Jenny Scheinman is one of the liveliest, quirkiest jazz musicians out there, a violinist with folk roots, a kind of bluegrass cadence, and a deepening mastery of improvisational idiom. She’s playing at the Village Vanguard through this Sunday with Jason Moran (the best pianist on the scene), Greg Cohen (one of the two or three best bassists), and Rudy Royston (a drummer who’s new to me but he’s very good too). If you’re in the tri-State area, go see her.
I've learned, unfortunately—even painfully—that not all vinyl sounds good. Crazy, I know. I would like to think that great performances make great recordings, and that's all there is to it. But it's not that simple. Even the greatest musical performance can be slashed to death by a bad recording, or by the foolish acts of the music industry. I learned the hard way. Is there any other way to learn?
There was a time, as recently as 40 years ago, when frequencies below 100Hz were considered extreme lows, and reproduction below 50Hz was about as common as the unicorn. From our present technological perch, it's too easy to smirk condescendingly at such primitive conditions. But just so you're able to sympathize with the plight of these disadvantaged audiophiles, I should tell you that there were two perfectly good reasons for this parlous state of affairs. First of all, program material at that time was devoid of deep bass; not because it was removed during disc mastering but simply because there wasn't any to begin with. The professional tape recorders of the day featured a frequency response of 50–15kHz, ±2dB—just about on a par with the frequency performance capability of a cheap 1988 cassette tape deck.
<B>KEITH JARRETT TRIO: <I>Tribute</I></B><BR>
Keith Jarrett, piano; Gary Peacock, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drum<BR>
ECM 1420/21 (847 135-2, 2 CDs only). Jan Erik Kongshaug, O. Fries, engs.; Manfred Eicher, prod. DDD. TT: 115:05
"Be like my friend Frank. He imagines that he's purchased certain products—right now he's imagining that he bought a pair of hard-to-get English speakers which he has read a review of but hasn't heard. This is ideal, since the speakers can sound better and better as Frank imagines more and more. When he tires of these speakers and gets excited about something else, he doesn't have to trade them in. He only needs to start imagining the next product." That was Sam Tellig's friend Frank, back in March of this year. No one could have said it better, but I have a followup.
I found out about <i>Patato & Totico</i> all on my own, and completely by accident. It happened during the height of my salsa fixation, just after I completed <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/101807mix/">my first <i>Salsa Means Soul</i> compilation</a>. Searching the compact disc shelves at the Virgin Megastore for an album called <i>Cuban Pearls</i>, and specifically for a <i>song</i> called "Oriente" by Cheo Marquetti, I instead stumbled upon the Verve reissue of this 1967 work by famed congero Carlos "Patato" Valdes and vocalist Eugenio "Totico" Arango.
I should have known by the looks in their shining eyes. When people told me that I'd probably enjoy it, that it was probably a good idea for me to go, they were being coy. But never mind: No words could have prepared me for the enormity of the event, for the knee-weakening prospect of innumerable treasures. And so, on Saturday morning, when I decided to go to the <a href="http://www.wfmu.org/recfair/">WFMU Record Fair</a>, I was entirely, woefully, indubitably unprepared. I am reminded of <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/010605cessm/index.html">my first Consumer Electronics Show</a>. You can't know what it's like until you've been. And only after it's over can you pretend to prepare for the following year. I will begin pretending to prepare for next year's event today—taking for granted that next year will exist—but, until then, I'm left wanting a do-over, wondering <i>why didn't anybody tell me it would be like this</i>, while nevertheless enjoying the few treasures I did come home with.
Speakers Corner Records, the German audiophile vinyl reissue label (distributed in the U.S. by Acoustic Sounds), has one of the more diverse jazz catalogues, drawn from a variety of golden-age labels (Verve, RCA, Impulse, Columbia, among others). Three new additions are worth mining:
Reader "max" says he has a young friend who "wants to try classical music, but does not know where to start." Which single composer would you recommend to introduce someone to classical music? And why?
It’s been a year and a few months since I’ve seen Anat Cohen, the young Israeli-born jazz clarinetist, play live, and she’s grown still more assured and supple, her swing more insouciant, her tone more sheer and gorgeous. She and her quartet began the early set at the Village Vanguard last night with “Jitterbug Waltz” (as she did the previous time I saw her there) and breezed through it with breathtaking speed, but not just as some virtuosic show: there was brio, gusto, real delight in her playing, as she slid in and out of a slew of styles and rhythms—trad, bop, Latin, quasi-klezmer—seamless and natural and fresh. And so it went through the set, with ballads and blues and multiculti sonic frescoes. She plays tenor and soprano sax as well, though the licorice stick is her glory (second only to Don Byron in fire, versatility and skill). The band consists of the agile Jason Lindner on piano, Daniel Friedman on drums, and Joe Martin (replacing Omer Avita) on bass. The gig continues through this Sunday. She also has a new album, <I>Notes from the Village</I>, which is nice and fine (though I prefer her earlier quartet disc, <I>Poetica</I>, both on her own Anzic label).