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“The fact that one of the best acoustic blues albums of the year comes from three white boys from Maryland might surprise you—that is, until you realize that it’s the return of the Blue Rider Trio, who kicked up a lot of shit out of nowhere with their 1992 release Preachin’ the Blues...” raves Blues Revue. That out-of-print debut became a treasure among both hard-core blues fans and audiophile connoisseurs. Early Morning Blues joins this collectors’ jewel with the Trio’s final and arguably best album. On that last session, Ben Andrew’s voice and wailing guitar have gained a seared-by-life bluesiness; Mark Wenner’s moaning harmonica cuts even deeper; and Jeff Sarli’s slap bass adds layers of subtlety to his knock-you-down drive. The rich vocal detail, intense dynamics, and three-dimensional overtones add extra excitement and authenticity to this tasty collection of Chicago, Delta, and Texas acoustic blues. The Absolute Sound was unambiguous: “This is as close to live as I’ve heard a recorded trio get...I dare you not to fall in love with this uniquely American music and this firecracker performance.”(#12132) Click here for more info
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Leon, one of the warmest baritones in jazz, sang with everyone from Pharoah Sanders to Santana, replacing Joe Williams in the Count Basie Orchestra. My mikes caught him on a great night at Ethell’s in Baltimore with Gary Bartz. Leon jumped in with exciting versions of his hits “The Sun Song” and “Little Sunflowers.” Then he launched headfirst into his blues roots. And Gary’s quintet dove in with the enthusiasm of freshmen at a bordello. After the first 12 bars of “Woman,” the posh Ethell’s was transformed into a gin joint on Chicago’s South Side. Leon had us eating out of his hand. You can hear every detail of Leon’s deep chest rumble and his charismatic bluesy baritone. Ditto for Gary’s Coltranishly powerful alto sax. You’ll even pinpoint Leon pacing around the stage whipping up the audience.(#12732) Click here for more info
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The first time I heard these two stunning symphonies, I was dumbfounded. The emotion, profundity and harmonic richness I heard went way beyond familiar American contemporaries like Copeland, Barber, Thomson, Piston, and Ives. These Allanbrook pieces—one honoring his fallen comrades in WWII, the other a strikingly original, luminous portrait of the four seasons—draw me in as powerfully as Stravinsky, Shostakovich, or Ravel. For our CD, the St. Petersburg Orchestra turned in an extraordinarily impassioned and sensitive reading under the baton of John Allanbrook, the composer's son—who shows every sign of becoming the towering genius his father was. Recorded in a lusciously spacious acoustic, the sonics rival—and in some ways exceed—RCA Shaded Dogs and Mercurys. (#11882) Click here for more info
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STEVE DAVIS QUARTET w/ LARRY WILLIS
"Steve Davis is one of my favorite trombone players of all time. I like his sound, I like the way he writes. He is a very special musician," according to Jackie McLean. Steve and Larry Willis, two of Jackie's greatest protégés, front this smoking group. Davis cut his eyeteeth in the Jazz Messengers, then played with McClean until his recent passing. "Alone Together" may just be the most soulful trombone ballad I've ever recorded. In contrast, the Quartet's "Surrey with The Fringe On Top" is certainly the most fun cooker I've heard in the studio in a decade. It doesn't hurt that bassist Nat Reeves and drummer Eric McPherson, Steve's bandmates in Jackie's group, played their butts off for this session. Nor does it hurt that this is my best quartet sound since our Norris Turney CD. (#10832) Click here for more info
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Until I heard Svetlana sing, I didn't even know about the other Rachmaninov, composer of the most brilliant songs of the Romantic era and the first to let piano and voice contribute equally to a song's drama. For our session, Svetlana—arguably the most committed and expressive interpreter of these songs—picked 21 gems that are especially close to her heart. She's an almost effortlessly powerful and dramatic mezzo soprano who's recorded with the Dallas Symphony and performed with more than 15 opera companies worldwide. She brought along Natalya Medvedovskaya, a young genius pianist-composer who's one of the very few accompanists able to match Svetlana's power and drama. Between the biggest voice we've ever had in the studio and the way Natalya got the biggest sound I've ever heard from our 1911 Steinway, the session produced truly formidable dynamics. And they're all on the CD, pristinely captured by Mapleshade's two-mike, two-track minimalism. (#11982) Click here for more info
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LARRY WILLIS & TONY PANCELLA
A pair of legendary pianos, two extraordinary pianists and, between them, a breathtaking singleness of groove and invention. Like no other great American jazz pianist today, Larry's playing moves people's hearts and feet. Tony has the same status in Italy. And he's one of Larry's most creative disciples, showing his mastery of gorgeous Impressionist harmonies. That's what makes their longstanding twosome so telepathically tight. Sonically, this album is the only piano duo ever recorded with just two mikes. That makes the timbres and attack of each note incomparably pure. The huge soundstage puts you right between the two pianos. Even better, you get to hear the ultra-rare, legendary 11 foot Fazioli mega-grand. Way beyond Steinway or Bosendorfer, it's simply the most awesome piano — from deepest bass to top octave — I've ever heard. (#11432) Click here for more info
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Ravi Shankar plays the classical music of India with pristine technique — but I'm not swept away. With Alif Laila, I am. Her sitar-playing brings new emotion, drama, dynamics to these centuries-old ragas. Tari, a world-renowned tabla master, frames her sitar with beguiling percussion melodies, played with boggling dexterity and heart-stopping expressiveness. Wait till you hear the thunderous power of their crescendos or the nanosecond tightness of their startling rhythmic transitions. Sitting directly in front of them, our weird two-mike array picked up subliminally delicate string-bending nuances, as well as the feathery brush of calloused fingertips on taut tabla skins — details I've never heard, even on my best sitar recordings. Fans tell me our Flamenco CD has locked in a new sonic standard for acoustic guitar; Sangam, I think, does the same for the sitar and tabla. (#11782)
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The record brush you use is almost certainly adding static every time you dust the LP you’re going to play. How so? If it’s an ordinary brush, the fibers rubbing on the vinyl create static. If it’s “anti-static” (i.e. slightly conductive), it neatly conducts your body’s static charge onto the record. Either way, the extra static attracts dust and, worse, degrades sound.
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Every serious vinyl lover knows that household airborne grit and oily vapors are the enemy of good analog sound and of record/stylus longevity. Meticulous cleaning right to the bottom of each groove is essential to get the great sound you paid for—and to preserve that sound for 500 to 1000 plays. Until now, that cost $500 to $2000 for a good record vacuum cleaner, or up to $5000 for a fancier threadplus-vacuum machine. Now, $150 lets you do a better cleaning job than any of those megabuck machines.
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Quite contrary to my intuition, an enthusiastic Clearview Strip user told me his Strip sounded better mounted on maple. Dubious, I repeated his test. He was right in spades! That started me on the design of an all-out power conditioner to go well beyond our very successful giant-killing Clearview Strip. Listening to the Stratum, I hear very significant sonic advances over the standard Strip: the sound is surprisingly cleaner—and much more dynamic from deepest bass to airiest treble. The extra $350 over the MKII Plus is indeed a worthwhile investment—and still leaves the Stratum at well under ¼ the price of the top of the line power conditioners that it beats so handily.
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Planed, sanded, beveled and then finished with four coats of clear, hand-rubbed lacquer. Finished platforms include Isoblocks set ($24 value). Add custom Natural Cherry or Deep Rosewood lacquer finish for $70; $105 for Semi-Gloss Black.
24" x 18" x 2"
24" x 18" x 4 "
24" x 24 " x 4"
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Correctly coupling LPs to their turntable platter, as with our Record Coupling System, yields bigger sonic dividends than upgrading from a $2000 to a $5000 cartridge.
It only takes 30 seconds of listening to hear that our Record Coupling System transforms the sound of any turntable and cartridge. I hear new, extraordinarily clean definition in the deepest bass, a radical un-smearing of the highest treble, plus beautiful ease, warmth, and unsuspected harmonies in the midrange.
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Been lusting after that $3000 tone arm or that $2500 killer cartridge? You're likely to get more improvement by installing our $95 Nanomount Transformation Kit. After installation, you don’t even have to adjust VTA. Just flip on your favorite LP and discover gorgeous details, crushing bass, crystal clear highs, razor sharp image focus, and dynamic swings you never suspected were in those grooves. To date, our most dramatic turntable upgrade.
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