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Records 2 Live 4 2023 Page 2

John Atkinson

Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1; Four Ballades & Piano Concerto No.2; Handel Variations
Royal Northern Sinfonia. Lars Vogt, piano, cond.
Ondine ODE 1330-2 & ODE 1346-2 (CDs; 24/48 FLAC, Qobuz). 2019 & 2020. Jochen Hubmacher, Reijo Kiilunen, Susann El Kassar, exec. prod.; Julian Schwenkner, Richard Halling (Concerto Nos.1 & 2), eng., Michael Morawietz (Ballades, Handel Variations), eng.

I first encountered German pianist Lars Vogt in the complete set of Brahms piano trios with violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff (…

Records 2 Live 4 2023 Page 3

Tom Conrad

Ryan Truesdell: Lines of Color: Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard
Orchestra with varied combinations of 25 musicians, Ryan Truesdell, cond.
Blue Note/ArtistShare ASBN 0133 (CD/download). 2015. Ryan Truesdell, Dave Rivello, prods.; James Farber, Tyler McDiarmid, Geoff Countryman, engs.

Over the last 10 years, Ryan Truesdell has devoted much of his life to keeping the music of a great composer/ arranger alive. His Gil Evans Project has made two albums that are indisputably records to die for. The first, Centennial, gets the most attention. But…

Records 2 Live 4 2023 Page 4

Andrey Henkin

Slayer: Reign In Blood
Def Jam Recordings GHS 24131 (LP). 1986. Rick Rubin, Slayer, prods.; Andy Wallace, eng.

Even the greatest artists need direction. Would The Beatles have reached their apex without George Martin? By 1986, Slayer was a good band, with some decent studio dates. But it took collaboration with another early-20-something in Rick Rubin, coming out of hip-hop for his first foray into heavy metal, to create something iconic. The 10 tracks and 27 minutes of Reign in Blood, written by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, the genre's…

Records 2 Live 4 2023 Page 5

Ken Micallef

Various Artists: Kaleidoscope: New Spirits Known & Unknown
Soul Jazz Records SJR LP 455 (LP). 2020. Various producers and engineers.

Whereas the US jazz scene often seems to focus on tradition and to prioritize rhythm over melody, UK jazz has weaker ties to the past and seems freer to reinvent the genre. This three-LP set is the best UK-jazz overview I've heard, spanning sounds from trumpeter Matthew Halsall's surreal levitations and vocalist Yazmin Lacey's ethereal soul to Hector Plimmer's electronic pulsations and keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones's…

Records 2 Live 4 2023 Page 6

Robert Schryer

Dean Wareham: I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor of L.A.
Dean Wareham, vocals, guitar, composer; Roger Brogan, drums; Jason Quever, guitar, organ, cello, drums; Britta Phillips, bass, vocals, keyboards.
Double Feature CDDBL0018 (CD). 2021. Jason Quever, prod.; Scott Hull, eng.

Dean Wareham, a New Zealand native turned NYC-based American, co-founded indie pop bands Galaxie 500 and Luna. Wareham has delivered a gem of indie folk with this, his third solo release. There's something about the mood in this recording that I find incandescent and…

The Dire Straits <I>Money For Nothing</I> Sweepstakes

About the prize:

On June 17, Rhino will reissue Money For Nothing, the first Dire Straits greatest hits collection (featuring songs from the band's first five albums), which was originally released in October 1988. Newly remastered by Bob Ludwig, Money For Nothing will be made available in digital and double vinyl formats in early 2023.

Fully remastered by Bob Ludwig, and cut by Bernie Grundman, the Money For Nothing double vinyl reissue includes "Telegraph Road (Live…

Gramophone Dreams #69: Trance Dancing on Maxwell Street & the Rotel DT-6000 "DAC Transport"

Everyone knows I'm a lucky guy. I was born in Chicago in nineteen-hundred and forty-nine, and as far as I can tell, that was the perfect year to be born. I missed the war, plague, and Depression horrors of the first half of the 20th century, and I witnessed the art, music, and cinema inventions of the second half. Best of all, I was in the right city at the right time, walking down the right streets with the right people, to experience America's new electrified blues—as it was being born on the sidewalks in front of me. At least that's how it seemed looking through my WWII aviator glasses.…

Gramophone Dreams #69: Trance Dancing on Maxwell Street & the Rotel DT-6000 "DAC Transport" Page 2

When I discovered this omission, I huffed and puffed and stamped my little foot: "What do you mean I can't play my CDs through the DAC of my choice?" For me, this was a deal killer. In my 30 years of digital, I have only once (that $100 Oppo) stooped low enough to use one of those Cracker Jack–prize DACs that come inside CD players.

Somewhat indignantly, I asked Jeff Coates, managing director of Fine Sounds (Rotel's US distributor, footnote 2): Why no digital out? He told me, "The DT-6000 started its development as the CD-6000 with a continuation of the DAC topology we had been using, […

Among the Musical #2: Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Albert Murray

Three or four years ago, coming back from hip surgery, I put in a stint of physical therapy. The assistant trainer, a 24-year-old named Caitlin, was a big pop music fan, as am I, although, to borrow from one of Hank Williams Jr.'s songs about his daddy, Caitlin's kind of pop and mine ain't exactly the same.

One afternoon at Procore Physical Therapy, the talk turned to Beyoncé and Jay-Z's video, shot in the Louvre, for their 2018 collaborative single "Apeshit," released under their marital name, the Carters. Caitlin didn't bat an eyelash at the idea of pop music's power couple posing…

Audio Note Meishu Tonmeister Phono integrated amplifier

My first high-end component was an Audio Note M2 preamplifier, which I bought from former Audio Note distributor/current Stereophile contributor Michael Trei. (Senior Contributing Editor Herb Reichert was Michael's partner in that 1990s-era Audio Note venture.) Herb can regale you with tales of motoring across the Soviet Union in an unheated Mercedes, trunk full of Audio Note components and American dollars, but that's a story for another review (most likely to be written by Herb).

The Audio Note M2 preamplifier was one of the most transparent audio products I'd ever heard, its single…