This has been a year in which hitting yourself on the head hard with a hammer seems like a reasonable activity, but rather than do that, we've produced a radio show in which everyone else is doing the hitting but not on the head!
The subscription-based, vinyl-only record label Newvelle Records is an audacious project on many levels—a “closed loop” system wherein jazz enthusiasts pay an annual “membership fee” of $425 (includes shipping) and receive six Newvelle-produced records—all performed by mostly familiar “world class” artists— over the course of the year.
Sir Simon Rattle conducts Brahms: The Berlin Philharmonic performs the four Brahms symphonies conducted by Rattle and recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie direct to disc September, 2014 using a One-Point microphone set-up.
By now you know the drill: The Electric Recording Company finds a collectible and music-worthy title to reissue and does its fanatical-attention-to-details thing, both in the mastering from the original tape on a lovingly restored all-tube cutting system to a meticulously produced record sleeve and jacket that are in most ways difficult to distinguish from the original as described in previous ERC reviews.
Cleanervinyl.com's cavitation-based record cleaning system consists of the One single LP powered cleaning device ($189), the Pro ($389), which allows you to simultaneously clean up to a dozen records, and the $129 Dry, fan-based record dryer. You also need to get a PS-30A Ultrasonic Cleaner, which sells on EBay for around $150 or $169 through Cleanervinyl.com.
Three years before he passed away in 1983 at age 60 from lung cancer, a somewhat diminished Johnny Hartman entered Ben Rizzi's Master Sound Productions in the small Long Island 'burb of Franklin Square and recorded this album for the small Bee Hive label. It would be his next to final appearance on record, and one that earned him a "Best Male Jazz Vocalist" Grammy Nomination.
The idea was to produce a show exclusively from old, gnarly-sounding 45 played back on a modest turntable to truly reproduce how "Boomers" heard their music at home. "Cleaned up" and sterilized on CD is just not the same. Then came the grim news that both Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell had passed away.
Before you pay $100 for any record you have to ask yourself if you really like the music, right? Then the question becomes is this version that much better than the one you already have, assuming you already have one.