In 2018, Micha Huber's HiFiction AG, manufacturer of Thales tonearms and turntables, assumed control of EMT Tontechnik, taking over EMT's cartridge business including development, production, repair, and international distribution—with the exception of the EMT broadcast cartridge line for the EU market, which is still distributed by EMT Studiotechnik out of the company's original Black Forest home in Mahlberg, Germany.

Mendelssohn: Violin Sonatas, The Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Marcus Creed, Cond.: Lux Aeterna, Bruckner: Symphony No.2 and Marcel Zaes: Parallel Prints.

Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Coltrane, Paul Jost Quartet: While We Were Gone and Various Artists: Buena Vista Social Club 25th Anniversary Edition.

Elvis Costello: The Boy Named If, Charming Disaster: Our Lady of Radium and Black Country, New Road: Ants From Up There.

Celebrated New York City–based jazz drummer Billy Drummond recalls his first visit, with the group OTB ("Out of The Blue"), to the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. It was 1988. The Festival's elite drummers ranged in age from 69 (Art Blakey) to 26 (Ralph Peterson). In between were Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, Clifford Barbaro, Victor Lewis, Lewis Nash, Kenny Washington, Cindy Blackman—"and me," Drummond told me, by phone.