One of most influential and - yes! - beloved souls on the Planet is Herbert Reichert from NYC: a painter, a writer, an audio reviewer and an Illuminati whose prose and visual artworks always are ineffable and “right” in mood, texture and meaning.
I followed Herb for decades but only met him in person in Belleme, at that awesome lunatics gathering - i.e. ETF 2019.
Herb recently visited Devon Turnbull’s horn system at Lisson, a Manhattan gallery and he - in his very own words - stated “this (78) is singularly the best recording I've ever heard anywhere anytime” after listening to the above Blue Note 78 rpm disc.
After reading his statement, pronto browsed Discogs and eBay to source a copy of the old vax with no positive results.
Curiosity made me searching on Spotify Premium I use at home and I found the crackling Summertime rendition by Sidney Bechet and his quintet: the 78 rpm (maybe the same copy as it came from Blue Note’s vaults) was presumably used as master to digitally preserve this great music and I was able to enjoy this very piece of music which so much impressed Herb.
Someone will say I had a lesser epiphany than Herb himself because I wasn’t in a Gotham City gallery looking the 78’s spinning, played by a Dynavector arm with a SPU cartridge… but… BUT… let me say that the sense of HR’s statement - also if a personal hot-declaration - was clear also on my home background music system.
The music sounded lively and not electronically altered and, well, Gershwin’s immortal melody made it even more dramatic and true to life… I immediately reminded my first feeling when listening to Nimbus’ Prima Voce disks, acoustic recordings digitally remastered from original 78s’ without compression and filtering: unbelievable clarity and presence.
So what?
I know for sure Herb’s integrity and enthusiasm were adamant in his statement, but let me say I could make several similar statements of the same content, once a week, for - say - a couple of months 😏 making people happier and richer, in the name of Music.
Our audio and music passion lives of personal and general hypes, emotional falling in love - temporarily or for the life - and I’d dare: exaggerating an intense emotion like the one Herb experienced a few days ago helps us all to broaden our knowledge and curiosity for new/old classics.
I humbly do myself, as well with friends and on a broader extent via my Blog and it’s a much welcome and common practice.
I don’t believe this elusive, sought-after 78 rpm disc will be played at next audio-fair as a demo, yet I learned about a great Summertime masterfully played.
… as a by-product the eventual, scarce copies of the disc which will appear for sale will possibly get an “audiophile disc” inflated price-tag.
Maybe…
Such a weird passion we choose (… or were we chosen by?)
Thanks to Herbert for candidly sharing his experience and feeling and kudos to Devon for his system demo 🥂
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