Robert Baird

Fairport Convention at 50
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 16, 2017
A Completist's Dream
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Recording of October 2017: Never the Same Way Once: Live at the Boarding House May 1974
Recording of the Month
Robert Baird  |  Sep 12, 2017
Doc and Merle Watson: Bear's Sonic Journals, Never the Same Way Once: Live at the Boarding House May 1974
Owsley Stanley Foundation (7 CDs). 2017. Hawk, exec prod.; Starfinder Stanley, Jeffrey Norman, Pete Bell, project coordinators; Owsley Stanley, orig. eng.; Jeffrey Norman, CD mastering, tape archivist; John Chester, Jaime Howarth, digital transfers. ADD? TT: 5:33:17
Performance *****
Sonics *****

The late Owsley "Bear" Stanley spent his life raising consciousness. Whether it was mixing up jars of LSD, building his famous Wall of Sound PA system for the Grateful Dead, or supervising the creation of an incredible library of live recordings, Bear Stanley was after a certain purity, a higher level of quality, epiphanies.

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The Doctor Is In!
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 10, 2017
The Waiting Room
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Matthew Sweet
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 09, 2017
On his first solo record since 2011's Modern Art, Sweet again returns to what he knows best, short, sweet, guitar-pop originals.
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Walter Becker (1950–2017)
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 04, 2017
Few rock bands have ever inspired such a sharp cleavage in fan opinion.
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The Raspberries: Pop Art Live
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 01, 2017
In football there's a saying to describe an unexpected outcome: "That why they play the games." The recorded music equivalent might be "That's why you have to listen to the records."
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Listen to Them, Children of the Night
Music and Recording Features
Robert Baird  |  Aug 31, 2017
Long ago, I stopped associating Act II of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake with dancing. Now, every time I hear it, I immediately flash on broken battlements, a black cape, and Béla Lugosi's unmistakable Hungarian accent: "Listen to them—cheelllldreennn of dee night. What muuuusic they make!"

Then there were James Bernard's tense scores for the Hammer films—like Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), starring Christopher Lee—that my parents somehow let me see in a theater when I was seven, as part of an afternoon of bargain monster movies that included all the sourballs and unbuttered popcorn you could wolf down. Scared to death, my life was forever changed.

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John Abercrombie 1944–2017
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 24, 2017
It's the dates as a leader on ECM that remain the most well-recorded part of John Abercrombie's legacy. The players he filled his ECM records with is a long and distinguished list, but he and his final quartet of Marc Copland on piano, Drew Gress on double bass (far left and left above), and Joey Baron on drums (far right) seemed to have special energy when they played together.
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Kronos and Trio Da Kali
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 19, 2017
A successful exercise in recording vastly different sounds.
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Recording of the Month: Hudson
Recording of the Month
Robert Baird  |  Aug 17, 2017
DeJohnette, Grenadier, Medeski, Scofield: Hudson
John Scofield, electric guitar; Larry Grenadier, bass; John Medeski, keyboards; Jack DeJohnette, drums.
Motema CD-228 (CD). 2017. Hudson, prods.; Scott Petito, eng.; Beth Reineke, asst. eng. DDD TT: 69:92
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

Sometimes, a successful recording is not about the material, the studio, the producer, or even the players involved. Sometimes, it's about a shared feeling that grows among the players and conjures a groove. Grooves can be hard to find, especially among accomplished players recording together for the first time who have styles, ideas, and egos of their own. But once achieved, this invisible bond, this feeling of being in sync, should sound easy—as if there's nothing to it. It's this sort of natural, authentic pace and feeling that makes Hudson, the first recording from the quartet of Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski, and John Scofield, such a success.

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