Kosmos G's Elektrik Teke

My latest Vinyl Anachronist music review is now live at Perfect Sound Forever. You can read it here.

FLAX 2020--A La Carte Productions, Spendor, Chord, SME, VPI, Vienna Acoustics

My latest show report from the 2020 Florida Audio Expo is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

McIntosh Labs MCD600 SACD/CD Player Review in Part-Time Audiophile

My review of the McIntosh MCD600 SACD/CD player is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Linear Tube Audio Z10 Integrated Amplifier Review

My review of the stunning yet affordable LTA Z10 Integrated is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

The Occasional Buyers Guide for 2019

The new 2019 Buyers Guide for The Occasional is now live! You can download a copy of this PDF right here.

The Occasional Podcast--At the Capital Audiofest

The Occasional Podcast is now live at Part-Time Audiophile, with Scot Hull, Eric Franklin Shook, Dave Sinclair, Grover Neville, Jameson Mourafetis and yours truly discussing the best rooms at CAF. You can listen here.

CAF 2019--Daedalus Audio, WyWires, LTA, VPI, Soundsmith

My latest show report from the 2019 Capital Audiofest is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Alex Cuba's Sublime

My latest Vinyl Anachronist music review is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Dr. Feickert Analogue Firebird Turntable

My review of the Dr. Feickert Analogue Firebird turntable is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

RMAF 2019--Friday's Highlights

My latest show report from the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Sonus Faber Olympica Nova I and "Press Day" | RMAF 2019

My first show report from the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Sonus Faber Olympica Nova I Review

My review of the Sonus Faber Olympica Nova I loudspeakers is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. You can read it here.

Peter Lin's New Age Old Ways

My latest Vinyl Anachronist review is now live at Part-Time Audiophile. This one discusses Peter Lin and his new album, New Age Old Ways, which adds Taiwanese influences to classic bebop. You can read it here.

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.

Ashley Pezzotti's We've Only Just Begun

I keep mentioning the trends in contemporary jazz, but I'm never sure if they're real trends of just my hyped-up and insular reaction to the way I receive the latest music releases. To me, it always seems like they arrive in genre groups--big band, tango, free jazz, female voice, etc. Over the last couple of weeks we've circled back to women jazz singers tackling the Great American Songbook, and I have quite a few to review. Many of these singers employ the same approach--they surround themselves with the best musicians and then let their voices do the...er, talking. I'm starting off with Ashley Pezzotti and her new album We've Only Just Begun because she's sort of a touchstone for what follows. She has a classic jazz voice from the sweet and angelic side of the street, and the arrangements of her quartet are honorable, precise and authentic.

Yesterday I wrote another review for Part-Time Audiophile which will appear in a couple of days, one of those vault discoveries that's been hiding out for fifty years from singer Jeanne Lee. Lee took so many chances, and her vocals are challenging because they deconstruct the norms of the jazz chanteuse. Pezzotti represents the opposite tack since she's someone who can take you back to a time where sheer beauty was valued beyond all else in jazz. Both styles are valid, and you need one to appreciate the other. But that aforementioned sweetness is what gets to me when I listen to Pezzotti's voice, a pure sound full of that elusive inner light, all without attempts to do something that has never been done before. Crossing frontier lines is noble, but there are simply times when you want to stay home and be comfortable and feel loved.

If I remove all the flowery language and big words, I find that I'm smitten with her voice. At just 23 years old, Pezzotti still knows how to find the joy in songs such as, well...here's the thing. Many of these songs are not from the GAS, but "inspired" by them. That's Pezzotta's one-two punch, that she wrote many of these songs and made them sound just like those jazz standards. In a way, she tricked me, and I'm impressed. It's her voice that sells this idea, however, that she's smart enough to make old guys like me feel dumb. Are you sure you're only 23? It takes an old soul to create this type of magic.

When I looked further into her quartet I expected a bunch of old vets, ones who could help her cast this spell. To my surprise, these four--sax player Alex Weitz, pianist Emmet Cohen, bassist Bob Bruya and drummer Kyle Poole--look young as well. I shouldn't keep focusing on youth, even though the album's title seems to emphasize it. Perhaps the clue is in Pezzotta's childhood where she started voice lessons at the age of four. That means she's going on twenty years of experience, which provides a much better perspective for the richness of her delivery. When performers this young are this seasoned, it's satisfying to know that they have decades of music-making in their future, and we can all sit back and enjoy the simple pleasure of beautiful music. That is, in essence, the joy of jazz.

Coming Changes to The Vinyl Anachronist Blog

I'm experimenting with a change to this blog, which will probably happen over the next week.

As my duties increase as a contributing writer to Part-Time Audiophile and as Managing Editor of The Occasional, PTA's quarterly magazine, I'm making an effort to consolidate everything I write. That means I will be publishing all my music reviews in a special section on the PTA website. All this means is that my reviews will have a much bigger reach, while hopefully generating more web traffic for my paid gig. (This blog is, as I've mentioned, for glory and not for money.)

I will continue to use this blog as a way to direct readers to the articles on PTA and elsewhere, and perhaps to make a few goofy personal asides. But I came to this decision for several reasons. First, everyone's been asking me why I still do the blog when I obviously have a more lucrative venue for publication. Second, the musicians I cover deserve more exposure than I can provide on my modest little blog.

For you, the reader, it should only involve an extra click to read the reviews. Perhaps, over time, readers will know to go directly to the PTA site instead of going here first--if the Google numbers reflect this trend, this blog may go bye-bye. We'll see. But until then, I hope my dedicated blog readers follow me to my new home. Thanks!

CAF 2018: ModWright Instruments, Fritz Speakers and Oh, It's You Again

Here's another show report from the Capital Audiofest--ModWright Instruments and Fritz Speakers. You can read about it here at Part-Time Audiophile.

Part-Time Audiophile: YG Acoustics Sonja XV and Dan D'Agostino Relentless Monoblocks

Here's the reason why I went to San Diego a couple of weeks ago--to see the North American debut of the $265,900/system YG Acoustics loudspeakers and the $250,000/pair Dan D'Agostino monoblock amplifiers at Alma Audio! You can read all about it here.

CAF 2018: Just Audio and Our Glorious Past

Man, I love '70s receivers. At the Capital Audiofest, local hi-fi repair and restoration specialists Just Audio put up an exhibit that gave me goosebumps! You can read about it here at Part-Time Audiophile.