First, there's the wonderful playing…
search
With its indelible Francis Wolff cover image of a pensive John Coltrane bathed in blue, freshly fired by Miles Davis but four months free of heroin, and its confident, accessible music that hints at the genius to come, Coltrane's Blue Train is a timeless jazz masterpiece. The saxophonist's only album as a leader for Blue Note, recorded before his triumphs at Atlantic Records—My Favorite Things and Coltrane Jazz—the boppy Blue Train, which, including the original mono and stereo pressings, had been issued 272 times, remains important for many reasons.
Back in 1999, while reviewing the Wazoo integrated amplifier from Bow Technologies, I learned that its designer and company founder, Bo Christensen, had previously founded another audio company. That's how I discovered Primare. Over the years, various products from Primare have appeared at audio shows but never grabbed my attention. In a recent EISA press presentation, however, Primare showcased an eight-channel amplifier that did, given my interest in multichannel audio. I was glad to be able to attend.
Expectations were high for the new A35.8 power amplifier. Its stablemate, the A35.2…
Moving from this somewhat lightweight fodder to meatier stuff, I next played the new Beethoven: Symphony No.6; Steven Stucky: Silent Spring with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony (DSF rip from Reference Recording FR-747). Honeck, true to form, drove his orchestra with pace and power, and the A35.8 drove the music commensurably and with remarkable detail—especially noticeable in multichannel.
When played in stereo, it seemed paler in every way, and I missed the subtle weight of the lower strings. I tried turning up the volume to compensate for having only two speakers…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Eight-channel power amplifier based on Ncore NC500 class-D technology. Inputs (per channel): 1 RCA (unbalanced), 1 XLR (balanced). Input impedance: 15k ohms (RCA), 36k ohms (XLR). Input sensitivity: 1.7V (RCA, 150W 8 ohms); 3.4V (XLR, 150W 8 ohms). Gain: 26dB (RCA), 20dB (XLR), +6dB in bridge mode. Output impedance: <0.02 ohms. Power output: 1kHz (per channel): 150W into 8 ohms (21.8dBW), 300W into 4 ohms (21.8dBW), 400W into 2 ohms (20.0dBW). Power output: 1kHz (per bridged pair): 740W into 8 ohms (28.7dBW), 750W into 4 ohms (25.8dBW), 450W into…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v29, Roon 1.8, and DiracLive. exaSound s88 streaming DAC, Okto dac8 PRO, and Topping DM7 D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers: Coleman Audio 7.1SW for balanced source switching. 3 × Topping Pre90 preamps for buffer/line-drivers.
Power Amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298, NAD M28.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima2 Studio with IsoAcoustics Gaia I isolation feet. Revel Performa3 f206 for surrounds. Two SVS SB-3000 &…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I tested the Primare A35.8 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. As the A35.8 has class-D output stages, all measurements other than frequency response were taken with Audio Precision's auxiliary AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter, which mitigates noise above 80kHz and eliminates noise above 200kHz. (The relatively high levels of ultrasonic noise emitted by class-D amplifiers would otherwise drive the analyzer's input into slew-rate limiting.) Without the filter, 325mV of ultrasonic noise was present at each pair of loudspeaker terminals, with a center frequency…
Professor Longhair in his living room! Etta James—live—at Tipitina's!! Previously unknown James Booker recordings!!! All of it unreleased and unheard???
In the music world, spare time spurred by COVID closures led to many good ideas and side projects. Few have been better than Tipitina's Record Club (TRC).
"We were left with no touring and the club wasn't open, and so our manager was like, this is the time to move forward," says Robert Mercurio, bassist for the band Galactic, which owns Tipitina's, the storied New Orleans venue. Mercurio founded TRC with Galactic saxophonist Ben…
It was another glorious Lower Cape summer, the warm breeze almost viscous against your skin. Tim Dickey played bass, or ersatz bass, tuning his Gibson SG Special down an octave. I played drums. My brother John and cousin Dave Scherman traded leads. Tony Kahn was a good guitarist, but with the surfeit of guitarists, he played organ. We practiced at the Dickeys', across Great Pond, Truro, from the Big Cabin, my family's house. These were the days when the bourgeoisie owned summer homes on the Cape, or in the Hamptons, or Maine, and took three-month vacations—the wives and kids, that is, while…
Eivind Aarset at the Gărâna Jazz Festival. Photo by Tim Dickeson.
The first European jazz festival I ever attended was in 2006. It was the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy, one of the biggest. Tens of thousands of people overran the cobblestone streets and piazzas of Perugia's old town. The music began before noon and ended long after midnight. At the end of 10 days, I was delirious from joy and sleep deprivation.
I was also hooked. I had to go back. I have now been to more than 50 European festivals in 13 countries. They are all different, but they have one thing in common…
Baas was effectively an artist-in-residence: He appeared at least seven times. Diodati and Baas played together once, in an ad hoc band with American bassist Joe Rehmer and Austrian drummer Lukas König. They performed in Batzen Sudwerk, a cramped, dark, beery cellar in Bolzano, the antithesis of a Dolomite meadow. They instantly created a group identity, two starkly different guitars commingling in glittering curtains of sound. One of Baas's best concerts was a duo performance with another guitarist, Ella Zirina, who was his student at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Their lyrical, ornate,…