As expected right about now, the Record Store Day 2024 list is officially out. Amidst the usual gimmicks and barrel-scraping—the 371st reissue of Rumours, 3” Beatles records, or zoetrope picture discs of George Harrison, Blur, T. Rex, and Dio—is a solid smattering of releases sure to lure the RSD-jaded back into the Saturday morning line. This year it’s on April 20; I plan to line up for the first time since 2020. It'll be interesting to see if any specific... Read More

Continuing our coverage of this marvelous box set which gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 2 I review in more detail the discs contained in this timely reissue. (You can read Part 1 here, where I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context).

This marvelous box set gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 1 I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context.  In Part 2, I review the contents of this timely reissue.

Rhino celebrates the 30th anniversary of Tina Turner's classic album "What's Love Got to Do With It" with a multi-format release including a 4 CD/1 DVD boxed set that includes the original album remastered on CD1, a collection of edits, remixes and acapella on CD2, and on CD3 and CD4 Turner’s 1993 Blockbuster Pavilion live show remastered plus the live performance on the DVD along with three music videos. The boxed set also includes a poster and a... Read More

Let's go directly to the sound because to wring something new from the music, especially to this audience, is a time waster. Play a half-dozen editions of Crosby, Stills & Nash and you'll hear six wildly different sonic presentations. Which is "correct"? There's no "artists intent" on this one, there are just different takes depending upon who's doing the mastering and pressing—and even then there are wild variations.... Read More

The new TechDAS Air Force 10 air bearing pivoted tonearm had its North American debut this past weekend, February 9th and 10th at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica, California. Store owner Maier Shadi's organization is also the North American TechDAS distributor. The two day event brought to the store customers from around the country and featured from Japan TechDAS International Sales executive Motofumi Hirata, Tsutomu Horikawa, the new Stella, Inc.CEO and Hajime... Read More

In his annotation for this 1969 Milestone release, Down Beat writer Alan Heineman makes a good case for why back then (and perhaps even now), the late Joe Henderson, whose sound, both sweet and gruff is instantly recognizable, was an underrated tenor saxophonist. No matter the reasons then, today he's far better appreciated as a leader and sideman on Blue Note albums (leader on five including Inner Urge, sideman on more than two dozen including Larry Young's... Read More

DS Audio importer Musical Surroundings today announced the debut at next week's Florida Audio Exp of the new "Master 3" set featuring the new Master 3 optical cartridge ($9500) featuring a Microridge stylus bonded to a unique square-section diamond cantilever. The new $18,000 Master 3 equalizer is a 50+ pound single box version of the Grand Master EQ featuring both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR outputs.The new Master 3 cartridge features Independent... Read More

AVM’s Ovation PH 8.3 vacuum tube-based phono preamplifier is among the most versatile, useful, and well-conceived phono preamps I’ve yet encountered. How’s that for an opening paragraph? As with all models in the Ovation 8 series, the PH 8.3’s output stage uses a matched pair of AVM’s 803T tube, which is a 12AX7, modified per AVM’s specifications, that helps produce, according to the company, “an unmistakably charming tube sound”. BTW "AVM" stands for Audio... Read More

Transitioning from the ‘70s to the ‘80s wasn’t easy for Ozzy Osbourne. The Birmingham-born vocalist found himself without a band when the members of Black Sabbath ousted him due to his heightened substance issues. Stuck in a drug-and-booze haze for three months at a Los Angeles hotel, salvation came in the form of his manager and future wife, Sharon Arden, who encouraged Osbourne to pursue a solo career. The impact of his first two solo albums, Blizzard of Ozz and... Read More

This surprise announcement found this morning in the Tracking Angle inbox. Mastered by Ryan K. Smith from the original tape at Sterling Sound. Includes a 12" x 12" 12-page booklet featuring liner notes by Ashley Kahn and recording session images by Jim Marshall.Happy Valentine's Day. Pre-order here. Read More

February 7th—Blue Note Records today announced a March 29 release of Sonny Rollins A Night at the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters, a special Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of the legendary saxophonist’s tour-de-force live trio album. The expanded 3-LP set, which can be pre-ordered now on the Blue Note Store, marks the first time Rollins’ complete recorded performances at the Village Vanguard on November 3, 1957 will be made available in a single vinyl package. The... Read More

The story behind this "forgotten" release and re-release is interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the music, which is a refreshing turn in a world of "undiscovered gems" that often turn out to be undiscovered for good reasons and not gems at all. Downbeat critic Ira Gitler gave Matador a well-deserved very positive review when it was first released in 1963 (Dorham was also for a time late in his life a Downbeat critic). Two things... Read More

TechDAS showed a prototype of its new air bearing pivoted tonearm at Munich High End 2023. It's now a finished product that will have its North American launch at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica this Friday, and Saturday February 9th and 10th.In addition to the TechDAS team, Supersense's Florian "Doc" Caps will be there, most likely to play some of his lacquer releases, Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath will be there as well to extoll the virtues... Read More

In a recently published New York Times piece titled "The Worst Masterpiece: 'Rhapsody In Blue at 100" the pianist/composer Ethan Iverson pilloried the popular Gershwin piece as "naïve and corny"—and those were among the nicer things he wrote about it. The online comments are worth reading but one published letter is wroth quoting here: "By calling the work 'the best cheesecake,' Mr. Iverson aligns himself with a long line of... Read More

Mastering engineer Chris Bellman has an impressive catalog of records he's mastered over the decades working at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood California. Bellman regularly cuts records for Neil Young among many other recording greats. Bellman talks about cutting Tom Petty's "Wildflowers" from analog tape for the first time and discusses with me general cutting issues such as sibilants and how he deals with them. The two discuss the great... Read More