The 36 year old Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré, daughter of a globe-trotting diplomat, has been performing and recording for over a decade now. This, her third album from 2008, has only recently been released on double 180g vinyl.

In his annotation, jazz critic/social commentator Nat Hentoff writes about this 1959 meeting between tenor sax legend Ben Webster and baritone sax smooth talker Gerry Mulligan: “It seems to me that even the most rash liner note writer has to pause before predicting the longevity of the session he’s assigned to introduce, but it requires neither courage nor obtuseness to underline the obvious likelihood that this one will be listened to as long as anyone cares about jazz.”

When Bob Dylan “plugged in” at Newport back in ’65 the legion of original fans went bonkers, jeering and booing, but Dylan persevered and his popularity grew as the much larger rock audience tuned in, thanks in part to covers by The Byrds on their first album.

Dylan was ready with Highway 61 Revisited in the summer of 1965 and then the monumental Blonde on Blonde but he turned the tables again after his mysterious motorcycle accident releasing the still-mystical John Wesley Harding December of 1967.

(Originally posted in 2006)

With the release of the second, third and fourth Fairport Convention albums on 180g vinyl, lovers of British folk and folk/rock who weren’t around when these records were issued on vinyl by A&M in America and Island in the UK, can hear the brilliance of both the group and John Wood’s sympathetic engineering as originally intended. CD simply can’t breath life into the late Sandy Denny’s voice. On vinyl she’ll take your breath away.

This is neither the time nor the place to extol the virtues of this classic album that has more than stood the test of time. You already know about it and perhaps own a copy or two. If you don't, then you can buy this new Capitol 180g reissue and be sure you have a competently produced, reasonably priced reissue, though clearly cut using a digital source that produces a record that's a thin, pale imitation when compared to earlier reissues.

Some analog recordings shouldn't be allowed be reissued on any digital format. There should be a law! You want to hear, say, Van Morrison's rococo, acoustic/folk jazz masterpiece Astral Weeks?

Well then you'd better get yourself a turntable and then you'll be allowed to listen. Otherwise listen to something else. That's how it ought to be with a record like that because you're simply not hearing what it's about on a CD and of course less so, if you're hearing anything at all on an Mp3.

Note: since this review was originally posted February of 2009, we have learned of the existence of a flat transfer made from the now missing master tape. The version reviewed here was almost certainly mastered from a digital transfer done using some analog \\"work parts\\" and some digital sources not clearly identified in Capitol\\'s original CD reissue series.



Might that be used some time in the future for yet another edition of this classic album? Stay tuned!

sound and music ratings approximate until review is posted. REVIEWTOCOME





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