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Michael Rabinowitz, Uncharted Waters. Cats Paw Records, CPD-9855, CD $20 at https://www.jazzbassoonist.com/shop As a high-end audio importer and distributor, part of my job is to sit down and evaluate new products so that I can answer questions from dealers, retail customers, and the press. Yesterday I was doing exactly that, comparing a new entry-level digital... Read More »

In this column, republished from his blog site, John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com) shares his six pack of choices for a seven-league-boots traversal of 1000 years of Western Music. The full selections would take about an hour. List-making is inherent to all passionate pursuits of excellence. Music, films, cars, cigars, wine, books, sporting events...just about... Read More »

Lotus: Complete Edition, Santana (Photo: Sony Music Japan) Sony Music Japan will be celebrating Santana's upcoming concerts in Japan from April 22 to April 27, 2017 in a big way with the release of a new Complete Edition of the band's legendary Lotus album in DSD 11.2 MHz stereo (also known as DSD 256 or Quad DSD),... Read More »

Soundtrack:  The great patron of classical music over the past century, nearly...or since the "talkies" arrived, anyway...has been the voracious maw of the film industry. Better than any capricious emperor, king, duke, or philanthropist, Hollywood et al. has been a grand footer-of-bills for many decades now. Some of the results have been schlock, but some of... Read More »

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations. In a slight variation of sorts, and at the risk of foregoing a bit of diversity, for Part 3, I elected to pit back-to-back two selections sharing a common thread between them. 21. Buzz Brass, Mélanie Barney, The Planets. Fidelio Music Inc. FALP028 (2012), (2x45 rpm). Genre: classical, modern... Read More »

Elgar, Symphony No. 2. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Onyx 4165. Elgar, Elgar, Elgar. What do American music lovers make of Elgar? Probably what the English make of Samuel Barber and of Copland's ballets. Each of our cultures has its romanticism and it is generally in our romanticisms that our cultures make their most characteristic, not... Read More »

Doug Munro and La Pompe Attack, The Harry Warren Songbook (GotMusic Records, GMR-1004, available at http://www.dougmunro.com, $15.99 CD) My first trip to an honest-to-goodness high-end audio store, one where I planned on making an actual purchase, happened way back in 1989 in downtown Philadelphia. (I lived there for almost a year, which now seems strange.) I... Read More »

Music@Menlo 'Live,' 2016 "Russian Reflections" . (8 discs), available separately or as a box set. www. musicatmenlo.org. If you share Music@Menlo's enthusiasm for nineteenth century music, this latest edition of their annual set of (summer 2016) festival recordings will please you. It features a large group of minor and minor major Russian composers (plus Tchaikovsky... Read More »

Tinariwen, Elwan (ANTI- 87467-1, 2-LP set $19.98 through Amazon) Reviewing contemporary music is often merely a matter of describing a hybrid. "Their music is a cross between Gwar and the first three Partridge Family LPs." "This latest album blends grindcore and dubstep with Texas swing." You can communicate the essence of a performer by mentioning two... Read More »

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations. Here is the second 10 of his Top 500 SuperSonic List... 11. Carole King,Tapestry. Ode Records. SP 77009 (1971), MoFi, MFSL 1-414 (2013), 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: pop, soft rock, acoustic folk, jazzy overtones Throughout the 1960s Carole King and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin wrote a ton of hits... Read More »

Our audio compadre John Marks herein rightly brings to our attention Abraham Lincoln's deep affection for opera and the stage. He was assassinated, after all, at Ford's Theater in April of 1865, much to the grief and anger of the narrow-minded pietists and pharisees of his generation. Lincoln considered the theater and opera to be... Read More »

Eclipse: Chamber Music of Mischa Zupko. Wendy Warner, cello. Sang Me Lee, violin. Mischa Zupko, piano. Cedille CDR 90000168. Calling someone a "Chicago composer" as Cedille Records often does is probably not doing him a favor. It suggests limitations, local heroes. The fact is, in the case of Mischa Zupko (and cellist Wendy Warner who... Read More »

Back in the '80s, when I was in college, I tried very hard to get into jazz. Many of my music-loving friends had already discovered it, and they constantly told me that if I found the right entry point I would totally dig it. I tried and I tried but I just couldn't find the... Read More »

Remasters 2016 vol. 1 | vol. 3 | vol. 4 | vol. 24 | vol. 54 | vol. 63 COMPACT DISC | LONG PLAY Warner Music Poland sp. z o.o. Wytwórnia Polskie Nagrania [email protected] polskienagrania.com.pl  warnermusic.pl  The third meeting of High Fidelity readers with Polish Jazz Remasters (the so-called second "six", as the record label decided to launch... Read More »

The National's sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, continues the Brooklyn-based band's streak of melancholy mellow, indie rock. It's reminiscent of the rhythms and monotone vocals of Joy Division and with the suffer-in-silence-like lyrics of The Smiths. "Don't Swallow The Cap" and "Graceless" are dead ringers for Joy Division songs. Singer Matt Berninger and band... Read More »

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations. Here is the first 10 of his Top 500 SuperSonic List... "This is a journey into sound. A journey which along the way will bring to you new colour, new dimension, new value..." What better way to introduce this new long term project than to quote Geoffrey... Read More »

Very nearly too late, we publish a pair of reviews by God rest ye merry, gentleman, John Marks. He takes us through a set of gift recommendations on this twelfth-like day of Christmas, with worthy recordings suitable for bringing glad tidings of good cheer throughout this new year. Like the wise men who came to... Read More »

GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (rev. Grieg and Grainger)*; Piano Concerto in B minor (fragments); EVJU: Piano Concerto in B minor (on fragments by Grieg)*; GRIEG: Two Songs (trans. Evju for solo piano). Carl Petersson, piano; *Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra/Kerry Stratton Grand Piano GP 689.  TT: 56.35 Downloads: prestoclassical.co.uk (320-kbps mp3, FLAC);... Read More »

Serge Prokofiev, Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1. Nos 2, 6, and 8. Alexander Melnikov, Harmonia Mundi HMC 902202. For those of us who find early twentieth century modernism one of the pinnacles, Prokofiev's piano concertos and piano sonatas are among its richest assets. What I have always found especially attractive in this music is a sense... Read More »