Copper

Montréal Audio Fest

The 2019 edition of the Montréal Audio Fest took place over the weekend of March 22-25th, and, since I reported on last year’s event, I thought I might trot out...

Real Religious Fervor

Real religious fervor: what do I mean by using that term, when I’m writing about music? Nominally, I suppose one could take it to mean anything that I like. But...

Eine kleine zuviele Nachtmusik

This is about Mahler and his Seventh Symphony. Which means, I guess, that it’s about everything. More than anyone else, Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) set out to depict huge chunks of the universe...

New York Stories

Party. New York in the late seventies was run-down, crime-ridden, and affordable. We lived in the village; as many businesses had failed, people could rent one of the abundant industrial...

Credit? What's Next---Money??

Last issue’s Audio Cynic discussed the ongoing battle to gain musicians and composers reasonable payment for the use of the work, primarily by streaming services. For every step forward in that battle—like...

Violin Plus One

Or two, or six. There’s no end to what you can do, and with whom. Today we check out recent releases that feature at least one violin up front. Beethoven wrote...

Laura

Years ago my daughter, wife, and I took a trip to Cabo San Lucas–a resort town in Mexico, and a tourist’s nightmare. At every turn, hordes of people assault you,...

Monty Python's 3rd Symphony

“He’s done something no other composer has attempted. He’s placed himself at the center of his work. He gives us a glimpse into his soul. I expect that’s why it’s...

Sean Costello

At times in everyone’s life someone comes along that thoroughly pisses you off. Think of the night Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend, along with a few other guys like John...

The Qobuz Diaries

I spent a week, since the last issue, in the hospital. (Don’t ask! I’ll tell soon enough.) This is the second week in just over a month that I’ve had...

Why Can't America Produce a Great Rock Band? (t...

One afternoon, while I was writing a Beatles article for Goldmine magazine, I started to ponder the issue of the world’s most important and influential rock bands. These are the bands that...

Jefferson Airplane

When Marty Balin turned a San Francisco pizza joint into a music club, he was just hoping to have a place to play folk rock with friends as inspired by...

Lee Morgan: Eight Great Tracks

[FYI: from Columbia University’s Jazz Glossary—yes, there is such a thing: “Also ‘trading fours,’ etc. Soloists taking turns at improvising, playing for eight (or four, etc.) bars at a time.” I’d...

John Prine

If you google The Voice of Our Generation what pops to the top is Lena Dunham. Not only does it bug me that google has become a verb but I...

The Cult of Bruce (and Why I'm Not a Member)

Certain bands maintain a following that is so rabid that, when trying to discuss any criticism, they have the need to bulldoze over anything other then total devotion. Loving the...

Mark Hollis

On February 25th of this year, the music world lost one of its most influential, mercurial, obstinate, and singular voices. Mark Hollis, of the band Talk Talk, has made some of the...

Vintage, Vintage Whine

There was a time in my life, not so long ago, when I spoke to longtime writers and editors who described the experience of cranking out an article in a...

How I Became an Audiophile

My earliest memories of listening to recorded music go back to when I was a child living in what seemed like an enormous house on an even more enormous farm...

The Mikado

Our great Mikado, virtuous man,when he to rule our land beganresolved to try a planwhereby young men might best be steadied.So he decreed in words succinctthat all who flirted, leered,...

Johann Adolf Hasse

When your wife is a famous soprano and your best friend is Europe’s most sought-after librettist, you’re likely to have one heck of an opera-writing career. That certainly held true...

Reaching Inside

Bear with me; I’m going to talk about myself — again. I’ve been somewhat ill lately and in between bouts of sleep, left with a bit of time to think...

Mix A vs. Mix B, Redux

In the dark, dim past, on a dark and stormy night, Bill Bottrell would rant to anyone who would listen (usually just me) about Mix A and Mix B. As...

Van Cliburn

In 1958, the Soviet Union announced its “First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition”. The idea was to showcase that, in addition to being superior to the west in technology and military...

Jackson Browne

From mourning dying love affairs to raging against the political machine, Jackson Browne has found countless ways to express his discontent in song. Given his huge popularity in the ʼ70s...

Any Way You Want It

Arite…let’s get it out of the way, shall we? Journey is friggin’ AWESOME! That’s where we are going to start with this session of Hand Picked. If you think differently, then it...

Did the Grammys Ever Matter?

Somewhere in the hazy past, I wrote that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. The cynical part of me thinks that the rosy glow with which we surround many...

New Old Stock

Newbies to the audio world encounter a lot of puzzling terminology, some of which seems oxymoronic. One such term that took me a while to understand is NOS—New Old Stock....

Issue 79

Red Hot Chili Peppers

A bass player named Flea is the group’s most stable member. But, despite all their drug-related traumas and personnel turnover, Red Hot Chili Peppers endure, still heating up the airwaves...

Hong Kong

On my many visits to China, I always make a point of going through or leaving from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a western sea of tranquility amongst the tumult...

I Hate...(Fill in the Blank)

When I’m introduced as Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister at parties or social events, the first question I’m asked is, “So what music are you listening to these days?”...

Purcell’s King Arthur

Merlin waves his Wand; the Scene changes, and discovers the British Ocean in a Storm, AEolus in a Cloud above: Four Winds hanging, &c. . . . AEolus ascends, and the four Winds fly off....