We both, brothers-in-C37, are celebrating 6th anniversary after the daring rescuing of our tape machines from the hands of a Swiss villain 😉
In glorious mono, I’d better say: it’s like listening to this wonderful music for the first time!
A very good one… spinning now!
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It's not a matter of knowledge, it's a feeling deeper than the heart.
It's like a heart within a heart. A heart like a Russian doll, one of those dolls nested inside another.
We have a heart in our chest that allows us to make a lot of mistakes, that allows us to err joyfully, and then, inside this heart, we have another, much more solid, much more precious, into which those we love enter once and for all.
And, once they're in, they never leave, even when we die. Even when we die, there's something that continues, endlessly.
C. Bobin - "Illuminate what you love without touching its shadow."
Traditional jazz? Naaaah: Pure Energy!
Which sounds better?
Well, the awesome recording is the true winner, but the 45 rpm edition is insane in terms of explosive dynamics and lifelike size and weight of the instruments… the mono is also an experience in itself, as the soundstage is ultra-wide, center to out L & R speakers… and the “Panoramic” hype on cover is quite appropriate and not out of place.
A masterpiece and a must-have in any edition.
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TTG Studios is where "The Mirror Man Sessions" ( officially the second album recorded, though it wasn't released until after TMR). I forgot just how massively large that room was! There was a vocal booth, which Don used on certain cuts where he interacted with the band ( Tarotplane, Mirror Man, Gimme Dat Harp...etc). They turned it sideways and set up a small amp for him to play harp and Simran Horn through. It was a 16 channel recorder -- one of the first. Even Sunset Sound ( where "Sho Nuff" was recorded) was 8-track, and we moved to RCA for the rest of SAM was recorded, which was a 4-Track studio. Suddenly, we walked into a control room that had an IMMENSE sound that was so impressive. Ami Hadani ( which I mis-pronounced for years as "Ami Andante") was our engineer (although I often felt that he should have been "co-producer" as his knowledge of the board and outboard gear is what got the sound). I remember Don mentioning to me that he was a member of the Israeli Army and sometimes was called to battle. Don had a 7 1/2 inch rough mix of the masters and he loved playing it, because the sound was so good. Although the internet information states the recording as "April 1971," Mirror Man Sessions was actually recorded in November of 1967 for Buddah Records -- about six months after Safe As Milk. It was a giant leap in structure for the band, of course. The idea was to split the group into two personas- "Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band," and "Twenty-Fifth Century Quaker." The latter would be the warmup act- coming out dressed in Quaker costumes; playing the more improvised blues jams, and the latter would follow in more colorful costumes; playing the more "arranged" compositions ( On Tomorrow, Trust Us, Safe as Milk). The album was supposed to be called "It Comes to you in a Plain Brown Wrapper" ( as a satire on how pornography used to be sent through the mail ) with the words "Strictly Personal" stamped on the front, along with the addresses of "both bands." Krasnow kind of achieved this later on, with the release of the later-recorded "Strictly Personal;" a re-recording of some of the same material hastily done at Sunset Sound Studios the following year, just before a major U.K. tour. My head was spinning by this time, as Don has already walked off stage at Mt. Tamalpais "Fantasy Fair," then recorded an album ( Mirror Man ) that Buddah seemed to view as "unfit for release," then we re-recorded it and took off for a six week tour right after two intense weeks in the studio, and then, Krasnow flew over to the U.K. and took all our earnings from the tour to start Blue Thumb Records and release "Strictly Personal" without our knowledge, leaving us with no money to pay hotel and tour expenses. After the tour, the final solution was to sign with Zappa. The first intention was to re-record the material from "The Mirror Man Sessions" once again, but then Krasnow released "Strictly Personal" and a "Plan B" was created. Don decided to write an entire album with the use of a piano (having seen FZ composed all his music thusly) and, suddenly, I was transcribing music like a poor man's Ian Underwood. Ian, of course, was a schooled musician with TONS of training, and I was but a former marching band player, so my skills were seriously limited, which Don didn't probably realize.
Long Story short, TMR was a vast and risky experiment that paid off by being critically - acclaimed, but still put the majority of people off who heard it. I like to brag that I helped arrange an album that could clear out a room in minutes, so it was great as a "The Party's Over" album. My only regret in this post is that I couldn't find a photo of us dressed in our Quaker outfits. They came from "Western Costume Company," along with the Simran Horn, the "Man from Planet X" mask, and the other strange attire which we wore on the foldout of "Strictly Personal," which, for the record, came from the photo shoot for "Mirror Man." Confused yet? My first three years with Beefheart seemed like ten turbulent years.
I asked AI who mastered and cut lacquer for the Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors album:
The mastering and lacquer cutting for the original 1977 release of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was handled by Ken Perry at Capitol Mastering (often identified by the "KP" etching and "MASTERED BY CAPITOL" stamp in the dead wax of original pressings).
Because Rumours is one of the best-selling albums of all time, it has been remastered and recut many times. Depending on which version you own, the credits may differ:
Original 1977 Mastering
* Engineer: Ken Perry
* Studio: Capitol Mastering
* Identification: Look for "KP" and "Mastered by Capitol" in the runout groove.
Notable Audiophile Remasters
If you have a modern high-fidelity reissue, it was likely cut by one of these industry legends:
* **Steve Hoffman & Kevin Gray (2011): Widely considered the "definitive" sounding version. They cut the 45 RPM and 33 1/3 RPM versions at AcousTech Mastering using the original 30ips master tapes.
* Chris Bellman: Cut the lacquer for the 2009/2011 33 1/3 RPM Warner Bros. reissue and the more recent Rumours Live (2023) at Bernie Grundman Mastering. (Look for "CB" in the dead wax).
Production Background
While Perry handled the final "cut" for the vinyl, the album's iconic sound was shaped during the recording and mixing process by:
* Ken Caillat (Engineering/Production)
* Richard Dashut (Engineering/Production)
* Lindsey Buckingham (Production/Arrangement)
Would you like me to help you identify a specific pressing you
have based on the etchings in your record's runout groove?
That’s TD-9’s tachometer 😳
Yes, B3 and B4 are blown and B6 isn’t original… but that’s haute horlogerie not audio 💫
One day in New York, Oliver Sacks attends a meeting organized by a drummer with about thirty people with Tourette's syndrome: everyone appears to be gripped by contagious tics, which spread "like waves." Then the drummer begins to play—and as if by magic, the group follows suit with their drums, blending into perfect rhythmic synchrony. This astonishing example is just one particular variant of the prodigy of "neurogamy" that occurs whenever our nervous system "marries" that of those around us through the medium of music. Presenting this and many other cases with his customary ability to empathize, in "Musicophilia" Sacks explores the extraordinary neural robustness of music and its connections with the functions and dysfunctions of the brain. Auditory hallucinations, amusia, disharmony, musicogenic epilepsy: what disruptions in the two-way connection between the senses and the brain cause them?
As always, the investigation of the anomalous sheds light on opposing phenomena: perfect pitch, phonographic memory, musical intelligence, and above all, the love of music—a love that can flare up suddenly, as in the memorable case of the doctor who, struck by lightning, is assailed by an "insatiable desire to listen to piano music," to play, and even to compose. Thanks to the testimonies of Sacks's patients, we thus find ourselves reconsidering fascinating questions from a new perspective, and we witness the successes of music therapy in formidable testing grounds such as autism, Parkinson's disease, and dementia. From the mysterious musical dreams that inspired Berlioz, Wagner, and Stravinsky, to Nabokov's possible amusia, to the rediscovery of "the enormous, often underestimated, importance of having two ears": each story Sacks gives voice to illuminates one of the many ways in which music, emotion, memory, and identity intertwine, and define us.
Oliver Sacks's "Musicofilia" is back in the Biblioteca Adelphi series. Translated by Isabella Blum.
The japanese footstool (from the words of someone who knew him)
My mentor and teacher was Siegfried Behrend (1933 – 1990), who, like Julian Bream, enjoyed a worldwide career.
He once told me the following story: In the 1960s or the early 1970s, Bream had a concert date in Berlin. On the day of his arrival he realized that he had forgotten his footstool.
The organizer immediately knew what to do: He knew Siegfried Behrend, who in this time was living in Berlin, went to him and asked him to lend Bream a footstool. Behrend gave him a traditional footstool that he had brought with him from a bathhouse in Japan (Furo-isu (風呂いす) or Hinoki), which Bream was allowed to keep as a gift. Bream did'nt know these benches and was - as Behrend said - absolutely thrilled with the small wooden bench and continued to use it in his performances - as it also can be seen here in the photo out of this time.
Another note: Despite all the differences between the two, Behrend admired Bream without any envy as a “great master of the guitar” and “a consummate an beautiful musician” whose recordings he always enjoyed listening to and admiring.
What a long and winding road has been.
Hope I humbly shared something worth in all these 19 years.
Thanks for following… we grown together, actually.
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"𝗟𝗔 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗔", recorded live 31 years ago today on February 13th in 1995.
It was the first recital ever given by an improvising musician in the world’s most famous opera house: Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
The concert – an instant press sensation – comprises two moving sets of solo improvisation, and Jarrett’s most loved encore: the classic tune "Over the Rainbow."
… and most important, for me: I was seated in 6th row that evening in Milan, on premium seats which costed to me an imposing sum of money… but the concert was an historic one and on my personal podium… and I’m applauding at KJ’s genius, too.
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