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Up NextSecrets: What We’re Listening To - Spring 2023

Vince Guaraldi

Vince Guaraldi, “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, Craft Recordings, 2022, 45 RPM LP.

When you think on it, it’s really quite funny, and unexpectedly random, the way we each may discover music that has a profound and lasting effect on us. As a child, my first real exposure to classical music had to have been through watching Warner Brothers cartoons on Saturday and Sunday morning TV. Working along those same lines, it only stands to reason then that my earliest Jazz exposure came through the soundtrack of the Peanuts TV Specials. Vince Guaraldi’s music always had a charm and a depth to it that, whether by design or happenstance, perfectly fit with the cast of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts cartoons and their multi-layered personalities.

While music from the dearly loved Peanuts Specials has been released numerous times before, what makes this particular release from Craft so special is the source material. Apparently, while we were all in the midst of a pandemic, the late Lee Mendelson’s (Peanuts TV Specials Producer) family had been going through their patriarch’s extensive production archives and stumbled across the original session tapes for “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” The tapes, which were initially thought to be lost, feature Vince Guaraldi with a sextet of musicians and Composer/Arranger/Conductor John Scott Trotter. The tapes had almost all of the production music along with numerous alternate takes and music cues. A few missing takes and cues had to be sourced from alternate material but all the content on this LP is music, no dialog or sound effects are mixed in.

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The vinyl edition that I reviewed was remastered from these newly discovered session tapes and the lacquers were cut at 45 RPM by Kevin Gray at Coherent Audio. The LP itself is on 180-gram black vinyl and was free from warps or any noticeable playback issues.

The first thing I noticed when the iconic “Linus and Lucy” track came on was the clarity and the specificity of all the instruments now. Where the previous reissues of Great Pumpkin that I’d heard had almost a fuzzy, softened sort of (shoot me if I use the word “veil”) quality to them, this 45 RPM LP was as clear as daylight by comparison. Shockingly so to be honest. I could now hear into Guaraldi’s piano playing. The flute and muted trumpet were so clean sounding and easy to place in space. In the “Graveyard Theme” the brushwork on the cymbals actually sounded like brushwork on cymbals, not like the staticky-sounding mush that I remember from before. “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” now has an additional delicacy and resolution to it that utterly heightens the listening experience. It’s not cartoon music anymore. It’s proper jazz that has been fully restored to a state where it can be fully appreciated. I am so happy that I am able to hear this music as it should be. Many extra kudos to the folks at Craft on this one. It’s a keeper!

Vince Guaraldi Trio

Vince Guaraldi Trio, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (Deluxe Expanded Edition), Fantasy Records/Craft Recordings, 2 CD, 1962/2022.

And speaking of Vince Guaraldi, this album was the breakthrough of his career. The ebullient and expressive songs from this LP had the strange effect of simultaneously bringing him to wider acclaim, and years later getting him the Peanuts gig, but it also left him oddly overlooked in the whole Latin/Bossa Nova revolution of the time. Ironic since so much of those catchy Latin-influenced rhythms course through Guaraldi’s music, just not as overtly perhaps as in some of the work of his contemporaries.

This newly expanded 2CD set that I am listening to (a 24-bit/192 kHz version is available on Tidal and Qobuz) is a significant upgrade to the old CD and streaming versions of the album. The clarity and transparency of the original 8 album tracks are so much better. The ring and decay of Guaraldi’s piano notes sound richer and are more alive in presentation. Details like the brushed cymbals on “O Nosso Amor” actually sound metallic as opposed to fuzzy. “Samba De Orfeu” and “Felicidade” sound extra bouncy and joyous now. Colin Bailey’s exuberant drum solo on the latter track just shines and sounds like a real drum kit. Monte Budwig’s bass playing on both those tracks sounds, deep, big, and spacious. Even with the age of this recording, this new reissue let me feel the tension of each of Budwig’s string plucks. I recently got a pair of Sonus faber Olympica Nova V in for review and they were completely in their element playing this album. “Cast Your Fate To The Wind,” a song that many years later would come to define the Peanuts gang for my generation, sounds more regal in its original version here, with the bowed bass opening. Imaging over the original CD is so much better when compared. This CD has the sound stage extending far outside the speaker boundaries where the original sounds noticeably more constrained. The Guaraldi-penned “Alma-Ville” was always a favorite track of mine, and the interplay between piano, bass, and drums is just stellar sounding.

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The extra disc-and-change is full of mostly previously unreleased alternate takes. It amounts to extra icing on the cake and it’s a treat to experience the difference in “flavors” as the band was experimenting to get just the “right” performance.

If you want to fully get your “Peanuts freak” on this holiday season, I highly suggest you get this new expanded release of “Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus.” You know you’ll be listening to at least some of his Peanuts Christmas music in the next couple of weeks. Complete the Guaraldi circle and add in the stuff you can listen to all year long in the bargain!

Ron Carter

Ron Carter, “Finding the Right Notes”, In + Out Records, 2LP, 2022.

PBS recently released a biography film about the career of legendary bassist Ron Carter titled “Finding the Right Notes.” What I have here amounts to a “soundtrack” to said film, featuring 10 full tracks, recorded both live and in-studio, on the CD. The 2LP set features the same 10 tracks plus a bonus 13-minute live track titled “Nearly,” recorded in Stockholm, which is an extra-special treat.

Ron Carter has the distinction of being “the most widely recorded bassist of all time,” having come to prominence as a member of Miles Davis’ second quintet in the mid-sixties. After his leaving Davis’ band in 1968, Carter played with a who’s who of jazz and pop talent during stints at Blue Note and CTI records and continues an active performing and teaching schedule even now. The material on this album ranges from big band to smaller jazz ensemble format, along with a just bass duet of “Willow Weep For Me” with Christian Mc Bride. The recordings are all recent vintage, between 2014 to 2021.

I received both the CD and the 2 LP sets. Both sounded excellent with all of the tracks being well-recorded and spacious. The big band tracks like “Blues for DP” sounded especially good. Not too biting and glassy in the top end, yet still bold and dynamic. The bass quality, as you might imagine, was as impeccable as the playing, tight, substantial, and on-point. “My Man’s Gone Now” is a beautiful, moving live duet with Carter on double bass and Bill Frisell on guitar. “Sweet Lorraine” is another lovely duet, recorded in-studio this time with John Baptiste on piano. Tasteful and elegant with some jovial studio banter.

The 2 LP set was well pressed with no defects or warpage to speak of. The vinyl playback had a very quiet background and no unusual pops or clicks. For true fans, the vinyl set may be the one to get because of the extra bonus track “Nearly.” It features Carter performing live in a 4-piece ensemble and the band is absolutely killer. While this track is available digitally on the “Foursight – Stockholm, Vol 1” album, it takes up the last half of side D in the 2 LP set, right after “Blues for DP.” That entire D side is just delicious truth be told and, to me, is worth the price of admission alone.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker, “The Healer”, Craft Records, LP, 2022.

Originally released in 1989 (God, that is 33 years ago) The Healer was a bucket of cold water dumped on the collective consciousness of the music scene at the time. It effectively woke people up to embrace a few interesting new realities. The reality of what raw, pure roots music could sound like when arranged and recorded in a modern context. The reality of recognizing John Lee Hooker as the American music icon that he was, along with paying him more of the homage that was his due. The reality of what really great music you can get when you deftly combine a master of the blues with various other heavy-hitter guests who are die-in-the-wool fans. Guests like Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, and Van Morrison to name a few. The Healer would also be Hooker’s first commercial record since 1972 and its popularity would spring 5 additional follow-up albums on the Point Blank/Virgin label. I remember the store where my 20-year-old self was when he first bought this album on CD after it just came out. I remember putting on my cheap little JVC CD boombox and just loving the sound of old blues, sung by a legit old blues man but made new, full, and clear-sounding. It’s an album and music that’s chock full of great memories for me, so when I heard that Craft Recordings was working on a re-issue, I knew I had to check it out

Since I still own my original CD, I elected to get the re-issue on vinyl to see how it fared getting the deluxe treatment from Craft. The album’s outer jacket is nicely printed with good color reproduction front and back. The substantive slab of 180 gm black vinyl was perfectly flat with no warps or flaws of any kind. The manufacturer of the disc is QRP (Quality Records Pressing) and the lacquers for the vinyl were cut by Bernie Grundman.

The sound quality for vinyl is exceptionally good with no noticeable background noise and nary a pop or click to be heard on either side. The original CD never had much in the way of dynamics, but the new vinyl seems to have a little more depth to its sound. The LP also maintains a nice balance between modern recorded clarity with some additional warmth to the sound, no doubt imbued by the playback medium. My favorite track has to be “Baby Lee” where JLH performs with Robert Cray sitting in, contributing a very tasteful solo. The Craft vinyl clearly has captured, and accentuated, some great background details like Hooker’s foot stamping in time at the beginning of the song along with the echo it creates. Yet the song overall is nicely balanced with meaty, properly centered vocals and substantial weight to the bass drum and toms. Then you get songs like “My Dream” where it’s just Hooker on his guitar backed by very sparse bass and drums or “No Substitute” where it’s just him alone on 12-string guitar. On both those tracks, the presentation from the vinyl places him very much performing right in front of me, and vividly so. The mind adds a single spotlight trained in on him on a darkened stage to complete the picture.

The folks at Craft and QRP did an especially good job on this one. This new vinyl is easily a better listen than my original CD. Definitely worth picking up if you love blues.

Solema & LiveStrings Presents

Solema & LiveStrings Presents, “Reworks of Powerslide – The DALI Edition-Audiophile Recordings”, DALI Records, CD, 2021.

Recently I participated in a trip to DALI Loudspeakers in Denmark and one thing you may not know about the company is that they are active in producing music, with a focus on local Danish talent. DALI’s record output covers a wide variety of styles and genres. This particular CD features the vocals of Danish alternative-pop singer Solema combined with the Danish classical music ensemble, Livestrings. What makes this fusion of styles genuinely interesting and appealing to me is that it explores the alternative-pop sound but uses the sounds and skill of classical instrument players to replicate what sounds would be typically created electronically in pop. It makes for some really compelling-sounding music with textures and atmospheres that push the performers in unexpected ways. It goes without saying that the CD is impeccably recorded. Listening to “Rather go Blind” and “Force of Nature” is a deeply immersive experience, and it almost makes one feel like they are in the opening credits of a James Bond film, but stylistically on an even higher level. Solema’s singing is eerie, beautiful, and intriguing stuff. Imagine Wednesday Addams as a chanteuse. Mating that to the swelling strings and piano of the Livestrings ensemble, it is clear that each is creatively pushing the other and the results are quite remarkable. If you are looking for something a little different and with plenty of atmosphere, check this out!

Duduka Da Fonseca & Quartero Universal, “Yes!!!”, Sunnyside Communications, CD, 2022

I had no idea who Duduka Da Fonseca was when I first got wind of the CD “Yes!!!” All I knew was it had guitar, bass, piano, and Da Fonseca on the drums and the rhythms were decidedly Latin in nature. On more than a few occasions, taking a gamble on unfamiliar music has led me to discover some future favorites for my library.

All right, I’ll bite! And I’m sure glad I did. I’ve had “Yes!!!” on regular rotation on my music system for the past month and it’s quite exceptional. There is virtuoso playing going on by each member of this four-piece ensemble and, at 71, Da Fonseca’s drumming shows no signs of shifting into lower gears. The sensitivity and skill of the musicianship, along with the musical arrangements and general “feel” for the beat all conspire to make this the kind of music I want to have on and playing simply for its own sake. I have both just sat and listened to it wholesale along with finding myself getting lost in my painting or drawing groove with “Yes!!!” being an eager catalyst for my own creative efforts. If you pressed me to pick a favorite track or two, I would say “Transition” and “Montreux” peek just a little higher above the water, but truthfully all of “Yes!!!” really speaks to me. It’s musically and artistically an outstanding listen and well worth your time if Latin-tinged jazz runs along your grain.

Various Artists

Various Artists, “Heavy Metal- Music from the Motion Picture”, Full Moon/Asylum Records, 2LP, 2022.

This was a pickup from a recent visit to one Canterbury Records in Pasadena, California. A store I use to frequent over 20 years ago when I lived amongst the Craftsman houses and little old ladies that the town is known for.

I wasn’t even in high school yet when the Heavy Metal movie originally came out and I wouldn’t end up seeing it until years later just before I registered in college as an animation student. But the music I was able to enjoy when it came out and it was the best!

A friend who actually had a decent stereo set, had the original LP set played it constantly.

This set is a limited edition release from 2021 and was a pure nostalgia purchase on my part. Honestly I wasn’t expecting too much as I hadn’t heard the original album in so many years. Yes, the music sounds a little compressed and doesn’t compare to the dynamics of the other stuff I’ve written about here, but as classic rock and pop, it holds up surprisingly well on vinyl. The Sammy Hagar title track, “Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride) by Don Felder, Donald Fagan’s “True Companion,” and Black Sabbath’s “The Mob Rules” just to name a few of the great songs on these 2 platters. The LPs themselves appear to have been nicely produced on heavy red vinyl with no unusual clicks or pops when played back. While in other reviews, some have reported issues with off-center pressing on Side 4, my copy, thankfully, seems to be just fine. This one is about reliving some memories. And that act alone is probably one of the key drivers in the vinyl resurgence we’ve all seen these last 10 years. I should know, I’ve contributed to it! When not spinning, Heavy Metal sits on my LP shelf, right next to the soundtrack of the movies FM, and Teachers. Child of the 70s and 80s, guilty as charged!

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A native of Toronto Canada, Carlo's interest in audio began at a young age when, unbeknownst to his mother, he started taking apart her numerous transistor radios to see how they worked. This desire for “knowledge through deconstruction” continued through to the family’s 8-track tape player, turntable, headphones, and speakers. Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room. Toronto was a fertile ground for Hi-Fi in the 1970s and 80s and Carlo spent much of his wayward youth hanging out in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed an appreciation for good music and good sound reproduction. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman. Later on, he was also influenced by the writing and observations of the staff at Sound and Vision Canada, helmed at the time by Alan Loft. Carlo graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Classical Animation and was subsequently employed by Walt Disney Consumer Products for 10 years as a Character Artist and Art Director. Having become disenchanted with Los Angeles, he then decided to strike out on his own. Carlo started his own company and has been freelancing artwork, from his home studio, primarily for the toy and publishing industries since 2001. In 2013, on a bit of a lark, Carlo answered a “Call for Writers” ad from an AV website that he had been regularly reading for about 5 years called Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. He had come to appreciate the website’s combination of subjective impressions along with the objective bench-testing available in several of the reviews. The “B-Team” must have been working that day because by some miracle he was hired as a writer and his first review for the site was published early in 2014. Carlo has been continually writing, editing, traveling, listening, and learning on the company’s behalf ever since. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two sons, and a very old, but chill dachshund.

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