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"Art+Tech"
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Singular Bassist John Patitucci and the Technics SC-CX700 Active Speaker System

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Art+Tech

January 2025

Having worked with artists as diverse as Bon Jovi and Wynton Marsalis and helped define the musical signatures of late-career Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter as a member of their bands, bassist John Patitucci has cachet that few other rhythm-section players achieve. His tone, technique, and imagination are all exceptional.

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Opa: “Goldenwings”

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Vinyl music

January 2025

Craft Recordings / Milestone Records CR00767
Format: LP

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

I hadn’t heard of the Uruguayan jazz trio Opa until Craft Recordings reissued the group’s US debut, Goldenwings, in its Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series. The label’s audiophile series has returned a few lesser-known albums by well-regarded jazz musicians, such as Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, to vinyl. It has also brought back work by artists who deserve wider renown, including pianist Patrice Rushen.

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Capital Audiofest: A History and Overview

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Pulse!

January 2025

In my November Pulse! column, I made a prediction about the Capital Audiofest, which took place over the weekend of November 8–10 in Rockville, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. “I can tell you what I’ll hear,” I wrote. “Diana Krall, Sting, Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughan (the Acoustic Sounds reissue), Kind of Blue (Acoustic Sounds again), any number of MoFi titles, and so on.”

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The Beatles: “The Beatles’ Second Album”

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Vinyl music

January 2025

Capitol Records—T 2080 Apple Records / Universal Music Group International 0602468019756
Format: LP

Musical Performance
****1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****

The Beatles’ conquest of America in 1964 happened so quickly, it caught the band and its record company, Capitol Records, by surprise. Capitol Records was the US subsidiary of EMI Records, whose Parlophone label had enjoyed unprecedented success with the group in England. Those records, distributed in the US by Vee Jay and Swan, did not do well at first. But “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which Capitol reluctantly agreed to release after passing up the group’s first three singles, turned out to be a massive hit. And American teens demanded more.

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Charlie Parker: “Bird in Kansas City”

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CD music

December 2024

Verve Records 602468047353.1
Format: CD

Musical Performance
***1/2

Sound Quality
**1/2

Overall Enjoyment
***

Few jazz musicians have been as exhaustively documented on recordings as Charlie Parker, known to his contemporaries as “Bird.” We are some distance from the aura of magic and romanticism that surrounded his very real accomplishments, which makes it hard to grasp how much he influenced other musicians and how revolutionary his music was. Jimi Hendrix’s impact and enduring place in rock music is perhaps a more recent parallel.

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Charlie Brown on BioVinyl

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Pulse!

December 2024

In 1963, after two years of work at a local television station, Lee Mendelson and Sheldon Fay Jr. embarked on a production venture of their own, Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP), in Burlingame, California, about a 25-minute drive from San Francisco.

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Transitional Miles and the Totem Loon Monitor Speakers

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Art+Tech

December 2024

I spent 1964 obsessed with becoming a drummer. Unfortunately, my inspiration was Dave Clark when it should have been Tony Williams. While Clark was already a veteran at 24 when his quintet caught the big wave the Beatles had started, Williams was a mere 17 when he burst out as the new drummer in Miles Davis’s quintet around the same time.

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Thelonious Monk Septet—“Monk’s Music”

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Vinyl music

December 2024

Craft Recordings / Original Jazz Classics / Riverside Records CR00725
Format: LP

Musical Performance
****1/2

Sound Quality
****1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****1/2

At first glance, it seems odd to see tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins listed in the credits for Monk’s Music, a 1957 release by the Thelonious Monk Septet on Riverside Records. But while it’s easy to think of Hawkins as a swing-era player—his career began in the early 1920s—he did play with bebop musicians in the ’40s and in 1944 led a session that featured Monk on piano.

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The Modest Jazz Trio: “Good Friday Blues”

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Vinyl music

November 2024

Pacific Jazz—ST 10, Blue Note Records 602448650498
Format: LP

Musical Performance
****1/2

Sound Quality
****1/2

Overall Enjoyment
****1/2

Blue Note’s Tone Poet series is in its fifth year, and producer Joe Harley is reaching deep into the label’s catalog to reissue some wonderful but often undervalued jazz recordings. In addition, the Tone Poet series continues to include jazz titles from other labels that have over the years become part of Blue Note’s holdings, including Pacific Jazz and United Artists.

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Music and the Audiophile Future

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Pulse!

November 2024

If you spend any time on the internet—and since you’re reading an article on the SoundStage! Network, I’m assuming you do—you start to get ads and links to articles that are targeted to your interests. A banner at the side of my email homepage includes links to Audio Advisor, Music Direct, and other audio dealers. Facebook throws more stuff at me than I can possibly keep up with, and a big portion of it has to do with high-end audio.

Read more …

Otis Redding, Curated

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Curator

November 2024

Peter Guralnick’s essential book on Southern soul, Sweet Soul Music (1986), begins with a long rumination on, among other things, what defines the music. After giving some background on his reasons for writing the book and the research it required, he wrote: “I suppose I should make it clear from the outset that when I speak of soul music, I am not referring to Motown, a phenomenon almost exactly contemporaneous, but appealing far more to a pop, white, and industry-slanted kind of audience.

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Devin Daniels Quintet: "LesGo!”

Details
Vinyl music

October 2024

Sam First Records SFR 006
Format: LP

Musical Performance
***1/2

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

Earlier this year, on February 16, I followed a link to a live stream of a performance by alto saxophonist Devin Daniels at Sam First, a bar in Los Angeles that I wrote about that same month. Sam First sells tickets to its shows online. If you’re in Los Angeles, you can attend a performance at the bar for $25. If you’re somewhere else but want to see and hear the musicians, you can pay $10 for access to a live stream. Daniels did a two-night stand at Sam First, with shows on the 16th and 17th.

Read more …

John Mayall, 1933–2024

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Pulse!

October 2024

The day the news of John Mayall’s death appeared, my sister called to ask if I knew who he was. I’ve had Mayall records in my collection as long as I can remember, and I’m sure she must have heard at least some of his music while we were growing up. Most of the obituaries I have read have highlighted the many well-known musicians who passed through his bands, but they also did a good job of covering Mayall’s own accomplishments in music.

Read more …

Discovering Unsung Guitarists Through the Triangle Capella Active Speaker System

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Art+Tech

October 2024

It’s easy to fall into the trap of returning again and again to the artists who have already caught your ear. Take, for example, saxophonists Chris Potter, Charles Lloyd, and Miguel Zenón. When these endlessly expressive musicians release new albums, which they do at least once a year, I feel compelled to listen to them. Dozens upon dozens of other great musicians I follow, across a wide spectrum of instruments and music genres, also release albums regularly, and as a professional critic, I receive an average of 400 unsolicited recordings a year too, mostly as digital files. As much as I’d love to, I can’t possibly listen to them all.

Read more …

  1. Katy Kirby: “Blue Raspberry”
  2. Are These the Last Days of the CD?
  3. Soft Machine: “Høvikodden 1971”
  4. Record Store Day and Vinyl Culture
  5. Don’t Smash this Amp! Jimi Hendrix Burns Through the Marantz Model 50
  6. Paul Weller: “66”
  7. A Trip to the Poconos to Visit Rogue Audio
  8. A Trio of Fresh-Sounding Musicians Bloom through PSB Imagine B50 Bookshelf Speakers
  9. Mark Knopfler: “One Deep River”
  10. The Doors, Curated
  11. The Early ’60s Return with Original Jazz Classics and the Dayton Audio HTA200 Integrated Amplifier
  12. Charles Lloyd: “The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow”
  13. Buying Used LPs, On- and Offline
  14. Brittany Howard: “What Now”
  15. Rega Research Limited: A History

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