Records To Die For

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Rafe Arnott

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Boards Of Canada: Music Has The Right To Children
Matador OLE 299-2 (CD). 1998. Marcus Eoin, Michael Sandison, prods.

An emotronic psychedelic head-music album that defies being dated, Music Has the Right to Children eschewed late-'90s synth/electrowave norms and sentimental watercolor-painted, bleak landscapes awash in analog warmth. This music was, to me, the future from my past, and with each new listen another angle of melancholy would rise forth from deep in my chest. Created by two brothers from Scotland who pirated part of a Canadian public broadcaster's film-series title for their name, this is the album I'd use to change the mind of anyone who doesn't like electronica. It is a deep-set emotional favorite for the fading light of autumn that paints with long brush strokes of melody. I found the CD for $6 in the used section of one of my local record stores, but I just pulled the trigger on an original 2-LP pressing, from Discogs.

Philip Glass: Rework_Philip Glass Remixed
The Kora Records TKR026 (2LP). 2012. Various engs. and prods.

I was flipping through new arrivals at Red Cat Records and stopped dead when I saw "Philip Glass," "Beck," and "Amon Tobin" on an LP cover (cool magnetic filings photography). How could putting these heads together, on remixes of Glass's work, not be genius?

The album was born out of a conversation between Beck and Glass regarding artists who wanted dibs on reinventing pieces from Glass's catalog, which Beck then set out to weave together. Rework_Philip Glass Remixed has an ebb and flow like any great concept album, but it can also be broken down like pieces of a delicious pie: Each LP side is a perfect portion. As you listen, alternating patterns from the disparate renditions tug at a thread of musical awareness in your consciousness. It's as if the underlying story is being teased out in the many hypnotic beats, rhythms, synth riffs, and percussive melodies. Only 1500 white/ black vinyl copies were pressed, and 500 clear vinyl copies, so if you can find one, grab it.

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Jim Austin

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Art Pepper: Roadgame
Art Pepper, alto sax and clarinet; George Cables, piano; David Williams, bass; Carl Burnett, drums
Galaxy GXY-5142 (LP). Ed Michel, prod.; Baker Bigsby, eng.; George Horn, mastering eng.

The last time I included an Art Pepper album as an R2D4 selection, it was because of one track of great sadness—characteristic of Pepper's late, post-addiction period. There is some of that on this album, recorded live under a full moon at L.A.'s Maiden Voyage in 1981: I've never heard a more poignant rendition of "Everything Happens to Me," and that includes Chet Baker's. But here the main attraction is Pepper's clarinet on "When You're Smiling." Pepper would be dead in a year, but on this track his playing is light and fun. A pure delight.

Beck: Odelay
Geffen DGCD-24823 / B0025124-01 (CD/LP). 1996/2016. Beck Hansen, others, prods. Beck Hansen, others, engs.

It's hard to know which version to recommend, since there have been so many, and the one I prefer—the four-LP set on ORG from 2008, with an essay by Thurston Moore and student interviews conducted by novelist Dave Eggers—is out of print, and they currently sell used for $125 and up. Anyway, it's hard to justify recommending vinyl for an album that includes fake groove noise and with tracks that appear to include MP3-rez content.

I will anyway: If you do vinyl, the current Universal vinyl reissue, the 2016 20th anniversary version, is fine.

Odelay won two Grammys—Best Alternative Music Album and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance—and deserved album of the year. (It was nominated but lost out to Celine Dion's Falling into You.) But no matter: NME, Rolling Stone, and the Village Voice all gave Odelay their biggest prize.

It's an important record, containing the most interesting and extensive use of sampling up to that point, and possibly since. Artists sampled include Grand Funk Railroad, Edgar Winter, Bob Dylan, and Beck himself, among many others. What's extraordinary though, to me, is Beck's sampling fluency—it's so spontaneous and witty that it's like listening to a really clever jazz solo. To this day, when I listen to this album I laugh out loud.

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John Atkinson

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Stemmeklang: Tomba Sonora
Stemmeklang, vocals; Dag Øystein Berger, Erlend Habbestad, Katrine Pedersen, Vilde Alme, cello; Kristin Bolstad, composer.
2L 2L-155-SABD (SACD/MQA CD/Pure Audio Blu-ray; 24/44.1k MQA-encoded FLAC Tidal stream unfolded to 24/352.8k). 2019. Morten Lindberg, prod.; Morten Lindberg, eng.

In his "The Ghost in the Machine" essay in the November 2019 issue (p.146), Herb Reichert discussed how important he felt it was for a recording to capture a venue's sense of space. In a talk given at the 2019 AES Convention in New York, 2L's "onlie begetter," Morten Lindberg, discussed how he did just that with this astonishingly immersive recording, captured in DXD (24/352.8k). The women singers, accompanied by cellos on some tracks, were arranged around Lindberg's one-meter-square array of spaced omnidirectional DPA microphones in the almost sealed Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum in Norway. Even in two channels, the sense of being present in this highly reverberant space—below 100Hz, the reverb time is 22 seconds!—is palpable. To this end, composer Kristin Bolstad even changed the keys of the five works so that they maximally excited the resonant modes of the mausoleum's acoustic.

The Tidal stream is MQA-encoded, as is the CD layer on the SACD. In addition to the SACD/CD disc, the disc set includes a Pure Audio Blu-ray with a 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos version sampled at 48kHz, a 7.0.4 Auro-3D version at 96kHz, a 5.0 channel DTS version at 24/192k, and a 2.0 24/192k LPCM version. The two-channel versions, which I auditioned, were taken directly from the front left and right microphones, with no mixing of the rear and height channels console, no equalization, and no compression. That Tomba sonora still sounds enveloping is a tribute to Lindberg's rare ability to position his mikes in exactly the right places to fulfill Herb's criteria.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in B Minor ("Pathétique")
Kirill Petrenko, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR190261 (24/192k FLAC files). 2019. Olaf Maninger, Robert Zimmermann, exec. prods.; Christoph Franke, prod.; René Möller, eng.

Michael Fremer turned me on to Simon Rattle's superbly performed and recorded Beethoven symphony cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic, so when the release announcement of this Tchaikovsky Pathétique from the same orchestra appeared in my email inbox, I gave the credit card some action. Kirill Petrenko brings new life to this warhorse, recorded in 24/192k at two Philharmonie concerts in March 2017. The second movement's 5/4 waltz, in particular, benefits from his lyrical approach. The sound has superb clarity and though the perspective is relatively close, the woodwinds and brass are set sufficiently far behind the rich-sounding strings. The pedal notes on the horns rasp appropriately before the despairing close of the final movement, underscoring the emotional journey—from the dancing second movement through the joyful third movement to the resigned ending—on which Tchaikovsky, aided by Petrenko and his Berliners, has taken you.

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Larry Birnbaum

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Sun Ra: Sun Song
Sun Ra, piano, Hammond B-3 organ; Art Hoyle, Dave Young, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; James Scales, alto saxophone; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Pat Patrick, baritone saxophone; Richard Evans, bass; Wilburn Green, electric bass; Robert Barry, drums; Jim Herndon, timpani
Delmark DD-411 1957/1991 (CD). Tom Wilson, orig. prod.; Bob Koester, reissue prod.; Stephen Fassett, Will Connor, engs.

Originally recorded for the Transition label as Jazz by Sun Ra, this brilliantly arranged debut album is essentially a hard-bop session, barely hinting at outer-space excursions soon to come. Ra's mid-'50s Arkestra includes only saxophonists John Gilmore and Pat Patrick from his free-jazz future, as well as more conventionally oriented players such as trombonist Julian Priester. The opening "Brainville" anticipates the classical minimalism of Steve Reich, while the balladic "Possession" sports unusually sumptuous sonorities, and the propulsive "Future" spotlights the leader's expansive piano solo. But the musicians, even Ra himself, never quite transcend bebop, except on the cosmic "Sun Song."

Willie Colón: The Hustler
Willie Colón, Joe Santiago, valve trombone; Mark Dimond, piano; Santi González, bass; Pablo Rosario, bongos; Héctor Andrade, congas; Nicky Marrero, timbales; Héctor Lavoe, lead vocals
Fania SLPCD-347 1968/1991 (CD). Johnny Pacheco, prod.; Irv Greenbaum, eng.

The Nuyorican trombonist was still a teenager when he cut his second album, making a transition from the hybrid Latin-soul boogaloo style to Cuban-based salsa. "Boogaloo no va conmigo," sings the budding salsa superstar Héctor Lavoe on "Eso Se Baila Así"—"boogaloo doesn't go with me." "The world is coming to an end," he wails on the rollicking "Se Acaba Este Mundo," laying the blame on long-haired hippies and girls in miniskirts. Besides Lavoe's plaintive, penetrating voice, The Hustler features Mark Dimond's sparkling piano, Nicky Marrero's crackling timbales, and, not least, Colón's brash trombone, heard to slash-and-burn effect on the hard-throbbing instrumental title track.

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Thomas Conrad

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André Previn And His Pals: West Side Story
André Previn, piano; Red Mitchell, bass; Shelly Manne, drums
JVC JVCXR-0209-2 (CD). 1960/2001. Lester Koenig, prod.; Roy DuNann, eng.; Alan Yoshida, remastering.

This album is not a masterpiece. André Previn was an astonishing polymath (Oscar-winning film composer; conductor of major symphony orchestras; badass pianist), but he was not a jazz innovator. He was an irresistible popularizer and entertainer. His ecstatic versions of eight Leonard Bernstein songs swing like crazy. (Shelly Manne and Red Mitchell, of course, also kick ass.) Previn is even more seductive when he slows down and goes all rapt, like on "Tonight" and "Maria." The sound is by the great Roy DuNann. This recording is available in several formats on several labels. Spring for the JVC XRCD if you can find one.

Eric Dolphy: At The Five Spot Vol. 1
Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet; Booker Little, trumpet; Mal Waldron, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums
Prestige VDJ-1504E (CD). 1961/1986. Esmond Edwards, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.

This harsh, noisy recording preserves the raw truth of a priceless New York jazz moment in time: July 16, 1961. In the Five Spot in the Bowery, Eric Dolphy (who would live three more years) and Booker Little (who would live four more months) unleash wild beauty. Dolphy is explosive, piercing, and lyrical. On "Fire Waltz," he soars up from Mal Waldron's piano intro and flies, a glorious winged bird of prey. Little's brilliant, brassy, free, coherent lines are like those of no trumpet player before or since. The crowd sounds loose, oblivious to the fact that history is being made as they drink and laugh.