LATEST ADDITIONS

What depression? There's nothing like a good old-fashioned listening party for lighting a fire on your savings account. Might as well spend your money now before it disappears. Turn your money into stuff. Turn your stuff into records. <a href="http://www.devorefidelity.com/">John DeVore</a> should charge admission to his new listening room. Perhaps he'll accept payment in vinyl. I'd happily pay one limited edition pressing for an evening of outstanding music and fine company.

Remember my friend, Eden? The one with <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/project_sapphire_at_the_end_o… amazing apartment</a> and the Sota Sapphire? I visited her the other day. Slowly, so slowly, we're revitalizing the old turntable. Getting her ready to spin again. Getting her ready to sing again.

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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.