Hi-Fi has long been very good to Duke Ellington, beginning in 1950 when long playing records and tape recording allowed him to finally deliver Masterpieces by Ellington an album of previously impossible to release to the home listening public, live concert length arrangements of his most popular and enduring compositions. Until then only attendees of his live concerts got to hear them.Finally Ellington was freed from the constraints of the three minute 78rpm... Read More

Nesconset, NY, June 25, 2024 -- EAT (European Audio Team), the company whose high-performance products are designed to bring listeners as close as possible to the meaning and spirit of the original performance, offers the flagship Fortissimo S turntable in North America via VANA Ltd., its NY-based distribution partner. The Fortissimo S (SRP: $8,000, minus tonearm) is a significant step up from the company’s popular Forte S turntable, with a massive 50 lb., 15.75”... Read More

(This feature originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)He didn’t play an instrument and he didn’t sing, but Brian Eno was in the band, and the band was Roxy Music. So what exactly did Eno (full name Brian Peter George St. John de Baptiste de la Salle Eno—wouldn’t you shorten it?) do for Roxy Music, which he co-founded in London with Bryan Ferry back in 1972? Listen to Stranded, the first Eno-free Roxy album and you’ll hear something missing. Or, listen to the... Read More

The mystery is why this 1959 Riverside recording wasn't released until 1964, and even then, according to Craft Recordings, only in the U.K. True, Riverside was essentially a jazz label, but then why record Hooker in the first place unadorned if not to release it? Hooker had been recording electric blues for Vee-Jay but Riverside wanted acoustic and in fact released in 1960 The Country Blues of John Lee Hooker recorded at the same sessions that produced this... Read More

For the initiated this project has mostly existed as a collection of poorly bootlegged video clips on YouTube. That is, unless, you ponied up for the 2010 archive release of Band On The Run, which included a polished DVD version of this 1974 documentary. But now Macca, ready to embark on yet another age-defying batch of live dates, has made these sessions official.So across two LPs (or two CDs), One Hand Clapping finally comes out of the bootleg protection program... Read More

125,000 views of Steely Dan's "Gaucho" played back on Wilson-Benesch's GMT One turntable made clear that people enjoy listening to top quality vinyl playback, even degraded as it is by YouTube's meh bit rate audio. So here's another one: David Bowie's "Fashion" from his 1980 album Scary Monsters, Super Creeps from an original U.K. Townhouse mastered pressing. The record is not a "minty" copy but it still sounds... Read More

Some things were "meant" to be. Following High End Munich i spent a few days in Switzerland that included a visit to Micha Huber's HiFiction factory in Turbenthal. The video tour includes the launch of the new Thales Magnifier phono preamp/preamp. Early in the afternoon, following the tour, I overheard two of HiFiction's distributors talk about driving to Schlieren to visit HSE Swiss, manufacturer of, among other products, the Masterline 7 phono... Read More

Every properly overseen vinyl record reissue series should have a gatekeeper/curator like Blue Note's Tone Poet series Joe Harley. Craft Recordings has brought on board for its new Bluesville series, Scott Billington, clearly the best possible individual for the job. Scott is a Grammy winning producer, musician, writer and record executive who's produced more than 150 records, even playing on a few. He's produced records by, among others, Charlie Rich,... Read More

Los Angeles, CA (June 20, 2024)—Craft Recordings and Bluesville Records proudly announce a pair of classic reissues from two of blues music’s most influential artists: Albert King’s career-defining 1968 concert album, Live Wire/Blues Power, and 1961’s poignant Last Night Blues from Lightnin’ Hopkins with Sonny Terry. Releasing September 13 and available to pre-order today, these titles mark the latest releases in the acclaimed new series, which celebrates America’s... Read More

LOS ANGELES – After The Hissing Of Summer Lawns tour, Joni Mitchell retreated to Neil Young’s beach house to recover. Eager to travel but undecided about a destination, Mitchell was unexpectedly invited on a cross-country road trip with friends. It was one of three road trips she took between 1975 and 1976 and the beginning of a period defined by wanderlust, both in her physical travels and musical exploration. This transformative phase is the focal point of The... Read More

This is great news! Ween's 1994 classic "Chocolate and Cheese" is getting a deluxe, expanded 30th anniversary reissue including original double LP plus fifteen unreleased demos. Bernie Grundman ...well, read the press release below:Since its debut 30 years ago, Ween’s Chocolate and Cheese has become an alternative rock classic and a highwater mark for Gene and Dean Ween’s polished songwriting and irreverent humor. To celebrate the anniversary, Rhino... Read More

Los Angeles, CA (June 18, 2024) – Craft Recordings announces the final batch of 2024 reissues for its Original Jazz Classics series, beloved by collectors and critics alike. The latest reissues include Clark Terry Quartet & Thelonious Monk’s In Orbit, Mal Waldron’s The Quest, Thelonious Monk Septet’s Monk’s Music, Blue Mitchell’s Blue’s Moods, and Cal Tjader’s Latin Kick. All of these titles can be pre-ordered today. As with previous releases, these new reissues... Read More

Taking a lunch break during a mid 1990’s Consumer Electronics Show, Allen Perkins, then working for turntable manufacturer SOTA and I writing for The Absolute Sound, exited The Riviera Hotel, site of the “high end” exhibits, and took a walk along Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as “The Strip”. The west side of the street then was mostly demolished brick rubble behind chain link fencing. Among the few buildings on that side of the street was the old blue backlit... Read More

Deutsche Grammophon’s outstanding, AAA-mastered Original Source Vinyl Series continues apace with four more titles just announced, slated for release on October 4th. 

Like previous releases, these are all mastered and cut directly from the original 4-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney C. Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios, incorporating 2-tracks of ambient hall information recorded at the original sessions.  (For the full technical background on this series I refer you to my review of the first batch here).

Musicians from Handel to Jackson Browne to Philip Glass to The Beach Boys, to name but a few, have had water on their minds, which is not the same as having water on the brain. True, Glass only got as far as the beach, but that's close enough. Add bassist/composer Stephan Crump to the list. He's recorded two albums with the Rosetta Trio, an unusual grouping of bass and two guitars. Here, he's composed a sixty seven minute long suite for an... Read More

Handmade in San Diego California, Wrensilva's eye-catching custom cabinetry houses a modernized version of a 50's/60's era console stereo. Revered among the attaché case carrying corporate climbers of the late '50s and early '60s, the form factor lost its hipness as the JFK era gave way to assassination, war and chaos, bringing with it a more austere, raw component esthetic.Wrensilva is one of a few companies riding the vinyl revival wave,... Read More