This past weekend, I said, OK, this is it. I’m finally going to whittle my 1500+ CD collection down because I don’t think that medium is as relevant as it once was now that we have several satisfactory ways to get access to great music at various price points ranging from near CD quality streaming (i.e. Spotify) to Hi-Rez downloads. Yet as I began to cherry pick the CDs that were destined for the Princeton Record exchange, I was disappointed to see that a few hours of effort left me with barely enough CDs to make the trip. One reason why is obviously that redbook and SACD are still very compelling formats, especially when played back with a good player. (I use a Meitner XDS1 rev2). But also surprisingly important, I really enjoy the meta data, or as we used to say, the liner notes which are often very informative and educational.
I came across 3 CDs that reinforced these points recently, and wanted to share them on the forum.
The first is a spectacular recording by works by Dvorak and Janacek on Reference Recording’s “Fresh!” series, which is NOT the work of Keith Johnson. As Andrew Quint’s review in TAS says “There’s nuance and power in equal proportions with exceptionally natural scaling and timbral reproduction of both orchestral sessions and individuall instruments”. No surprirse there. OK, so Keith Johnson is not the engineer, but you can bet your bottom dollar he would never allow something to go out on his own label that was not Keith Johnson “approved”. This CD has got the goods, and the music is sheer delight as well.
The second CD is a collection of orchestral dance music on the PentaTone label. It is titled “Strausss-Liszt-Korngold-Busoni-Schreker” by the Orchestra Swiss Romande. Quint reviewed this as well for TAS, calling the recording "highly reminiscent of the RCA Living Stereo recordings of yore". The album seems to be intentionally crafted so that in the first piece one can hear individual solos and individual sections almost unadorned so you know the soundstage by the time you get to the more complex pieces such as Liszt’s Mephisto Walz that follow. I can’t seem to get enough of this SACD. It’s just gorgeous music and a spectacular recording as well.
Finally, we come to Gordon Goodwin’s latest Phat Band recording on Concord/Telarc called “Life in the Bubble”. I was visiting my friend Russ’ and saw this lying on the counter and put it on his rig after it caught my eye as I love big band jazz, Well, there was no way I was going home without it after I heard the opening cut. For those of you who are not familiar with Gordon Goodwin (I certainly was not) he is a multi-talented Grammy winning writer/arranger and producer. Simply put, this is one of the finest big band albums of the modern era. The music is wonderfully varied, the arrangements are very inventive, and the playing is spectacular. The album is a sampler of jazz/funk, blues, Latin, and straight-ahead jazz, loaded with intricate ensemble playing and excellent solos. And best of all, the recording is OMG drop dead spectacular. That should not be surprising as the recording engineer is Tommy Vicari, who won 7 Emmy’s (12 nominations) for Sound mixing as the orchestral mixer for the Primetime Oscar Awards Broadcast going back for over a decade. Be forewarned- its pretty damn hard to sit down and listen to this music as your feet will want to move all over the place.
I came across 3 CDs that reinforced these points recently, and wanted to share them on the forum.
The first is a spectacular recording by works by Dvorak and Janacek on Reference Recording’s “Fresh!” series, which is NOT the work of Keith Johnson. As Andrew Quint’s review in TAS says “There’s nuance and power in equal proportions with exceptionally natural scaling and timbral reproduction of both orchestral sessions and individuall instruments”. No surprirse there. OK, so Keith Johnson is not the engineer, but you can bet your bottom dollar he would never allow something to go out on his own label that was not Keith Johnson “approved”. This CD has got the goods, and the music is sheer delight as well.
The second CD is a collection of orchestral dance music on the PentaTone label. It is titled “Strausss-Liszt-Korngold-Busoni-Schreker” by the Orchestra Swiss Romande. Quint reviewed this as well for TAS, calling the recording "highly reminiscent of the RCA Living Stereo recordings of yore". The album seems to be intentionally crafted so that in the first piece one can hear individual solos and individual sections almost unadorned so you know the soundstage by the time you get to the more complex pieces such as Liszt’s Mephisto Walz that follow. I can’t seem to get enough of this SACD. It’s just gorgeous music and a spectacular recording as well.
Finally, we come to Gordon Goodwin’s latest Phat Band recording on Concord/Telarc called “Life in the Bubble”. I was visiting my friend Russ’ and saw this lying on the counter and put it on his rig after it caught my eye as I love big band jazz, Well, there was no way I was going home without it after I heard the opening cut. For those of you who are not familiar with Gordon Goodwin (I certainly was not) he is a multi-talented Grammy winning writer/arranger and producer. Simply put, this is one of the finest big band albums of the modern era. The music is wonderfully varied, the arrangements are very inventive, and the playing is spectacular. The album is a sampler of jazz/funk, blues, Latin, and straight-ahead jazz, loaded with intricate ensemble playing and excellent solos. And best of all, the recording is OMG drop dead spectacular. That should not be surprising as the recording engineer is Tommy Vicari, who won 7 Emmy’s (12 nominations) for Sound mixing as the orchestral mixer for the Primetime Oscar Awards Broadcast going back for over a decade. Be forewarned- its pretty damn hard to sit down and listen to this music as your feet will want to move all over the place.
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