LATEST ADDITIONS

I went to see Keith Jarrett play solo at Carnegie Hall last night. This may puzzle careful readers of this blog, who no doubt recall my <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/081107">boycott</A&gt; of Jarrett in August 2007 after his disgraceful behavior at the Umbria Jazz Festival, on top of a career of disgraceful behavior. Well, I decided to call an end my own pique. First, I’m told that Jarrett apologized to the people of Umbria. Second, now that Barack Obama is president, the tantrums of a piano player are more likely to be seen as a mere random annoyance than “yet another example” of American brutishness. Finally, I figured, it’s a new era, I’ll give the guy another chance. He’s too good an artist—too great, really—to ignore just because he’s a jerk. (Jackson Pollock was much more unpleasant, yet that doesn’t stop me from gazing at <I>Number One (1950)</I> every time I visit the Museum of Modern Art.)

At its best, there’s a quiet majesty to the music of Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African pianist-composer once known as Dollar Brand, and his new solo CD, <I>Senzo</I> (on the German WDR label’s Cologne Broadcasts series), is his most stirring album in years. He was discovered in 1963, at the age of 30, by no less than Duke Ellington, who produced his first recording, then lured him to the States, where he played with Elvin Jones before going on to form his own bands. In the ‘70s, he found his full voice—a swaying pastiche of jazz, spiritual and Capetown rhythms—and, over the course of a few years, recorded a staggering number of great albums: <I>Live at Sweet Basil, Vol. 1</I> (there was no Vol. 2) and <I>Duke’s Memories</I> with the saxophonist Carlos Ward, Good <I>News from Africa</I> with the bassist Johnny Dyani, <I>Streams of Consciousness</I> with drummer Max Roach, <I>Duet</I> with saxophonist Archie Shepp (the most lyrical album Shepp ever made), and <I>African Marketplace</I>, <I>The Mountain</I>, and <I>Ekaya</I> with his octet known as Ekaya.

Al Stiefel, 66, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, died suddenly and unexpectedly in Denver on January 27. His wife of 22 years, RMAF mainstay Marjorie Baumert, was at his side.

Remarkably, I set out to audition the Hyperion HT-88 amplifier ($2800/pair) over two years ago, only to be confounded by shipping errors, miscommunications, and, in the end, a stealthily defective tube. I almost gave up.

Be careful, the old saw has it, what you wish for. For a long time now, many of us boomers have wished that the mainstream record companies would rediscover the glories of the vinyl LP. Now, a few of them are doing just that. Sony has released new 33-1/3 rpm slabs of vinyl from Columbia’s classic jazz catalogue—Charles Mingus’ <I>Ah Um</I> and a bonus LP as part of the deluxe box commemorating the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ <I>Kind of Blue</I>. Blue Note has gone further still, reissuing a dozen of its old titles in vinyl, packing both a CD <I>and</I> an LP inside the 12” record jackets, presumably so you can hear a comparison.

In a world of me-too products, NuForce distinguishes itself from all those other components whose names begin with i by actually using a capital <I>I</I>. Actually, that statement is unkind, even unfair&#151;unlike the myriads of products designed to capitalize on the Apple iPod's current sexiness, the NuForce Icon isn't designed to be portable (although NuForce does offer an Icon Mobile). What the Icon unquestionably <I>is</I> is a fine little piece of audio engineering, which most of those other i components are not.

Time thins the ranks of specialist industries. Trends, products, and companies come and go. High-end audio is a poster child for this reality, and most veteran audiophiles have evidence of the casualties&#151;literature or orphaned products, stashed away somewhere. But a small number of true believers remain true to their visions, and persevere to help advance the state of the art.