Copper
Sam Rivers: Free Jazz Trailblazer
When Sam Rivers (1923 – 2011) was growing up in Oklahoma, he often heard his father singing gospel music. The elder Rivers had been a member of the celebrated Fisk...
Octave Records’ New Album, Temporary Circumstances
Octave Records has just released its second album, Temporary Circumstances by singer/songwriter/pianist Jessica Carson and the band Clandestine Amigo. Featuring Jessica’s reflective songs about lost love, resilience and even defiance against the...
Interview With Gary Gottlieb of the Audio Engin...
Unlike other scientific fields that are related to physics, the products that result from audio engineering can often be said to have an almost magical component that makes the fusion...
Copenhagen
Hi Dad, we just managed to get a booking for Noma in Copenhagen. Would you like to join us?” My son Ilan is a chef and one of the things...
How Hi Would You Like Your Fi?
“High Fidelity” is an ambiguous term. How much Fidelity is required to be considered High Fidelity? “Fidelity” in a listening system refers to its ability to reproduce sound that is...
Todd Rundgren’s Nearly Human
Over the years, Newport, Rhode Island has been home to many of my life’s best memories. No trip to town was ever complete without a pop in to The Music...
One Step Beyond and Going With the Go-Go's
The two Vietnamese gals that were hanging out backstage asked me what I had in my briefcase. Contracts, travel itineraries, touring papers, that kinda stuff, I answer. “Oh, so you...
My Audio Journey, Part Two
Copper reader Adrian Wu lives in Hong Kong and has spent time in the UK and elsewhere, as you will see. He is a contributor to the Asia Audio Society...
Visión Musical: The Mavericks’ En Español
“That voice!” I had just posted the newly released video of “La Sitiera” from The Mavericks’ new album En Español on one of the forums I visited that day, and...
Three Winners, and an Interestingly Odd Remake ...
John Coltrane – Giant Steps (60th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition – 2020 Remaster) Giant Steps was recorded in May of 1959, right on the heels of Coltrane’s exit from Miles Davis’ first great...
Quilter Labs' and QSC Audio's Pat Quilter, Part...
Founded in 1968 as Quilter Sound Company, QSC Audio has grown to become one of the most recognized global names in sound reinforcement. In Part One (Issue 118) and Part Two (Issue 119) we...
Majestic Mountains
Annapurna Massif, Nepal, looking at Annapurna I peak, 8,091 meters (26,545 feet) high. The photo was taken near the ancient Tibetan village of Phu near the Nepal-Tibet border. That is...
Name That Column Contest!
PS Audio recently launched its record label, Octave Records. (Read about Octave’s first release, Don Grusin’s Out of Thin Air, in Issue 113.) Octave will be releasing records regularly in...
A Conversation with Technics’ Bill Voss
Technics is a brand that needs little introduction to most Copper readers. Technics was once a household name in consumer electronics but eventually faded to the point where the marque...
K-tel Records: Now That’s What We Call Music!
Since the late 1990s the Now That’s What I Call Music franchise has almost single-handedly kept compact disc sales from completely falling off the ledge. The concept is a simple one. Each...
There Must Have Been Something In the Water
If the Beatles never happened, if the British Invasion never occurred, then music fans around the world would more than likely never have been exposed to some of the finest...
An Audio Journey
Copper reader Adrian Wu lives in Hong Kong and has spent time in the UK and elsewhere, as you will see. He is a contributor to the Asia Audio Society website, dedicated to...
Thomas Tallis: Music for Kings
When your job is to compose music for kings, it’s in your best interest to bow to their royal whims. That need for adaptability was particularly keen for English composer...
ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas
In 1969, songwriter and guitarist Billy Gibbons started a band with a couple of fellow Houston musicians. They named themselves ZZ Top as a tribute to bluesmen Z.Z. Hill and...
Two Hands Clapping
It was a lot of money, even with the student discount. He had never been to the symphony, let alone invested in an eighth row center orchestra seat. He wasn’t...
Home for the Pandemic
I will open with a YouTube video of the Holderness family panning the pandemic. These people are hilarious, and I recommend visiting their channel. Sometimes I feel as though...
The Next Voice You Hear
“So you had better do as you are told/you better listen to the radio.” (Elvis Costello, “Radio Radio”) Sanyo catalogued the MR2810 2-Band Radio Cassette Recorder in 1982 I received...
Acoustic Design Consultant Philip Newell, Part Two
In Part One (Issue 119), acoustical design consultant Philip Newell talked about his early years in the 1960s and 1970s, his experiences with Virgin Records and entrepreneur Richard Branson, the...
Brother Louie
“We quit!” Those are not the words I want to hear at six o’clock in the morning. Especially from these two roadies. I had already been warned that they might...
Ear Flaps Up
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brahms Back in the day, students were required to take music appreciation classes. The course generally included an introduction to...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Nine: Inconsis...
Many of us know that the sound of our stereo changes from day to day or even hour to hour. Very often the better (or more sensitive, or finicky) the...
How Products Are Made, Part 3: Validation and P...
In Part One and Part Two of this series (Issue 115 and Issue 117), Robert Heiblim took us through the particulars of the initiation and the design processes. We conclude...
Finally, A Stones Reissue Done Right, and Three...
The Rolling Stones – Goats Head Soup 2020 Deluxe Edition Late 1972 found the Stones in a period of serious transition; after the monstrous success of Exile on Main Street, they were ready...
The Munich HIGH END Show
The Munich HIGH END show or springtime for (you know who) in Germany. The following story was written in 2007. It was around my first or second visit to the HIGH...
In My Room
I wish my audio system could do this! From Electronics Made Easy, 1956. I want this. That is all. From Audio, June 1953. Guess he's not getting the gig. From...
Sound Pilot: Interview with Acoustic Design Con...
Philip Newell has been professionally involved in audio since 1966. He has done it all, from an apprenticeship in audio electronics while studying radio and television servicing, to doing live...
Patty Griffin: Finding True Purpose
Sometimes it takes a while to find your true purpose in life. Patty Griffin had just been through a divorce when she decided to try singing professionally in 1994 at...
Israel
Our friend Allan was the Sherriff of Galilee. At least that’s what we called him. In actuality he was a commander in the border police and was often called on...
An Undiscovered Guitar God, a Remake, a Reissue...
Walter Trout – Ordinary Madness Walter Trout is a blues survivor, and will turn seventy next March. He started playing in the late sixties, and spent the next two-and-a-half decades on the...
Can You Dig It?
This ad made you want to groove on a Marantz receiver, man! Circa 1973. Who knew you didn't have to go to school to be an audio engineer? Courtesy of...
It Started with a 45
I got my first transistor radio in 1961. It was cheap, made in Japan, and the brand was Lloyd’s — anybody remember that one? I couldn’t wait to listen to...
The Incredible Jimmy Smith!
When Jimmy Smith was growing up near Philadelphia in the 1930s, he taught himself to play boogie-woogie piano well enough to win a radio-sponsored contest. He discovered the joys of...
Record Store Day – An Alternative Opinion
I never really gave much thought to Record Store Day, other than to see it mentioned on the internet here and there over the years, and eventually I would become...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Eight: Too Hot...
When I was working at The Absolute Sound as Harry Pearson’s set up man in the mid 1980s through early 1990s, Goldmund was a name at the top of the high-end pantheon....
He is Lemmy, and He Played Rock and Roll
I met my friend Ned, a long-haired fry-cook at a British pub in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. He was between college and his next step in life – a toss-up...
Take 22
This is my 22nd issue of editing Copper. 22 issues of fun, hard work, passion, power outages, a moment of panic or two and many other feelings. Deadline pressure and...
Unusual Musical Collaborations and Cameos, Part...
In Part One (Issue 118) we covered Stevie Wonder and George Benson, Metallica and Lang Lang, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Adele and Paul Weller. Here we continue to look into unlikely...
Pat Quilter: Sound Reinforcement and Amp Guru, ...
In Part One (Issue 118) Pat Quilter and John Seetoo talked about the beginnings of Quilter Audio Labs and QSC Audio, the history of recorded sound, non-amplified vs. amplified live...
The Forty Thieves
I’m sitting with my sister Ellen at an outdoor coffee shop on the ocean in Venice Beach, California, and we’re talking about our dad. Hard to be exact; it had...
Sound Pilot: Interview with Acoustic Design Con...
Philip Newell has been professionally involved in audio since 1966. He has done it all, from an apprenticeship in audio electronics while studying radio and television servicing, to doing live...
Themes From a Summer Piece
The Song of the Summer is not an official title. It’s not a Grammy category, not (usually) quantifiable by chart position or mass success. Nor does it have to have...
When Dire Straits Made a Springsteen Record
There has been a lot said about the importance of Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. It was a transitional album for Bruce, taking him from beachside...