Here is a new Wergo recording of his 3rd and 5th symphonies, beautifully conducted by Marek Janowski. Earlier digital did not do Henze any favors, it made his music sound hard and cold, yet here, it is deeply human, reaching music, affecting deeply, and this I can attribute largely to the very involving, human sound. I had ignored Henze for a long time, and now I hope for more.

The Naive label, out of France, is doing some wonderful contemporary things to bring classical music to a broader, younger market. One disc, out of many recently from this fine label, is of Ravel and Prokofiev piano concertos from the outstanding pianist Anna Vinnitskaya - who, from what I hear in these works, is a major, major new star. She's not at all one of those young Asian technical but soul-less virtuoso kids that the major labels trot out regularly. She has chops that dance all around those players, but has an intelligence and fresh point of view that they totally miss.

Here, the Prokofiev sounds less of a hard, technical showpiece and far more of an organic, introspective conversation with orchestra. There are obviously technical fireworks on display, but they seems also to have a deeper inner quality, and a humanity that is often (usually) missing. The Ravel is also a wonderful performance - light, bluesy, jazzy, dancing, human. These readings instantly become first choices in both cases. They are fresh, unique, and completely of their time. This is an artist to watch, big time. Fine, fine recording. Highly recommended.

So there you have it. a long one, this time, and plenty of off the main road recordings to check out. As I think back to the first decade of CD, where dozens upon dozens of new classical recordings flooded the stores every week, I can't help but thinking that the state of the classical industry today may be desperate from a major label economic point of view, but as a cottage industry, it really has never been better.

A new addition to the living room...

Her's my latest addition - a Rhodes 1979 suitcase piano. Refurbished, in outstanding condition, playing just peachy with rather little work needed (and easy, minor stuff for the most part).



You know the Rhodes sound, you've heard it on hundreds of records. It's wonderful to have one here, and it's always useful to be in touch with what real musical instruments sound like.



I've already put a Mad Professor wah on it. Too cool.

New music - THe HORRORS - "Skying" -

Read about this one in Uncut and it caught my interest, I'm always into new music that reads like it would be sympathetic to my vibe. Good call on this one, Uncut.



Never really paid attention to The Horrors before - their first two albums sounded like twee synth pop to me, and I had pretty much dismissed them. All of a sudden, Skying appears on XL, and it seems to me like the record that comes out of a band that has all of a sudden made a huge, transformative leap and found not only it's own voice, but has jumped from being an indie also-ran into being a band that can stand up with the major alternative rock names of the day.



I find this to be simply a beautiful record. It hold it's influences well, coming from the new wave camp through Britpop with elements of Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, The Verve and others, the synths are still there, but the guitars and analog keys are much more to the fore, there is a touch of progginess in the shifts and colors, it's highly melodic. Totally entrancing. It's a pop record, no doubt, and highly tappable. It's one of the highlights of 2011.



A big five doobies to this excellent work. The Horrors will only get bigger, and better. This is the kick-off point.



A side note - XL was badly hit by the British riots last week. A bunch of yobs and losers burnt down a warehouse putting a whole bunch of indie labels, including XL, in a precarious state.



Here's your chance to support an indie label and get an outstanding contemporary record while doing that. I hope you pick up Skying, and you will be rewarded for doing so.



Nice pressing, double record, well done embossed gatefold, I paid $16. A freakin' bargain.

New Steve Earle - "I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive"...

Take it from one who has long respected Steve Earle but has never really been a lover of his records - this one is his best record, ever.



I picked this up in a slow week. Didn't want to leave the record store empty handed. Wouldn't have bought it otherwise. When that happens, either I get something that turns out to be a stone classic and a huge surprise, or I get bitten by a piece of dog crap and feel guilty knowing that I knew it was a waste of money when I bought it.



Happily, this one is a huge surprise. I can honestly say it is a transformative experience listening to this.



I won't spoil it for you talking too much about the music. It's sort of a country album, but not the Randy Travis or (substitute any generic conservative countrified nutjob you prefer) any other such country pop artist. It's traditional in a way, but so was Coltrane in 1967. So is Hans Werner Henze, at his core. It's also very forward looking and of today. Just get it. It's great.



Here, we also have a dedicated vinyl mastering that has been plainly done to optimize sonics. It was clearly intended as a true analog vinyl master, and it sounds like it. No hi-fi sound effects - just a warm, vibrant, dynamic, tonally faithful sound on a pretty decent pressing, for which I paid a princely $17.



I consider this a master statement, both artistically and sonically. It gets 5 doobies on both counts. It's a must, regardless of genre. It transcends genre. I strongly recommend it and would be surprised if it does not reveal itself to you as much as it did to me.

WEATHER REPORT - Heavy Weather on ORG...

Just in, 45 rpm vinyl of Weather Report's awesome "Heavy Weather" on the ORG (Original Recordings Group) label, and the weather is indeed heavy - hail, in fact.



That's what the pressing sounds like. A hailstorm of pops and clicks.



This one, unusually for ORG, is pressed at RTI, and it sounds like it. Not only a cacaphony of pops and clicks that even my amazing cleaning methods can't remedy, a low level continuous surface noise floor that truly mars this beautiful remastering by Bernie Grundman.



Here, Grundman shows again why he is simply the best in the world. That extended, holographically transparent, clear sound that has a tonality that is simply spot on in timbre and color. Absolutely organic, and simply stunning.



The amazing sound is almost enough to overcome a shitty pressing - almost. Maybe at a different price, it would be. But not a $55, and not at the true cost - $55 plus the shipping, and I suppose, the return ship and the ship of the replaceement.



It's already $75, and it will be well over $100 to get a decent one.



If a decent one exists.



So - with regret - you have a choice here. If I got a crap pressing - and all four sides are unacceptably noisy - there are many more in the small press run. So you either go in here understanding that you are a nut job and willing to pay over $100 to eventually get a passable one, you pay your $55 plus shipping and accept whatever pressing you get and ignore the noise while enjoying a Grundman masterpiece, or you simply take a pass.



I don't know which way I'm headed. The music and sound here are both a perfect 10 - and more. But for the top, top premium price this ORG goes for, I expect perfection in the pressing, and I EXPECT THAT WHEN THE LABEL DOESN'T GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, THEY WILL MAKE IT RIGHT AT NO COST TO ME.



I know Music Matters does that. Actually, Rhino and Warners typically do too. ORG and Elusive Disc need to also.



A superb remastering let down by a bad pressing. Nuff said.

Audio Fidelity Target series - a new low!

Troubled "audiophile" label Audio Fidelity have announced a new series of vinyl and CD releases, supposedly at lower prices, manipulatively called the "Target" series.



Here's a new low, for a label renowned for screwed up mastering, production mistakes, hit and miss repertoire choices, and often sound that is really not much of an upgrade. A low, because AF have now made clear that they are full of shit and aiming straight at the Hoffman cultites. the 'Target' moniker was created solely by Hoffman wankers, and supposedly is the mark of an early 80's European CD with mythical, holy grail sonic qualities. like most other inventions of the Hoffman board, their purported qualities are massively exaggerated or simply non-existent. Target CD's are simply early digital - never taken from original sources, offering muddy, low level sonics that those with marginal systems and/or hard, bright sounding digital players prefer becuase their frequency limitations and mud mistaken for warmth fit right in with their warped world view.



Damn, I could get a good mastering to sound just like a Target - put a resistor across my tweeter to kill the top end, lower the bottom to have no presence, and put a blanket over my speakers to lose the detail - and there you have it, the Target sound.



One Hoffman lemming, a real loser 'Tootull', even complains that Toronto record stores wouldn't take his Targets off his hands, apparently not having got the memo that these are uber-collectable. I can just see this douche going to the used record stores telling them 'but..it's a Target!! They're worth BUCKS!! Steve Hoffman says so...don't you know who Steve Hoffman is??' and being laughed right out of the store. They are early digital, dude. Only valuable to collectors who buy into snakeoil generally.



The real hilarious, gut splitting post on the Hoffman board is from a guy who is looking forward to this series, particularly if they are "flat transfers". He didn't read the "Adventures in Mastering" vomit inducing self aggrandizing promo pieces by Hoffman himself, wherein he declares that "At no time do we just do a flat transfer and call it "mastered"" also saying he uses "equalization equipment and other signal processing gear" - I guess it's hard for the acolytes to keep up with whatever is the dogma of the month.



So why is Marshall Blonstein doing this? Remember, Marshall has no reluctance to take the low road in marketing his wares - his recent Huffington Post 'interview' shows he has a high propensity for, shall we say, 'gilding the lily' - and that he takes himself very seriously. Marshall did the respected DCC label, a knockoff of Mobile Fidelity, true. His ventures since have been rather variable, including Audio Fidelity.



Marshall is doing this to tap into that myth on the Hoffman board, to jack up his cred and sales among Hoffmanites. Pure and simple.



Among more knowing audio folks - Target means early, shitty digital from late generation sources. I wouldn't go near it if he was giving them away.



Already, the Hoffmanites are salivating at the propspect of getting their faves on this new series. Some great titles are being proposed!



Melissa Manchester! Yes! That will sell a bundle, guys. Hey- are Hoffmanites not past puberty yet?



Pablo Cruise!! Laura Branigan! Shiela E!! Wow-ee!! These guys are so lame.



Worse - they have no clue about rights, licensing, or indeed their host's issues with many labels.



Oasis, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin - these bands own the right to their recordings. They will not be licensed out - extremely unlikely. Even if they were, Hoffman is barred from touching anything from EMI, MCA, most Universal...in fact, it seems pretty much only WEA still allow him to touch their stuff (and doubtful they let him near a master). Gray has no such limitations I understand.



Even so, there are label restrictions are ownership matters that HUffers just don't understand in the slightest. It's sad to see these people pump their own narrow wet dream without the slightest inkling of what might be commercially viable or even obtainable.



Sadder - left to his own, Marshall comes up with two titles to launch this misguided affair - a record by Riot (yeah- Riot!! WTF??) and a 10,000 Maniacs titles that is ok, but MOFI have already done the gem of the Maniacs catalog - In My Tribe, and AF can't approach the sonics of MOFI, even on a rare bad day for MOFI.



Like I said, a new low for Marshall Blonstein and Audio Fidelity. I think I'll stay away just on principle. I hate being manipulated, and I hate even worse being sold to as if I were a moron.

Since I'm on about Music Matters this week, how about going back to some that deserve to get out front some more?

Here's s look back on some Music Matters 45 rpm vinyl releases that came under the radar and deserve more attention.



Way too often, the narrow demographic of buyers for these reissues, and even more, the limitations of the Steve Hoffman vanity board as the prime source of discussion of these titles (with the usual misinformation, complaining, limited knowledge/appreciation of the music that is endemic on that board) prevent some of the real gems in the Music Matter catalog from gaining their rightful acclaim.



Let's take a look at Jackie McLean's seminal "Destination Out". That's a test press of that title to the left. Remastered by Kevin Gray as Huffy had left the party in a huff (bad pun, I know) by then. Here we have the cream of mid-60's jazz in five perfect tracks. There should be no more reason to buy this record than to hear Roy Haynes behind Jackie McLean, who was approaching freer playing at this point, but not at all into dissonant avant garde. But there is much more reason - Bobby Hutcherson, for one. Taking essentially the piano spot, Hutcherson's vibes have simply never been reproduced as gloriously as they are here - the ringing, metallic yet warmly resonant tone here is astonishing, how the notes ring and reverberate throughout the room has just never come through before now. My first reaction was a broad smile - THAT'S what Bobby Hutcherson sounds like - what a major thrill to finally hear that! Then there is Grachan Moncur, enfant terrible, who has such a rich tone filled with harmonic warmth, and on this one you can hear and feel the sweat dripping off his bell. I consider this one of Moncur's best outings.



What more can I say - except bring on more Jackie McLean! One Step Beyond just HAS to get on the Music Matters schedule, if only for the emergence of Tony Williams - it's often not recognized that Tony Williams became Tony Williams in Jackie McLean's band. The intonation issues that Jackie has on earlier Blue Note were resolved by this point and this title is the real start of the prime Blue Note period for Jackie McLean. Don't miss this one.



Speaking of Granchan Moncur - he recorded two records as a leader for Blue Note, "Evolution", the first and probably the best, pretty much starts off where Destination Out ended, adding to that group Lee Morgan, and Bob Cranshaw in place of Larry Ridley and Tony Williams back in the saddle in place of Roy Haynes. What is remarkable here is how the sympathetic Kevin Gray remastering turns this into a whole new record. It is more "out" than many are willing to go, but don't be deterred by that - it's far from inaccessible, in fact, the warmth in the midrange, Moncur's glorious tone, Hutcherson's metallic singing vibes tone, and a real swing to the proceedings were a revelation to me - and I have known this record for decades. This is neither a 'blind' purchase or a 'spec' purchase - it's an essential purchase. Let this music wash over you and revel in the tone colors brought to life.



An earlier and more mainstream hard bop session led by Paul Chambers wasn't to me an automatic Music Matters purchase. Sure, it has an early pre-Coltrane Elvin Jones - but at this point Elvin was really struggling to find his identity. Chambers is always solid, and Tommy Flanagan never made a bad move. Clifford Jordan, it seems to me, was the wild card here. Jordan's presence is mostly what made me hesitate - I never considered him much more than a journeyman. But his playing here actually makes the date, and he really plays at a much higher level that many of his BN contemporaries, and here is a case where the whole truly exceeds by a wide margin the sum of the individuals involved - it comes together as a very satisfying cohesive record that was both an unexpected surprise and a minor revelation.



That I had really not given it any respect previously made it all the more delightful to make a re-acquaintance in such a rewarding way. If you have overlooked this one, don't make my mistake - be surprised, and delighted, and maybe even it will open your eyes and ears to the many other unheralded titles in the Blue Note catalog that you need to discover. Curated by Ron and Joe, you just know that if they put it in front of you, it's going to be great. You have to take the next step to make the discovery.



Before I leave this topic for awhile, I urge Music Matters to bring more Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams collaborations out of the vault and into our hands. Pepper has been unfortunately largely forgotten now, while Gerry Mulligan remains revered, and IMO Pepper walks all over Mulligan as a hard bop bari player - and his stay in the Byrd band was seminal. Music Matters have done Byrd In Hand, with a second horn - Charlie Rouse on tenor. It's a good date and sounds very good. Pepper had one of those tones that never really got properly reproduced on record - it's big, much bigger than Mulligan, it's metallic from that Berg metal mouthpiece he favored, he growls down deep and loves the horn's bottom end. It's a baritone sound, and too often, I found players like Mulligan trying to make the bari into a darker tenor. Among bari players, Pepper is revered - not nearly as much so Mulligan.



In my view, Music Matters can't get enough of the Byrd/Pepper records into market, so we can here for the first time that magnificent, unique bari tone. Royal Flush has just got to get on the schedule. How about that, guys?

About that Music Matters 45 Sonny Rollins "Newks Time":

In some of my recent posts, readers have commented on the recent Music Matters 45 rpm vinyl release of Sonny Rollins' Newks Time, citing rather severe problems sonically. As I mentioned in those comments, it surprises me that Music Matters would put out anything subpar - their standards sonically and in the whole presentation have been consistently sterling, and truth is I have not personally heard their Newks Time (but the comments posted and private emails I've received sure have pumped me to rectify that).

I did ask the good folks at Music Matters about it, and got the whole story. First, an email Music Matters was kind enough to forward to me, unedited or altered:

"Hi gang,

Tonight I'm sitting here listening to the test pressings of Sonny Rollin's amazing Newk's Time session. I'm blissed out....and here's why!

From the inception of Music Matters' Blue Note project, there have been a handful of sessions that we (Ron and I) dearly love but that apparently had master tape problems of one kind or another that made the prospect of being able to release them seem remote indeed.

One of these sessions was Sonny Rollin's amazing "Newk's Time". We had been told by various folks (including Michael Cuscuna) that the masters "had problems" and that it would be better to move on to other great Rollins titles on Blue Note. We did that (you'll see Sonny's great Vol. 1 from us soon and Acoustic Sounds has released Vol. 2) but Newk's Time has always been a favorite.

A few weeks before our last Blue Note mastering marathon at Acoustech in June, Ron and I decided to go ahead and request Newks' Time, despite all the warnings.

The session comes, and sure enough, there on the Newks' Time masters are dire looking warnings about "severe tape drop outs" all over the outer box and inner notes. Most of the fuss seemed to revolve around drops out on the first track "Tune Up".

Undaunted, Kevin went ahead and carefully spooled the tape up so we could have a listen and settle in to our battle plan.

The first thing that struck us all...well the first two things really...were how great Sonny sounded and how great the overall sound was. Sonny was in full flight, I was getting totally stoked and then it happened.... the dreaded "drop out"! I said "wait a minute!" but Steve was already on to it... "THAT'S no drop out!" He was right, this was clearly Rudy making a fairly radical fader move. Tape drop outs are obvious and have their own "sound". This was not a drop out.

We had been noticing (and commenting) on the fact that Sonny was moving in the stereo image. Then I started laughing since it was so obvious....Sonny was WALKING around the studio (the Hackensack living room) and Rudy was doing whatever he could, using his faders, to keep up with Sonny.
Anyone who has been to a Sonny Rollins concert knows that he is not a stationary player. I had vague memories of reading of Sonny's recording adventures with Rudy, of Sonny's desire not to be chained to a microphone.
It probably sounds like a small matter to most, but for Ron and myself, this was one of those Eureka Moments where everything suddenly makes sense.
We put up "Tune Up" again as Steve began to zero in on other things that the track needed.

The rest of the tracks were fine.....no "severe drop out" issues at all! Yes, you do hear things shifting around a bit as Sonny walks around, playing his tail off, but hey, that's what the man does...he needs to MOVE to play his absolute best!

There's an amazing track on this album that will take up all of Side C on our release....Philly Joe Jones and Sonny on an amazing duo work out on "Surrey With The Fringe On Top". I wish I had a camera to capture Steve hanging on for dear life with the faders trying to "walk" with Sonny and keep him present. He succeeded but needed a towel to dry off afterwards!
Thanks Steve! Thanks Kev! And THANK YOU SONNY!

Cheers,

Joe and Ron"

So there you have it, straight up.

But wait a minute - despite all that, it's clear - Newks Time DOES have some sonic problems, and damn, it costs $50 a pop for folks to get that! Is that right?

I suppose it is all a matter of perspective. If all it's about to you is pure, perfect, unblemished sonic nirvana, you might not be getting your fix with this one.

For me, though, it has always been about getting fantastic historical and LIVING performances in not necessarily the 'best' sound possible, but the most realistic and faithful sound possible - and a big part of that is representing that particular moment and place in time as faithfully as possible.

Those warts on Newks Time are part of the music. Hearing Sonny moving around, going off mic, moving side to side in the stereo image - those are all parts of that wonderful moment in time, they are part of the performance, part of that particular day at Van Gelder's - part of the history that Music Matters is doing such a fabulous job of reproducing, of archiving and preserving for my, and hopefully my kids, enjoyment going forward.

I would not reject Newks Time because of these artifacts (they are not flaws! artifacts is a better word, IMO) - and again, I have not yet heard the MM vinyl - I suspect I will embrace them as they bring me closer to that moment in time and closer to what is a truly great Sonny Rollins session.

I perfectly understand that others may see this differently. If nothing else, readers who have written me about Newks Time have pushed me into ordering a copy to hear for myself, and to give some thought to what exactly should be expected in preserving these performances. I'm grateful on both counts.

Kate Bush Directors Cut - what is the whining about?

Whole lot of whining took place over at the whining board (www.stevehoffman.tv) over Kate Bush's Directror's Cut on vinyl. Lots of sad folks with sad vinyl setups complaining about the vinyl quality, even going as far as to claim that the whole UK/Euro pressing run is defective.

As usual, a whole pile of bullshit.

I bought mine for the whopping sum of $16 at Rotate This here in Toronto. European import pressing, I guess imported by EMI Canada.

An absolutely dead silent, flat, perfect pressing that sounds fabulous. And an absolutely perfect package in every respect, a double LP for less that one side of the typical audiophile bullshit remaster.

What's to complain about? OK, Rubberband Girl in this revamp incarnation takes a bit to get used to. Overall, this is a terrific mid life look back at an artist's own catalog that is a whole lot more interesting than a greatest hits package.

Who can complain about this, and at that price?

New Jazz CD's Gary Burton, Tom Harrell, Omer Avital, James Carter

There hasn't been much happening Stateside in jazz over the past decade or so. Aside from endless pre-1965 reissues of standard fare, jazz in it's country of origin has become a museum music followed by older white men with highly conservative tastes who rarely understand the music much beyond pleasant background.

There are a few bright spots - avant garde labels like AUM Fidelity, Thirsty Ear, and Small's record label. After a dormant period where I feared Small's had died, a new Omer Avital CD appears, and it is a fine one, featuring the excellent tenor of Joel Frahm on a fairly straight ahead live date, blowing, advanced accessible compositions, superb musicianship in the tradition and in the moment as well. a fine recording. Very recommended.

Gary Burton had descended into formula long ago, after his prime ECM period. Here he tries to revive the ECM era, Metheny era group formula, but not necessarily the sound - it's more modern, a touch latin in places, less fiery and progressive. There's no Metheny here (and in truth, Metheny was never the same after his Burton era, and that has to do with the fact that Mick Goodrick was the lead guitar in that Burton band and a better player) but the record stands up well on it's own and is a welcome return of an older, more settled Burton who still has one whopping technique.

Anyone who has not been following Tom Harrell's quintet recordings on High Note is missing the single finest band in American jazz today. His latest, The Time Of The Sun, again featuring Wayne Escoffery's tenor, is no exception - in fact, this band keeps on getting better each time out. If you haven't already, just go to Amazon or CD Universe and order the last 5 Harrell recordings on High Note right away. It's that good.

Last for now, James Carter records a classical crossover record on Emarcy - Caribbean Rhapsody, a concerto for saxophones designed as a showpiece for Carter, a fine player with a tendency to showboating. Over the years, Carter has learned that subtlety is a virtue and having technique doesn't mean you have to flaunt it with every note you play. Here is a fine piece of music, nothing that will become the next Brahms concerto, but a fine latin crossover vibe that showcases Carter very well.
The revelations are to be found on the new AUM Fidelity Planetary Unknown, a group with David S. Ware, Cooper-Jones on piano, the thunderous William Parker's bass, and Muhammad Ali on drums - an avant garde super group if there ever was one, starting at late Coltrane and moving forward. Majestic, often tonal, avant garde music that shows Ware as a newly matured player, much changed after his recent life threatening illness. Ali played with Ayler, and has all the history in his hands, and brings an emotion and passion often lacking in the avant garde to the band. Never 'out' for the purpose of being 'out', this I am sure will one day be considered a seminal date and maybe even a turning point. Not to be missed. You've never heard anything like this before.

Finally took the plunge on some Analogue Productions SACD's...

And I guess I have some mixed views, sonically. Maybe artistically too.

Let's deal with the artistic first. My view is that Chad Kassem has very limited musical tastes, is stuck in the 50's to mid 60's, and is so commercially conservative that he is simply regurgitating well worn warhorses that really do not need further rehashing, except maybe to older white males who obsess about sonic trivia.

The world needs another Blue Train or Coltrane/Ballads like it needs another recording of Beethoven's 9th - as in, it most surely does not. But if a certain demographic will buy them, Chad will make them.

No big problem there, I can choose not to buy. But wouldn't it be nice if Chad, and other similar labels, actually cared about the music enough to forego the well worn and put really timeless, but not overdone and even the slightly overlooked, gems in front of buyers - who will swoop them up on sonic grounds alone - and really do something to advance the history of modern music? There's an opportunity here, beyond immediate financial gratification. But it seems today in America, it's not about music anymore - anywhere.

So I have tried, in a slow month, a bunch of AP Blue Note reissues on SACD, as well as a bunch of AP Impulse titles. Bear in mind that I am not a SACD advocate - I have never owned a SACD player, considering my long term CD setup to be at least equal if not superior to the failed SACD format. Besides, optimizing CD is a far more intelligent route IMO as the vast majority of music is, and will only be, available on CD as far as digital formats - or ultimately as downloadable files. SACD was never intended as a replacement CD anyways - at the time, it was already clear that the music buying public would bypass physical format altogether and go download (remember, I am a market researcher!). I also found something missing in SACD - it always sounded 'glossy', or overly slick, to me. So, I am hearing these CD layer only, albeit on a very superior digital setup.

The Blue Train is a fine remastering. Here the Hoffman forum model is played to directly - it's a very 'quiet' remastering, relatively low in volume, tonally very correct, highs just slightly rolled off to ensure older ears aren't offended. Comparing to my Japanese RVG remaster, it certainly is better - but those RVG's are still very nice sounding, going deeper into the room, wider to the side walls, and having a percussive, metallic top end. Tonally the AP gets it better. Otherwise, the RVG is very good. Fortunately, THE RVG does not contain the 2 bonus tracks included on the AP which may help sell another round of Blue Train, but detract more than add to the legend of this classic.

A brief word on those much derided RVG remasters. Initially, when they first started appearing in Japan, I was astonished at the range and detail they possessed, a very wide and deep soundstage and air around the instruments that even these AP remasters don't have. But that top end I initially found sizzling hot and ear bleeding. What I came to learn is that the RVG remasters are the single most system specific remasters ever made. They are not for every system, in fact, I contend that they are not for most modern systems - the very digital digital players, the multi driver speaker systems with the typically bright metal dome tweeters. They only sound right on very natural sounding systems - NOT "hi-fi" or "audiophile" systems, audiophile meaning for this purpose expensive systems that are designed to produce very hi-fi effects, rather than organically natural sound. Nobody pays for natural sound. They pay for audio fireworks (expect in Japan). On the two pairs of speakers I have been using for the last decade or more - Tannoy in one case, PHY-HP in the other - and combined with the natural, un-digital sound of 47 Labs CD transports and DAC's, the RVG's sound superb. But they are so system dependent I acknowledge they are for most not going to work out.

The Hancock Maiden Voyage is even closer to the RVG. I care not a whit about RVG narrowing the stereo spread, in fact, I find it highly desirable to make solid decisions to optimize the sound for modern times. The RVG sounds very good, the AP better, again particularly tonally, but not so much that it renders the RVG obsolete. As usual, the Japanese cover art is far more faithful to the originals than AP's scan job. I have a few other AP Blue Note SACD's - Mobley's Workout, Dexter's Go and Dexter Calling, Lee Morgan's Sidewinder - within a few inches, all the same verdict - good, safe remastering, not totally displacing the RVG, not in the class of the Music Matters vinyl. They are not anywhere near the much lamented XRCD Blue Note series sonically. I would not go out of my way for them, if there are any you must have, get them from Amazon at the cut rate price only.


On to the Impulse offerings from Analogue Production. The Paul Gonsalves and Sonny Stitt is a rare example of a relatively neglected Impulse catching Chad's attention - I am sure this has more to do with Chad's limited knowledge of the music than a conscious title selection, likely Chad saw Sonny Stitt's name and figured it was a good one for his conservative crowd. But it's a great title, more for Gonsalves, 5 great hot blowing tunes with a fine rhythm section and this Gray remastering sounds very fine. I have nothing to compare it to, which is just as well - I encountered it on it's own terms, and it's very recommendable.

The Elvin Jones is a lesser title. Like McCoy Tyner, Elvin did not do anywhere near his best work on Impulse. McCoy only became McCoy once he retooled and hit Milestone, and Elvin only emerged as an individual leader on Blue Note - and fairly well in to his Blue Note tenure at that. Sonically, I did not find this one as good as the Gonsalves/Stitt, and the Ellington/Coltrane I also tried was better too. The plus of this series is that Gray is mastering them without Hoffman - so Hoffman's tin ear isn't a factor here. Where I have a Japanese K2 remaster to compare. it's really a tossup, so for the most part, I'll stick with those K2's which for Impulse I find really haven't been significantly bettered.

I really wish that Blue Note - Audio Wave XRCD series would be revived. Better yet, I wish for a XRCD Impulse series, with better titles than AP are willing to do.

Mettallic Rock - Helms Alee - Weatherhead

New on vinyl from Hydra Head Records, who have one of the coolest wensites going. Helms Ale - Weatherhead. Colored vinyl, 180g pressing. Getting the technical out of the way - great, quiet pressing. Superb artwork an packaging. Sounds just great.

Some of the most interesting music around today gets lumped under the 'metal' genre, which is unfortunate, as a lot of the stuff coming from labels like Hydra Head, and Neurot, and even Southern Lords, is heavy - but takes much from genres like prog, hard rock, grindcore, and grunge as well as many elements of the classic rock these bands no doubt grew up on. What we are seeing today is musicians, and music, emerging that draws from a multitude of influences and seamlessly blending them into unique forms. I kind of understand where these bands are coming from - I started with Back Sabbath, Audience, Caravan, Bitched Brew, Billy Cobham, Family, Traffic, Ted Nugent, Coltrane, Steve Hillage, and a hundred others - and to me, they all originate from the same DNA.

Helms Alee is a case in point. It's heavy. For sure, this is heavy on the fuzz box riffs. Yet, beyond the riffs, there is a lot more subtelty happening here, and a much wider sonic palette. It's part a heavy metal blast, but part a moody hard rock anthem piece. Anyway, it's a very good record, turn it up very loud and let it wash over you, it's another great record from Hydra Head. Five doobies.

Golden Pavilion Vinyl again - Bob Thiel, Life new!

Golden Pavilion new releases on 180g vinyl, direct from Portugal. Limited to 500 copies, and I have every reason to believe that they really are only pressed to 500 - and then, that's the end.

I was disappointed by the last LP I got from Golden Pavilion - Dragon's "Kalahen", apparently the source used was very poor, but actually, sonically that one turned out fantastic - and the heavy prog in the grooves, reminding me more of groups like Jonesy and even at parts early Crimson, was just superb and completely, uniquely, not commercial. The pressing sucked, though, and no amount of elbow grease could rescue it.

Not so here. Two super pressings and sonic gems.

Bob Thiel's So Far is a 1970's folk-prog masterpiece, unknown at the time, highly reminiscent of Roy Harper's HQ period, even hinting a bit at Meddle era Floyd. Thiel is an excellent song writer, many tracks are lengthy and could be termed folk-prog tone poems. Very worthwhile. Great sounding. Five doobies recommendation.



Tone poems for rock band is what Swedish group Life's self titled LP is about. Originally on Harvest, this is the rare English sung version, not even a slight hint that English is not the mother tongue here, and a fine testament to how ahead of their time European bands were in the 1970's, very much like UK bands Nucleus and Soft Machine who show that jazz-rock really was adopted abroad well before the more mainstream variants that appeared and became popular in the US. Another fine record unearthed by Golden Pavilion, and a fine pressing in exemplary sound.


I have to wonder how these European labels manage to get such great sound and yet produce such limited pressing runs, and still manage to stay afloat. Yet, they do - and I strongly recommend you support labels, like Golden Pavilion, that are exploring rare, unique music that deserves to be heard again, way more than another boring rehash of The Doors, or Black Sabbath, or Cat Stevens.

Universal Japanese Vinyl Reissues get it right!!

Rather quietly, Universal Japan have been reissuing a small number of catalog titles - in most cases, very rare and offbeat stuff, on superbly done 200g vinyl that puts domestic vinyl reissues to shame.

Take a look at the picture that shows how these are packaged. First, the covers are exact reproductions of originals - whether flip back, tipped on, gatefold...it's reproduced exactly, right down to the paper type. The records are packed in a high quality resealable Japanese outer sleeve, with the actual record in a Nagaoka type round bottom inner contained inside a separate thick white cardboard sleeve. This type of packaging precision and excess is in every way designed to make sure both record and sleeve arrive in perfect condition, every time. Nice.

They are indeed highly limited, maybe 500 to 700 copies at most, and truth is. they pretty much all sell out immediately. Deservedly so.

I'll point you first to the Clarke-Boland Big Band 'Latin Kaleidoscope' since it is still available in Japan. This is a classic MPS recording that is legendary, with originals going for fairly significant bucks in the used market. Gary McFarland's suite is on the first side, a Francy Boland suite of equal significance on the second, key players like Johnny Griffin, Sahib Shihab, Benny Bailey, Jimmy Woode, Idrees Suliemann, Tony Coe, Ronnie Scott, Sabu Martinez...the cream of the crop playing in Europe in the early 70's. There is a reason this is a somewhat under the radar legend - the band is red hot, having a blast, loose, and the music is superb. This is simply a joy to listen to. Hunt a copy of this reissue down, it's a real keeper.

The Clarke-Boland is perhaps the best known title reissued by Universal Japan in this series, aside from Yusef Lateef's 'Before Dawn'. Two 1960's titles by Staffan Abeleen are revived, Perseopolis is the earler, in serviceable but not overly fulfilling mono, Downsteam the later and better of the two, in fine stereo and dispelling the myth that the European jazz player of the 60's was stiff and unidiomatic. Very worthwhile and quite advanced for the period, in ways looking ahead to ECM, rooted more in Crescent era Coltrane in other ways, and featuring the young Palle Danielsson who went on the anchor Keith Jarrett's 1970's 'European' quartet. Very recommended.

A very odd and welcome title from Paul Gonsalves, 'Hummingbird' was originally issued on UK prog label Deram, probably why it disappeared quickly and remains forgotten. Features a UK backing group that includes Kenny Wheeler on trumpet (imagine - Kenny Wheeler and Paul Gonsalves!!) that acquits itself very well, an interesring mix of a few standards and originals from band members, strong blowing from all, and of course, Gonsalves recorded so infrequently as a leader and in small group settings that this one must be highly recommended.

It goes without saying that the Japanese 200g pressings are flawless in every respect. While I hear a lot about how great Pallas and (sometimes) RTI are, the fact is, the best pressing plant in the world is in Japan, and as has been true for over 30 years now, the very best pressings in the world still come from Japan. Check these out please.

Rush "Roll The Bones" on Audio Fidelity

New gold CD of Rush "Roll The Bones" on the underwhelming, mistake prone Audio Fidelity label.

An original digital recording, presumably 16 bit from the early days, remastered by Kevin Gray.

I have to question the value of giving this kind of early digital recording the 'audiophile' reissue treatment. Sure, I have actually heard some fabulous 16 bit digital file remasters lately ( The Dutoit - Holst/Planets on Classic Reissues vinyl sounds knock-down amazing), and in truth, there are many early digital recordings that are very good sounding (1980's Denon Japanese vinyl sourced from PCM files are one sterling example), so I have no inherent bias against early digital.

But here, the sound is likely as good as it gets - and Gray's remastering brings greater clarity, smoothness, and a punchy sound. Without a doubt, it is good sounding. But it has very little bass - inherent in the digital file - and sounds rather clinical.

It's good, and I figure Gray has done what can be done here. But I question Audio Fidelity's judgement in bringing this title to market in a pricey audiophile edition. But then again, title choices have been Audio Fidelity's weak point all along, as well as their unfortunate penchant for mistakes, happily not present here.

It's an upgrade, and I'm happy to have it. Others may want to decide based on whether they feel the value proposition is strong enough.

Dos Y Dos on ORG - a letdown.

Starting up front with the superficial - this has just got to be the worst back cover on a record so far this decade. You have just got to wonder why aging artists would want themselves to be photographed like this, and these are...well...self inflicted wounds, to put it kindly. Purple on purple?? Groovy, just like the Partridge Family would do if they were still around. Cool color coordination. Might want to look into a bit of hair color at this point, folks, even a bottle job would be better. Sorry to be superficial and crass, but it really does detract from the music. Front cover is pretty good.

The pressing is a letdown. Pallas is not the great quality assured fabulous be all and end all of pressing plants it's sometimes made out to be. One failing is the inner sleeves they use which are loaded with static, and the discs all too often come loaded with dust attracted by the sleeves. It's a pretty noisy pressing, particularly at the side starts, and cleaning didn't make it much better. The music actually requires a quiet pressing.

On to that music. Bass duo, a bit of vocal in places, very good, great to hear basses on their own, tunes are excellent, a fascinating sort of jazzy-punkish bass thing going on.

But too bad about ORG's pressing. Worthwhile, but you may have to work at it to find a good pressing, and musically it's not really worth the effort.

Singles from Coldplay, Wilco, Radiohead...-

Recent singles from some big names show that all the life in the music biz is purely with the indies now.

Wilco, now self publishing on their own label, come with a fine effort 'I Might ' that has a cool b-side in ' I Love My Label' , it's a nice pressing, sounds very good, and well priced (I think I paid $6 for mine, and that's in valuable Canadian dollars, not the quickly fading USD).

On the other hand, Coldplay have returned with more of the bed-wetters favorites - 'Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall ' is apparently produced by Eno, but sounds like it's trying to be 'Viva La Vida' (which I quite liked, despite how long it took me to find a pressing that was even slightly passable) but it's really just a dressed up cheesy pop tune like Bay City Rollers with a bit of cool synth sounds. Clever title and lyrics showing just what masterful poets the boys are, true romantics. Destined to be in heavy rotation at your local Wal-Mart in a few years. A shitty pressing, digitally ugly sound taken from a bad flac file emailed directly to the cheapest pressing plant EMI's beancounters could find, complete with a super cool die cut sleeve to make you think you're getting something that has a bit of value, and costing about double what the fine Wilco single is going for- this is a sure hit.


Then we have EMI refugees Radiohead, who turn up with a 12 incher of remixes - Little By Little and Lotus Flower - from their recent 'King Of Limbs' and this is exactly why EMI and Coldplay are so lame and wrongheaded. Radiohead hit a dead end, and instead of doing like Coldplay and trying to repeat the formula and become a cheese act, they took a total left turn and made themselves interesting. These are very good, very heavy remixes that add dimensionality to the Radiohead originals, well mastered for vinyl, pretty good pressing, packaging a bit of a let down but it cost me less than the Coldplay 7 inch, well worth the money.

So there we have it. A great 7 inch from Wilco that is in the mould of the 60's single, a lame 7 inch from Coldplay that is an EMI accountant release, and a truly fascinating 12 inch of Radiohead remixes.

Pass on the Coldplay and pick up the Wilco and Radiohead. EMI today are owned by an American bank, and operated like an American bank - and you just know that means screwing the customers every time they can.