September 2023
About a year ago, Bruce Springsteen began touring again. It was the first time he and the E Street Band had appeared onstage together since 2017. Like a lot of performers, Springsteen was eager to be performing again. Some musicians who had been prevented from touring by the COVID-19 pandemic were downright cranky. Performers need to perform. They’re addicted to the stage.
September 2023
I grew up listening to jazz from the 1930s and ’40s, thanks to my father’s LP collection and his devotion to the big-band dance music featured every Saturday evening on Ottawa’s CFMO-FM. When I finally found a friend who liked jazz, he played me Charlie Parker recordings from the early ’50s. Looking back, by the time I turned 16, in 1970, the closest I’d come to experiencing contemporary improvised music was a recording called Two of a Mind, a set of duets created by saxophonists Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan in 1962.
September 2023
The Rolling Stones have been a working band, with a few personnel changes, for more than 60 years, and have been a visible and active part of popular culture for nearly all that time. There have been a few dull moments, perhaps, but it’s hard to think of another rock’n’roll band or musician, aside from Bob Dylan, that has enjoyed such a long, sustained stretch of popularity and relevance. The Stones may not have the hip currency now the band had in the past—who does?—but a Stones tour is still a big, stadium-filling event.
August 2023
Anti- 87824-2
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
The singer-songwriter Neko Case has been a singular voice in music for more than 25 years, both as a solo artist and as a member of the New Pornographers. Her versatility and restless creativity have led to collaborations with a number of other musicians, including the Sadies, Carolyn Mark, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs. In 2022, Case released a 23-song compilation of solo recordings as a digital download. Wild Creatures has now been released on CD and vinyl.
August 2023
I have a friend, a guy I worked with for a long time, who drove a modest little Geo sedan for his long commute. Ugly car, really. And small. He looked after it, though; it ran well and was dependable. Every workday, he drove 90 minutes or more each way, and I don’t think he ever missed a day of work because of car trouble. When my friend retired, he stopped driving that car and got a new Camaro. He deserved that reward. I have no idea how many miles he had racked up on that Geo, but I’m willing to bet it was over 300,000.
July 2023
On the day that my comments about the recent MoFi settlement were posted on this site, I received a copy of Tuttle v. Audiophile Music Direct in the mail.
July 2023
Contemporary Records / Craft Recordings / Acoustic Sounds CR00594
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Bassist Leroy Vinnegar was born in Indianapolis and moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s, where he appeared on albums by nearly every jazz musician who passed through LA or was based there. He played on sessions with Stan Getz, Benny Carter, Kenny Dorham, and many others. He was the bassist on popular trio sessions with Shelly Manne and André Previn, including My Fair Lady (1956), a Contemporary Records release that was one of the label’s biggest sellers. He played on another big seller, Swiss Movement, a 1969 live collaboration between Les McCann and Eddie Harris.
July 2023
When the news broke last year that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab was using high-resolution digital files as the source for some of its vinyl releases, including its costly Ultradisc One-Step pressings, a predictable outcry from vinyl lovers ensued. The story even got national attention, with a writeup in the Washington Post. Several SoundStage! Network contributors addressed the issue, including Jason Thorpe. I weighed in as well, as did SoundStage! founder Doug Schneider, who also posted a video about it.
July 2023
On August 17, 1969, the final scheduled day of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Sly & the Family Stone appeared onstage at 3:30 a.m. Stage announcer “Chip” Monck’s sonorous voice brought the group out, and they played a tight, 50-minute set. Two songs from that performance, “Dance to the Music” and “I Want to Take You Higher,” made their way onto Michael Wadleigh’s documentary film of the festival, and were among its most electrifying moments.
June 2023
Contemporary Records / Craft Recordings / Acoustic Sounds CR00390
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
André Previn’s long career included well-regarded work as a pianist, composer, and conductor in classical music, film soundtracks, and jazz. Previn appeared on many recordings for Contemporary Records in the late 1950s, both as a solo pianist and in a trio setting, and recorded three Broadway-themed albums with drummer Shelly Manne and bassist Red Mitchell. Manne himself recorded albums of show tunes for Contemporary, on which he was the bandleader, with Previn on piano and Leroy Vinnegar on bass. Manne’s My Fair Lady (1956) was the first of those albums. It was so popular that Contemporary encouraged him and Previn to continue making records consisting of tunes from various shows.
June 2023
It’s hard to think of a currently active mastering engineer whose initials appear on more LP lead-out grooves than Kevin Gray’s. He cuts the lacquers for Blue Note’s Tone Poet and Classic Vinyl series, as well as for rock recordings released on vinyl by Intervention Records. He also remasters vinyl reissues for some of Concord’s Craft Recordings reissues, including the newly resurrected Original Jazz Classics series. And that’s just a sampling of his current work.
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
June 2023
If you caught last month’s column, you’ll know that one of the recordings I featured was Van Morrison’s signature major-label debut, Astral Weeks. I noted that—typically for a pop recording in the late 1960s—the recording setup was pretty basic. Morrison’s voice is centered in the soundstage, and there appears to have been little or nothing altered in post-production. One consequence is that Morrison occasionally sounds slightly off-mike. Having seen Morrison perform several times, I expect those off-mike incantations were deliberate.
May 2023
Van Morrison: Moving On Skiffle
Exile / Virgin Music 2448191410
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
If you’re a Van Morrison fan, you get used to the singer’s crankiness, but he probably pushed a little too hard on two recent outings—Latest Record Project, Volume 1 (2021) and What’s It Gonna Take? (2022). Van was mad that he couldn’t tour because of the COVID-19 pandemic and went after everyone from government officials to the media. He released the first album during the worst of the pandemic and received some blowback; some of it deserved, some unfair.
May 2023
If you want a good example of vinyl’s healthy return as a format, take a look at Blue Note’s Tone Poet reissue series. Jazz lovers have embraced it, despite the slightly higher costs. The Tone Poet LPs are mastered to an audiophile standard and the packaging reflects the care everyone has taken in presenting the great Blue Note and Pacific Jazz titles in the series. The covers are made of heavy cardboard, with tipped-on, laminated artwork prepared by Stoughton Printing. Most of the covers are gatefolds, with photos from the original sessions. Record Technology Incorporated, one of the best vinyl plants in the world, presses the 180gm LPs.
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