AXPONA 2019: Marc's Wrap Up

My final show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile, with my picks for best sound and more. You can read it here.

And now, I'm off to Munich for the biggest hi-fi show on earth!

AXPONA 2019: Bricasti Design and Tidal

My latest report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. I think this is the last one, other than my wrap-up and best-of-show. This one covers the Bricasti Design and Tidal loudspeakers room, which was predictably awesome. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: AudioQuest, McIntosh and B&W

My latest show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one covers another AudioQuest room, this time with McIntosh and B&W. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: AudioQuest, Vandersteen and Channel D

My latest show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one covers AudioQuest, Vandersteen and Channel D in a very big room. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Danville Signal Processing and Hollis Audio Labs

My latest show report for AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one covers my friends Al and Lori Clark, who run the digital audio firm Danville Signal up in Minnesota. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Luxman and Triangle

My latest show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one is about Luxman and Triangle, and you can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Mofi, Wharfedale and Quad

My next AXPONA 2019 show report is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one is about MoFi Distribution, and a very exciting new $1600 speaker that was one of my favorites. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Kirmuss Audio

Another AXPONA 2019 show report is live on Part-Time Audiophile--this one about a fascinating and affordable new record cleaning machine from Kirmuss Audio. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Spatial Audio, LTA and ANTICABLES

My latest Part-Time Audiophile show report from AXPONA 2019 in Chicago features three of my favorite brands that I didn't know existed until about a year ago: Spatial Audio, Linear Tube Audio and ANTICABLES. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Amped and Acoustique Quality

My latest AXPONA 2019 show report for Part-Time Audiophile is now live. This one's about Amped, Acoustique Quality and other new brands distributed by my friend Boris Meltsner. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: BorderPatrol, Triode Wire Labs and Volti Audio

Another show report from AXPONA 2019 for Part-Time Audiophile...this one on the panoramic systems from BorderPatrol, Volti Audio and Triode Wire Labs. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Tweak Studio and Dragonfire Acoustics

My latest AXPONA 2019 show report for Part-Time Audiophile is now live. This one covers a new desktop computer audio system that sounded impressive. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: EgglestonWorks, Primare and Tenacious Sound

My latest show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one is centered around the wonderful new EgglestonWorks Nico EVO speakers. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: McGary Audio and Salk Sound

My latest show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one covers McGary Audio and Salk Sound, two relatively unfamiliar brands that made a huge impression on me. You can read it here.

Jay Anderson's Deepscape

I've been on the road for the last couple of weeks, first to a wedding in Honolulu that I dubbed the Blood Diamond Wedding since it was absolutely beautiful and perfect and ambitious in so many ways and yet some lives may have been lost. (The Cecil B. DeMille joke in Blazing Saddles is my favorite.) Then I flew all the way back to JFK, the new non-stop from NYC to Honolulu, drove down to Connecticut to pick up Lucy, drove back to Rochester, got up the next morning and drove to Chicago and covered the AXPONA 2019. Now I am home, sick as a dog with a chest cold. Is this the Honoluluflu, or is it just another trade show virus? At any rate, I've rested the last couple of days and wasn't really listening to music--my head was too congested and nothing sounded right.

Today, something sounded really right, and it's this new CD from bassist Jay Anderson called Deepscape. This is a sparse work, mostly made up from improvisations between Anderson, sax and clarinet player Billy Drewes, cornet player Kirk Knuffke, drummer Matt Wilson, harmonium player Frank Kimbrough and percussionist Rogerio Boccato. This is a diverse world up on stage, a flexible crew who seem to have a deep knowledge of various jazz sub-genres, and yet they create vast amounts of space between the performances so that your mind wanders from musician to musician, catching up on all the conversations that are going on at the same time.

Anderson has been a jazz mainstay since the '90s, performing with the Woody Herman Orchestra, Toots Thielemans, Lee Konitz and wait a minute...Bowie and Chaka Khan and Zappa and Tom Waits and even Celine Dion? Wow. He includes a couple of Keith Jarrett jams that set up the structure throughout, long and singular improvisations that can only be heard right here, this way. He builds quartets and quintets and then tears them down and starts again with a simple duet. It's an approach that sends you back on your heels once or twice because it sounds so new and familiar at the same time, but much of the time the music seems to be waiting for another element to join, but that element doesn't arrive because the music is set up to observe the absence of the one. That's a world apart from needing something more. This doesn't.

That's digging deep into these improvisations, which is why Deepscape can be an intellectual exercise as much as an hour of sparkling, dynamic jazz. There are some brash ideas here, floating in a sea of math. You might find yourself thinking too much about Deepscape while you're listening to it. It gives you plenty to chew on in terms of time signatures and the mysteriously austere arrangements. That doesn't mean you won't get swept away by Anderson and his persistently imaginative bass playing--and his strangely new style of jazz improv.

AXPONA 2019: Fern & Roby, LTA

My latest show report from AXPONA 2019 is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one's about Fern & Roby and LTA, two brands that are new to me but have totally impressed me. You can read it here.

AXPONA 2019: Unison Research, Opera and Fidelis AV

My first show report from AXPONA 2019 in Chicago is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This is about my past life as an importer and distributor, and how friendships have carried over into my new role as a journalist. You can read it here.