50 Years of Blues at Antone's
Left to right: Clifford Antone, Doug Sahm, Albert Collins. (Photo Courtesy of Susan Antone.)
There have been venue owners who have been larger than life—Hilly Kristal (CBGB) and Doug Weston (Troubadour) come to mind—but few live-music club owners have ever lived in and for the music the way that Clifford Antone has. A Funky Donald Byrd, Live from Montreux
At this point in the vinyl revival, it's hard to believe there are many undiscovered masterpieces left that are worth discovering. Record Store Day (RSD), a much-ballyhooed source of unique and unreleased music on vinyl, has been a major spur in the drive to plumb the vaults, but even though it has an excellent reputation, most RSD unearthings have turned out to be less than essential.
The increasingly rare exceptions are to be celebrated. Here's one. Just before the year turned to 2023, on what would have been Donald Byrd's 90th birthday, a smoldering, untapped artifact surfaced after 50 years in the can.
A Verve–Third Man collaboration
So, former White Stripe and Third Man label founder Jack White has now moved into jazz? It was a question that intrigued me when I first heard about the partnership between Universal Music and White's Third Man Records, a vinyl reissue series called Verve By Request. Was Universal just a client for Third Man's relatively new LP pressing plant in Detroit, or was this a genuine collaboration? And what the hell does Jack White know about jazz?
A Year to Remember
As I sit down to write a year's-end musical retrospective, I feel that the old column-writing joke between Stereophile editor John Atkinson and myself about first needing a subject and, second, needing it to make sense, will not be a problem this time out. For me, the music and almost everything else about 2001 have been dwarfed in importance by the mayhem wreaked on New York on September 11.
Best of the Blues—from Kansas
Chad Kassem knows what it takes to make an immortal blues record. "Somebody who lived down in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, the South. They lived through it. Their story is real, and their voice is real."
The founder/owner of Analogue Productions and longtime blues true believer, Kassem's record label, mail-order warehouse, and vinyl plating and pressing plant—all headquartered in Salina, Kansas—were recently profiled in The New York Times ("The Wizard of Vinyl is in Kansas," March 5, 2025). Among his many business ventures, Kassem is part of the new Craft Recordings vinyl-reissue series of titles drawn from the Bluesville catalog, which is owned by Craft's parent company, Concord Records.
Bob (Baird) Meets Burt (Bacharach)
Back in 2003, in an uptown New York City studio, a man who epitomized cool in the 1960s waited patiently for my next question. Well into his 70s but still thin and handsome, Burt Bacharach was casually dapper in his contrasting sweater and polo shirt. In town to perform with Ronald Isley in support of their new record together, Here I AmIsley Meets Bacharach, the songwriter extraordinaire is warm and approachable, wary but unusually guileless when answering the questions of a lifelong fan of his melodies, a fan who's trying hard to be professional and hide the fact that he's utterly starstruck.
As rhythm has become predominant in pop music and melody has receded in importance, Bacharach and lyricist Hal David's brand of sleek, memorable tune craft has slipped into history. Yet despite Bacharach's death in February 2023, at age 94, their body of work is timeless.
Bruce Springsteen's Later-Career Back Catalog
Photo by Danny Clinch
Seeing Bruce Springsteen perform live in the 1970s and early '80s, pre–Born in the U.S.A., could be a life-changing experience. Bruce was the hungry leader of a relentless, turn-on-a-dime R&B band. A burning star streaking across the rock'n'roll sky, he threw his fiery young self into maximum shows full of urgency (to invoke one of his best rhymes) and those wordy, anthemic pleading/strutting urban fairy tales. He was leagues beyond almost everything and everyone else in those days.Charles Tolliver and Strata-East
The why behind most artist-owned labels tends to be a thicket of motivations. They have more adventurous tastes. They are more artist friendly. They are anxious to be the ones in charge of the money for a change. For jazz trumpeter Charles Tolliver, co-founder of the record label Strata-East, the motivation was a combination of all these factors and more.
During a break in the hectic schedule that preceded the April 2025 release of 32 reissues from the famed Strata-East catalog—including the work of Charlie Rouse, Pharoah Sanders, and Cecil McBee—I caught up with Tolliver and his son Ched, who's now in charge of the label's rebirth.
Chess Records Celebrates 75 Years
Blues giant Howlin' Wolf was recently celebrated with the launch of the Chess 75 Acoustic Sound Series, along with three other deserving blues artists. A collaboration between UME and Analogue Productions, these $40, 180gm LPs were, according to official paperwork, remastered from original analog tapes.
Cosimo Matassa, laissez les bon temps rouler in New Orleans
It's no secret that the musical history of New Orleans is rich and varied. From Buddy Bolden to a young Louis Armstrong being consigned to the Colored Waif 's Home for shooting off his stepfather's pistol on New Year's Eve, to the many pianists who accompanied the irresistible allure of Storyville, musicians and their music have forever been a key ingredient in NOLA's flamboyant DNA. Most elemental of alldid he facilitate the birth of rock'n'roll?are those honeyed days at Cosimo Matassa's humble but groundbreaking studio J&M Recording on Rampart Street (19471956). There, his infallible ears and uncanny skill placing microphones somehow imparted a raw and very real sound to early recordings of Roy Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew, Ray Charles, and my personal favorite, Smiley Lewis. Such labels as Atlantic, Mercury, Aladdin, Specialty, Chess, Savoy, and Modern sent artists to The Crescent City, hoping to glean some of Matassa's elusive magic.