Larry Greenhill
EVA CASSIDY: Live at Blues Alley
Eva Cassidy, vocals, acoustic & electric guitar; Keith Grimes, electric guitar; Lenny Williams, piano; Chris Blonde, bass; Hilton Felton, Hammond organ; Raice McLeod, drums
Blix Street G2-10046 (CD). 1996. Eva Cassidy, Chris Biondo, prods.; Roy Battle, eng.; Uncle Punchies, mix; Robert Voslien, mastering. AAD. TT: 57:35 Eva Cassidy was a natural talent who learned vocals singing harmony with songs on the radio; she was never married and had no children; she won awards for multiple vocal categories; she was praised in Time, People…
search
Robert Levine
NATALIE DESSAY: French Opera Arias
Arias by Délibes, Chabrier, Ravel, Meyerbeer, Bondeville, Thomas, Milhaud, Offenbach, Poulenc, Gounod, Sauguet
Natalie Dessay, soprano; Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Patrick Fournillier
EMI 5 56159 2 (CD). 1996. Alain Lanceron, prod. DDD. TT: 65:45 Natalie Dessay is a marvel: her sound is bright, particularly above the staff, but the middle voice is wonderfully developed and warm. The fast passage work is graceful and thrilling. Whether she's portraying Fire in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortileges, the supremely…
NATALIE DESSAY: French Opera Arias
Arias by Délibes, Chabrier, Ravel, Meyerbeer, Bondeville, Thomas, Milhaud, Offenbach, Poulenc, Gounod, Sauguet
Natalie Dessay, soprano; Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Patrick Fournillier
EMI 5 56159 2 (CD). 1996. Alain Lanceron, prod. DDD. TT: 65:45 Natalie Dessay is a marvel: her sound is bright, particularly above the staff, but the middle voice is wonderfully developed and warm. The fast passage work is graceful and thrilling. Whether she's portraying Fire in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortileges, the supremely…
Fred Mills
JACK FROST: Jack Frost
Arista ARCD8667 (CD). 1991. Steve Kilbey, prod., eng.; Pryce Surplice, eng. AAD? TT: 58:54 In 1991, Steve Kilbey (Church) and Grant McLennan (Go-Betweens), presumably both in the throes of relationship woes, hired a string section and joined forces under the assumed name of Jack Frost. The resulting LP married the best of both worlds—Church's lush, atmospheric rock drama and the Go-Betweens' sunny, strummy baroque folk—and yielded a sweetly textured, emotionally battered breakup album. From "Threshold" 's disco-flavored white soul and the crunchy…
JACK FROST: Jack Frost
Arista ARCD8667 (CD). 1991. Steve Kilbey, prod., eng.; Pryce Surplice, eng. AAD? TT: 58:54 In 1991, Steve Kilbey (Church) and Grant McLennan (Go-Betweens), presumably both in the throes of relationship woes, hired a string section and joined forces under the assumed name of Jack Frost. The resulting LP married the best of both worlds—Church's lush, atmospheric rock drama and the Go-Betweens' sunny, strummy baroque folk—and yielded a sweetly textured, emotionally battered breakup album. From "Threshold" 's disco-flavored white soul and the crunchy…
Wes Phillips
BOULEZ: Notations VII
DEBUSSY: La Mer
STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps
Daniel Barenboim, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Teldec 8573 81702-2 (CD). year?. Christoph Classen, prod.; Michael Bamann, eng. DDD. TT: 66:65 The Stravinsky and Debussy are absolute showstoppers, featuring impassioned playing and top-of-the-heap interpretations. All three works feature demonstration-quality sound with taut, muscular bass response and U-R-There sonic realism. This is the record they should have called The Power of the Orchestra. And if you think your system has good bottom end,…
BOULEZ: Notations VII
DEBUSSY: La Mer
STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps
Daniel Barenboim, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Teldec 8573 81702-2 (CD). year?. Christoph Classen, prod.; Michael Bamann, eng. DDD. TT: 66:65 The Stravinsky and Debussy are absolute showstoppers, featuring impassioned playing and top-of-the-heap interpretations. All three works feature demonstration-quality sound with taut, muscular bass response and U-R-There sonic realism. This is the record they should have called The Power of the Orchestra. And if you think your system has good bottom end,…
Leland Rucker
CREAM: Disraeli Gears
PolyGram 531 811-2 (CD). 1967/1998. Felix Pappalardi, prod.; Tom Dowd, eng. AAD. TT: 33:33 Strange brew. The rainbow has a beard. Tales of brave Ulysses. Whimsical wah-wah. Delirious drums. Big bass. Harmonies from some higher dimension. SWLABR. There is little doubt that Cream's short career sowed the seeds for future musical prowess and excess while wedding the blues to psychedelia, but there's no excess here. Disraeli Gears is about economy, stupid. These 11 songs are notoriously lean and mean, the longest, "Sunshine of Your Love," clocking in at…
CREAM: Disraeli Gears
PolyGram 531 811-2 (CD). 1967/1998. Felix Pappalardi, prod.; Tom Dowd, eng. AAD. TT: 33:33 Strange brew. The rainbow has a beard. Tales of brave Ulysses. Whimsical wah-wah. Delirious drums. Big bass. Harmonies from some higher dimension. SWLABR. There is little doubt that Cream's short career sowed the seeds for future musical prowess and excess while wedding the blues to psychedelia, but there's no excess here. Disraeli Gears is about economy, stupid. These 11 songs are notoriously lean and mean, the longest, "Sunshine of Your Love," clocking in at…
Chip Stern
STEVE DAVIS PROJECT: Quality of Silence
Steve Davis, drums; John Hart, guitar; Andy Laverne, piano; Drew Gress, bass; Tim Ries, drums
DMP SACD-04 (SACD/CD). 1999. Steve Davis, prod.; Tom Jung, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 51:31 Using an early prototype of Sony's Direct Stream Digital recording system, record producer-engineer-impresario Tom Jung's experimental session from fall 1997 is perhaps the finest example of the high-resolution potential of SACD as an improviser's medium. Drummer Steve Davis has an impeccable feel for the impressionistic potential of the modern drum set,…
STEVE DAVIS PROJECT: Quality of Silence
Steve Davis, drums; John Hart, guitar; Andy Laverne, piano; Drew Gress, bass; Tim Ries, drums
DMP SACD-04 (SACD/CD). 1999. Steve Davis, prod.; Tom Jung, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 51:31 Using an early prototype of Sony's Direct Stream Digital recording system, record producer-engineer-impresario Tom Jung's experimental session from fall 1997 is perhaps the finest example of the high-resolution potential of SACD as an improviser's medium. Drummer Steve Davis has an impeccable feel for the impressionistic potential of the modern drum set,…
David Vernier
CORNELIUS: The Three Kings & Other Choral Works
Stephen Layton, Polyphony
Hyperion CDA67206 (CD). 2000. Mark Brown, prod.; Tony Faulkner, eng. DDD. TT: 72:26 Most choral listeners will know 19th-century German composer Peter Cornelius as the author of the beautiful Epiphany piece The Three Kings, but this disc proves that he had a great deal more music in his head of the caliber (and sometimes the sound) of Brahms—and some even more adventurous ideas, such as transforming instrumental pieces by Bach and Schubert into appealing, sometimes astonishing choral…
CORNELIUS: The Three Kings & Other Choral Works
Stephen Layton, Polyphony
Hyperion CDA67206 (CD). 2000. Mark Brown, prod.; Tony Faulkner, eng. DDD. TT: 72:26 Most choral listeners will know 19th-century German composer Peter Cornelius as the author of the beautiful Epiphany piece The Three Kings, but this disc proves that he had a great deal more music in his head of the caliber (and sometimes the sound) of Brahms—and some even more adventurous ideas, such as transforming instrumental pieces by Bach and Schubert into appealing, sometimes astonishing choral…
"There's a flat screen in your future."
This remark pretty well sums up the impression most journalists took home from the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show [see the report in this issue—Ed.]. Flat-screen monitors and television sets, both LCD and plasma, are getting a huge push from major manufacturers, and an extremely enthusiastic reception from the press and the buying public.
The reasons are simple. Flat screens are elegant—a vast improvement over the big boxes of the 20th century. Show anyone, technophile or technophobe, a high-definition clip of an NFL game or Olympic figure-…
Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995
Double Edge, Bang On a Can, Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich and Musicians, Pat Metheny, Schönberg Ensemble with Percussion Group The Hague, London Symphony Orchestra, The Steve Reich Ensemble, etc. Judith Sherman, Rudolph Werner and Steve Reich, prod. Paul Goodman, Dick Lewzey, John Kilgore, Rob Eaton, Les Brockman, Simon Rhodes, and Hans Bedecker, eng. DDD. TT: 10:42:06.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Double Edge, Bang On a Can, Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich and Musicians, Pat Metheny, Schönberg Ensemble with Percussion Group The Hague, London Symphony Orchestra, The Steve Reich Ensemble, etc. Judith Sherman, Rudolph Werner and Steve Reich, prod. Paul Goodman, Dick Lewzey, John Kilgore, Rob Eaton, Les Brockman, Simon Rhodes, and Hans Bedecker, eng. DDD. TT: 10:42:06.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Steve Reich's 30-year career is no stuck record. Here is an artist with strong opinions, who has forged a new direction and, in the process, launched a…
Mirage is a good name for a speaker manufacturer; it suggests that their products produce realistic illusions. A 1934 dictionary I've got supplies a definition for "mirage" that might also be apt: "An optical atmospheric illusion by which the image of a distant object is seen as if inverted." I don't mean that the Mirage OM stands Harry Belafonte on his head, or make him sing "O-Day"—instead, certain tenets of cones-in-a-box loudspeaker design and usage are turned turvy-topsy by Mirage's Omnipolar concept.
History, theory, and such
In 1987, Mirage debuted the M-1—the first "bipolar…