JohnnyB

Frank looks like Jesus in Wayfarers and a sombrero. I'll bet Jesus wished he'd had Wayfarers and a sombrero in that brutal Judean wilderness, but they hadn't been invented yet. I s'pose his Dad could have adjusted the timeline, but Noooooooooooo ...

Every once in awhile I just have to have a Rossini Overtures fix. This one really delivers with great playing and blow-you-out-of-the-room dynamics. Spinning it as I type. Those passionate Italian explosive fortissimos are a big part of the fun.

Yesterday I also saw the Wall Street Journal article about Steely Dan creating Deacon Blues. So I just had to spin Aja in its entirety. The article mentions how they went about getting Tonight Show Band tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb to do the solo in Deacon Blues. According to the article, the whole meeting and his improvised solo only took about a half hour. I had the great fortune of hearing Pete Christlieb in 1975, three years before Aja. I was living in SoCal and Louie Bellson was performing live. I went. It was a great band, Louie was in his prime, but the outrageous thing was he had both Don Menza and Pete Christlieb as co-leads of the tenor sax line. I also have the Louie Bellson album recorded in SoCal at that time with the exact same personnel: Menza had made his reputation a few years earlier with a brilliant and extended solo on "Channel One Suite" with the Buddy Rich band live at Caesar's Palace. It's really more like a cadenza where the band stops playing altogether and Menza rips it any way he wants. I call it Menza's Cadenza. That solo is on this album (which I also have). Can you tell it was 1967? Anyway, it was an evening to remember hearing these two monsters of the tenor sax at the height of their vigor busting solos back and forth, each trying to outdo the other. I'll never forget it. But it was also great to re-acquaint with Aja in general and Deacon Blues in particular. It was the first time I'd played that album since getting my panel speakers and handwired tube electronics. Absolutely fabulous writing, arrangements, production, performance, mixing and mastering.

I felt like I was due for this today. It's more of an experience than an album. This was a meticulous limited production run made from the original master tapes, and mastered at half speed. It was Sinatra's first commercially released live album, made in 1966 when Sinatra was 50. Great recording quality and it puts Sinatra and the Basie Band in the room. When I ordered this in early 2011, the vendor sent me two. I returned one still sealed and as a thank you they gave me a permanent 11% discount for future orders. A couple days ago I looked the album up and it's long out of print. Lightly used copies are hitting $600 and Amazon has a sealed one at $999.99. So I decided to give my thousand-dollar album a spin. I could never have bought it at that price, but I'm glad I have one. What makes this recording special: Most of us are familiar with Sinatra's ability to really make you feel the essence of the song he's singing. He had an unusually strong ability to sing in a studio into a microphone in a way that playing the resulting record would feel as though he's communicating directly with you. As good as that is, however, the capture on this live performance where he's singing directly to a packed room full of eager, attentive listeners, bumps that sensation up several notches. The way he communicates to a live audience on "It Was a Very Good Year" alone is worth the entire album. I'm really glad I got it.

My link was for the Technics bearing oil, which I thought would be a closer match to the Denon's required viscosity. But you're the one with a collection of top-line Denons and Kenwoods from the '80s, so if mineral oil works for you, have at it. I also thought about the magnetic strip, but have never really looked inside much, and I certainly didn't know the Kenwood's inner layout like you do. One handy thing about the Technics SL12x0 series: you can lube the spindle by removing the platter and doing it from the top.

I just realized something it might be. Unless you lubed the platter bearing when you got it, it probably needs some oil there. You can find Technics DD spindle oil on this page. Scroll down about 3/4 of the way. It's a frameset within this website. They're supposed to get an oil refresh every couple thousand playing hours, and that TT is over 30 years old. It could also be something with the servo speed control, and that's probably more complicated. Maybe gtrdaddy knows.

Does the speed adjustment dial still work?

I didn't technically spin this; it came on the radio: I have some CDs and LPs by Narciso Yepes and Goran Sollscher. The Yepes recordings blew me away; the Sollschers from 30 years ago, not so much, but that could have been the recording quality and/or before he mastered the extended range classical guitar, invented by Yepes. Today I heard a movement from a Bach cello suite, transcribed and played by Sollscher. It was obviously an extended range guitar; the bass lines were rich, full, and deep. So was everything else about this recording and performance. Sollscher has followed in Yepes' footsteps and then some. I recommend you chasing down some of his extended range guitar recordings. They are significant in musical performance, development of a genre, and have drop-dead gorgeous sonics. I may have to get off my high horse and buy some of these CDs. I believe Sollscher's playing an 11-string guitar here and I think Yepes mainly played a 10-string. Not only do these guitars have more range, they make the standard guitar range sound better too because it sits squarely in the sweet spot of the guitar's overall range. You also get the benefit of more sympathetic overtones from all those strings.

I had a bunch of housework to do and nothing gets me going like some good drummer-driven Big Band. This was recorded about 55 years ago and featured Anita O'Day on vocals and his killer trumpeter, Roy Eldridge. Next I moved on to Count Basie. I picked up this record at a record fair/meet. It was recorded by Metro/Verve, but this edition was mastered and pressed by Deutsche Grammophon and it sounds like they're in the room. Great clarity and dynamics from one of the tightest big bands ever. I finished off the workday with Schubert's symphony no. 9 in this box set. I see these box sets go for anything from $18 to $90 on eBay. I picked up 16 of them at a Goodwill for $1 each. Four records per set. And in general I've found that box sets usually haven't been played. Schubert's No. 9 is named "The Great," aptly I might add. That recording is Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony, originally on RCA's Living Stereo series; the originals can be a lot more expensive. The Time/Life reissue collection ain't too shabby sounding either. Mozart gets most of the press for being a brilliant composer who died too young at 35. Schubert died at 31 and left a similarly large body or very high quality work. In his own time he was a short pudgy guy, les than 5' tall with the nickname of "Schwammerl", variously translated as "Tubby" or "Little Mushroom." Even so, he may have died of syphilis.

Yesterday, Frankie's 1st volume of greatest hits on Reprise. These are the ones that charted in the '60s such as My Way, That's Life, The Summer Wind, etc. I'm not a fan of the production of My Way (1st track) so I skip right to The Summer Wind. I love that song. Followed it with Lyle Lovett and His Large Band. Great album all around; tight ensemble, killer songs, devlishly clever lyrics, and some of the best sound quality you'll hear on a pop album. Today the wife's at home, so while we were surfing and playing Sudoku, it was this one. Great songs and sonics on a pristine, great sounding LP I plucked from a $1.50 bin. I really like her slide work.

What phonograph and speakers do you have, and what are you looking for in a receiver? And today I spun: This album wastes no time getting underway. First song on side 1 is "Keep Your Hands to Yourself." This is a great rocker and the recording quality is something else, being an EMI and all. Loved it.

Today I'm facing the mind-numbing task of sorting and filing piled-up utiilty bill stubs and various receipts. So I enlisted Tony and The Count to help me out: Tony turned 89 a couple of weeks ago and can still sing, but this was recorded when he was 32 (late 1958) at his absolute prime, and wow! What a set of MONSTER pipes in every way--dynamics, pitch control, the right amount of vibrato, vocals to match what the lyrics and music call for, and unbelievable range with spot-on pitch in every note he sings. Now I'm finishing off the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "The Last Time We Saw Paris," which was from the Quartet's last tour in Europe before breakng up. Recording is so tight and clean it's hard to believe it's live, but it is. There are various alto sax stars who are legends, including Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderly, etc. But for the most tone to die for and and sweet lyrical improvisations, Paul Desmond stands alone. Fantastic sonics; Columbia did some great-sounding stuff in this era and this is definitely one of them.

Spun this yesterday for the first time in a few years. I agree with Willie G. Man, what an album, in songs, performance, arrangement, production, mixing, mastering, and sound quality. Its dynamics kick you around the room. Got mine used in some record bin. Also a great clinic for guitar playing, sounds, and techniques.

Some good old 1971 rock 'n' roll followed by 1967 work of genius that only recently saw the light of day. It would have fit right in with 1967's other ambitious and iconic albums including Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Days of Future Passed, The Doors (ST), Surrealistic Pillow, Axis: Bold as Love and some others.

Kenwood KP-770D?

My wife is a big opera fan; he father was an accomplished baritone and did some Broadway and opera. Pavarotti is her favorite tenor. This past weekend we spun her two favorite operas. I have the vinyl of both. Both written by Puccini with Pavarotti singing the tenor lead. Turandot features the solo, Nessun Dorma, which became Pavarotti's signature song. He had to sing it every time he gave a recital, and it was a highlight in the "Three Tenors" performances. Jeff Beck also played it as an instrumental on his Emotion & Commotion album. Monday, puttering around the house by myself, it turned into Dire Straight day, also on vinyl: The first is their self-titled album. Side 2 opens with Sultans of Swing. This was followed by Brothers in Arms. Both have fantastic sound quality. The airy wordless vocal harmonies on the opening track, So Far Away, grab my attention every time.

Keeping with my Tom Waits binge, I'm currently spinning Swordfishtrombones. I love this crazy thing. This was quite a stepping off point from his previous recordings. He switched labels from Asylum to Island and produced his own album for the first time. The songs are more introspective and emotionally compelling without the retro schtick of his earlier albums, while the accompaniment went from beat generation coffeehouse jazz to something entirely different, often reminiscent of turn of early 20th century band instruments. Picture a singing barfly accompanied by a Salvation Army Band that's sometimes on acid. That's the closest I can come to describing it. My copy came most generously from Ernie Santella (aka santellavision). Just when I was getting back into LP playback, he was getting out. He had not only good taste in music but was a stickler for well recorded and mastered LPs. On that count (among others) this thing just rocks. He took requests from the HFC and I was the recipient of 17 pristine albums for the low cost of USPS media mail. I got quite a bit of the Rolling Stones discography from that shipment as well. I'm going to listen to Swordfishtrombones in its entirety again tomorrow to start getting a sense of the arc and flow of the entire album. I'm hooked, and I wish I could invite you all over for a listen, because these panel speakers I got really bring it!

Finally got around to spinning this yesterday. All four sides. What fun this album is! Excellent sound quality too. He has some excellent and reputable side men in his combo, including tenor sax Pete Christlieb, who played the sax parts in Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues" and drummer Bill Goodwin, who played with vibist Gary Burton on some challenging fusion albums years before Miles Davis ever thought of it.

My wife mentioned that he works with a Doctor Wu at the VA hospital, so I just had to spin this for her (side 1, track 5) last night. This morning I spun the entire album for me. I have all seven studio albums on vinyl (1972-1980) and I feel a binge-listen coming on. And this recently came out on a gorgeous 2LP release. I bought the CD when it came out 19 years ago and it still gets regular play. But the LP version--so lush! It just came in the mail today and I'm spinning it as I type.

Although Muddy gets the credit for popularizing electric blues, the Chess Brothers had him make an all-acoustic album in 1964 when folk singers were all the rage. In this commercial venture they came out with a masterpiece, superbly recorded, with Muddy on vocals and acoustic slide, and Chess's legendary sidemen at the time--Willie Dixon on bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy, this time on acoustic guitar. Chess did a similar thing with Howlin' Wolf, "The Real Folk Blues."

Well, it was actually yesterday, which turned into a good day for spinning.

88 Basie Street Recorded in '83, released about when Basie died the next year. It has some small group numbers with Joe Pass on guitar. Dennis Mackrel was the drummer for this one. He was 21 at the time, and is now the director of the continuing Count Basie Orchestra. He was the last musician in the band who was personally hired by Basie. Followed it with "Fancy Pants." Recorded at the very end of 1983 when Basie was 79, about 4 mos. before he died. Dennis Mackrel on drums again, and another guitar legend, Freddie Green, the ultimate rhythm guitarist, who was 72 at the time. You'd never know the ages of these guys by the energy on this album. Any Basie is a study in tight ensemble, great sense of swing, and the most buttoned-down rhythm sections ever.

This came in the same shipment with my new mono white album. Got around to spinning it yesterday, which, speaking of, is the only Parlophone record where McCartney's "Yesterday" appeared. Of course it's a good album with some really good songs, but for density of quality songwriting on a soundtrack, I give the nod to the Parlophone (NOT the Universal Studios crap) "Hard Day's Night" soundtrack.

I just took delivery of The Beatles in Mono this week and am rediscovering this crazy but brilliant road trip of an album. front back In mono the jet doesn't take off from right to left in Back in the USSR, but the mix and EQ on that song and the whole album, track by track, is fantastic. I hear lots more into the mix, the tonal balance is much more musical, and it better showcases The Beatles' creativity and artistry. When it came out I never really got to know it other than the songs that got airplay or that I heard at parties. A double Beatles album was expensive, about $55 in today's money and I didn't buy one back then. So I never got a sense of the full sweep of this album. Now that I have a much better sounding one, it's a pleasure to work my way through it. I've done it once already and will probably spin through all four sides twice more before I've owned it for a week. It parallels the turbulent '60s, with hard rock, fun songs, sentimental songs, raucous songs, and what sound to me like primal scream songs. In that sense I consider it iconic of the decade and specific year it came out.

Spun this one today, A Meeting by the River. It's Ry Cooder with East Indian VM Bhatt playing various acoustic slide guitar (or guitar-like instruments) augmented by drone and tablas. Bhatt brought his drone player from India, Cooder brought his table-playing son. It's recorded with a very simply arranged (Blumlein) pair of microphones in real time, all improvised, and no edits or punch-ins AFAIK. The mic arrangement makes for a very 3-dimensional stereo presentation and I spun the 2 LP 45 rpm pressing. This is a great sounding album in any format, but especially the 45 rpm 200g LPs really put them in the room with you with the organic realness of an all-analog signal chain..