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Don Was is a music lover. Looking at his extensive discography as a record producer and musician, one is struck by the variety of artists he's worked with: from Iggy Pop to the B-52's, from Roy Orbison to Elton John, with over half a dozen stops along the way as producer for a little band called the Rolling Stones. In 2017, Was produced Gregg Allman's final studio album, Southern Blood (Rounder 610005). And when you include all the music he's had a hand in since 2012, when he became president of Blue Note Records, you're talking about one busy little red hen helping to bake a lot of bread.…
The records that I have up on the wall in my office—Speak No Evil, Maiden Voyage [Herbie Hancock, 1965], Mode for Joe—those guys were in their 20s and on the fringe of music. We have a lot of artists now—Robert Glasper is a great example, who may quote J Dilla when he plays a Monk tune, because that's who he is. You have to reflect your times, but at the same time you've got to respect what came before.
Matson: When you listen to new artists, perhaps ones you aren't familiar with, what are you listening for?
Was: I'm listening on an emotional level. As a musician, I respect…
Sometime near the turn of this century, I wandered into a demo room at a Consumer Electronics Show and discovered, in the exhibit of a company I'd never heard of, an integrated amplifier that sounded clean and refreshing. It was the only product Hegel Music Systems displayed at that CES, and I don't recall its name or the associated equipment, but I've always remembered that model's striking appearance and impressive sound quality.
Hegel seemed to have little visibility in the US in the years immediately after, but that has changed. They now offer a full line of two-channel audio…
Was it the Hegel amp or just the loudness? Sorta both. I switched over to the Benchmark AHB2 amps and, with the volume control still at 11, the same thing happened: a bit less bass and a little more detail, but still: Wow. Next up was the Parasound Halo A 31, with the same specified gain (29dB), but the result was merely . . . fine. The impact of the opening seemed diminished, and the ensuing flow didn't sweep me away. At a mere 150Wpc into 8 ohms, the C53 sounded much like my 380Wpc stack of Benchmarks.
The clear verdict: Hegel Music Systems' C53 is an outstanding amplifier that performs…
Sidebar 1: Contacts
Hegel Music Systems, PB26, Blindern, 0314 Oslo, Norway. US distributor: Hegel Music Systems USA, Springfield, MA 01060. Tel: (413) 224-2480. Web: www.hegel.com.
DSPeaker (VLSI Solution), Hermiankatu 8 B, entrance G, 2nd floor, FIN-33720 Tampere, Finland. Tel: (358) 50-462-3200. Web: www.dspeaker.com.
Sidebar 2: Recordings in the Round
This is an unusual installment of "Recordings in the Round." Rather than a few multichannel releases that have recently impressed me, I offer two excellent recordings whose very formats have done the selecting for me. The music on these Blu-ray discs is presented in 2.0- and 5.1-channel mixes, as well as in immersive formats that offer even greater listening pleasure: Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D, which require the addition of one or more pairs of speakers above the horizontal plane occupied by the speakers in a standard 5.1-channel array.
I feel that…
Ours is an era where bargain anthologies from the greatest artists, ensembles, and composers on record compete with new issues of unusual repertoire and transcriptions. One among many that have caught my mind and ear is Alex Klein and Philip Bush’s recording of Twentieth Century Oboe Sonatas. Issued by the Chicago-based Cedille label and available on disc, as a 24/96 download, and streaming (including 24/96 on Qobuz), it showcases the artistry of Klein—Brazil native, Grammy Award winner, and Principal Oboe Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony—and chamber music piano specialist Bush.
Judging…
What better way to get into the proper frame of mind for Munich High End than by listening to native German speaker baritone Matthias Goerne’s new recording of Schumann: Liederkreis, Op. 24—Kerner-Lieder Op. 35, with accompaniment by the distinguished piano soloist Leif Ove Andsnes? It’s available on CD (Harmonia Mundi HMM902353), as a download (up to 96/24), and streaming.
One of Goerne’s great assets as a singer of German lied (song) is the sheer beauty of his voice. But beyond his beauty of sound lies a rare marriage of sincerity, emotional depth, and unforced identification with the…
John Atkinson (left) and Richard Lehnert (right) in RL's house in May 2011, the day before RL moved from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Ashland, Oregon. (Photo: Susannah Tyrrell)
In this memoir, Stereophile's copyeditor of 34 years breaks most of the rules he ever learned or imposed on writers. It is too long. It rambles. It's repetitive. It lacks organization. It's repetitive and many sentences are longer if not shorter than they should be, there are run-ons. Other sentences incomplete. The syntax often odd is. Dangling before your very eyes, I misplace modifiers. Worst of all, this piece is…
In this memoir, Stereophile's copyeditor of 34 years breaks most of the rules he ever learned or imposed on writers. It is too long. It rambles. It's repetitive. It lacks organization. It's repetitive and many sentences are longer if not shorter than they should be, there are run-ons. Other sentences incomplete. The syntax often odd is. Dangling before your very eyes, I misplace modifiers. Worst of all, this piece is…
Worldly success and career fulfillment had never been part of my life plan. I'd never had a life plan. I'd washed dishes, worked at a natural food store and herb farm, run a blueline machine in a blueprint shop, laundered shirts, been a cook in a French restaurant, studied Native American herbology, managed a kite kiosk in a mall, been a night sexton at a church, studied and spent a few years as an actor (never quite a good one), and through it all had filled thousands of sheets of paper with awful novels and stories and poems. In short, I had a B.A. in English Literature. Becoming a…