Trumpeter and composer Blanchard joins forces with his regular quintet to deliver an album of covers and originals combining plenty of funk and groove, along with lush, deep washes of sound and moments of sparkling musical genius. Executive producer here is Blue Note president Don Was, and the material ranges from a soulful version of Hank Williams’s ‘I Ain’t Got Nothing But Time’ to the take on Coldplay’s ‘Midnight’ used to close the set. The sound ranges from the stripped down to the near-orchestral, with Blanchard’s instrument always sounding glorious, and the band – Donald Ramsey on bass, Oscar Seaton on drums, guitarist Charles Altura and Fabian Almazan – has that intuitive ability to break free and bounce the tunes around when required. Mixed sample rates notwithstanding [see Lab Report, below], this is one superb-sounding album.
So, why Space Squid? Drummer/composer Bill Stewart says ‘I like the sound of the title and I am slightly fascinated with squid and octopus. They can also be delicious’. With that out of the way it’s also worth knowing that, according to German label Pirouet, he ‘reaches for the sky and plumbs the depths with a group of like-minded musical explorers’. Hmmm… Joined here by Seamus Blake on sax, Bill Carrothers on piano and bassist Ben Street, and recorded at Sear Sound in New York, Stewart serves up ten original tracks, closing with a downbeat take on ‘Dancing In The Dark’.
Kaufmann and Puccini – how could anyone resist, when his vocal artistry is so complete? He floats a line with infinite care then expands dynamics to meet every theatrical demand. Terrific warm backing from Pappano too. And the production adds variety by changing vocal perspectives for soloists and chorus – occasionally, though, I found Kaufmann almost too forward and spread. Every Puccini opera is represented with these arias except, of course, the all-female Suor Angelica.
One of the most prestigious venues in the world, this concert hall in Manhattan has played host to such luminaries as The Beatles, Martin Luther King and Maria Callas. Steve Sutherland takes you to the heart of the live music experience at Carnegie Hall
A little over a decade ago, the comic actor David Walliams was interviewing Liam Gallagher's brother Noel for the now-defunct Observer Music Monthly and Noel told him this story about how the Gallagher bros happened to be at a Spinal Tap show taking place for charity at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York.
From '60s rioters to '80s ravers, generations of music lovers have gathered beneath the chandeliers of this capacious seaside venue to see and hear their heroes perform. Steve Sutherland heads for the lights of Blackpool for tales from the Empress Ballroom
You may have read recently about a chap named Adrian Cox, a train driver from Bournemouth, who appeared in the papers when he blew two grand hiring a print of Monty Python's Life Of Brian to show friends and family at his local, condemned ABC cinema in celebration of his 51st birthday.
Welcome to the AVTech Awards for 2015/16, the distillation of knowledge from the UK’s trio of premium AV magazine brands – Hi-Fi Choice, Home Cinema Choice and Hi-Fi News & Record Review. Collectively we test and review more hi-fi, TV and home theatre equipment than any other organisation in the UK, with hundreds of pages of editorial content published every month.
Our Awards are informed by this pool of experience which stretches from earbuds and headphones to flagship high-end floorstanding loudspeakers; from 4K TVs to state-of-the-art projectors; from universal disc players, media streamers, USB DACs and headphone amps to turntables, integrated and pre/power amplifiers and every black box and cable in between. So whether you are a diehard stereo or AV home theatre enthusiast, or a progressive consumer looking for the ideal ‘connected’ system, let the AVTech Awards be your guide to the best that’s available.
Calling your début duo album Juvenile might seem like asking for critical trouble, but in the case of this lovely inventive set by pianist Böhm and guitarist Scholly it seems more self-deprecating, such maturity do both performers display. With instruments stripped down and exposed, and no rhythm section for support, they nevertheless weave intriguing sonic pictures. Not only does this set offer demonstration-quality sound throughout, it also captivates with the endlessly inventive handling of the eight original tracks and one cover – a beautifullyre-sketched ‘Georgia On My Mind’ – and the way the two seamlessly swap the roles of soloist and accompanist within tracks, showing masterful interplay and understanding. On the surface it may seem like ‘audiophile jazz’, but give it the attention it deserves and this unusual album is likely to become a firm favourite.
Recorded in 1973 for BASF, and for a long time one of those unavailable and therefore sought-after albums, this studio set may not see Pass at his flamboyant best, but it comes up fresh in this DSD release. It’s a rather laid-back set by the guitarist, backed by bass player Eberhard Weber and Kenny Clare on drums, meaning this collection, mainly of standards, is in pretty safe hands. However, there are flashes of the famous Pass style, notably in the improvised ‘Joe’s Blues’ and a samba’d-up take on the perennial ‘Ode To Billy Joe’, and while the version of ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy’ here may not be the stompiest you’ll ever hear, there’s still much to enjoy. The balance is much as you’d expect, with Pass’s guitar prominent, but there’s also fine extension and definition in the bass and drums, making this a cleanly recorded, if not actually challenging, set.
48kHz/24-bit WAV/FLAC/ALAC, naimcd198 (supplied by www. naimlabel. com)
Those most familiar with Sabina Sciubba’s breathy vocals on the well-known Meet Me In London set with Antonio Forcione [HFN Apr ’12] are in for a surprise: on this solo album the voice is harder-edged, and the whole concept reminiscent of everyone from Nico to Marianne Faithfull. From the off, this is an album designed to grab the attention with the impact of its sound, which is hard-hitting in a lo-fi way, with everything from thin, vintage-sounding vocals to hard-working percussion, all of which can sound catchy at times, and just plain annoying at others.
48kHz/24-bit WAV/FLAC/ALAC*, naimcd215 (supplied by www. naimlabel. com)
Any compilation album from a label’s roster of artists is always going to be as much a grab-bag as an introduction to what’s on offer, and that’s certainly true of this package – despite the title, very far from the Naim Label’s first such selection. As editor PM notes in his brief lab report below, that also makes for a variety of sources for the recordings, from CD to true 48kHz/24-bit, but more striking is the jolts of musical style, as Neil Cowley’s cinematic, percussive piano trio jazz gives way to Sabina’s Left Bank oddness, and then the soulful sound of label stalwarts Phantom Limb or the calculated grunge of Huey And The New Yorkers.
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