Jerome Sabbagh's latest offering opens with a simmering, slow cooker of a cover of Duke Ellington's groundbreaking "Prelude To A Kiss". Sabbagh takes the ballad at a halting, note by note pace that explores the unique melodic line's contours, while veteran drummer Al Foster does likewise, leaving gaping spaces in between minimalist cymbal and skin hits. Paced so slowly, it startles, then you realize it's actually strongly swinging on Joe... Read More

Patrick Leonard's new "prog rock" extravaganza It All Comes Down to Mood, released at the end of August is now on sale at www.acousticsounds.com, www.elusivedisc.com and at www.musicdirect.com. It's a double LP 180g vinyl set with cover art by Storm, which did DSOTM all those years ago, and features Tony Levin and John Patituchi on bass, plus Martin Barre, Ian Anderson many other greats and of course PL himself is a multi-instrumental keyboard wiz.... Read More

Though not a descendant from grunge’s Seattle headquarters, San Diego’s Stone Temple Pilots was a force to reckon with. Its take on the genre by emphasizing 70s-based hard rock with hints of psychedelia and jazz allowed it to protrude and distinguish itself from masses of flannel. The debut album, 1992’s Core, wove into grunge lore with four hit singles and sales in America alone of over 8 million copies. After its first worldwide tour and a hyped appearance on MTV’s... Read More

Michael Fremer has misplaced his 1974 pressing of Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe (’), so he got a friend to hook him up with a loaner. When we pulled out the dust sleeve: Great googly moogly!“Rick, I’m tierd [sic] of you putting me down all the time. You do’nt [sic] know how much you hurt me,” begins a ballpointed breakup screed, from one Nancy. Reader, it’s a rough one: “All I ever here [sic] from you is that I’m fat, and ugly … I’m sick of you calling me a slut … You have... Read More

On June 10th, 2019 Newvelle Records hosted an event at world famous Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey where "reluctant/later bloomer" pianist Billy Lester performed for a small audience of friends, family and press. A film about Lester was also screened. The thumbnail photo is of Newville's co-founder and a pianist himself, Elan Mehler. The jazz label had just issued Lester's album From Scratch on vinyl, with Lester performing in a... Read More

The Technics turntable line-up can be confusing. Lots of models, lots of numbers and superficially they can look identical but they are not! A few days ago at IFA in Berlin, the company launched a variety of products including this new SL-1300G turntable. While it may appear to be a helping of "number salad", it's actually very significant product launch.Simply put, the new $3300 1300G combines the highly evolved ΔΣ Drive motor drive system introduced... Read More

While this is admittedly a simplification, Tone Poet Blue Note releases come in a few basic musical flavors: the "must have" ones that even non-jazz fans know by name, the great ones that when originally released couldn't find an audience but now are more popular and well-appreciated than ever, the head scratcher delayed release ones that have fans wondering how and why the label didn't issue them when originally recorded, and finally the delayed... Read More

Musical Surroundings today announced a MK II upgrade to its world-wide best selling Hana S cartridge series. The Mk II upgrade enhances both the line's musical performance and value. Master cartridge designer Masao Okada implements a new tapered Aluminum cantilever with increased rigidity, resulting in a remarkable improvement transferring groove modulation from vinyl record to the cartridge generator. The S Series Mk II features higher specified parts, advanced... Read More

In 1975, Brian Eno released Discreet Music, his first “conscious” ambient album. On the back cover, he wrote an essay that starts, “Since I have always preferred making plans to executing them, I have gravitated towards situations and systems that, once set into operation, could create music with little or no intervention on my part.” With an accompanying technical graph, he describes side A’s 32-minute title composition—a few looping melodies that alternate in and... Read More

There’s a certain romance about audio and vinyl from Japan. For equipment there is a well-deserved reverence for the build quality and commitment to excellence from the engineers, and for vinyl records we’ve long been fascinated by boutique audiophile pressings from the island nation, particularly I’ve long held a steadfast love for King Records’ “Super Analogue Series” of Decca classical reissues.Classical vinyl reissues from Japan have unfortunately dried up over... Read More

Another event for New York/NJ readers: on Saturday September 14th from 3:00-7:00PM VPI is hosting a charity event to benefit The Tunnel to Towers Foundation (set up following the 9/11 attack to benefit Firefighters and other first responders). The event host is Tracking Angle contributing writer JJ French lead guitarist of Twisted Sister For: Food, Drink, Live Music …and $500,000 of HiFi Gear!Prizes, Raffles and Auctions Event Donation is $20 HiFi Cares will feature a... Read More

If you are in the New York metro area, on September 19th Innovative Audio is hosting an album release party for Patrick Leonard's new album It All Comes Down to Mood. Patrick will be there and following playback of the entire album on the big Wilson Chronosonic XVX speakers Patrick Leonard and I will talk about it's creation, the musicians like Tony Levin, Martin Barre and others who participated and if there's time, Patrick's incredible... Read More

Newvelle's Elan Mehler was kind enough to give Tracking Angle an exclusive on this press release and offer. Since there are but 500 copies pressed, here's the story: The legendary Little Freddie King returns to Newvelle Records with a stripped down - and decidedly different - sound. The blues titan appears here just a few years following his acclaimed release Going Upstairs but now in raw, unadorned form. Paul DeFiglia on upright bass and Bobby Lewis on harp... Read More

High-end audio has a rich history of husband-and-wife teams. In the case of Zesto Audio, head honcho George Counnas designs the circuitry, and his wife Carolyn creates the line's distinctive, unmistakably artsy, curvaceous looks. She also does Zesto's marketing.George’s back story includes being part of a research and development team designing airborne navigational systems for the Royal Air Force and later as a recording engineer, musician, and producer.... Read More

Amongst contemporaries like King Crimson and Genesis, Yes had more than enough going for it to stand out from the crowd. The combination of Jon Anderson’s angelic falsetto and abstract lyrics, Chris Squire’s lead-like bass runs, Steve Howe’s experimental guitar explorations, Rick Wakeman’s classically-inspired keyboard flourishes, and Bill Bruford’s percussive jazz fills encompassed the trappings of progressive rock at its most potent. Yes spent first half of the... Read More