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"Art+Tech"
Where music meets equipment

Art+Tech

Latest

JBL PartyBox On-The-Go Bluetooth Speaker

Details
Music Everywhere

December 2021

JBL started its PartyBox lineup with the huge floorstanding PartyBox 300 speaker that I reviewed a little over a year ago. Since then, the company has added speakers of various sizes to the line, the latest being the PartyBox On-The-Go model, which is portable and can play from its internal battery without having to be plugged in. At $349.95 (all prices USD), it’s not inexpensive, but you get a lot for your money: a very good-sounding PA/disco/guitar/karaoke/party speaker with lots of neat features.

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"Masculin féminin"

Details
Blu-ray movies

November 2021

A Study of Banality That is Simply Boring Today

The Criterion Collection 308
Format: BD

Overall Enjoyment
**1/2

Picture Quality
****

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
***

Director Jean-Luc Godard’s film about Parisian youth was polarizing from the very start. Most praised it as perceptive and clever, others not so much. Looking at it from a contemporary vantage point, I must say that I fall in the latter camp.

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Discovering Contemporary Trios Through the Arcam SA30 Intelligent Integrated Amplifier

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Art+Tech

Note: for the full suite of measurements for the Arcam SA30 from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.

November 2021

In 1997, pianist Brad Mehldau, then 26, released The Art of the Trio, Volume One, his second album for Warner Bros. Records. That was followed by four additional volumes, the latest in 2001. The aggressively declarative title was conceived by producer Matt Pierson, who was also the head of A&R for jazz at the label. The idea was clearly to establish Mehldau as the heir to the postwar jazz trio tradition that had been established by artists like Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Keith Jarrett. Each of these pianists recruited band members who could improvise at a high level and be counted on to play outside the standard role of a rhythm section.

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The Tragically Hip, Curated

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Curator

November 2021

The first time Bruce Dickinson, then a vice-president at MCA Records, saw The Tragically Hip play live was at the Toronto Music Awards in 1988. “I guess it was during the first song,” Dickinson told the National Post in 2016. “Gord [Downie, the band’s lead singer] drops the mic on the floor inadvertently. It comes unattached from the cord, and the top of the mic comes off. I remember distinctly, Bobby Baker [guitar] and Gord Sinclair [bass] just looked at each other like, ‘Oh, crap. What are we going to do?’ Downie, as you know, is a great improviser. He just picks up the mic, puts it back together and tells a whole story in the middle of the song that involves the mic. I thought that was really cool.”

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Sony SRS-XB33 Bluetooth Speaker

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Music Everywhere

November 2021

Continuing on the topic of compact Bluetooth speakers, a category I’ve been delving into in my past few reviews, I’ve encountered a worthy candidate from Sony: the SRS-XB33. It’s waterproof, dustproof, rustproof, and shockproof, and should prove to be a good companion for outdoor activities. Moreover, it operates in real stereo, sounds pretty good, and has a mesmerizing light show with DJ effects. At $148 (in USD), it’s a strong contender in its price and size class.

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John Coltrane: "A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle"

Details
Vinyl music

November 2021

Impulse! Records B0034291-01
Format: 2 LPs

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
***

Overall Enjoyment
*****

Pianist McCoy Tyner was only 26 when he left John Coltrane’s band in 1965, and interviews with him over the next 55 years, prior to his death in 2020, rarely failed to touch on Coltrane and the saxophonist’s towering legacy. It seems no one was inquisitive enough—and I include myself here; I interviewed him twice—to ask him if Coltrane had performed his cornerstone suite, “A Love Supreme,” more than a single time in 1965, at the Antibes jazz festival in France, and one other time at a Brooklyn fundraiser. It was just a given, and a large part of the myth surrounding the composition, that the saxophonist never returned to his masterpiece after those two occasions.

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"Mona Lisa"

Details
Blu-ray movies

October 2021

A Tour-de-Force Performance by Bob Hoskins on Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 107
Format: BD

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****1/2

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
****

What a joy it was to receive a pristine Blu-ray edition of this cinematic gem in the mail. Mona Lisa has long been a favorite in my household, and it has now received the treatment it deserves. Only 4K could make it better.

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Decoding Henry Threadgill through Focal Alpha 50 Evo Studio Monitors

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Art+Tech

October 2021

I have a self-imposed rule when assigning stars for albums I review for SoundStage! Xperience or on my other gig at DownBeat magazine: As a service to consumers, I deduct half a star if the artist provides less than the 45 minutes of music I would expect on a typical album without discounting the retail price.

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The Cookers: "Look Out!"

Details
CD music

October 2021

Gearbox Records 1571CD
Format: CD

Musical Performance
****

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

If you followed popular music in the late ’60s and early ’70s, you likely remember the hype surrounding so-called supergroups. Bands like Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were touted as truly special things by the rock media.

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Bose SoundLink Color II Bluetooth Speaker

Details
Music Everywhere

October 2021

Bose is a legendary name in the world of audio speakers. The company has diehard fans. Having never experienced a Bose product firsthand, I determined that I should try one. In this case, it was the Bose SoundLink Color II. Though I found a few things to quibble about, this little speaker mostly lived up to the Bose hype. At $129 (all prices USD), it is a strong contender for purchase if you’re considering a speaker in its size category.

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"Ashes and Diamonds"

Details
Blu-ray movies

September 2021

Poland’s Struggle for Identity as World War II Ends

The Criterion Collection 285
Format: BD

Overall Enjoyment
****

Picture Quality
****

Sound Quality
***1/2

Extras
***

When World War II ended, most countries were propelled into an era of freedom. But Poland’s post-war trajectory would lead toward Communism. Working from the acclaimed novel of the same name by Jerzy Andrzejewski, young director Andrzej Wajda fashioned a political thriller that encapsulates this change in a series of events that take place in a single day.

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Summer on the Porch with Tom Petty and the Audio Pro Addon C5A Wireless Multiroom Speaker

Details
Art+Tech

September 2021

Whether the credit is due to his Florida upbringing or his longtime residency in California, singer-songwriter Tom Petty had an incredible knack for writing summertime anthems. Songs like “Even the Losers,” “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” and “The Waiting” had extra resonance when played on a car radio on a sultry day, and there was something related to yearning and the quest for freedom in many of his songs—or those he cowrote—that naturally led to the open road or the beach.

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Fix It in the Mix: A Seven Nation Army of Me

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Pulse!

September 2021

This month in “Fix It in the Mix,” I’ll focus on recording music, like modern pop and electronica, that’s primarily non-acoustic but may have one or a few acoustic instruments thrown in (including vocals, the original acoustic instrument).

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McCoy Tyner: "Expansions"

Details
Vinyl music

Blue Note Records BST 84338
Format: LP

Musical Performance
*****

Sound Quality
****

Overall Enjoyment
****

The true geniuses of contemporary music—Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, to name just three—have had a tendency to flame out like supernovas. Like the massive astronomical objects that become supernovas, these musicians have also tended, at their peak, to obscure anyone else in their immediate orbit. From bassist Tommy Potter—at Parker’s side for his finest recordings—to bassist Noel Redding—one of Hendrix’s two closest collaborators—those who play alongside the biggest stars have struggled to establish their own musical identities.

Read more …

  1. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 Bluetooth Speaker
  2. "History Is Made at Night"
  3. Time Traveling to Mid-1960s Chicago via AudioQuest's DragonFly Black and Red DACs
  4. JBL Flip 5 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
  5. Lee Morgan: "The Complete Live at the Lighthouse"
  6. "Pickup on South Street"
  7. The iFi Audio Zen Phono Breathes New Life into Andrew Hill's Missing Masterpiece
  8. Fix It in the Mix: All About Mike(s)
  9. JBL Pulse 4 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
  10. Ben Goldberg: "Everything Happens to Be."
  11. "Nightmare Alley" (1947)
  12. Digging Through Bill Evans’s Career with KLH Albany II Bookshelf Loudspeakers
  13. JBL Clip 4 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
  14. Vince Mendoza & the Czech National Symphony Orchestra: “Freedom over Everything”
  15. "The Furies"

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