Album Reviews

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Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2012  |  0 comments

At first you might think "Can these tracks really have come from the same session that produced A Night in Tunisia?" That’s the claim, so you'd be  expecting the same level of raw intensity, the same Van Gelder generated echoey backdrop and the same sense that this was a “cutting session” for the ages.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2012  |  3 comments

A more pleasant pairing of musical icons you’re not likely to hear and the backing by The Oscar Peterson Trio (Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar plus Buddy Rich on drums) completes the setting. Add a superb monophonic recording and a literally astonishing 45rpm re-mastering that just about brings them all back to life in your listening room and you have something truly special that’s clearly stood the test of (a long!) time.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2012  |  2 comments

The winner is physicist Richard Horton, in Huntsville, Alabama. Yes, a scientist who prefers vinyl! And here are the winning answers:

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  1 comments

Another decade, another reissue of DSOTM, this one using the very fragile original two track master tape, again supervised by James Guthrie. Guthrie had determined that the tape was in fragile shape back in 2003, which is why he opted for a remix in the analog domain. That edition was very good and worth having, especially if you didn't have a very clean early UK pressing, but in retrospect it departs from the original much as the Mo-Fi does: the EQ is a bit much at the frequency extremes, which bleaches out the mids. As for the mix's micro-elements and how close Guthrie came to reproducing the original mix, I have to surrender that to the DTOTM fanatics, of which I'm not one.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  1 comments

Before there was Lady Ga-Ga, there was Bette.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  2 comments

You'll never confuse Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 composed in 1957 with piano concertos composed during the romantic era, except when you get to the squooshy center where the composer goes all Rachmaninoff on you. The cinematic first movement sounds both ominous and light-hearted like a Hitchcock chase scene and it's easy to hear how Bernard Herrmann may have been influenced by this rousing first movement. It will get your heart pounding. 

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  1 comments

No one suggests this is among the "essential Blue Notes," especially since it really wasn't issued as an album when the session was first recorded. In fact, it sat on the shelf for 24 years, much to astonishment of annotator and distinguished jazz producer Michael Cuscuna. It wasn't issued until 1986.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  0 comments

Does an album that didn’t make a Billboard chart blip when first issued in 1987 deserve to be reissued on double 45rpm 180g gram vinyl?

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  1 comments

Instead of re-issuing this yet again, some folks argue that Analogue Productions should reissue newer albums. They are tired of hearing again what they already have. What they forget is that the last reissue of this classic was many years ago. Sorry, but time flies, especially as you get older. And guess what else? That issue by Classic Records is long out of print as is the one Mobile Fidelity first issued around twenty years ago when the label decided to re-enter the vinyl market and press its own records in Sebastopol.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  0 comments

Back in 1963, Frank Sinatra, the brawling "rat packer," lounge-lizard wise-cracker took a short retirement to record this album of classic Broadway show tunes, with the emphasis on Rodgers and Hammerstein, lushly orchestrated by Nelson Riddle.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  0 comments

It's easy to make a case for buying this double mono LP reissue of a 1956 Columbia release—unless you're not a jazz fan.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  0 comments

(Laura Nyro was nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame December, 2011)

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  0 comments


No, this is not up there with After School Session or Berry is on Top but this Chuck Berry album, his first after being released from prison for having violated the Mann Act (transporting minors across state lines to have sex) and issued as Beatlemania swept the world, has plenty of hits along with a lot of filler.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  1 comments

Why Pat Metheny remains “controversial” and even reviled by some jazz enthusiasts remains a mystery to me, though of course he also has an enormous international fan base. He’s criticized for not having sufficient “grit” or for being too “happy” for want of a better word. I don’t get it.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011  |  2 comments

Elton John's second album was his first in America and it immediately established him as both a major talent and a star, even if it took a few more albums for him to achieve superstar status.  Empty Sky the first album issued in the UK showed the talent but it was only a showcase.

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