For jazz fans, a new batch of releases in Blue Note's Tone Poet series—vinyl reissues remastered with care and cut from the original analog tapes—is reason for celebration. Fortunately, the batches come frequently. The latest releases, as I write in late October 2020, are very solid, musically and sonically.

Coincident stereo miking (footnote 1) has two advantages and one disadvantage. Its advantages are that it gives the most stable, specific imaging of any mike technique, and its outputs can be summed for mono reproduction without loss of quality. Its disadvantage is that, in most of its configurations, it tends to produce an overly narrow, shallow soundstage.

I remember when I first heard that David Bowie had died. I was half-listening to the radio as I prepared for work. I was stunned. I just looked at my partner. To my surprise, a tear ran down my cheek. I had always been rather sniffy about people who got emotional when famous people died, people they had never met, who had never heard of them, who had lived lives of wealth.

Haniwa's Dr. Tetsuo Kubo is an interesting fellow. If you go to shows, domestic or overseas, you've possibly encountered him in his room a space known for being strewn, shrine-like, with LPs that once belonged to The Absolute Sound's founder, the late Harry Pearson: Dr. Kubo was a fan.

Walter Swanbon has had a lot on his mind lately. Like many dealers, he's been busy adapting to changes, but the pandemic has also offered time for reflection.

Jakob Bangsø: Corigliano, Caravassilis, Siegel: Guitar Concertos, Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge, Sir John Tavener: No Longer Mourn for Me and Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (excerpts).