Jim Hall's Concierto is another fantastic jazz guitar album with the all-star lineup of Jim Hall on guitar, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Chet Baker on trumpet, Roland Hanna on piano, Ron Carter on upright bass, and Steve Gadd on drums.
Concierto was recorded for CTI Records at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey in 1975, and is another one of those "must have" jazz guitar records for its superb musical performances and stellar sonics.
Concierto through the Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge made for an intensely beautiful "goosebumps" listening experience, with visceral "they are here" images, a deeply layered and wide soundstage, a big spacious acoustic, and a live-like level of instrumental resolution with tons of tonal and dynamic nuance in evidence.
The Zephyr Mk III's timbral realism, tone color resolution, portrayal of tempo, rhythm, beat, and melody lines were all superb.
Concierto's music through the Zephyr Mk III was so visceral, intensely engaging, and musically dramatic that I had to pause for a moment, regroup, and to double check my perceptions I then decided to give Concierto a listen with my usual Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono.
I'm a big fan of the Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge, but on Concierto it was pretty much a slap-down in the Zephyr Mk III's favor. The Zephyr Mk III had a considerably more visceral presentation of images, the resolution of tonal and dynamic nuance was at a higher level, and tonally it was more timbrally realistic.
The Zephyr Mk III presented the music in a subtly warmer, smoother, more emotively engaging and natural fashion, and when I turned up the volume to live-like SPLs the Zephyr Mk III never lost its composure even slightly, it just made the music sound more present, live-like, and "goosebumpy".
If anything, as the SPLs went up the Zephyr Mk III got even more natural sounding, with horns having the ideal amount of live-like smoothness and vibrancy and lacking unnatural "bite" or forwardness.
Switching back and forth between the Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII and the Zephyr Mk III reminded me of one of those photo shoots where you see the model in pre-photoshoot mode, with no makeup, hairstyling, or other primping finalized (the Ortofon), and then the final photoshoot photos where the model is all decked out and looks like a goddess (the Zephyr Mk III).
The Zephyr Mk III just had a more convincing portrayal of everything that is musically and sonically important than my Ortofon, and I really liked what I was hearing from Concierto in the way it engaged me as a listener at the deepest emotional and artistic levels.
I have never heard Concierto sound this good in my Westminster-based system, and I didn't even know it could sound that good, so I was pretty much blown away by the result.
Another couple of guitarists that I really admire are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and I love their album The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony Records ACNY-1109LP). I really love the cool vintage-instrument musical-vibe Gillian and David get with their 1956 Gibson J-50 guitar, 1925 Vega Whyte Laydie banjo, 1935 Epiphone Olympic archtop, etc., with both Gillian and David contributing vocals, guitar, banjo, and harmonica playing, and with Gillian sprinkling in a little hands & feet percussion as well.
One thing I find particularly intriguing and endearing about Gillian's and David's music, is that while their music is oft' described as a blend of Americana, bluegrass, folk, country, old-time, and roots music, I am particularly drawn to the haunting beauty that their jazz voicings add to the music.
Their background as graduates of the Berklee School of Music (known for educating students in jazz originally, as well as a variety of historic and contemporary styles more recently), is abundantly apparent with their complex and artful incorporation of jazz voicings into their music, which elevates its emotional content & impact to another level, and it gives their dark & jazzy Americana-like ballads an ethereal and almost haunting feel.
Through the new Zephyr Mk III there was incredible resolution of David's crosspicking with a lot of micro-dynamic gradations in melodies that made them particularly interesting to listen to. The same could be said for Gillian's rhythm playing, and you really get a feel for Gillian's big dark chords on the vintage Gibson J-50 providing a steady almost bass-like rhythm to "Scarlet Town".
Gillian's vocals sounded natural and inviting, and the Zephyr Mk III did a great job making the distinction of differing tempos of "Scarlet Town" and "Dark Turn of Mind" (ballad-like) readily apparent, and how the faster-slower tempos contribute to the emotional feel of the two songs.
One of the strengths of the new Zephyr Mk III is that all of the additional musical and sonic subtleties it uncovers are presented so utterly naturally that they greatly enhance the musicality and emotional impact of music.
I struggled a bit to describe exactly what I was hearing from the new Zephyr Mk III on The Harrow & The Harvest, as I could tell it was doing all its sonic and musicality duties superbly, but the way it ties the musicality and sonics together is next level, and presents such a captivating and beautiful version of the music that I couldn't help but feel what I was hearing was what Gillian and David were feeling as they were playing it.
Want to feel that euphoria of what it's like to be an artist playing music and really getting into it?
I think the new Zephyr Mk III delivers that particular feeling of musical euphoria to the listener better than any cartridge I've ever heard.
So perhaps the major strength of the new Zephyr Mk III's is its uncanny ability to convey to the listener of recorded music the feeling of the euphoria a musician experiences when playing an instrument and everything is flowing artistically in the way you want it to while playing, and you're carried away in musical reverie.
Yes, I'm really impressed that the Zephyr Mk III could do this musical magic trick so easily.
Listening to really well recorded albums of great music was really impressive with the new Zephyr Mk III, but I wondered how well it would do on less well-recorded music that was still great music.
I recently picked up the album Louis Armstrong At Town Hall "The Complete Town Hall Concert" 17 May 1947, and my version was the RCA – PM 45374, Jazz Tribune N°43, from France that was released in 1983.
This album documents one of the most important moments in jazz history by marking the turning point when Louis transitioned from being the leader of a big band to playing with friends like Bobby Hackett, Peanuts Hucko, and Jack Teagarden at this Town Hall concert in 1947. Shortly after this performance Louis would depart from big band glory and found a more intimate sextet.
Town Hall was recorded live in 1947 and the tracks sound more like they were recovered from 78rpm records than from a pristine recording using a two- or three-track tape. The good news is that in spite of the lack of recording quality the superb music being played came through with full musicality.
The Zephyr Mk III did not accentuate the recording quality issues in a way that made the music challenging to listen to, rather it seemed to soothe some of the recording quality issues that made the music on the recording completely accessible so I could enjoy this momentous music making event in the fashion it deserved, which I consider to be an unqualified success!
Summary & Conclusions
When I asked Peter Ledermann for a recommendation of a phonograph cartridge that was relatively affordable, that was natural sounding, dimensional, musical, and with a relatively high output so I wouldn't have to use an expensive step-up transformer with it to play music, I realize now that I had no idea of what I was getting into, and that it would ultimately change the way I thought about phonograph cartridges.
There's been a bit of an upset here in my audio life due to listening to Peter Ledermann's new Soundsmith Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge (above).
Up until now my favorite combination of musicality & sonics for a live-like music listening experience has been from my Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge in combination with my bespoke Intact Audio nickel-core monaural step-up transformers.
I was extremely impressed when the new and recently reviewed (HERE) Soundsmith Carmen Mk II phonograph cartridge ($1000 USD) matched the performance of my Ortofon SPU Classic GM MkII stereo phono cartridge plus my bespoke Intact Audio nickel-core monaural step-up transformers, both musically & sonically, and did it at about one-quarter their combined price.
I was completely blown away when the new Soundsmith Zephyr Mk III ($1500 USD) humbled my favored Ortofon & Intact Audio SUT combo so significantly, both musically & sonically, and at about one-third their combined price, to deliver the most alluring live-like musical presentation I've ever heard from my Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers.
I love the way that Peter has voiced the new Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge. The Zephyr Mk III is naturally warm, remarkably musical, sonically excellent, exhibits a vivid musical presence, is dynamically superb, is tonally beautiful, resolve lots of meaningful musical & sonic nuance, exudes a high quality of construction, and is very affordable to rebuild so you can enjoy their charms for the long haul.
I love the fact that I can get this level of performance from a phonograph cartridge without needing a step-up transformer to accomplish it. It's a satisfying and liberating feeling!
I think the new Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge at the heart of your audio system would be a superb choice, and as such I heartily recommend it to you.
If you have the $1500 USD to spend on the Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge for your audio system, I suggest you do, as I predict you will be a very happy music lover with the new Soundsmith Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge at the heart of your music system.
I would like to thank Peter Ledermann for his recommendation and loan of his Soundsmith Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge so I could write about it for you here at Positive Feedback.
As always, thanks for stopping by Positive Feedback to read this article, and may the tone be with you!
Contact Information
You can contact Peter Ledermann to arrange for the purchase of the new Soundsmith Zephyr Mk III phonograph cartridge of your very own HERE.
You can visit the Soundsmith website to learn more about the Zephyr Mk III HERE.
Soundsmith
All images by the author unless otherwise noted.
