Album Reviews

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Coltrane "Live" At The Village Vanguard  Lives Again!
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 27, 2022  |  23 comments
Listening today to this record originally released February, 1962—60 years ago—it’s difficult to understand why it created controversy so intense that Downbeat’s editor at the time invited Coltrane and Eric Dolphy to “defend” it in print. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a jazz album entry point, this live album probably wouldn’t be it—especially side two. Sixty years on, “Chasin’ The Trane” (name given by RVG who said he literally had to “chase Coltrane” on mic to capture him during the performances) might still send some running for cover (or covers, of which there’s but one on here, Hammerstein and Romberg’s beautiful “Softly As In a Morning Sunrise”).

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Love and Theft  Bob Dylan’s Southern Journey Through Time Finally Shines On Mobile Fidelity Vinyl (Where's Your Copy?)
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 27, 2020  |  34 comments
Talk about bad luck: Love And Theft Bob Dylan’s first album in four years, his 43rd (at the time, including live and studio) and the follow up to the million-selling, triple-Grammy Award winning (including “Album of the Year”) Time Out of Mind had a September 11th, 2001 drop date. Buildings dropped instead.

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Album Reviews
Ensemble HD "Live at the Happy Dog"
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 13, 2013  |  5 comments
Chamber music at a corner dive? Not likely, but this Kickstarter financed double LP set bears witness to the unlikely success of what sounds like an impossible combination of Beethoven and beer at an ex-polka bar located in the recently gentrified but once less than savory area now known as Cleveland, Ohio's Gordon Square Arts District.

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Album Reviews
Jaime Branch's FLY or DIE II: bird dogs of paradise
Jeff Flaim  |  Jun 26, 2020  |  4 comments
Avant-garde trumpeter Jaimie Branch has a lot on her mind; racism, love, compassion and the state of our union. Tackling these issues is not an easy task, especially for someone who plays instrumental music. On FLY or DIE II: bird dogs of paradise, her second album—recorded live over a few nights at London’s Total Refreshment Center—the New York based musician delivers a passionate, searing set of tunes.

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Album Reviews
Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon Rediscovered
Randy Wells  |  Jun 28, 2012  |  6 comments
Joni Mitchell’s decision to stay in New York City instead of traveling 300 miles north to attend a three-day rock festival in August of 1969 was probably a good idea. If she had actually seen Woodstock for herself, she may not have created such an intense and idealized song by the same name.

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Album Reviews
Norah Jones Box Set From Analogue Productions: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 24, 2013  |  21 comments
The issue here isn't Norah Jones, it's the amount. While Jones "burst upon the scene" more than a decade ago while still in her early thirties with her debut album come away with me, she was hardly an overnight sensation. What's heard on that memorable debut is the result of years of live playing at The Living Room, an intimate, lower Manhattan club that encourages artistic growth over headliners.

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Album Reviews
On “Birdcage” Sophia Pfister Bares More Than Her Soul
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 27, 2018  |  18 comments
To help pay for her self-funded debut EP Sophia Pfister worked in a mortuary. Now, two years later, she’s released her first LP—also self-funded. Since that first effort she’s expanded her web presence on her own website as well as on most social media platforms and streaming services. Most importantly, she’s steadily gigged, performing live around the Los Angeles area.

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Album Reviews
Rhino’s Massive Use Hearing Protection: Factory Records 1978-79 Box Set – Worth It?
Malachi Lui  |  Jun 22, 2020  |  11 comments
A lawsuit. A specific club night. Films that you’ll never see. A stray cat. Extremely rare posters and promo items that probably ended up in landfill. An unrealized menstrual abacus egg timer. Several buildings.

Mentioned above are Factory Communications catalog items that frustrate completists; they’re unobtainable. Sure, you can get pieces of the buildings, or a picture of the cat, or track down people with (drug-influenced) memories of the party. But if you weren’t there, you really weren’t there and can’t go back. Only remnants of the Manchester label’s catalog oddities remain.

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Album Reviews
Simon and Garfunkel: The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Copy Corrected 9-3-15)
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 02, 2015  |  34 comments
The story that has been handed down through the decades goes like this: Simon and Garfunkel’s vinyl LPs were originally produced using master tapes. Because S&G became so popular, over time the tapes would show signs of wear, so Columbia engineers would make a copy, toss the original, and begin cutting lacquers using the copy.

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Album Reviews
The Gospel According to Zimmerman: "Trouble No More" The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 28, 2017  |  10 comments
What always felt like it would be a nasty bump in the Dylan Bootleg Series road turns out to be a smooth walk on the water thanks to a concept the Dylan boot team perfectly executes by covering the mutable artist's evangelical period with highly charged live performances, outtakes and rehearsals that will turn you into a believer, if not in Christ, then in Dylan's absolute commitment to what he then preached and in the power of the songs and especially the supercharged performances he delivered.

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Album Reviews
"A Capitol Christmas" Double LP From the Vaults Worth Owning
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 11, 2016  |  3 comments
Producer/annotator Jay Landers has pulled from Capitol's rich vaults some of the label's best Christmas music that the label has issued as a double LP set complete with excellent liner notes (they are back.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
"Afternoon in Paris" A Musical and Sonic Delight
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 03, 2015  |  6 comments
If you're looking for a good place to delve into the Sam Records reissue catalog beyond the obvious Chet Baker entry point, try this record featuring pianist John Lewis originally issued by Disques Versailles (MEDX 12005) in 1956.

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Album Reviews
"American Tunes" Is Allen Toussaint's Most Generous Posthumous Musical Gift
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 26, 2016  |  5 comments
The late Allen Touissant preferred working in the background for most of his long career. He got his start playing piano in the 1950’s, when his Dr. Longhair-influence rollicking style caught the ear of Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino’s producer.

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Album Reviews
"Another Side of Bob Dylan" Sounding Better Than Ever
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 06, 2012  |  10 comments
Bob Dylan cracks himself up performing some of these songs. Producer Tom Wilson must have gotten it, but recording engineers Roy Halee and Fred Catero might have been ready to stop the tape. After all, this was staid, but still pre-corporate Columbia Records. It was “straight” and at that point Halee was more experienced recording Percy Faith than Bob.

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Album Reviews
"Belafonte Sings the Blues" at 45rpm From IMPEX
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 01, 2012  |  6 comments
Conceptually, Harry Belafonte singing the blues probably strikes some as inauthentic. After all, Belafonte's introduction to American audiences was as "the king of calypso" singing "Matilda" and "The Banana Boat Song" that much later was used by The New York Yankees and Ray Davies as a crowd rouser.
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