LATEST ADDITIONS

Recording of December 1977: Jim Hall Live!

Margaret Graham Oct 10, 2017

Jim Hall: Jim Hall Live!
Jim Hall, guitar, Don Thompson, double bass, Terry Clarke, drums.
Horizon Records: A&M SP-705 (LP), reissued on CD as Horizon SP-705. John Snyder, prod., Don Thompson, eng. TT: 41:29.

These performances were taped by the double-bass player, Don Thompson, during a week's stand in June 1975 at Bourbon Street, Toronto, Canada. They are very closely miked, yet audience noises are audible although they seem to enhance rather than detract from the music. The balances are fascinating.

RMAF 2017

Jana's Day One at RMAF

Jana Dagdagan Oct 10, 2017

Fortunately, in a world of darkness, there is still light. And by light, I mean: hi-fi.

RMAF 2017

Jason Visits the Big Boys at RMAF

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 09, 2017

To paraphrase a classic early English song by Thomas Arne, “Where the big boys go, there go I.” Thus to the Marriott’s lobby and mezzanine, where many of the biggest systems found spaces congenial to their size, didst I head.

RMAF 2017

JVS Hits the Floors at RMAF

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 08, 2017

Since I am accustomed to hearing VTL electronics paired with either Wilson or Rockport loudspeakers, I was eager to hear how the Siegfried II monoblocks would mate with the Vandersteens

RMAF 2017

RMAF: Off to a Very Good Start

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 07, 2017

By the time the show officially launched at noon on Friday, the lines at the two registration tablesone for pay-at-the-door folks, the other for online pre-registrantswere long

RMAF 2017

RMAF 2017: Focal Press Breakfast

Herb Reichert Oct 07, 2017

At 8:30am on Friday, my 2017 RMAF began on a solemn note: a moment of silence for Focal's Gérard Chrétien, who passed on October 1st. Along with Jacques Mahul, Monsieur Chrétien was an important member of the Focal team since 1990.

Jason Victor Serinus

Going Wild Over Handel Goes Wild

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 07, 2017

If the last thing you need is one more serious dive into the depths of the human psyche, you will find happiness in Handel Goes Wild: Improvisations on George Frideric Handel. A delight from start to finish, this latest Warner release from theorbist Christina Pluhar and her crack early music ensemble, L'Arpeggiata, lives up to its director's reputation for refreshing baroque repertoire with new, out-of-the-box ideas.

Robert Baird

Ry Cooder's Finest

Robert Baird Oct 06, 2017

The highlight of an incomparable career, reissued on LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab . . .

Art Dudley Listening Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Listening #178: Burwell Mother of Burl loudspeaker

Art Dudley Oct 05, 2017

A place in the country: everyone's ideal.Bryan Ferry, "Mother of Pearl"

Even at full strength, my family didn't need 3000-plus square feet of living space, let alone four acres of outdoor frolicking space, much of it wooded. But in 2003 that's precisely what we bought, partly because our deal fell through on another, very different house, partly because living next to a dairy farm was an appealing novelty, and partly because the hill on which the house is poised seemed defensible. On our very first morning in our new homea Saturday in early Junewe awoke to gunfire and puffs of smoke coming from the field below our hill.

Interviews Music and Recording Features

Murray Head: Nigel Lives Again

Robert Baird Oct 05, 2017

Seeing your album in a record store's cutout bin meant one thing. Despite the label execs' wide smiles, warm handshakes, and earnest promises to the contrary, once the record jacket had a hole punched in it, or its corner clipped, it meant your record label had lost faith and moved on.

Record collectors felt differently. The prices of cutouts were rightusually, from 99õ to a penny under two bucks. And cutouts were better than digging through crates because the records were still sealed . . . even if the jackets were a bit mangled. The beauty of cutouts was that they were so cheap, you could afford to be lavish, and go home with anything that caught your fancy.