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Groundskeeping, Kenneth James Gibson. Meadows Heavy Recorders  Kenneth James Gibson is a true rarity. He's equally comfortable writing, arranging, recording & engineering (for other artists as well) and producing his own ambient and electronic music. He's a highly respected artist amongst his genres, peers and fans alike. His music has been featured in some of... Read More »

Hannes Minnaar (b.1984) is a pianist to keep one's ears on. He is is consistently described by critics as able to convey musical essence in all its purity, and I've become convinced this is true. I first came to know him through his contributions with the Van Baerle Trio and I've very much enjoyed his... Read More »

J.S. BACH: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (arr. Samuel Adler); Sheep May Safely Graze; Wachet auf (both arr. Len Rhodes). LAURIDSEN: O magnum mysterium (arr. Grant Gershon and Morten Lauridsen). Anne Akiko Meyers, violin; Los Angeles Master Chorale/Grant Gershon (with Jaebon Huang, organ). Avie Records AV 2585 (WAV download, approx. 19 mins.) Last issue, I was... Read More »

Does this album need any further introduction than it's title, Getz/Gilberto? Well, when it is reissued in the finest digital sound quality I've yet heard it deserves a bit of celebration! And HDTT deserves kudos for the exceptionally good work accomplished here. I have multiple digital reissues of this album, but this is now at... Read More »

Truly special recordings deserve to be heard and celebrated. Such a truly special album is the newly released Lost in Venice by Infermi d'Amore, from Eudora Records. On this album are alert, energetic, and beautifully played performances of works from three Venetian Baroque masters using instruments appropriate to the period. Complementing these delightful performances are... Read More »

Ukranian pianist Anna Fedorova is a remarkable talent. She is right in the top of my list for outstanding performers in recent years. I've written about her solo-piano and chamber music recordings with Channel Classics here, here, and here. But now she is expanding her recorded repertoire to include some of the most challenging pieces... Read More »

Chick Corea, The Montreux Years. Double Album Set - Music Spanning Seven Years of Chick Corea at Montreux. BMG Records CAT583DLP If you are a jazz fan then you know the name Chick Corea! He was born Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea and he was one of America's premier jazz composers, pianists, keyboardists, bandleaders, and occasional percussionists. Many... Read More »

Bob Witrak at HDTT has done it again—a superb new release in Pure DSD256. This is the superlative Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. And it sounds simply amazing, folks. Sonny's saxophone is alive, full of texture, filled with detail. Max Roach is in the room on drums, with outstanding transient attack on stick strikes and shimmering... Read More »

How best to present several of the outstanding orchestral masterpieces found in the Channel Classics catalog? My choice is to start with selections from the works of the great conductor, Iván Fischer, leading the Budapest Festival Orchestra. These are world class performances filled with deep intelligence and love for the music. Combined with the superb... Read More »

Grab onto the sides of your chairs so you don't fall over like I did when you hear this superb new transfer of Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin. The sound quality is simply gorgeous—alive, dynamic, transparent, with great accuracy of timbre in both instruments and voice. Billie Holiday is in the room with us, folks.... Read More »

Gonzalo Noque's recordings continue to mesmerize and delight me. I'm sitting at the moment just stunned having listened to a preview copy in DSD128 of the coming release of J.S. Bach's Complete Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV1014-1019, with Andoni Mercero (violin) and Alfonso Sebastian (harpsichord). My need to share something about this recording compels... Read More »

Whenever I see a Pure DSD transfer from HDTT, I know they've found an excellent source tape that is in great condition. And these are always wonderful to hear. Recently I started looking around for Ella Fitzgerald recordings at HDTT and I've found four in Pure DSD256 transfers that are well worth bringing to your... Read More »

Thus far in 2022, HDTT has given us three new and outstanding transfers of well known, and well loved, performances from the RCA Living Stereo catalog. To these, I've added several more of their excellent DXD/DSD256 Living Stereo reissues, plus a final reissue that RCA never released as a Living Stereo, but should have. They... Read More »

This will be the best sounding digital reissue of Kind of Blue in your collection. There. I said it. No waffling around. This reissue is stunningly good. If you don't run and get it NOW, you will kick yourself for not having done so sooner once you finally hear it. Miles Davis - Kind of... Read More »

This issue of Notes on Recent Finds includes a mix of recordings found at NativeDSD. Several albums are from the quite remarkable Sono Luminus label, whose recordings (by engineer Daniel Shores) are supremely good. I've written about their albums in other articles. I'm including three more here. Also included is a delightful new recording from... Read More »

RAVEL: Orchestral Works, volume 2. The Philharmonia/Geoffrey Simon. Cala CACD 1005.  TT: 75.42 Rapsodie espagnole. Le gibet (orch. Goossens). Five O'Clock Foxtrot (orch. Palmer). Piano Concerto in G (Gwendolyn Mok, piano). Pavane pour une infante défunte. Pièce en forme de habañera (orch. Hoérée; Han de Vries, oboe). Daphnis et Chloé: Suite 2. I picked up... Read More »

James Gang, Bang, SD 7037, ATCO Records, 1973 By the end of the 1960s, following the emergence of such dynamic UK-based trios as Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, one of the brightest trios to appear on the subsequent American scene was the James Gang. Though founded by drummer Jim Fox in 1966 with fellow... Read More »

Time for another article about recent finds that I think you may enjoy. These are once again albums from HDTT and this time they're all jazz—hope you don't mind. Many are Pure DSD256 transfers, so the sound quality is pure, clean and transparent. You'll find my earlier Notes on Recent Finds article HERE. Today we're... Read More »

Bert van der Wolf is one of the best recording engineers in the business today. His recordings have only gotten better and better over the years as he's been able to incorporate into his recording chain the latest developments in high end technology. I've written many times in these pages about various of his recordings... Read More »