Album Reviews

Simon split from Garfunkel, Buffalo Springfield broke up. So did The Youngbloods, The Lovin' Spoonful and of course The Beatles. Yes, many '60s groups remained together, like The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead, but as the tumultuous '60s came to a close, others fragmented with leaders going solo.

What a voice, what a loss. Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of the Irish group The Cranberries died suddenly in London January 15th, 2018 at age 46. She was in town for a recording session.

O'Riordan wrote lyrics and on some of the group's songs, the music as well, including three on this, the group's 1993 debut album. She also wrote music and lyrics on probably the group's best known song "Zombie"—her reaction to terrorist bombings by the Irish Republican Army—which is not on this album.

In March of 1957 during his first trip to the west coast, 26 year old Sonny Rollins, then a member of The Max Roach Quintet, booked a session at Lester Koenig’s Contemporary Studios. With Ray Brown also in Los Angeles starring in Oscar Peterson’s Trio, and Contemporary Records regular and Los Angeles based Shelly Manne also available, Rollins could fulfill a long running desire to record sans piano.

Beginning in the late ‘70s, continuing throughout the 1980s and once in 1994 Wilson Audio Specialties founder Dave Wilson released a series of records that he co-produced with wife Sheryl Lee, many of which he also engineered. They were minimally miked—often a spaced pair of Schoeps was all—and mastered by an all-star lineup of disc cutters including Bruce Leek (who also shared engineering credit on some), Stan Ricker and Doug Sax (Google if any of the names are unfamiliar). The tape machine for all but the very early organ record Recital (Wilson W-278) was an Ultramaster™ by John Curl, a highly modified Studer 1/2" deck running at 30 IPS.

Howard Stern is probably today's best interviewer still standing now that Charlie Rose is sidelined, though his recent Robert Plant sit-down was among his least effective. Stern was so looking forward to having Plant in the studio that he sort of forgot why Plant agreed to visit in the first place. Plus his usually crack research team dropped the ball.

The cover art for British jazz vocalist and trumpeter Peter Horsfall's recently released LP makes clear the music's moody, lonely-at-night feel. There's always hope though, embodied in his cover of pianist Barry Harris's "Paradise", which you can listen to below, transcribed via the new Technics SL-1000R turntable fitted with an Ortofon A95.

Step away from your predictable audiophile fare and consider this double 45rpm LP set from the U.K.'s Gearbox Records of artists you've mostly never heard of playing music you've probably never heard either.