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Listening is Love

Two microphones. Two ears listening. With my teponatzli, an Aztec slit drum, and a fresh pair of Vic Firth 7A drum sticks, I marched back and forth between two $35 Audio Dynamica Low-Z Dynamic microphones: "Stage left near!" Smack! Against the teponatzli. It produced a low tone. "Stage left far!" Whack! I gave the log another beating, this time on the higher pitch. "Center stage!" Barararata! I let off a diced-up buzz roll. I slapped on some cans to listen to the recording. It was all screwed up.

I had my microphones switched around, with my left mic panned all the way to the…

For you, and for me, and the entire human race

Stuff is happening faster than I can responsibly blog. So fast and far and wide, in fact, it makes me wonder if it's actually happening at all. You know how it is when you learn a new word and you suddenly begin hearing that word everywhere?

Maybe it's some hardcore Baader-Meinhof business, some of that crazy cosmic unconscious plate of shrimp stuff. It's certainly possible that the thing was there all along&#151just chilling, waiting to be used, enjoyed, listened to&#151like some wonderful, little beat or sigh that had gone on for so long unnoticed until someone else…

The Credibility of an Onion

Even the Onion is reporting on the vinyl revival. CDs are really in trouble now.

Louis Armstrong's Mix-Tape Art

When I visited The Louis Armstrong Archives a few years ago to visit archivist Michael Cogswell, Cogswell escorted me back into the stacks to show me Armstrong's collection of 650 open-reel tapes, almost all of which sported collages assembled by the great trumpeter. More than touching his trumpet, I felt a direct connection to Armstrong viewing (and hearing) his mix tapes—Satchmo was one of us!

The Louis Armstrong House has been extensively renovated and enlarged, so those tapes are now on display. If you want to hear excerpts from them, go to Satchmo.net. To get a preview of Armstrong's…

People, Places, Music, & Gear

Me, holding a very big tube, at Nori Komuro's place in Brooklyn. To my right, Komuro's prototype VT-52 sits quietly. Photo by Michael Lavorgna.

Last Wednesday, I tagged along with Michael Lavorgna on his latest 6moons.com RoadTour. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of it. Michael's RoadTours are not about declaring bests or absolutes. They are about people, places, music, and gear&#151pretty much in that order. Michael wants to know more about what happens to a piece of gear after it leaves the dealer&#151after the reviews have been read, the auditions have…

Pratchett and Gaiman: Together Again

At Waterstone's website, Neil Gaiman interviews Terry Pratchett. If that isn't enough to whet your interest, the interview is accompanied by excellent Paul Kidby illustrations.

As usual, I find myself even more impressed by Pratchett (seems to happen with each new novel and interview). He's a modest chap—he's proud enough of his OBE and Carnegie medal, but he's even prouder of having been made an honorary Brownie for his creation of Tiffany Aching in The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, and The Winter King. I think the Brownies showed good judgment—those three rank among my favorites of…

Super Deep Plus Pure

Oh, I forgot to mention: For really dirty records, like those that have been through my many unfortunate basement floods or those that I've picked up from the flea market on 17th Street, I've developed a two-part cleaning process.

First, I hit them with the MoFi Super Deep Cleaner, which the company recommends as a pre-cleaner for extra-dirty records. It's said to be made of a mild detergent and an "exclusive Quad-Distilled, hyper-pure water base." I don't even know what that means, but I'll trust them on it. A 16-oz bottle of the stuff costs $25. It's hyper-pure, brohams. I…

The Freewheelin'

The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia? Now in its second revised and updated printing? Does any one person, even a momentous artist who now seems determined to die on the stage (to steal a quote from the great Midnight Cowboy) really need or deserve their own encyclopedia?

Michael Gray's weighty tome, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia (Continuum, New York, 2008) is perhaps more than anyone but the most fanatical and fearless Dylan freaks (thank you Flaming Lips) will actually ever want or need. There are to be sure some doozies among the 850 entries. That fact that Dylan was on Dharma and Greg…

Jazz Awards '08

The Jazz Journalists Association announced the winners of its 2008 awards today. Here’s most of them—followed, in parentheses by how I voted:

MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR: Herbie Hancock. (This is for his remarkable Joni Mitchell tribute-album, which crossed jazz and pop more compellingly than any fusion heard in some time. But I voted Ornette Coleman, for blowing as rivetingly as ever, and in some ways more gorgeously, at his concert at Town Hall.)

RECORD OF THE YEAR: Maria Schneider, Sky Blue. (Yes!)

REISSUE/HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE YEAR: Charles Mingus, Cornell ‘64. (Ditto!)…

So Fresh and So Clean Clean

BillB brings up a good point. He writes:

Stephen, if I read that right, the PURE Rinse is just water, correct? Very pure water, but still... If I've got that right, the Rinse would not tempt me, at $1 per ounce.

Bill's comment led me to revisit the price of the Mobile Fidelity PURE Record Rinse, and it's a good thing Bill wrote because I had mistakenly reported the price to be $25 for a 30-oz bottle. I am very sorry about the error. The correct price is $25 for a 32-oz bottle, which comes out to be about $0.78 per ounce. And, yes, as far as I can tell, the PURE Rinse…