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Nothing drives Pierre out a room faster than the standard “audiophile” demo disc: well recorded, but crushingly boring music. Here are some of his favorite test discs, picked for great sound that is well beyond the audiophile classics. You may or may not like each CD’s genre, but
not one is boring, not one is less than brilliantly played!
“The musicians are top-notch, they cook as a combo, and the sound, even by Mapleshade’s standards, is sensational…a thoroughly delightful album,” says Absolute Sound. If you love real-deal swing like Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw, John’s red hot clarinet and vibes quintet is guaranteed to please.
If you’re into Coltrane, you’ll really dig Ted’s powerful, burning tenor sound. This, one of our top live recordings, captured the quartet on the last and best night of a great tour. The CD nails the gorgeously intimate ambience of that perfect, little concert hall and the raw dynamic impact of sitting three feet from those fiery young lions knocking the walls down.
Gerard locks effortlessly with his trio mates, Jay Anderson and Jeff Hirschfield. They’re one of the classic bass-drum duos in jazz, recorded on a hundred plus discs. As for Gerard, jazz greats like Nat Adderly, Zoot Sims, Mel Lewis and Red Rodney all loved his selfless accompaniment and his endlessly enchanting, melodic solos.
Brother Ah (Robert Northern), the most sought-after French hornist of the '60's gave up his horn in the early 70's to explore his vision of merging traditional music from all continents. Celebration! is the culmination of his group's spiritual 20-year journey: gorgeous all-acoustic arrangements of hand-carved African flutes, Afro-Caribbean percussion, woodwinds, guitar, and koto.
This modern, melody-rich, harmonically mesmerizing sonata for French horn passionately explores the horn's enormous range of expression. Douglas's son John, a rising young horn virtuoso, turns in an extraordinarily sensitive reading- it's obvoius their musical bonds go far deeper than the score.
The Tracking Angle raves: "...jawdropping. The track slam, the cymbals shimmer; the bass plucks, the wood resonates; the piano hammer glows...utterly authorative".
TAS says “Walrath’s horn radiates a burnished bass warmth…you can
practically see the overlapping overtones rising above the Steinway…perhaps Sprey’s best
engineering work to date.” Mellow jazz and a favorite mood CD: lyrical and powerfully moving.
Modern Drummer calls this, “A brave, inspired statement…each cut is passionate and individual.” Vivid, swinging dramas composed and passionately played by the drum virtuoso Freddy Hubbard introduced to the NY scene in the 1970s.
Bound For Sound said ,"Your basic eclectic combination of Latin percussion, South American rhythms, jazz brass and funk baritone sax...Wonderfully rhythmic and infectious...so sonically superior it's scary...Recording of Merit."
Playing the New York jazz scene together for over a decade, Paul and Santi have grown into
one of jazz’s great duos. Paul’s flawlessly warm guitar sound blends Wes Montgomery’s
bluesy soulfulness with Jobim’s Brazilian sensuality. That quiet excitement is doubled by
Santi’s big, rich-sounding bass. Bowed or plucked, Santi adds subtly swinging groove.
Striking, melodic arrangements ranging from centuries-old spirituals to modern sambas and
classic jazz ballads.
