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Matt Wilson, <I>Beginning of a Memory</I>

Matt Wilson is one of the most versatile and inventive jazz drummers on the scene, and Beginning of a Memory (on the Palmetto label) is, I think, his best album in his 20 years as a leader.

It's a memorial album to his wife, Felicia, a violinist, who died two years ago of leukemia. To deepen the tribute, Matt assembled a dozen bandmates from over the years to join in, calling the resulting ensemble (trumpeter Terell Stafford, cornetist Kirk Knuffke, and keyboardists Gary Versace and Larry Goldings, among others) Matt Wilson's Big Happy Family.

As a leader and composer, Wilson has…

A Visit to Bowers & Wilkins

In August 2015, I visited loudspeaker manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins in England (footnote 1). It was an exciting prospect to see the factory, and meet the people who designed and built the speakers I've been using for years. Of course, as the time of my visit approached, it was impossible not to speculate that something important was afoot—there was growing Internet buzz that it was time for B&W to update its 800-series speakers. Nonetheless, B&W remained tight-lipped.

I arrived in Brighton in the morning and took the afternoon to tour the town. I hadn't been there in over 40…

Bowie's Blackstar Bassist Tim Lefebvre's Desert Island Classics

Photo: Michele Canova

"Punch me."

"What?"

Conversations with Tim Lefebvre are often like this. That was backstage at the Jazz Standard last week after the Donny McCaslin Group's final set. I later realized that Tim wanted me to be in a compilation of timelapse video clips involving slow motion punches. Naturally, I gladly obliged.

My friendship with Tim has always been-—for lack of better words—really weird. We first met a few years ago when David Binney and I were bored and decided to send humorous videos of ourselves to friends, Tim included. Our friendship…

Sandy Gross: True Confessions

This tale might have been scripted by Barry Levinson, the Baltimore-bred filmmaker who has set four pictures in his hometown, where much of the Sandy Gross story has also taken place. The young Sanford Gross moved there to attend Johns Hopkins University, and subsequently, in one of the city's Civil War–era houses, got Polk Audio rolling with fellow alumni Matthew Polk and George Klopfer. The company flourished, but Gross, who had minored in film at Hopkins, had an itch for Hollywood. He moved to Los Angeles, only to find the movie business tinged with illusion—much as Billy Wilder and…

Sandy Gross: True Confessions Page 2

Lander: Polk marketed a few audiophile products other than speakers, an undertaking you championed.

Gross: It kind of let my audiophilia run free. We marketed the Formula 4 fluid-damped unipivot tonearm, very popular in its day, and attempted to market the Oasis fluid-drive turntable. We had the first commercially successful purpose-designed speaker wire, originally called CobraCable, then SoundCable. This was 144-strand Litz wire, woven at right angles. Unfortunately, we were a little early in the cable game, and many, including the high-end publications, thought it was a farce.

…

Gramophone Dreams #10

This Gramophone Dream is about my continuing adventures as I slowly scale the pyramid of analog audio. I'm still too close to the sandy earth to see the mythical gold tip or enjoy a six-figure super-turntable. However, in this month's episode, I do reach a level where I can relax, play some eternally beautiful music, and peer out over the vast desert of record-player mediocrity.

While writing about the Pioneer PLX-1000 turntable in my March 2015 column, I decided to acquire a Linn Sondek LP12 and hear how this notoriously musical, belt-driven, audiophile 'table might compare to that…

Gramophone Dreams #10 Page 2

Although this is difficult to verify, detachable headshells probably add a degree of hesitation and imprecision to a record player's sound. My worried brain says, where a removable headshell is attached/detached must be a soft, stretchy spot in the groove-measuring system. My old SME 3009s seemed slowed and dulled at the frequency extremes; in contrast, the M2-9 excels at the frequency extremes. The precision of the new M2-9's coupling of headshell to armtube seemed to eliminate a significant amount of stretchiness. Simultaneously, the M2-9's combination of magnesium, damped stainless…

Gramophone Dreams #10 Contacts

Sidebar Contacts

Linn Products Ltd., Floors Road, Waterfoot, Glasgow G76 0EP, Scotland, UK. Tel: (44) 141-307-7777. Web: www.linn.co.uk

Dynavector, 3-2-7 Higashi-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0031, Japan. Tel: (81) (0)3-3861-4341. Fax: (81) (0)3-3862-1650. Web: www.dynavector.co.jp. Dynavector USA, 8116 Gravois Road, St. Louis, MO 63123. Web: www.dynavector-usa.com

SME Ltd., Mill Road, Steyning, West Sussex BN44 3GY, England, UK. Tel: (44) (0)1903-814321. Fax: (44) (0)1903-814269. Web: www.sme-audio.com. SME USA, Acoustic Sounds, Inc., PO Box 1905, 605 W. North Street,…

T.H.E. Show Newport Starts Friday!

T.H.E. Show Newport returns to its new venue at Hotel Irvine this Friday–Sunday, June 3–5, starting at 10am. By far the largest high-end consumer show on the West Coast of North America, T.H.E. Show promises 149 active exhibit rooms, with 19 of those big and even bigger than big rooms; 68 exhibit tables in the Marketplace and Marketplace foyer, including perhaps 16 headphone exhibitors in separate areas within the Marketplace. Outside in the hotel's pavilion will be T.H.E. Lounge, a re-envisioned, fully enclosed tented space that will include live music, a pared down series of 8 "Audio…

Listening #162: Tavish Adagio phono preamplifier

Though Westchester County, New York, seems a likelier locale for Bikram yoga studios, pet psychologists, and pricey restaurants specializing in "grain bowls" and fermented vegetables, the idea of manufacturing audio gear there is not without precedent. Cartridge manufacturer Micro-Acoustics (Elmsford, NY) thrived there for over two decades. George Kaye and Harvey Rosenberg's New York Audio Laboratories (Croton-on-Hudson, NY) assembled Moscode amplifiers there. Even the notorious loudspeaker manufacturer Fourier Systems (Yonkers, NY and Cocytus, Hell) got their start in the county that Hillary…