Michael Fremer

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News
Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Edition First Listen!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 19, 2019  |  First Published: Aug 19, 2019  |  comments
This morning at mid-town Manhattan's Dolby Theater (1350 6th Avenue) I got a chance to hear excerpts from Giles Martin's new 50th Anniversary Abbey Road remix in the small, 24 seat screening room filled with invited press, SiriusXM Beatles channel people, others, and members of Ringo Starr's band who were in New York, having played there the previous evening.

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News
Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Edition Heard on a Real Stereo System!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 20, 2019  |  First Published: Aug 20, 2019  |  comments
The misaligned stars leading to yesterday's Dolby screening room software malfunction (you know the story), aligned today. I was on 58th and 3rd at Innovative Audio to spin vinyl and Guy Hayden was just finishing up today's three Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Edition demos (which went off without a glitch).

Hayden emailed asking if there was a chance I could return to the screening room on 58th and 6th Avenue for a proper stereo mix listen. He didn't know I was right down the block! Unfortunately time was too tight for me to get up there, listen and return to Innovative for the 5:30PM event start time so Hayden generously offered to bring the set to Innovative so I could listen on a proper hi-fi system, which seemed like the ideal way to listen to any version of Abbey Road.

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Album Reviews
Aerial Bounderies   Redefined Acoustic Guitar Playing——Cut From Analog Master Tape!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 02, 2015  |  comments
This Michael Hedges album shook up the guitar playing world in 1984 the way Leo Kottke's 6 and 12 String Guitars had in 1969.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Amused To Death  is A Singular Sonic Spectacular
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 05, 2015  |  comments
Grand scale examinations of the human condition tend to be preachy, didactic and obvious. The more interesting observations tend to be small scale and personal—in other words, how individuals deal with human foibles and circumstances beyond individual control generally are more compelling and interesting.

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Album Reviews
Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969 Vols. 1&2   For the First Time!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 26, 2019  |  comments
This extraordinary blues festival staged on an athletic field at the University of Michigan, Friday through Sunday August 1-3 in-between the moon landing and Woodstock, was almost lost to time—except to the 10,000 or so mostly white high school and college kids lucky enough to have the good fortune (and taste) to attend.

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Album Reviews
Bags & Trane: The Odd Couple That Swings Well Together
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 18, 2014  |  comments
True Coltrane wasn't yet producing "sheets of sound"—limiting himself maybe to just "pillowcases of sound", but he was still hot to Milt Jackson's cool so this was an interesting experiment—one that succeeded beautifully.

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News
Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott's Previously Unreleased Coming on Double LP From Resonance For RSD Black Friday Nov.27th
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 03, 2020  |  First Published: Sep 03, 2020  |  comments
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.
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Album Reviews
Brothers In Arms  at 45rpm From Mobile Fidelity (updated 3/7/15)
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 06, 2015  |  comments
Born out of desperation (hence the name), with the release of its eponymous debut album containing "Sultans of Swing", Dire Straits was an instant commercial success. Cynics at the time said the tune made Dylan safe for average folks. The album was eventually certified double platinum.

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Album Reviews
Charles Lloyd 8: Kindred Spirits, Live From the Lobero Box Set
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 14, 2020  |  comments
Charles Lloyd turns 82 tomorrow (March 15th). Two years ago, to celebrate his 80th, Dorothy Darr, his wife/manager and herself an artist, threw a year-long party for him and as a present made him work.

Lloyd and his group toured, with each stop a celebration. On his birthday the entourage pulled into his hometown of Santa Barbara, California and performed at the 150 year old Lobero Theater.

The annotation notes that Lloyd has played there more often than any other venue and more often than any other performer, so it was a true homecoming celebration with “kindred spirits” on-stage and in the audience.

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Album Reviews
Chasing the Dragon : A Man and His Microphones
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 04, 2014  |  comments
Recording engineer Mike Valentine produced and recorded an old-fashioned audiophile demo disc using 50 year old Neumann tube microphones and a high resolution Nagra digital recorder all connected together with ZenSati cables from Denmark. One track was recorded using a 1/2" Studer analog deck running at 30 IPS.

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