LATEST ADDITIONS

(Copyright 2021, Harvey Kubernik) (Eliot Mazer photo courtesy Burson Audio.)

Elliot Mazer, the recording engineer and record producer who worked with Kenny Burrell, Chubby Checker, Maynard Ferguson, Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Dylan, Jack Nitzsche, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and The Band died this past weekend at his San Francisco home at age 79. Cause of death was a heart attack. Mazer had battled dementia for a number of years.

Before getting to the image above, let's reiterate some cartridge set-up facts: despite the instructions that accompany most turntables and tone arms, you can't reliably set stylus rake angle to 92 degrees by putting your tone arm parallel to the record surface. Insuring that the cantilever is perpendicular to the record surface does not mean you've correctly set azimuth. Why do the manufacturers tell you to do those things? To make set up simple, instead of telling you what you need to do to accurately set these critical parameters.

Blue Note Records announces the 2021 Tone Poet Audiophile Reissue Series release schedule. Produced by Joe Harley, these are all-analog (where original recording was to analog tape), 180g audiophile vinyl reissues mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes. RTI presses in Camarillo, California (where no one these days is relaxing) and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “old style” Gatefold Tip-On jackets.

(Press release): Charles Lloyd & The Marvels have released “Ramblin’,” a rollicking version of Ornette Coleman’s tune which is the first single from the legendary saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd’s forthcoming album Tone Poem out March 12 on Blue Note Records. The vinyl edition of the album will be the first new release to be featured as part of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series with the vinyl supervised by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray, pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on jacket. Fittingly, it was Lloyd who first dubbed Harley the “Tone Poet.” Tone Poem is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and digital download.