May 20th, 2025
The Audio Salon, Santa Monica and Chad Kassem Invite You To a Listening Event! RSVP for wednesday May, 21st or thursday May 22ndBy: Tracking Angle
The Audio Salon, Santa Monica, CA hosts Chad Kassem for two evening listening sessions celebrating the Acoustic Sounds catalog, Wednesday, May 21st, and Thursday May 22nd, from 6:30 to 9:30PM. Kassem will play his latest releases on tape, LP and SACD and no doubt regale the attendees with tales of his record business adventures.Please RSVP maier@theaudiosalon.com as space is limited. Read More
May 10th, 2025
More Chet Baker Coming Your Way AAA Via new land Records 5 Prestige albums recorded August 1965 released 1966-1967 available for 1st time in 50 years--titles have a Miles vibeBy: Tracking Angle
Press release: LP box set featuring five original studio albums from 1965 (AAA) Remastered and cut directly from the original analog mono tapes by Kevin Gray. Manufactured on 180gm vinyl and housed in reverse-board deluxe sleeves. Expansive book with liner notes from GRAMMY® award nominated James Gavin, interviews with Chet Baker, George Coleman, Kirk Lightsey, Herman Wright, Roy Brooks and previously unseen photographs. Housed inside a secure, heavy lift-off lid box... Read More
April 29th, 2025
Rhino Reserve Premium Vinyl Series Celebrates Black Music Month With Baby Huey's "The Baby Huey Story", The Meters' "Fire on the Bayou", And Otis Redding's "Blue" CUT FROM THE ANALOG TAPES AND PRESSED ON 180-GRAM BLACK VINYLBy: Tracking Angle
(April 29, 2025 - Los Angeles, CA) In celebration of Black Music Month, Rhino Reserve continues with the next installment of the acclaimed premium vinyl series with Baby Huey’s The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, The Meters’ Fire On The Bayou, and Otis Redding’s Otis Blue. This next set of Rhino Reserve titles are pressed on 180-gram premium-quality black vinyl locally at Fidelity Record Pressing’s brand-new plant in Oxnard, CA, and cut by the highly respected... Read More
April 24th, 2025
P-VINE Reissuing Clifford Jordan's Mapleshade Albums on CD and Vinyl first time on vinyl and first time in Japan on any formatBy: Michael Fremer
P-VINE Records recently announced it is re-issuing Clifford Jordan’s four Mapleshade albums on CD and vinyl. This is the first time any of these recordings have been released in Japan or have ever been available on vinyl. Older readers will most likely be familiar with both Mapleshade and these recordings, produced and engineered by the late Pierre Sprey. Please hit that hyperlink because I suspect many who knew about these records and Pierre, had no idea about his... Read More
April 22nd, 2025
78 Year Old Record Producer/Engineer/Songwriter Roy Thomas Baker R.I.P.—Died April 12th, Family Just Announced your record collection is surely filled with his workBy: Michael Fremer
Roy Thomas Baker, one of the rock era's most successful producer/engineers, best known for producing Queen's first five albums, as well as the first four albums by The Cars, died at age of 78 at his home in Lake Havasu City, AZ on April 12 his family just revealed. Cause of death not known. (Photo credit: Jimmy Steinfeldt)Baker's best known production, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" released in 1975 is currently the most streamed song... Read More
April 18th, 2025
Neil Young "Coastal": The Soundtrack Out Now Via Reprise Records 11 SONGS FROM THE 2023 SOLO TOUR TAKEN FROM FILM OF THE SAME NAME DIRECTED BY FILMMAKER DARYL HANNAHBy: Tracking Angle
(Yesterday's Press release): April 17, 2025 – (Los Angeles, CA) – For Neil Young, music and film have always had a very long and close relationship. Not long after the rock & roll master started making records, he turned to the movie camera. Coastal: The Soundtrack is a live solo recording and companion piece to the filmed, Daryl Hannah-directed tour documentary recorded during Young's 2023 Coastal solo tour. Coastal: The Soundtrack album is available... Read More
April 9th, 2025
Craft Drops Six New OJC Titles Two Bill Evans titles and For the First Time A Pair From the Vee-Jay catalogueBy: Tracking Angle
Los Angeles, CA (April 9, 2025) – Craft Recordings announces six new reissues from Original Jazz Classics (OJC), the audiophile series celebrating critically lauded, fan-adored seminal jazz albums. The latest installment features newly remastered editions of Bill Evans’ Interplay and Moon Beams, Lee Morgan’s Here’s Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter’s Introducing Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson’s Gone With Golson, and Ken McIntyre & Eric Dolphy’s Looking Ahead. Spanning the... Read More
March 30th, 2025
Jerome Sabbagh's Analog Tone Factory Label Produces and Releases First "Non-Jerome" Record Saxophonist Chris Cheeks' "Keepers of the Eastern Door" gets full, ATF live to 2 track analog treatmentBy: Michael Fremer
Like Sabbagh's award winning Heart, Keepers of the Eastern Door was recorded live to 2-track 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips by James Farber at Power Station C, to the label's custom Ampex 351, and mastered and cut all analog by Bernie Grundman. Like Vintage and Heart, this one is being pressed at Gotta Groove on 180g vinyl. In an email, Sabbagh told me he's been experimenting with 140g vs 180g and 1-step versus "regular" 3-step pressings. He prefers... Read More
March 27th, 2025
ERC Does Coltrane's "Lush Life" true mono cut using mono cutter head, cut "master tape to lathe"By: Tracking Angle
The Electric Recording Company announced today the "true mono" reissue of John Coltrane's Lush Life cut "tape to lathe" fitted with a mono cutter head. It's how they roll.From the ERC press release:John Coltrane’s “Lush Life”, originally released in 1961 by Prestige Records, is a remarkable snapshot of a transitional moment in the saxophonist’s career. Released over a year after Coltrane had signed to Impulse! Records and compiled from... Read More
March 19th, 2025
The Lost Recordings Unveils Alicia de Larrocha’s Studio Recordings, Berlin 1968 & 1970 Released For First Time! (Based on her Vox/Turnabout and London releases, i put down the $)By: Michael Fremer
Recorded in stereo at the Saal Studio 3, RBB, Berlin, The Lost Recordings claims "These recordings were captured in the iconic Studio 3 of the RBB in Berlin, the first recording hall in music history to feature adjustable acoustics. These state-of-the-art settings enabled extraordinary recordings, preserving every nuance of her sound and intonations with remarkable fidelity."Yes, these tapes were digitized, "restored" and cut by Kevin Gray.... Read More
March 14th, 2025
Two Unusual Ebay Auctions one's a selection of Beatles 78rpm singlesBy: Tracking Angle
When was the last time you saw an offer for a collection of early-1960s Beatles Parlophone 78rpm singles? Every so often one or two appears (including cracked unplayable ones that still fetch decent dollars) but this auction is for thirteen of them!The advents of the long-playing 33rpm phonograph record (1948), the 45rpm single (1949), and the stereo LP (1957) did not immediately end 78rpm production. Even by 1952 78s still accounted for slightly more than half the... Read More
March 14th, 2025
"Art Pepper An Afternoon In Norway The Kongsberg Concert", Previously Unissued 1980 Set ARRIVES AS LIMITED TWO-LP SET FROM ELEMENTAL MUSIC ON MAY 9By: Tracking Angle
(Press Release): Art Pepper An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert, a blazing, previously unreleased live recording by the great alto saxophonist captured at the titular 1980 festival in Norway, will be issued LP on May 9 by Elemental Music.Co-produced by Zev Feldman, the award-winning “Jazz Detective,” and Elemental partner Jordi Soley, the hard-hitting 1980 quartet date features Pepper, then in the middle of a late-career renaissance, backed sympathetically... Read More
March 14th, 2025
David Murray Impulse! Records Debut Announced For April 25th Release PRESENTED BY THE BIRDSONG PROJECT, 'BIRDLY SERENADE" INCLUDES A COLLECTION OF EIGHT ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONSBy: Tracking Angle
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
March 14th, 2025
Black Sabbath "Paranoid" and Alice Cooper's "Love it To Death" Next Two Rhino High Fidelity Reissues clearly the harder rock stuff works well for Rhino High FidelityBy: Tracking Angle
(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
March 12th, 2025
Grateful Dead "Enjoying the Ride" Limited Edition 60 CD Boxed Set Announced Today Available Exclusively From Dead.net On May 30 ( "The Music Never Stopped" 3 CD, 6 LP set also announced)By: Tracking Angle
(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
March 5th, 2025
A New York Times Story Today Dubs Chad Kassem "The Wizard of Vinyl" some of the commenters sound as if they'd sing "The devil came from Kansas" if they had the taste to know Procol HarumBy: Michael Fremer
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
March 3rd, 2025
The Rise of High Moon Records a boutique reissue record label you may not have heard ofBy: Harvey Kubernik
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.
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