Tony Allen / Adrian Younge: “Jazz Is Dead 18”
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Jazz Is Dead Records JID018
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***
Overall Enjoyment: ***½
When the great Nigerian drummer Tony Allen was in Fela Kuti’s band, Africa 70, he helped invent Afrobeat, which combined American funk and jazz with Nigeria’s own musical heritage. Allen played with Kuti throughout the 1970s and began recording on his own in 1975, while still with Africa 70. He began focusing on his own music more intently by the mid-1980s and worked with younger musicians in various genres throughout the 2000s. He played in two bands with Blur’s Damon Albarn: The Good, the Bad & the Queen, and Rocket Juice & the Moon.
Rega Research Planar 10 Turntable and Aphelion 2 Cartridge
- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Engineering and philosophy
In the pantheon of British audio companies, Rega Research is surely one of the greats. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023, Rega has for decades been at the top of the list for those on a modest budget who want a record player designed and built in the UK. For many years, the go-to recommendation was the company’s iconic Planar 3 turntable. But as its price crept upward, Rega introduced more affordable models, like the Planar 1 and Planar 2. Both turntables offer many of the Planar 3’s virtues at a more affordable price.
The Italian Job
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Opinion
The flight home from Rome to Toronto following my factory tours of Unison Research and Opera Loudspeakers, Gold Note, and Audia Flight and Alare was near-as-dammit ten hours. That gave me plenty of time to cogitate on what I’d experienced at each stop.
Estelon XB Mk II Loudspeaker
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
In my mind, home-stereo loudspeakers can be grouped into three classes. Class One fulfills the primary goal of speaker design: this class of speaker just has to make music. All other goals are secondary. So they have to sit there, generally in front of the listener, and play sound through their drivers. These speakers should be, and generally are, dressed up somewhat, either in a nice wood veneer or a lacquer finish. But beyond that, they’re two MDF pillars, upon which you wouldn’t be remiss in resting a doily and a lamp or a potted plant. Or if you’re like me, the record sleeve from whatever’s playing on the ’table at that moment.
Larry Coryell: “Tricycles”
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
In+Out Records IOR LP 77146-1
Formats: LP, 24-bit/96kHz WAV download
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****½
Overall Enjoyment: ****½
In 2002, jazz guitarist Larry Coryell was more than 30 years into his career when he recorded Tricycles for In+Out Records, a jazz label based in Germany. He was touring Europe with two other American musicians, drummer Paul Wertico and bassist Mark Egan, and in November they went into a studio in Heidelberg. According to Coryell’s liner notes, the weather had been bad during the tour. While the musicians were recording, they came down with “influenza or something . . . but somehow, we could still play.”
PMC Twenty5.26i Loudspeaker
- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
The Professional Monitor Company, aka PMC, is a major hi-fi loudspeaker manufacturer, with its roots in studio monitoring. PMC was established in the UK in 1991 by Peter Thomas, an ex-BBC engineer, and his business partner, Adrian Loader. The company’s first product was a large studio monitor: the BB5-A. The British public service broadcaster was one of PMC’s first customers, and still uses those monitors at the BBC Maida Vale studios in London, England.
The Ultra Rack I Didn’t Build
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Opinion
I was single at the time. I had two cats, both male, and the Siamese had started to lose its mind. Goddamn thing started pissing in my basement listening room and ended up soaking the carpet. Fortunately, it was old and already in poor condition. Have you ever smelled male cat piss? It’s a horrific ammonia stench that catches in your throat and makes your eyes water.
Luxman PD-151 MARK II Turntable
- Written by: Garrett Hongo
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Back in the 1970s, I lived in Japan for a year, ostensibly to study Buddhism and the Japanese language; in reality, I was knocking around Kyoto as much as I pleased. I was living with my girlfriend in a small eight-mat room, watching kabuki plays at the Minami-za theater, reading poetry in coffee shops, and hanging out at a blues club on weekends.
The Return of the Mixtape
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: For the Record
The email came to me courtesy of Brent Butterworth, who until recently was our go-to guy for headphones. “I can’t do anything with this, but it’s super-cool and I figured you might want to write about it.” The pitch Brent forwarded was a press release describing how Vinyl Moon, a company that each month releases a unique LP of mixed new music along with nifty original artwork, is now providing an augmented reality (AR) visualization of their experience.
Lonnie Liston Smith, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Adrian Younge: “Jazz Is Dead 17”
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Jazz Is Dead 17
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***
Overall Enjoyment: ***½
Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have helmed 16 previous recordings for the Jazz Is Dead series. They’ve worked with well-known jazz musicians, such as Roy Ayers, Brian Jackson, and Gary Bartz, as well as more obscure players. For Jazz Is Dead 17, they’ve developed nine tracks with jazz keyboard player Lonnie Liston Smith, whose discography includes 16 titles as a leader, and many other outings as a sideman. He contributed keys to albums by Miles Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gato Barbieri, and many other musicians over a career that began in the late 1960s.
- T+A Elektroakustik Solitaire S 530 Loudspeaker
- Farewell, SoundStage!
- PSB Synchrony T800 Loudspeaker
- H. Hawkline: “Milk for Flowers”
- My First Stereo Upgrade
- A System That Makes Music: Sonus Faber, Rotel Michi, Cambridge Audio, Shunyata Research, SVS, and Siltech
- Kharma Elegance dB7-S Loudspeaker
- A Muddy Waters Classic Gets a Shot of Steroids
- Art Pepper: “Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section”
- Naim Audio, Part Two: A Day Inside Naim
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