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Now reissued by Blue Note Records as part of its Tone Poet Series, this three-LP edition, which comes from a…

After he passed, McCann received numerous glowing obituaries, in both the jazz press and the larger international media landscape,…

That old expression "men love with their eyes" applies to listening, too. Enabled by the advent of a second channel, the fanning out of musicians across a soundstage fills the room and gives the eyes—and not only the ears—something to do. And I happen to enjoy the soundstage. It may be an utterly artificial delight, but who doesn't love hearing a tambourine…

This undoubtedly neat effect was something I partly expected. What I didn't expect is the hair-raising dynamic expression the Miyajima coaxed from familiar recordings, which betters that of every other cartridge I've heard. On "I'm a Fool to Care" from a 1955 pressing of Les Paul and Mary Ford's The Hit Makers! (Capitol T-416), Ford's reverb-drenched voice and the chords from Paul's electric solid-body guitar leapt from the full-range Klipsch horns with a life force and snap that I hadn't previously experienced.

Even more memorable was the track's world-beating presence: The…

To celebrate what would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday, Jem Records chief Marty Scott came up with the idea of tapping into his label's roster of talent to create a tribute record.

Jem Recordings—which in 2013 rose from the ashes of the important import label Jem Records (Cheap Trick; The Cure; Simple Minds; Siouxsie and the Banshees)—today is home to neo '60s acts like the Anderson Council, the…

During the current Fauré Centennial, recordings of the composer's music are appearing at a steady pace. So far, vocal music has gotten short shrift, adding importance to this new Harmonia Mundi recital, in which baritone Stéphane Degout, one of today's foremost proponents of French mélodie, adds his mellifluous voice to Alain Planès's period-authentic…

At 93, Sonny Rollins is our greatest living jazz musician. He has retired from playing, but he is still in the news. Last year came Aidan Levy's monumental biography, Saxophone Colossus. There have also been major archival releases, the latest of which, Freedom Weaver, comes from a 10-day period in March…

Add to the deniers of the Holocaust and Climate Change those who say that the vinyl resurgence isn't happening.

Seriously, the pushback was bound to happen, and the bigger this so-called "hipster fad" gets, the more the scoffers sweat. In 2014, according to my sources—representatives of the world's largest pressing plants—more than 73,985,000 LPs were pressed (footnote 1). That's correct: almost 74 million LPs. Taking into…

The Fuuga outputs 0.35mV (50mm/s, 0–peak, 45°) and has a desirably low impedance of 2.5 ohms at 1kHz. Its claimed channel separation is >27dB at 1kHz, and its compliance a low 7×10–6cm/dyne at 100Hz. Appropriately, given its low compliance, the Fuuga has a relatively high mass of 15gm. Its tapered cantilever is of A2017 aluminum alloy, to which is fitted an 8 by 40"µm parabolic hybrid (ie, hyper-elliptical) stylus of pure diamond. The recommended vertical tracking force (VTF) is 2.0–2.2gm. The Fuuga is imported by Sakura Systems (which also imports 47 Laboratory), and distributed in…

To make the review more broadly applicable, I also auditioned the 128 with a second cartridge. Because of the requirements of moderate output and relatively high impedance (for an MC), finding one in my collection that would work was a bit of a challenge. I found two. One was the X-quisite ST (16 ohms; 0.3mV), also…