Duke Ellington


  • Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Rock’s Overlooked Matriarch

    Beginnings in the Delta Cotton Plant, Arkansas, 1915: Nestled amidst a sea of cotton fields, this town, where the Mississippi Delta begins its stretch, bore witness to the birth of Rosetta Nubin. It wasn’t just any place; the Delta was the cradle of American music, a melting pot of African rhythms, field hollers, and church…

    Read More

  • Bassist Ron Carter: 60 Years of Jazz – and Counting

    This article first appeared in PS Audio’s Copper Magazine. According to reliable sources, bassist Ron Carter has well over 2,000 recording credits. On the majority of those he’s a sideman for other people’s albums, but it’s still a staggering sign of esteem that hundreds of the top musicians in jazz pick up the phone and call him…

    Read More

  • Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part 4

    Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl Vault. In it, I will feature select gems from my approximately 12,000 ever-growing vinyl collection, accumulated over a 45-year period and counting.

    Read More

  • The Audio Guru in his Fruit of The Loom, on the fruit of his looms (by AudioQuest, Kimber Kable, and Audience)

    Many audiophiles endorse the concept of cable looms, i.e. using the same brand of cables in their system, from the same series if possible. Alleged benefits include a sonic coherence—a synergy—that’s derived from using cables built the same way, according to the same design principles, and thereby share one “continuous” sound.

    Read More

  • Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part 1

    Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl Vault. In it, I will feature select gems from my approximately 12,000 ever-growing vinyl collection, accumulated over a 45-year period and counting.

    Read More

  • The Best of Record Store Day: Bill Evans, Behind the Dikes

    One of the leading music business stories of the 21st century is the continued discovery, sonic restoration, and release of previously unknown recordings—either from the studio or the stage. As the constant advance in digital technology has reclaimed live tapes once thought to be sonically inferior, and refreshed forgotten or leftover studio recordings, record labels,…

    Read More