April 30th, 2025
Elemental Music Offers More Live, Unheard Bill Evans & Art Pepper: Pristine-Sounding Records For Completists PURCHASE THESE IF ART PEPPER’S SUNSET YEARS COMPEL YOU — AND IF NO AMOUNT OF BILL EVANS IS ENOUGHBy: Morgan Enos
Zev Feldman’s devotion to Bill Evans borders on evangelism — and the flock is growing. While prepping 2023’s Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings, the Resonance Records co-founder dropped into Crooked Beat Records in Alexandria, Virginia, only to learn the shop had pre-ordered 30 copies — an eye-popping tally for a niche archival set. “We’ll have 300 people around the block,” owner Bill Daly reported. “Your Bill Evans records — everybody wants them.”... Read More
April 25th, 2025
Going for the Gold: The Score for "Goldfinger" Remastered and Reassessed - PART 2 LaLaLand Records’ latest offering of John Barry’s iconic score is an Essential Slice of Pop Culture History, one worth exploringBy: Mark Ward
Film music specialist LaLaLand Records continues its series of comprehensive 007 reissues with the score that set the musical template for the entire series. I continue my deep dive into the story behind the creation of this iconic piece of 60s pop culture with a detailed assessment of this important restoration and reissue. Barry, Bassey and Bond - nobody does it better…
Read MoreApril 24th, 2025
The Persisting Significance of the String Quartet “Eat Your String Quartets! They Are Good for You!”By: John Marks
My thesis is that music written for the ensemble of two violins, one viola, and one cello constitutes the musical art form that most nearly approaches perfection, both in its past achievements and its present possibilities. The greatest minds and most perceptive dispositions find in the literature and performance of string-quartet music an endlessly self-renewing source of wonder and delight. The string quartet is a most felicitous meeting of potential and realization.
Read MoreApril 23rd, 2025
Going for the Gold: The Score for "Goldfinger" Remastered and Reassessed - PART 1 LaLaLand Records’ latest offering of John Barry’s iconic score is an Essential Slice of Pop Culture History, one worth exploringBy: Mark Ward
Film music specialist LaLaLand Records continues its series of comprehensive 007 reissues with the score that set the musical template for the entire series. Take a deep dive into the story behind the creation of this iconic piece of 60s pop culture, and a detailed assessment of this important restoration and reissue. Barry, Bassey and Bond - nobody does it better…
Read MoreApril 21st, 2025
Nancy Harrow, Jaki Byard, Memphis Slim: Candid Records’ Reissue Campaign Does Justice To Its Original Run IT’S FASCINATING THAT THIS LABEL EXISTED AT ALL — AND WE’RE REAPING THE BENEFITS IN 2025By: Morgan Enos
Some of the most glorious moments in music history owe to a glitch in the mainframe — those fleeting, thrilling ruptures where the real shit breaks through. Case in point: Cadence Records, and its short-lived but seismic sister label, Candid Records.From 1952 to 1964, Cadence mostly trafficked in vanilla fare — Andy Williams’ supper club ballads, the Everly Brothers’ clean-cut harmonies, the Chordettes trilling “Mr. Sandman” and “Lollipop.” There were outliers, sure:... Read More
April 10th, 2025
Stanley Cowell, Charles Rouse, Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc.: Strata-East’s Reissued Triage Displays The Label’s Range AFTER A PHAROAH SANDERS RECORD STORE DAY REISSUE, THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO THE STRATA-EAST CATALOGBy: Morgan Enos
If my previous Tracking Angle review — on the new Pharoah Sanders Izipho Zam reissue — framed Strata-East within so-called spiritual jazz, this trio of new vinyl pressings should shake loose any such pigeonholing.(That’s the storied, forward-thinking jazz label, founded by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell in 1971, whose new affiliation with Mack Avenue produced that Izipho Zam (My Gifts) reissue — read all about it. As the newly partnered... Read More
April 9th, 2025
If You Like Music, You Really Should Thank the Frankish Infantry of A.D. 732 A Survey of Choral Music, from Plainchant to Boney M.; Part 2 of 2By: John Marks
Here are the final six (of a total of a dozen) choral settings of extraordinary value, most of them unaccompanied (a-cappella). The settings are from Medieval times to our era, but are not necessarily in chronological order.
The Qobuz playlist is here: https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/25258347
Read MoreApril 6th, 2025
If You Like Music, You Really Should Thank the Frankish Infantry of A.D. 732 A Survey of Choral Music, from Plainchant to Boney M.; Part 1 of 2By: John Marks
Here are the first six (of a total of a dozen) choral settings of extraordinary value, most of them unaccompanied (a-cappella). The settings are from Medieval times to our era, but are not necessarily in chronological order.
The Qobuz playlist is here: https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/25258347
Read MoreApril 2nd, 2025
Rhino Provides The Ultimate Sonic Experiences for Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper The newest High Fidelity series titles honor the hard-rocking year of 1971By: Dylan Peggin
Today, the audiophile market is a goldmine for vinyl consumers. Whether it's Analogue Productions’ commemoration of Atlantic Records’ 75th anniversary or WMG’s Because Sound Matters venture, the pressings these and other companies are releasing have, for the most part, set a new sonic standard for timeless albums— in some cases outdoing originals. Reissue specialist Rhino Records, which it could be argued started the vinyl reissue ball rolling in the late... Read More
March 28th, 2025
Celestial Sounds - Neil Ardley's Seminal 1979 "Harmony of the Spheres" Is Given New Life Analogue October Records' Stunning Reissue Reviewed - Plus an Interview with Label Founder, Craig CraneBy: Mark Ward
One of the most important - and least known - artifacts of 1970s jazz/rock fusion, Neil Ardley's Harmony of the Spheres, arrives in an exceptional AAA limited edition reissue from fledgling label Analogue October Records in the UK. I delve into the background and history of this groundbreaking record, assess the new reissue, and talk in detail with label founder Craig Crane about how this project came together, and his future plans for this label - one to watch.
Read MoreMarch 23rd, 2025
Resonance's Archival Mingus, Hubbard, & Dorham: This Record Store Day, Go For… Well, The Records WHEN IT COMES TO THIS SLATE OF ARCHIVAL JAZZ RELEASES, THE VINYL BEATS THE CD EVERY TIMEBy: Morgan Enos
Here are my reviews of three new Resonance Records offerings: Charles Mingus’s In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts, Kenny Dorham’s Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live from the Blue Morocco, and Freddie Hubbard’s On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco. All three are due out on Record Store Day, April 12; you can pre-order them now.It’s not Charles’ Mingus’s final set of performances, but it’s close. On June 2 and 3, 1977, the Angry Man of Jazz was nearing the end of the... Read More
March 20th, 2025
Deutsche Grammophon Announces a Treasure Trove of Releases in Batch #8 of the Original Source Vinyl Reissue Series Brilliance, Virtuosity and Eclecticism Rule the Day in This Outstanding Selection of Titles, all mastered and cut AAA directly from 4 and 8-track mastersBy: Mark Ward
This latest batch of Original Source releases shows that Deutsche Grammophon has been listening to collectors of this series who have been clamoring for more chamber and instrumental music. Here we have two such peaks of the 70s catalogue in superb performances, plus two blockbuster orchestral releases that will seriously put your system through its paces. All in all it’s a list of releases I am salivating over - and you should be too!
Read MoreMarch 18th, 2025
Ward & Johnson Talk Ravel—Prelude to Upcoming Ozawa Ravel Box Set prepping for DGG OSS Ozawa Ravel Box setBy: Tracking Angle
Tracking Angle contributors Michael Johnson and Mark Ward sit down to discuss the music of French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) in anticipation of the upcoming DG Original Source box set release of the composer’s Complete Orchestral Works performed by Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Read More
March 17th, 2025
Blue Note Review Volume 3....Truly, Madly, DeepLee Morgan Limited edition box setBy: Joseph W. Washek
The third volume of the Blue Note Review, limited to 2,000 copies and entitled Truly Madly DeepLee Morgan is devoted to the music of the trumpeter Lee Morgan. Included in the box set is a Tone Poet style reissue of his 1967 recording, Sonic Boom, a reissue of a 45 RPM single of two tunes from his Charisma album, here 3 LP sides, also on a CD, of contemporary, artists playing Morgan compositions or music associated with him and a "never before released... Read More
March 8th, 2025
How Jean-Marc Harari Found the Stereo Tape Containing All Three Legendary Performances recounted in this video and then at the end you get to hear a bit of itBy: Michael Fremer
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
March 7th, 2025
Yes Peaks with “Close to the Edge” The latest in a series of super deluxe editions from RhinoBy: Dylan Peggin
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
January 31st, 2025
4 Tape Machines and 1 Cutting Lathe: Remixing Karajan’s Mahler 6 at Emil Berliner Studios Go behind the scenes at the most complex mix yet for the Original Source SeriesBy: Mark Ward
Batch #7 of the Original Source Series from Deutsche Grammophon is almost upon us, with Karl Böhm conducting Mozart’s Requiem and Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 to be released next week, and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet plus Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy from Claudio Abbado in Boston due the week after.Also coming out on February 14th is Herbert von Karajan’s truly monumental recording of Mahler’s 6th Symphony, which I consider to be his... Read More
January 17th, 2025
Evacuating my Life in Records - in 15 minutes... PART 2 Choices and Reflections from the Los Angeles Wildfires of 2025By: Mark Ward
Last Friday night, with the Palisades Fire moving in the direction of our house, my wife and I loaded the car with photo albums, sleeping bags and a tent, and had our suitcases ready to go. Then, I realized I might have time (and the space) to pick out some records to take with me. In Part 1 I talked about my classical selections. In Part 2 it is time to go through my rock, jazz and film music collection and make my choices...
Beyond the seriousness of this moment, you might call this an impromptu tour through some of the highlights of my record collection: a diversion in harrowing times.
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