Register to win three albums that Newvelle Records has selected for AnalogPlanet.com readers (Total value $165.00) we are giving away.

According to the company:

Recorded and pressed (at QRP in Salinas) with the attention to detail that sets Newvelle apart, Newvelle Volume One is a taste of the exceptional vinyl quality and distinct artistic vision that has been praised by The New York Times as a “throwback to jazz’s midcentury glories."

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

An AnalogPlanet reader today wrote:

I recently decided enough was enough. Vinyl prices in Australia have skyrocketed to the point where any new digitally-sourced release will cost you at least $40. If you want a nice 2xLP release, that'll be $50+. And don't even think about a new AAA Audiophile release. That privilege will set you back a whopping $100.

For. One. Album.

Resonance will release for RSD "Black Friday" as a double LP set this previously unreleased recording of Evans' short-lived 1968 trio with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette. The 20 track package will include an overview essay by veteran critic Brian Priestley, new Interviews with Gomez, DeJohnette, pianist Chick Corea, and Evans’ good friend Chevy Chase, and a one-of-a kind album cover drawing by legendary artist David Stone Martin.

This agreeable set of standards sung by Louis Armstrong backed by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, then consisting of Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Louis Bellson recorded at the then new Capitol Studios, L.A. in 1957 but not released in stereo until 1959, was a follow-up of sorts to the highly successful Norman Granz-produced Ella & Louis (Verve MGV-4003) recorded August of 1956.

Like this set, there Armstrong and Fitzgerald were backed by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, but with Buddy Rich drumming instead of Louis Bellson.

The recently introduced iPhono 3 is the third iteration of the remarkably compact, full-featured phono preamp iFi first introduced in 2012 that AnalogPlanet most positively reviewed. The original unit sold for $399.

iFi introduced in 2016 the seriously upgraded iPhono2 more positively reviewed on this website. The company made significant upgrades to both parts and features. Despite the many improvements, the price increased a scant $100 to $499.

This year for Record Store Day, I joined the Music Millennium line at 5:40 AM. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, they let 10 customers inside the store at once, and enforced social distancing in line. When the sun rose around 6:00, owner Terry Currier handed out tickets corresponding to our spots in line, with specific time slots to arrive back later and shop. I left and arrived back at 8:15, ultimately going over my expected budget and buying 10 records. I’m still processing the Bowie, Tyler, Clipping, and Ron Carter releases (another RSD-themed Review Explosion of those coming soon), but below are reviews of my other pickups (I also bought a copy of Angel Olsen’s latest album Whole New Mess for a general Vinyl Review Explosion).

Capitol/UMe releases on October 9th, 2020 a multi-format 36 track John Lennon box executive co-produced by Yoko Ono Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon featuring "remixed from scratch" versions, in a process that the press release describes thusly: "...using brand new transfers of the original multi-tracks, cleaned up to the highest possible sonic quality. After weeks of painstaking preparation, the final mixes and effects were completed using only vintage analog equipment and effects at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and then mastered in analog at Abbey Road Studios by Alex Wharton in order to ensure the most beautiful and authentic sound quality possible."

While you wait for that soon to be released Coltrane Ballads reissue, do yourself a favor and pick up tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath’s worthy final recording. The younger brother of MJQ bassist Percy Heath passed away at age 93 January 19th, 2020 at home in Loganville, Ga.

Heath was as well-known as a composer and arranger as he was as a performer. He began as an alto saxophonist, emulating Charlie Parker but soon switched to tenor to get out from under Bird’s plumage.

Pandemic-related closures temporarily put Blue Note’s “Tone Poet” series production on hold, but the series resumes on August 28th with the release of three titles: vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s first session The Kicker (1963), alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s It’s Time (1964) and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson’s The State of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard, Volume 1 (1965).

Last year, producer Lee Townsend brought guitar-great Bill Frisell’s trio, fresh off the road and shortly after concluding two weeks at The Village Vanguard where almost 60 years ago another famous trio made an indelible record or two, into Tucker Martine’s Portland, Oregon studio for three days of recording.

The result is a first for Frisell—a trio recording with long time accompanists, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston that is simultaneously densely packed with musical ideas and yet throughout, window wide open to the spaces between the notes.