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James Blake, Covers Standing out from the noise in popular music is no easy feat. It takes more than a strong voice to stick out from the crowd these days, with so many choices at our fingertips. From the genre blurring and warbly bass bending "Limit to Your Love," to the hauntingly ethereal landscapes of The... Read More »

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 166. The Doors, Strange Days. Elektra – EKS-74014 (1967), DCC Compact Classics – LPZ-2045 (1992), 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: acid rock, psychedelia, psychedelic rock, blues rock, musique concrète (in small doses). The last track on The Doors debut album is titled "The End" but nothing could be... Read More »

It's rare that one gets to experience a true tour de force, but that is what I've enjoyed the past several months with the Van Baerle Trio's traversal of Beethoven's complete works for piano trio—a marvelous journey through some of the greatest music ever written. I've long held the Beaux Arts Trio in highest regard... Read More »

Mogwai, As the Love Continues Like most popular art forms, music is over-classified. When an artistic medium is overly distilled through endless descriptions, categories, names, and titles, the magic is also seemingly stripped from it. The ethereal music of Mogwai, the ever-evolving Scottish band, is an unfortunate victim of these attempts to classify rather than... Read More »

The Silence Between, Pieter van Loenen, violin, and Tobias Borsboom, piano, TRPTK (2021, DSD256, DXD) HERE The Silence Between is a marvelously transparent recording of superb performances of five engagingly melodic, tonal 20th century works. (Well, almost. The Debussy piece comes from 1890 but clearly looks forward to the next century.) In this brilliant recording,... Read More »

HASSE: Il Tigrane: Overture and Arias; VIVALDI: Il Tigrane: Arias; GLUCK: Il Tigrane: Arias. Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano; Kansas City Symphony Orchestra/Constantine Orbelian. Delos DE 3591.  TT: 64.06. Downloads: Amazon.com (mp3); boxset.me (FLAC); qobuz.com (various formats) Did you know about this Cleopatra? I certainly didn't. Cleopatra of Pontus married King Tigranes the Great (Tigranes II) of Armenia, in... Read More »

At the peak of his career, Chesney "Chet" Baker represented the epitome of jazz cool, and along with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, and Stan Getz was one of the principal figures of the "West Coast Jazz" movement centered between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Baker relished living the fast life,... Read More »

Light In The Attic Records (LITA) is a record label based in Seattle that has a certain knack for the unconventional, and has specialized over the last couple of decades in reissuing obscure, underrepresented, and sometimes virtually unknown artists. With the intent of bringing that unknown gem of an album, or perhaps a lesser-known artists'... Read More »

Craft Recordings completes their 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of Creedence Clearwater Revival with new LP reissues of the band's final two albums, Pendulum and Mardi Gras. 1970's Pendulum—which was CCR's second album release that year (Cosmo's Factory streeted only months earlier in July)—was recorded in a month in November, and was released only... Read More »

Part 1: The Awaking Late October of last year, a friend of mine who lives in Wichita Kansas, came to visit me for a jam session and a guitar lesson. We had a great time, and when he made it back home, he sent me a text photo of a vinyl haul he'd snagged at... Read More »

I am indebted to David P. Goldman‘s wonderful Tablet magazine article on the place of classical music in Israeli society for introducing me to the young pianist Noam Sivan, who is recovering the lost art of classical-piano improvisation. Born in 1978, Sivan has taught at the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School. Currently he is Professor of Piano Improvisation at the... Read More »

This is an ongoing project by Claude Lemaire of Soundevaluations 161. Diahann Carroll and The André Previn Trio, Porgy and Bess. United Artists Records UAS 5021, United Artists Records UAS 4021 (mono) (Can.) (1959), 33 1/3 rpm. Genre: jazz, musical. I loves you Porgy... let me count the ways. There are several interpretations of Gershwin's work—originally considered by... Read More »

I wrote enthusiastically about Just Listen Records a couple months ago (HERE). We were impressed by what this label was accomplishing, and we've been enjoying more of their deliciously well-recording acoustic music releases since then. They continue delivering innovative music from very talented artists, recorded in live single takes, with exceptionally natural, high resolution sound.... Read More »

Reports From The Low Country, Rick Stotijn (double bass), Channel Classics (2019 DSD256, DXD) (HERE) When a master plays, the double bass is one of the most amazing instruments. And so it is in this 2019 recording by bassist Rick Stotijn. Focusing on compositions by Dutch composers from the past 50 years, Stotijn brings his... Read More »

Patricia Barber remains one of my favorite contemporary jazz artists—both in the studio and live. Yes, her recordings are renowned for their sound quality and unique, if not eclectic arrangements, but she is much more than that. I lived in the Chicago area for many years and often found my way to her weekly Monday... Read More »

Droplets II, Christiaan Richter, TRPTK (2020 DXD) (HERE) Live from Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Hall, it's an ear-opening extravaganza with a single percussionist and his 13" Chinese gong. But what a show! Watch out for the dynamics on this EP. Things start very softly, but progress to shattering volumes in the course of the twelve minutes of... Read More »

If you listen via headphones or earbuds, you need some good binaural recordings in your music library. Binaural listening is the only way we get to hear true imaging and instrument positions via headphones. Stereo recordings, no matter how good, simply don't provide the same realism over headphones that properly made binaural recordings deliver. (In... Read More »

As I get older, as I said a year or so ago when I started getting older, I find myself less inclined to talk, more inclined to drop a few notes and then just point. These are three recent recordings I feel compelled to point at. Jennifer Koh, Bach & Beyond, Part 3. Bach, Harbison,... Read More »

I was a total rock radio hound from the seventies through the eighties; I really stood up and noticed George Thorogood and The Destroyers when "Bad To The Bone" first hit the airwaves—especially his over-the-top guitar playing. The song (and George Thorogood) became a point of frequent discussion between my friends and me, who mostly... Read More »