What's unusual here is not the big band. James Brown toured and recorded with one throughout his career. "Soul On Top" is an outlier in the Brown catalog because he's backed by a jazz band— Louie Bellson's 18 piece orchestra—with arrangements by Oliver Nelson, who tried to conduct. Only saxophonist Maceo Parker, Jr. from Brown's band The J.B.s came along for the ride.Brown's 28th album, released in 1970 on King Records (KS1100) was... Read More

John WilliamsEven within the context of his catalogue of one classic film score after another, the three films that John Williams scored for the Harry Potter franchise - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - occupy a very special place. But you wouldn’t necessarily have known that to judge from the somewhat parsimonious manner in which the soundtrack scores... Read More

Patricia Barber albums take up a lot of shelf space real estate here. Over the years her many albums have been issued and reissued on vinyl with every reissue sounding better than the previous one, though of course Jim Anderson recorded all of them digitally. Nightclub was recorded to 3348 multi-track and mixed through a Neve analog desk to both digital and analog mix down masters. Anderson said in an email that "....we've always run digital and analogue on... Read More

Frank Kimbrough, who died in December 2020 at the age of 64, was one of the great undersung jazz pianists of our time and an only-belatedly-appreciated composer of much talent as well. (Soon after his death, Newvelle Records assembled 67 musicians, in various ensembles, to play 58 of his pieces, many of which had the ring of standards. The resulting download-only album, "Kimbrough," was one of the best jazz albums of 2021.) Now Palmetto Records, his main... Read More

In Starting a Jamaican Music Collection—Part 1:Ska, we highlighted ska, the first of the big three genres (the others are rock steady and reggae) that made Jamaica famous worldwide. Indeed, this Third World country has carved out a place in 20th century music history that far belies its small size and population. And again, IMO Bob Marley is THE musical artist of the 20th century.Ska, which dominated from around 1960 to 1966, was essentially upbeat and boisterous... Read More

And as a recent perusal of the usual audiophile retail sites reveals, the latest limited edition reissue from ORG (Original Recordings Group) of this unique and spectacular record is very much in stock (even in some cases discounted), and so I felt it was the perfect time, indeed essential, to introduce Tracking Angle readers to this magical record.First, some background.The Mysterious World of Bernard Herrmann was just one of a series of records Bernard Herrmann... Read More

The pianist-composer Marta Sanchez has lived and actively worked in New York since moving here from Madrid in 2011; but, despite four albums as a leader and wide respect from fellow artists, she’s not nearly as well-known as she should be.Her latest album, SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum), on Whirlwind Recordings, available as a CD and as three sides of vinyl (2 LPs, one of them blank on one side), is a stellar display of her talents. She leads a standard jazz... Read More

I'm about to submit to TAS a full review of the new Kuzma Safir 9 tonearm. I thought it useful to post on YouTube an arm overview along with a visual explanation the workings of the unique 4 Point bearing system. It's all in this short video. Read More

In 2019, Hilary Hahn, one of the world’s leading violin virtuosos, announced she would be taking a one-year performing sabbatical. Little did she know, that period of time would see a prolongment of several months due to factors outside of her control. Her triumphant return to the concert hall in the spring of 2021 was an emotional experience for her, and from those first few concert programs back, we now have a new double LP set of recordings, her latest release on... Read More

ECM today announced six new titles available now or coming soon on vinyl. The titles are: Avishai Cohen: Naked Truth (pictured above), Mark Turner: Return from the Stars (available March 25th)—Tord Gustavsen Trio: Opening—John Scofield: John Scofield—Oded Tzur: Isabela—Enrico Rava & Fred Hersch: The Song is You—Within the press release: There is a searching, yearning quality to Naked Truth, and a raw beauty and vulnerability in Avishai Cohen’s trumpet sound on his... Read More

The legendary recording engineer and Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones right hand man, Bruce Swedien, loved Norwegian Electrocompaniet amps so much that they were credited on Michael Jackson's album covers. The company's founder, Per Abrahamsen, passed away before Christmas.

Moving Iron is the Rodney Dangerfield of cartridge technology. It gets no respect. Analog enthusiasts regularly debate “moving coil or moving magnet?” but rarely is moving iron part of the discussion. It’s true that “moving iron” is a type of moving magnet cartridge, but companies that manufacturer them, (Grado, Goldring and Soundsmith are today’s main players, though in the past ADC, Sonus, B&O and probably others did as well) make it a point to distinguish their... Read More

Blue Note Records just announced the upcoming 2023 line-up for the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, produced by "Tone Poet" Joe Harley and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. RTI manufactures the records, which are packaged in deluxe gatefold tip-on jackets. Once again, Harley handpicked the titles, which include include acknowledged treasures from the Blue Note catalog as well as underrated classics, modern era standouts, and albums from... Read More

Last year mastering engineer Kevin Gray built a living room recording studio adjacent to his Cohearent Mastering suite. He's been working on an all-analog recording chain to go with it and now he's ready in this video to show it off. (Photo: L-R: Audio-Fidelity/DCC Compact Classics founder Marshall Blonstein, Fremer, Kevin Gray at Cohearent mastering session for TRON soundtrack album.) Read More

Might I interest you in a solo bass album? I hope so. Bassist Rick Rosato has been living in New York City since 2007 and touring worldwide (he's featured on vibraphonist Joel Ross' 2022 double LP The Parable of The Poet and on many other records). Then Covid hit and like many other musicians he found himself without gigs and spending a lot of time at home.For his first album as leader, Rosato decided to go solo, inspired by his home alone pandemic... Read More

Technics couldn’t have better timed its 2015 re-entry into the audio enthusiast turntable market. Interest in vinyl took off that year, growing 30% from around 9 million sold in 2014 to 12 million in 2015. Skeptics and naysayers credited Adele and Taylor Swift for that year’s boost but each year since, and without a “big” record, sales continued growing until in 2021, unit sales, not just dollar sales surpassed those of CDs. Vinyl was victorious. Sales grew 22% in the... Read More