Yamaha VA-5 portable guitar-amp

 🎼

 

Whisky a Go Go

 

Farting with class and amused, too 😊😏😉🤐😂

 

… like animals 😱

😇

Garrardzilla & Analogtechnik’s Epiphany 🎼

 

Spinning first vinyl disc on Garrardzilla since last June 5th is… such an epiphany: like instantly knowing “why” I worked so hard in improving my beloved Garrard to its actual glory 🏆 and the HUGE merits of Analogtechnik’s DST15 La Scala 🥇 to get this unique sound, rich, detailed and natural.

First record I placed on the platter was the above AEoC’s… nice sounding early Japanese pressing, BUT nothing can surpass ECM US pressing mastered by Bernie Grundman 🥇

Music is the best 🎼

R.I.P. for Carla Bley

 

A giant 💔

Carla Bley 1936-2023   Carla Bley has died, aged 87, after a long illness. One of jazz’s great composers, she was a stubborn and witty individualist who heard and wrote and played things differently. “She works in many forms,” critic Nat Hentoff noted, “and her scores for big jazz bands are matched only by those of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus for yearning lyricism, explosive exultation and other expressions of the human condition.” The large ensembles, remarkable as they were, were but part of the story.   The originality of Carla’s writing was evident already in the early 1960s as musicians including Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley, Art Farmer, and George Russell began to play her pieces. Many of the tunes she wrote then have acquired the status of contemporary standards, among them “Jesus Maria”. “Ictus”, “Sing Me Softly of the Blues”, “King Korn”, “Vashkar”, and more.  “There are so many of them, each as well-crafted as pieces by Satie or Mompou—or Thelonious Monk for that matter,” as Manfred Eicher has observed. “Carla belongs in that tradition of radical originality.”   The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, of which Carla was a founder member, recorded her epic Escalator Over The Hill, described by down beat as “a masterpiece…maybe the most extensive and ambitious piece ever to come out of the jazz world.” In 1973 Carla and Michael Mantler launched the WATTlabel which would be the primary platform for her work in the 20th century, with formats ranging from duos with Steve Swallow to Very Big Band and idioms including Fancy Chamber Music, Christmas music, Dinner Music, and the Dada-esque I Hate To Sing. Her arrangements for Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra graced The Ballad of the Fallen, a 1982 ECM session with luminous settings of songs associated  the Spanish Civil War and with revolutionary movements in El Salvador, Chile and Portugal.   Carla Bley’s last albums were the ECM recordings made at Lugano’s Auditorio RSI with the exceptional group with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow: Trios, Andando el Tiempo, and Life Goes On. As well as the group interaction, each of the recordings also emphasized the unique qualities of Bley’s pianism. Carla’s relationship with the instrument she had played since the age of four was sometimes troubled. “I would rather write music than perform it,“ she would often insist. “I’m at a disadvantage when I improvise since jazz solos are instant composition and I’m a slow and thoughtful composer. By the time I’ve thought of the next note, the chorus could easily be over.” Her admirers – count us in - waved away such protests. Any hesitations in the determined search for the good notes only added a touch of drama and Zen allure to the playing.   In later years, Carla herself seemed to be reframing her reservations: “There’s nobody that plays like me — why would they?”, she asked The New York Times. “So if I’ve had an influence, maybe it would be if they decided to play like themselves. In other words, the whole idea of not playing like anybody else is a way of playing.”   She will be sorely missed.

🌸

A cool “TRE Studio Zubehor” AEG-bobbies dispenser…

 

A well-built dispenser to avoid a mess of AEG bobbies rattling around in the studio.

Pro-chopsticks with Miyagi-san

 

Resistors color-code

 

A new vented cover for mighty, cute ReVox A-40

 

This little beast gets HOT when running, so my pal Silvio - who also owns this gem - and myself made these cool, elegant covers (the original hammertone-painted cover is slots-less) with large slots to better ventilate the inside of the amplifier.

… and it works: the amp runs cooler!

Prove you’re not a robot ✅

 

Dark Side of the Moon Redux: I’m amused to death 😱

 

A disclaimer: the following is my personal opinion about Roger Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon Redux, and doesn’t affect my appreciation for his indubitable merits as a musician.

*******************************************

I admit: I loved Pink Floyd since early ‘70s when I drooled to Meddle, Obscured by Clouds, More, Ummagumma and when (original) Dark Side of the Moon was issued and, like everybody did, I bought it… well: I shouted about betrayal, as it sounded less spontaneous and freaky of its predecessors, a bit Yuppie-ish…

… but time, growing up, and increasing musical experience, I learned to appreciate it, even to love it.

I am musically omnivorous and beside continuously expanding my tastes and records collection, I continued to follow Pink Floyd and its members solo works…

I sadly followed the decades-long Roger Waters vs. David Gilmour vs. Pink Floyd diatribe, the endless poisonous world-renowned fight which doesn’t concern about Music, at all.

When I read about Roger Waters TDSOTM Redux project, my first thought was: “why?”

Two days ago I listened to RW’s “Amused to Death” and appreciated it for its qualities (songs, engineering)… then, put on my turntable platter Redux’ and… it sounded dull, pretentious, over-produced and -engineered, dynamically flat in terms of “surprise” - i.e. - original Dark Side was an aural journey, various and intriguing with awesome sound-effects, melodies and perfectly modulated compositions: a masterpiece.

Mr. Waters’ grueling deep voice and the Pink Floyd’s only-hinted melodies in the background are - simply said - boring and disturbing.

I had to hardly push myself to complete the listening of the double vinyl disc.

The above mentioned “why?”  became a strong, loud “WHY?!?” and felt a sincere sense of relief when I put the dark-tinted cover in a plastic sleeve and on a shelf.

I had to objectively think about what I experienced: a 70+ years old billionaire, whose huge ego created this monster.

Another 70+ years old billionaire, Nick Mason, still enjoying (beside his Ferraris’ and McLarens’) his bright Pink Floyd’s heritage and still loving playing, per se… well, he went on memory-lane with his Saucerful of Secrets’ project with much more class and respect for PF’s masterpieces of the past.

Mr. Waters’s anger badly goes with Art and the result it gets out of Redux is, to my ears, annoying and utterly disturbing… 

Mr. Waters signing a lottery-disc prize for fans 

His … Redux lacks any bravery of youth and studio cleverness of original Dark Side’s… for me, it’s a strong, sadly painful “no!”

My five, painful cents.

Curtains…

BASF

 

Iconic, elegant box 🥇

Lou Reed Street

That’s a peg-head!

 

The Manneirist art of Girolamo da Virchis

The richly ornamented peg-box of the cittern made in 1563 by Girolamo da Virchis, a “citeraro” from Brescia, for Archduke Ferdinand of Tirol, showing Lucretia, who is emerging from a dragon’s mouth, elegantly thrusts a dagger into her bosom from wich blood is beginning to stream. This wild jumble of horrific, ugly and beautiful features is characteristic of the Manneirist age in Europe.

Can’s Holger Czucay and Studer B62

 

Lowden & DeArmond 🥇

 

Finally, after years of search, I got “that” acoustic beefy, full-bodied, rich sound I so much loved (and still love): the sound of John Martyn, Bert Jansch and many others which used De Armond’s… this U.S.-made almost-unobtainable vintage pick-up is in an its-own class.

🎼

Gettin old with class… Joni Mitchell ❤️

 

Beloved Joni looks at her seminal “For the Roses” inner cover picture, showing a younger gloriously naked herself on a shore.

I trust she’s only thinking about her gorgeous life, without any sadness but a sense of warmth.

❤️🌸🍀❤️

🔥

 

Rescuing a fire damaged Studer C37

 

After the 🔥 fire…

… and after 500 hours-long restoration-job!

Luthier’s best guitarist friend

 

My faithful luthier for the last 45 years, now: Maestro Roberto Lanaro 🥇