NY Audio & AV 2012

At 10am on Saturday morning, my first stop was to visit Gideon Schwartz in the AudioArts room. Gideon and I had met the night before and shared hearty handshakes while basking in our Semitic auras. Schwartz welcomed listeners to come spin vinyl in his room, as indicated by his pre-show email, “Please bring your own LP's and it would be my pleasure to play them for you.” And that I did.

First on the platter was one of my Records to Die For choices from 2011, Alturas de Macchu Picchu by Los Jaivas, followed by Jazzwio, a release on Mood Records with guitarist Harry Pepl and mallet-instrumentalist Werner Pirchner. Jazzwio exhibited the system’s warmth and solid imaging, enough so that Schwartz wanted to take it from me! But the true stand-out track from the session was Teddy Pendergrass’s “Love T.K.O.” from his record TP released on Philadelphia International Records. With its taut bass, smooth guitar work, and dynamic vocal performance, this record had all the listeners on their toes. Normally at Pendergrass shows, ladies were throwing their panties at the stage. This time, audiophiles tossed their briefs at the speakers.