MARCH 14, 2025 — Today, the fantastically prolific and endlessly ambitious Berkeley-born jazz star David Murray announces his new album. Nearly five decades into his storied career in jazz and improvised music, the saxophonist, bass clarinetist, composer and bandleader is making his Impulse! Records debut with Birdly Serenade, a collection of new compositions inspired by the original improvisors: birds. If the outdoorsy inspiration is new for the veteran player, the... Read More

(Press Release): March 14, 2025 - Los Angeles, CA) Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi) ignites its series of acclaimed limited-edition, high-end vinyl reissues by recharging two essential hard rock epics. New Rhino Hi-Fi versions of Black Sabbath’s massively influential sophomore LP, Paranoid, and Alice Cooper’s seminal third full-length offering, Love It To Death, arrive today, exclusively at Rhino.com and internationally at select WMG stores. Both are available as 1LP... Read More

David Bowie was the alien-like rock and roll messiah to teenagers of the glam era, but none would’ve guessed that soul music was part of his musical DNA when his career started in the mid-60s. His initial flirtation with the genre stems back to his 1974 album, Diamond Dogs, with tracks like “Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me” and the Orwellian-inspired “1984.” The influence grew more potent on the tour supporting the album, with his cover of Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood”... Read More

Dexter Gordon was a striking figure—6’6” (one of his albums was called Long Tall Dexter), with a dry wit, a voice as foggily husky as his tenor saxophone tone, and (as an iconic photo taken by Herman Leonard reveals), lungs capacious enough to hold what looks like an entire cigarette’s worth of smoke in one breath. (This last trademark-feature led to his death from emphysema in 1990 at age 67.) In his last decade, Gordon became a true star, owing to a celebrated... Read More

(Press release): Enjoying The Ride Limited Edition 60-CD Boxed Set Celebrates The Grateful Dead’s 60th Anniversary With Unreleased Performances From 20 Legendary Venues Available Exclusively From Dead.net On May 30. The Music Never Stopped Available From Rhino On 3-CDs And 6-LPs Pre-order Here“Scarlet Begonias,” “Touch Of Grey,” and “Fire On The Mountain” Live At The Greek Theatre Available Today DigitallyListen Now(March 12, 2025 - Los Angeles, CA) The Grateful Dead... Read More

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, with Tommy Flanagan on piano and brothers Percy and Albert Heath on bass and drums, was the album that introduced electric guitarist John Leslie (Wes) Montgomery to the jazz world. It was recorded at Reeves Sound Studios in New York City on January 26 and 28 in 1960, when he was 35 years old. The album is now considered by many fans and critics to be the pinnacle of his recorded studio work, and it has influenced everyone... Read More

This is a solo jazz guitar album by one of the all-time best. If you’ve found your way here, it would be difficult to not like the scenery. But, you buy the ticket; you take the ride. As a result, some casual listeners may feel like they merely transacted with Joe. However, most will see this as a true gift. The name and the title tell you everything you need to know: Joe was a master and this, his tenth album and a first for Pablo Records in 1973, finds him at the... Read More

Scandinavians playing Dixieland/trad jazz is not my idea of a great musical treat—I don't care how well it's recorded and that's why though I've got a copy of the audiophile classic Jazz at the Pawn Shop and concede that it is among the greatest sounding jazz recordings ever, I can't remember that last time I listened to it.This record from Swing' Gate is something else, though it too treads in trad jazz land, because its leader, pianist... Read More

A highly prized and rare 1957 recording featuring violinist Michèle Auclair and pianist Jacqueline Robin-Bonneau performing Debussy and Ravel Sonatas for violin and piano released in mono only on a 10" disc is joined on this new The French Record Company release by a previously unreleased performance of a Roussel sonata for violin and orchestra recorded during the same 1957 recording session. What's more, during his research for the release, the label's... Read More

Like Song Cycle, Van Dyke Parks' ambitious 1967 debut, Lotti Golden's 1969 debut Motor-Cycle flopped when first released, but over the years both have gained cult followings and now finally Golden's gets a well-deserved reissue courtesy High Moon Records.The comparison may seem bizarre to anyone familiar with both (the "cycle" in both album titles has nothing to do with it), but as record biz tragi-stories they are surprisingly similar, though... Read More

By 1972, Yes was no longer fighting to prove themselves within the progressive rock scene. With Fragile having sold 500,000 copies in America alone and “Roundabout” being their first Top 20 hit, they earned the privilege to work without interference from the head honchos at Atlantic. When it came time to work on a follow-up album at London’s Advision Studios in the spring of 1972, the taste of commercial success didn’t lobby the members of Yes to try to recapture the... Read More

For the past few years my old friend, U.K. based audio writer supreme Ken Kessler has been telling me about an upcoming re-launch of the fabled line of London Decca phono cartridges. But it's been "hush-hush". As many of you surely know, the Decca name is/was owned by a U.K. based record label now owned by UMe and it has recently re-launched that label—probably after seeing the great success DGG has had with the Original Sound Series (thanks in great... Read More

(Press release): Erlangen, Germany Thursday 6 March 2025 – for immediate release-German analogue audio specialist, Clearaudio has launched the Diamond Jubilee MC, a flagship moving-coil cartridge design that uses patent-pending technology to offer the ultimate in vinyl playback potential. Limited to just 45 units – representing the company’s milestone 45th Anniversary – the Clearaudio Diamond Jubilee MC is the most sophisticated design in its history. It comes in... Read More

A New York Times online story published today written by Ben Sisario headlined "The Wizard of Vinyl Is In Kansas" presents to the general public the Chad kassem most Tracking Angle readers know if just through buying the records, CDs, SACDs and tapes he produces, presses and sells on the Acoustic Sounds website, though some have met Chad at hi-fi shows or at one of his Blues at the Crossroads concert extravaganzas.Pictured in the photo are (L-R): Chad... Read More

Lightnin’ Hopkins was many things — a hauntingly personal guitarist, a casually riveting storyteller, and as the country blues tradition goes, a figure of resounding influence. Every scrape of a string, every craggy vocalization, every ribald bon mot, seemed to spring from the Texas soil itself. To put it plainly, the bluesman was real — about as real as it gets.From the ‘40s until his 1982 death, Hopkins weathered his share of peaks and valleys, as tastes ebbed and... Read More

High Moon Records is a well-regarded boutique reissue record label with a catalog comprised of essential releases from music visionaries, some of whom perhaps you've probably never heard of. All feature deluxe packaging, extensive liner notes by authoritative writers, stunning artwork with never-before-seen archival photos, and sparkling re-mastered audio often with rare bonus tracks.

Musicologist, conductor and Paris National Conservatory alumnus Jean-Marc Harari's The French Recording Company (Les Discophiles Francais) issued a previously unreleased Marcelle Meyer Debussy recording back in 2019 that I reported on and reviewed on my previous website. The review caused a stir because the double LP all-analog set, limited to 200 copies was costly, though less expensive than originals of other Meyer records and buyers at the time expressed no... Read More