Thought I'd get the list up now otherwise it might slide to mid-May. Started the month by going up to NYC to attend the NY Audio Show. Like a case of malaria that recurs from time to time, audiophilia brings on recurrent bouts of "upgrade-itis," which leaves its victim dazed and confused. One heads to these shows hoping to find the perfect amp, speaker, turntable, whatever. One returns utterly flummoxed. Nevertheless, it was rather fun, and on the way back, I was able to stop at PREX, which had a pretty good stock of jazz LPs, and literally many, many thousands of cheap CDs! I ran out of time before I could get through it all. As you will see below, I did pick up some Japanese pressings, for which I have a preference.
1) PARANOID- Black Sabbath- NEMS LP.
2) SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH - Black Sabbath- NEMS LP.
3) THE BAY - ROVA and Andrea Centazzo - Ictus LP. Lovely analogue
4) SOMETHIN' ELSE - Cannonball Adderley- Blue Note LP. Working man's KOB.
5) BRUDER BREDA - Trespass Trio- Clean Feed CD. Strong.
6) SKY BURIAL- Matt Bauder, Peter Evans, Nate Wooley -5049 Records CD
7) ONE FOUR AND TWO TWOS - John Stevens, Paul Rutherford, Evan Parker, Barry Guy. Great stullf. I always like hearing Parker play with Stevens, who with Bailey, were really his mentors. Emanem CD.
8) MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS - Mingus of course! - Impulse/Speakers Corner LP. Fantastic analogue quality.
9) PETIT OISEAU - William Parker Quartet - Aum Fidelity 2LP.
10) ANITA O'DAY AT MR. KELLY'S - Verve/Polygram Japan.
11) THE BLACK SAINT AND THE SINNER LADY - Mingus - Impulse/Analogue Productions 2LP 45rpm. Killer sound.
12) MOONDANCE- Van Morrison- RTI 180g reissue LP, sound quality is really good but maybe not quite up there with the Astral Weeks album.
13) THE INTREPID- LIVE IN POLAND - Jemeel Moondoc Quartet- PolJazz LP.
14) HARMONIUM and THE KLINGHOFFER CHORUSES - John Adams, comp. SF Symphony and Chorus, John Adams, cond; and, Orch. Opera Lyons, Kent Nagano, cond.
15) COMPOSITIONS - Globe Unity - JAPO LP.
16) ACTING TRIO - Philipe Mate (tenor sax), Andre Maurice (cello), J-P Sabar (piano). Don't know who these guys were/are but they put on a pretty exciting show. BYG LP.
17) ONE LONG MINUTE - John Tchicai's Five Points - Nu Bop CD.
18) 2ND PIANO CONCERTO - Gina Bachauer, piano. LSO, Skrowaczewski, cond. Mercury Living Presence LP. Excellent performance.
19) FRESH CREAM - Clapton, Bruce, Baker. Atco LP. Tasty.
20) INNER SPACE - Corea, Joe Farrell, Woody Shaw, Steve Swallow, Joe Chambers. Atlantic 2LP. Surprisingly, pretty good.
21) PRETTY MONSTERS - Katharine Young (quartet) - Public Eyesore CD. Great stuff!
22) GIMME SOME LOVIN' - The Spencer Davis Group - UA LP.
23) BIRTHMARK - Lotte Anker trio. Clean Feed CD. Glad to see another Anker album.
24) VIOLIN CONCERTOS- Brahms, Stravinsky - Hilary Hahn, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner, cond. Not a grouping one might expect, but worth hearing Hahn's handling of the Stravinsky.
25) MIGHTY LIGHTS - Jane Ira Bloom, Fred Hersch, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell. Enja CD.
26) THE MARMALADE KING - Gerry Hemingway quintet, Michael Moore, Walter Wierbos et al. hat Jazz Series. Excellent.
27) SKETCHES OF TOKYO - John Hicks & David Murray. DIW LP.
28) RECORDING NYC 1986 - David Murray, James Blood Ulmer, Fred Hopkins, Sunny Murray. DIW LP. Neve seen this one before, turns out to be very good indeed.
29) MILES IN TOKYO - Miles, Rivers, Hancock, Carter, Williams. Sony Japan LP. Had to get this performance on LP.
30) EVOLUTION: Teddy Charles Quintet, with Giuffre, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Curtis Counce. Side 2: New Directions Qt: Monterose, Mingus, et al. Victor Japan LP.
31) MINGUS - Mingus Dolphy, Knepper, Ervin, Curson...Candid/Base (Italy) LP. Excellent acoustic.
32) EAST COASTING: Mingus, Knepper, Hadi, Bill Evans on piano (wow), et al. Bethlehem/Get Back LP. Just wanted this one on LP, and this more than fits the bill.
33) LET 'EM ROLL - John Patton, Grant Green et al. Blue Note LP.
34) CAPUCHIN SWING - Jackie McLean. Blue Note-Toshiba Japan LP. Did not have this Jackie Mac on LP, and I love these Japanese pressings.
35) SHIFT IN THE WIND - Peacock, Art Lande, Eliot Zigmund. ECM LP. Very nice.
36) THE WIDE POINT - Mangelsdorff, Palle Danielson, and Elvin Jones (!). MPS-BASF LP. Nicely done.
37) OLD AND NEW DREAMS: Cherry, Redman, Haden, Blackwell. ECM LP.
38) OLD AND NEW DREAMS: These guys were not real big on interesting titles. This one on Black Saint LP.
39) THE JEWEL IN THE LOTUS - Bennie Maupin. ECM LP.
40) BOBBY JASPAR - eponymous - with Idrees Sulieman, Geo. Wallington, Wilbur Little, Elvin Jones. Riverside/Victor Japan LP. French sax player.
41) MAX - Max Roach, Mobley, Dorham, et al. Chess/Teichiku Records, Japan LP.
42) SVIATOSLAV RICHTER RECITAL - Richter plays Schubert, Chopin, Liszt. DGG LP.
43) CARRYIN' ON - Grant Green. Blue Note LP.
44) SONNY ROLLINS IN JAPAN - eponymous. Victor Japan LP.
45) FROM TIME TO TIME FREE - Joachim Kuhn, Humair, Jenny-Clark. CMP LP. Nice.
46) VIOLIN CONCERTO & CELLO CONCERTO - Hugh Wood, comp, Manoug Parikian (vn), Moray Welsh (cello), Royal Liverpool Phil Orch, David Atherton, cond. Little known but quite fine music. Picked it up years ago in a bunch of English LPs. I know it's beside the point, but the sonics on this are ridiculous - in a great sort of way. Massive dynamics. On the Unicorn label, which I think is pretty rare- they knew how to make LPs.
47) SYMPHONY No. 10 and KINDERTOTENLIEDER. Mahler, comp. NY Phil, Bernstein, Janet Baker. Columbia LP (mono).
48) DEVOTION - John McLaughlin w/Buddy Miles, Larry Young. OAO/Celluloid LP. Kick ass LP.
49) TEN - Pearl Jam - Epic/Legacy LP.
50) TONIGHT AT NOON - Mingus- Atlantic LP.
51) TIDAL - Fiona Apple - Sony CD.
52) LES VIOLENCES DE RAMEAU - Louis Sclavis Sextet. ECM CD. Mixes everything from Rameau to Weather Report to free jazz- sounds like a hot mess but comes out quite well.
53) LIVE AT VISIONES- technically Lars Danielson's album (bass player), but really belongs to Dave Liebman. Bobo Stenson on piano. It's good.
54) SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE - Berlioz. Tison Thomas, SF Symphone. RCA CD. Meh.
55) UNDERTHRU - Joe Morris Quartet, with Matt Maneri, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver. Omnitone CD. Who knew?!
56) BOUND - Cuong Vu, Jamie Saft, Stomu Takeishi, Jim Black. Omnitone CD. Vu sings, not a good idea (could be worse), but the playing is good, and Jim Black is a monster on the drums.
57) LIKE OLD TIMES - Mal Waldron - Jackie McLean. Victor Japan LP. Jackie did a number of these "old pal" albums but I've never seen this one before. I don't think it was released in the U.S. Since it's for the Japanese market, it's going to be more mainstream, but the playing is still fine, and Jackie plays just great on Side 2.
58) THELONIUS IN ACTION - AT THE FIVE SPOT CAFE- Monk, Johnny Griffin, Roy Haynes. Riverside/Victor Japan LP.
59) LET IT BLEED - Rolling Stones - London LP.
60) LIVE AT THE ASCENSION LOFT - Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. Delmark CD.
61) ADA-OTO - PNL, Pat Thomas, Lonberg Holm, Brotzmann. (Bro??) CD. Let's end this list with a totally kick-ass album.
What was your favorite at the audio show?
ReplyDeleteI tended to disregard speakers, amps or TTs with enormous price tags, so keep that in mind. I really liked the Marten "Form Floor" (what a name) speaker driven by EAR preamp and amp. Cheapest speaker in the Marten line but really good. Also liked the Raidho "X Monitor." Maybe my favorite was the MAD "Baron" speaker powered by a fabulous Allnic tube integrated amp. Check out the MAD 1920 speaker also. As always, loved the Audio Notes. Peter Qvortrup, the owner of AN, was there, Great fellow but very wacky. Insisted on playing some weird industrial stuff at full volume, effectively clearing the room. Did prove that the AN-E speakers could deal with super-heavy bass material, I guess. I was pleasantly stunned by the Spendor SP 100s, huge wooden boxes right out of the 70s in appearance, but they handled everything thrown at them with utter facility- classical, pop, rock. People were challenging the Spendor guys to play harder material, so on went AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, etc. Sounded great. $12,000.
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