Pickin' in Greenpoint Audiophile Style
“Well, Dylan will be here at four.”
Continue Reading »
LATEST ADDITIONS
Larry Young, In Paris: The ORTF Recordings
If this doesn't wind up as the year's archival jazz find, I can't wait for the treasure that beats it. In Paris: The ORTF Recordings (on the Resonance Records label) is dazzling, riveting stuffpreviously unissued sessions by Larry Young, made during a brief stay in Paris, from December 1964 to February 1965, just before his string of Blue Note albums established him as the modern innovator on the Hammond B-3 organ.
Continue Reading »
Merle Haggard (1937-2016)
The man had conviction.
Continue Reading »
Bonnie Raitt's Inexorable Rhythm
In conversation with Bonnie Raitt these days, one word continually jumps out: groove. She's speaking of her music, of course, but the blues singer and guitaristher gifts as commanding as ever on her latest, Dig In Deephas also survived some family struggles in the past decade that nearly forced her out of her personal groove.
Continue Reading »
Nowhere to Go?
Our mail, in recent months, has brought a number of comments (some of them printed in this issue) from professional audio men who decry the fact that developments in the audio field seem to have come to a screeching halt.
Continue Reading »
There would seem to be some justification for believing this, too. There hasn't been a new kind of loudspeaker, amplifier, pickup, or tuner for the past five years or so. The professional engineering journals, once loaded with juicy articles about research and developments in music reproduction, are now devoted largely to public-address techniques and new methods for the "creation" of electronic music.
PS Audio UltraLink D/A processor
The night before I started to write this review, PBS began a five-part series on computers called "The Machine that Changed the World." The first episode described the development of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Accumulator), the first electronic computer. The ENIAC used 18,000 vacuum tubes, had over 500,000 solder joints, required a room 30' by 50', had to be physically reprogrammed with patch cords to perform different tasks, and packed less computing power than today's $4.99 pocket calculator.
Continue Reading »
Zanden Event in Virginia Saturday
Saturday April 9, from noon until 5pm, Metro Washington DC's Command Performance (115 Park Avenue, Suite #2 in Falls Church, VA) welcomes Kazutoshi Yamada and Eric Pheils of Zanden Audio for a special event. Mr. Yamada and Mr. Pheils will premier Zanden's flagship electronics: the Mk.II versions of the Model 9600 KR845 monoblock amplifiers (above) and the Model 3000 preamplifier.
Continue Reading »
Wilson & dCS in Santa Monica, Wednesday & Thursday
On Wednesday and Thursday, April 6 & 7, 5:30pm8:30pm, The Audio Salon (Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit F1, Santa Monica) will present the first public demonstration in California of Wilson Audio's new Alexx loudspeaker. John Quick from dCS will be discussing and demonstrating the new Rossini Player, Rossini Clock, and the Vivaldi 2.0 Playback System. . .
Continue Reading »
First Thursdays in Ohio
Thursday April 7, from 69 pm, John DeVore of DeVore Fidelity (above) and Mike Pranka, the distributor for Well Tempered Labs and Dynavector, will presenting a night of music making at Don Better Audio (2888 Weybridge Road, Shaker Heights, OH 44120). John will be playing the new Gibbon X loudspeakers and Mike the new Well Tempered Royale 400 turntable with its 16" tonearm. The system will include amplification from VTL and a formal seminar starts at 7:30pm.
Continue Reading »
Hand Eye Wigs Out
When do 12 hands + 12 eyes = boundless creativity? When you gather up the six New York-based composers of the highly heralded Sleeping Giant collective, set them loose in an extraordinary collection of contemporary art, and invite them to compose art-inspired music for four-time Grammy-winning Chicago new-music sextet, Eighth Blackbird. From this is born Hand Eye, a recording that opens the ear, eye, and mind simultaneously as it transport you to landscapes all their own. If you crave music that stimulates and provokes, you have to hear it.
Continue Reading »