The original five Chick Corea Elektric Band albums are currently back and streaming on all platforms, and as of December 1st The Complete Studio Recordings 1986-1991, a limited edition 5 album box, has been available via Candid Records. The 10 LP disc box set presents the albums in gatefold jackets, with printed inner sleeves, and restored artwork, in a deluxe slipcase. It also includes an envelope of reproduced removable memorabilia from Chick’s private archive.... Read More

“Say hello to Caelan Cardello,” Rufus Reid, whose voice sounds about as deep as his upright bass, announces midway through the first side of this album. Hello, Caelan! And congratulations!This wonderful LP, the first that Cardello has recorded, arrived a few months ago and has been in regular rotation, as the saying goes, on my TechDas Air Force Zero. Hand-delivered to me in Washington, DC by Michael Fremer--the proprietor of this website, veteran audio reviewer and... Read More

We are all products of the times in which we live, to one degree or another, though some people transcend time. Listening to John Prine's 1971 debut album makes clear that he was at that time a product of it. If you want to understand the "zeitgeist of that time using music as your guide, this album is a good a place to start. Prine opens with an obvious song about weed but younger listeners might not get the Hoffman reference. "Spanish Pipedream"... Read More

Chicago, IL 12/12/2023 – Music Hall, the well-known audio brand recognized for offering high-quality yet affordable audio components and turntables, announces a change in ownership. Turntable USA, a new venture led by industry veterans James Davis, Norbert Schmied, and Jonathan Derda, has acquired the Music Hall brand. This transition secures Music Hall's mission started by founder Roy Hall, delivering high-quality audio to music lovers at fair prices. Roy Hall... Read More

Producer Nesuhi Ertegun suggested to Charles Mingus that he record a blues album. Obviously not a "my woman done up and left me" kind of "woe is me" blues album, but rather one that plied the dark, turbulent but often joyful waters in which Mingus navigated.In one interview with Ertegun Mingus said, “What I’m trying to play is very difficult, because I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason why it’s difficult — it’s not difficult to... Read More

Backed by the all-star rhythm section of drummer Johnathan Blake, bassist Joe Martin and veteran pianist Kenny Barron, saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh steps up to the microphone and puts to analog tape his finest, most fully realized recorded musical performances. The quartet meshes as if it's been touring all year.The album title and title track as well as the cover and rear photos telegraph that what you'll be hearing is strictly "old school" straight... Read More

Author and Beatles historian Kenneth Womack releases the first of two volumes centered around the life of Beatles manager Mal Evans

Just in time for the holidays, A Lovesome Thing—pianist Geri Allen and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel playing duets at the Philharmonie de Paris on Sept. 5, 2012, for nearly an hour, five tunes, mainly standards, unrehearsed—is a welcome and ravishing balm.The two had played together just once before—the previous July, when Allen briefly sat in with Rosenwinkel’s quartet at the Jazz Standard—and never together as a duo. Yet they make a perfect fit, Allen’s lush chords,... Read More

In the autumn of 1973, I walked into an audio store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, intending to buy an album. As I entered the store, I could hear James Taylor's music playing from a pair of Rogers LS3/5A loudspeakers. At that time, I owned a Marantz 1060 and AR 3a loudspeakers that I had used during my college days in Boulder, Colorado. I was instantly captivated by the sound that day, and this singular moment initiated me on a lifelong pursuit to experience those... Read More

September 3rd marked the 20th anniversary of the physical passing of Johnny Cash due to complications from diabetes. Several events and products acknowledge his ongoing legacy. A new live experience starring Johnny Cash launched in October. Johnny Cash — The Official Concert Experience brings songs and stories from the Man in Black to the stage in a new way, using video performances, words, and stories from his ABC series The Johnny Cash Show, backed by a live band... Read More

Bunny Wailer (1947-2021) was born Neville O'Riley Livingston in Kingston, Jamaica. At age eight he moved to the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish where he met Bob Marley. The two boys were raised by single parents and when Bunny's father, "Toddy" Livingston fell in love with Bob's mother, Cedella, the two adults moved back to Kingston, with Bunny and Bob being raised together.The WailersIn the early 1960's Bob and Bunny were... Read More

Tracking Angle's second and final long form video shot at Capital Audio Festival 2023, November 10-12th begins with a lot of VPI coverage because VPI brought a whole lotta turntables to the show—probably every model currently manufactured. How do they keep tabs on their SKU's?Then it's on to Sikora in the CommandAV room, Genesis Audio Technologies' new "no holds barred" cartridge, Haniwa's new tonearm and super low internal impedance... Read More

The first ever international convention dedicated to disk recording and mastering was held in Halkidiki, Greece, in the summer of 2023. Among those that attended the event was the CEO of the Polygram pressing plant in Greece, one of the mastering engineers from the Columbia facility in the country (the first pressing plant in this region of the world, which started in the 1930s), mastering engineers and the head of mastering from Abbey Road Studios in London, UK, lathe technicians and service engineers from England and the USA, record label executives and mastering engineers from various cutting rooms from around Europe, as well as several people currently involved in manufacturing essential components to keep record cutting lathes around the world in operation.

Sullivan Fortner is best known as singer Cécile McLorin Salvant’s main pianist, but he was dazzling New York jazz aficionados for a few years before that gig materialized, and, like Salvant, he keeps getting better—more imaginative, more ambitious, more open to taking big risks. His latest, Solo Game (Artwork Records), is two very different albums in a single two-CD set. The first, Solo, is an acoustic-piano solo session, covering a wide array of jazz and pop... Read More

It's few and far between for a song by an unknown artist with no label distribution to premiere on television. When “Jar of Hearts” premiered on "So You Think You Can Dance" in June 2010, the stars aligned for Christina Perri. The Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter penned the song amidst a breakup with a former flame, longing to piece together what was no longer salvageable. Its hook-heavy arrangement and universal lyrical sentiment struck a chord in... Read More