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Know What I Mean? Adderley, Evans, et.al. Shoot-Out

February 23, 2025 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Know What I Mean? Adderley, Evans, et.al. Shoot-Out   This album, featuring Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, is considered one of the best older jazz records available, both musically and sonically. I am not going to delve into the history or importance of the album since it has received considerable attention from the date of its release in 1962. Instead, we will devote time to comparing three accessible copies: OJC-1984 Side 1 First up, the common OJC from the mid-‘80s. I used to be able to find records in this series new for less than ten bucks at places like Tower; these were... Read More

Filed Under: Features

Beer Budget Digital for Analog Buffs

February 23, 2025 by Bill Hart 1 Comment

Beer Budget Digital for Analog Buffs  I finally broke down several years ago and added some digital “front-end” components to my main system. I’ve never invested heavily in digital gear given that my mainstay format has long been LP. I’ve been buying vinyl records for almost 60 years- and have barely scratched the surface. If all production of the LP stopped tomorrow, I’d still have access to millions of existing records in circulation. But I first learned the value of digital in the archival world, where I heard ancient recordings brought back to life. And for both work and... Read More

Filed Under: Features

Pharoah Sanders-Black Unity

August 13, 2024 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Pharoah Sanders -Black Unity That a vinyl LP is essentially one long, continuous groove is probably nowhere more evident than listening to Pharoah Sanders’ Black Unity. This album was recorded and released during the peak of his creative power with a cast of ensemble players that are notable for their work in the avant-garde/free jazz space. There’s a whole lotta music packed into these grooves and trying to make sense of this album is not to listen in studied fashion—better to absorb it as a whole than to concentrate on its parts or look for some over-arching theme. The music is... Read More

Filed Under: Features

Muriel Grossmann- Devotion

June 24, 2024 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Muriel Grossmann Devotion I’m a fan of Muriel Grossmann, though I have yet to meet her. She lives and works in Ibiza, which sounds like a constant party, but this woman is always working, striving, and challenging herself. Her newest release is another notch in her ascent as an important artist committed to modern spiritual jazz. The album, pressed at Third Man Records (nice clean, well-made wax), played flawlessly. This is the first album with Abel Boquera on Hammond B3. Side I “Absolute Truth”— takes the entirety of side one, some spacy sounds which are soon joined by a regular... Read More

Filed Under: Features

Drumming with Dead Can Dance: and Parallel Adventures- Peter Ulrich

March 25, 2024 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

  Drumming with Dead Can Dance: and Parallel Adventures Peter Ulrich   I didn’t really get on to Dead Can Dance until “Into the Labyrinth,” their most popular LP that made the audiophile rounds here in the States. 4AD, their label, wasn’t well distributed in the US when the band was first developing, it wasn’t exactly mainstream stuff here, even in the audiophile community. Yet the band had a following, starting in Australia, where Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had a band and moved to a council flat in London where the two met our narrator, a soon to be jobless publicist... Read More

Filed Under: Features, In Brief

What’s Happenin’ Now

January 29, 2023 by Bill Hart 2 Comments

  Sorry I’ve been absent. I’ve done some interesting research into music commissioned for the earliest days of television, and just resumed teaching again. I’m also thinking of going back to school to learn archival  practices and preservation among other things. I’m reading about the history of Dead Can Dance, and it is fascinating. More soon on that and other things. You should go out and buy: Katanga! Tone Poet Bobby Hamilton -Dream Queen- cut from tape and mastered by the notorious Bernie G. More soon, Bill  ... Read More

Filed Under: Features

GEARBOX RECORDS- The Future of Analog? INTERVIEW with Darrel Sheinman

May 5, 2022 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Professional record studio showing table, systems, lights

Those of us who have been spinning records for a while have had an interesting ride in the last few decades: first was the Death of Vinyl™ as record stores cleared out LP inventory to be replaced with racks of CDs. Many of us learned more about older records at that point, including pressings, plants and source material. Although a few labels kept the candle lit, more and more records were being sourced from digital files; in the reissue market, a lot of those, to the extent they were even marketed in the US, sounded markedly different than their analog predecessors. With the resurgence... Read More

Filed Under: Features

Listening- A Longer (and Wider) View

January 21, 2022 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

 Listening- A Longer (and Wider) View This site does not attempt to capture the latest LP releases and reissues; I think the legacy press and audiophile sites do a more than adequate job on those fronts. Although we have sifted through some labels of historic significance (Island “Pink”; Vertigo “Swirl” and Warner “Green”), most of the music-related pieces here are more random and driven largely by my own interests—from early “heavy” rock (now recategorized as “proto-metal”) to spiritual and soul jazz.  Yes, there have been a few deep dives into things like blues... Read More

Filed Under: Features

DRIFTGLASS by Seed Ensemble

March 2, 2021 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

DRIFTGLASS by Seed Ensemble There is something very special about Driftglass by Seed Ensemble. For starters, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to listen to; when did you last experience that?  The album and ensemble are the brainchild of Cassie Kinoshi, a gifted performer, composer and arranger who leads a big band with a big sound and an eclectic, and sometimes unexpected, array of influences. What starts as a thrumming bass solo soon morphs into a stage full of instruments that mixes the avant-garde with something that resembles a James Bond film theme from the ‘60s—it’s cool stuff,... Read More

Filed Under: Features

Fuzzy Duck- self titled (Be With Reissue)

November 14, 2020 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Fuzzy Duck- self titled (Be With Reissue)   Fuzzy Duck’s eponymous album is relatively obscure- it didn’t sell much at the time of release, with a limited pressing run and the group disbanded. But instead of fading into complete obscurity, the album enjoys a cult following with prices to match. Be With Records, the same outfit that did such a good job reissuing the Air album with Googie Coppola, just released this reissue, attainable by mere mortals for the cost of 4 lattes.  It’s well worth the cost. What you’ll hear is a UK psych hard rock band in top form circa 1971, with... Read More

Filed Under: Features

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In Brief:

Incoming- Mrs. Henry Keep on Rising

Mrs. Henry Keep on Rising   A 21st century rock opera? Recorded to tape? And mastered at Bernie Grundman’s shop? I’ve started to explore this box (3 LPs, 2 CDs and a substantial book) in more depth and plan on interviewing the producer in an upcoming piece. … [Read More...]

Power to the People-Back Up Generator

    Shortly after the Texas "big freeze" in February 2021, I contacted various vendors of back up generators. Some did not bother to respond, a few came out, ostensibly to give me a quote and I never heard from them again. One vendor did send me a blank form with a very high total price, without completing the cost analysis for running gas lines, electrical wiring and the other things that are "adds" to the cost of the generator itself.  I kicked this around for a while-- given the heat in Central Texas during the summer--110F for days on end, we got constant warnings last summer (2023) to reduce power consumption, lest we suffer rolling blackouts. And then there's the fact that Austin really isn't "built" for freezing temperatures. Black ice with no road crews, downed power lines, and demand that teeters off the edge of power failure catastrophe. I do not want to go into the power grid … [Read More...]

Incoming-Know what I mean?

Cannonball Adderley's "Know what I mean? is a warhorse, to be sure,but one that deserves its reputation. I was prompted to explore a few different pressings as a result of a thread on the Hoffman forum: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/do-you-have-cannonball-adderley-bill-evans-know-what-i-mean-the-best-sounding-vintage-jazz-lp.1175660/  I used to shop these OJCs as bargains back in the day when Tower Records was thriving. They were a solid entry point into some very good sounding jazz--some of it "straight ahead" but well made, taken from analog masters for the most part and did I say cheap? Back in the day, these were bargain records when they were released, and until the more recent surge in prices of older LPs, could be readily found for little money.  The recent Craft reissue cut by Kevin Gray has brought renewed attention to the record. I thought it might be fun to do a … [Read More...]

We’re Back!

We’re Back! Some fresh content for your consideration. Neil Antin did some modest updates to his seminal book on Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records. Neil did not regard these changes as a “new version” so the download is now 3.1 with a “Record of Changes” at the end. I’ve talked to Peter Ulrich, the drummer from Dead Can Dance a few times over the years because I was fascinated by the group. They hit it big in audiophile circles with “Into the Labyrinth” which became a “demo” record with the MoFi release. I got that, but also sought out an original 4AD pressing, and as I delved into their music, bought more original copies- they were not crazy expensive at the time. When Peter told me he was doing a book on the history of his involvement with the band, I was eager to read it. It offers some great insight into a period when this band was inventing new sounds in the post-punk … [Read More...]

Drumming with Dead Can Dance: and Parallel Adventures- Peter Ulrich

  Drumming with Dead Can Dance: and Parallel Adventures Peter Ulrich   I didn’t really get on to Dead Can Dance until “Into the Labyrinth,” their most popular LP that made the audiophile rounds here in the States. 4AD, their label, wasn’t well distributed in the US when the band was first developing, it wasn’t exactly mainstream stuff here, even in the audiophile community. Yet the band had a following, starting in Australia, where Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry had a band and moved to a council flat in London where the two met our narrator, a soon to be jobless publicist for a theatrical/live show venue. Ulrich had the time, interest, musical background, and chops as a drummer to become part of their band. So we get the story of DCD from the outset of their adventures in England, playing local venues and developing a following. The scene was a sort of post-punk, … [Read More...]

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