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New Classical Recordings: Igor Levit's Tristan,...
Igor Levit – Tristan (Sony, 2022) Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma – Beethoven for Three, Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 (Sony, 2022) 19439940142 Igor Levit, Tristan, album cover. Even...
In Memory of Ramsey Lewis
Three Grammy Awards. 80 albums. Five gold records. A National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. Artistic director for the Ravinia Jazz Festival. Mentor for up-and-coming musicians through the Ravinia’s...
Retail Therapy
I never trained as a psychologist. Instead, in my retail career I maintained an open mind, had probably more patience then than I do now, (but not that much less),...
Classical Music for a Desert Island, Part Three
Part One and Part Two of this series on desert island classical music albums appeared in Issue 172 and Issue 173. To recap: this list reflects my taste. Yours may be entirely different....
The History of A&M Records, Part Eight: Hor...
In 1975, A&M Records established a subsidiary jazz label called Horizon Records. John Snyder (who had previously worked with producer Creed Taylor) was the label’s creative director, and left in...
The Golden Decade for Popular Music…The 1950s?
I belong to a music-listening group consisting of five people who get together once a month. Everyone gets a turn to be the host who provides the playlist, wine, and...
Long Live Rock
For a while now, I have been thinking about how classic rock will look in its last stages. Artists are quickly aging, and surviving members of the great old bands...
The Best of CES Awards
On the top floors of 30 Rockefeller Center sits the Rainbow Room. It’s a lovely restaurant and sometimes event space that offers a breathtaking view of Manhattan. It even has...
Classical Music for a Desert Island, Part Two
Part One of this series on desert island classical music albums appeared in Issue 172. To recap: this list reflects my taste. Yours may be entirely different. In fact, it’s very...
The History of A&M Records, Part Eight: Jaz...
Like almost every well-known record label, A&M Records also made some forays into the jazz world. Some would be more of a relaxed style of pop-jazz, while others would come...
Classical Music for a Desert Island, Part One
Over the past few months, our esteemed editor Frank Doris has been sharing with us his personal choices for a desert island collection of rock albums (as per his list...
Take a Walk in Wonderland: Revisiting the Music...
In previous Copper articles (Issue 168 and Issue 169), I have discussed the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix, Arizona and some of my favorite exhibits. Here I would like...
What’s in a Name? MIRTAS – The Music Instrument...
From December 2013 and for several years afterward I worked as a project manager in the UK for the Academy of Music and Sound, managing MIRTAS: the Music Instrument Retail...
Long Live Excellent Customer Service
In my humble experience, I think it’s true to say that people like to buy from, yes, you guessed it…people. Particularly if the commodity is something that is as inspirational...
The Beacon Theatre’s Sphere Immersive Sound in ...
The last show I had seen at the Beacon Theatre was either Lita Ford or Joe Jackson back in the 1980s, likely viewed from the only seat I could afford...
Jazz Producer Creed Taylor: In Memoriam
August 22, 2022 marked the passing of legendary jazz producer Creed Taylor. Active in the music industry for decades, he left a lasting impression on the world of jazz. He...
Lemons Rally: Rust Belt Ramble, Part Three
Day Three: “Steel City, Oil City, Silo City” Good morning! It’s the last day of the Rust Belt Ramble. This is the day of mixed emotions. On one hand, you’re...
The Colors of Music: Synesthetic Artist Sees an...
In Issue 170, Melissa McCracken shared with our readership the fascinating experience of creating her artwork as a synesthetic. Here’s an excerpt from Part One of our interview: Melissa McCracken: Synesthesia is a...
Diagnosing Audiophilia
Patient: Dr. Krebs, I think I have acute audiophilia. Dr. Krebs: Sounds serious. What are your symptoms? Patient: A lack of sound clarity with some distortion. Both my audio system...
Confessions of a CD Addict, Circa 1986
File under “what comes around, goes around.” I wrote the following unpublished piece in 1986, found unexpectedly after going through old computer files. The deja vu of my music consumption...
My Retail Customers: Of Chalk and Cheese
Working in retail perhaps may better be thought of as a portal to another world, another dimension of possibilities and unexpected outcomes. I thought it would be fun to share...
Lemons Rally: Rust Belt Ramble, Part Two
Day Two: “Big Bucket, Big Bridges, Big Tree, Big Day” A big day indeed, as we would travel through parts of three states today. As it turned out, the bulk...
Musical Roots: A Trip Around the World
The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), located in Phoenix, Arizona, is the foremost musical instrument museum in the world with 350 exhibits, 200 of which are country-specific. I described it in a previous Copper article (Issue 168),...
Thieves, Golden Boys, and Trust in the Retail S...
Some of you may have read in my previous articles that part of my background originates in musical instrument retailing. As a result of my experience, one of my catchphrases...
Back on the Lemons Rally, Part One
“Lemons Rally is not a race!” Rallymaster Jeff barked out our rally instructions at the driver’s meeting around 8:00 am on the Friday that marked the beginning of the Rust Belt...
Stepping Out of the Limelight
Many stories have been written about sidemen who became stars once they got their chance in the spotlight: Glen Campbell (the Wrecking Crew and the Beach Boys), Sheryl Crow (Michael...
The Musical Instrument Museum: A National Treasure
Jeff Weiner has been a volunteer museum guide/docent at Phoenix, Arizona’s Musical Instrument Museum for the last five years. Some of the content of this article has been adapted from...
Pet Sounds: My Dogs Explained by Album Titles
Emma is ready for her close-up. “There is no you,” Trent Reznor sang. “There is only me.” Trent is a self-absorbed individual who intuitively understood our first dog, Emma....
Vinyl and the World’s Best Stereo System
Many of us prefer to listen to vinyl over other formats because it produces that je ne sais quoi, a mysteriously gripping and engaging effect which, for many listeners, seems...
The A&M Records Story, Part Six: The 1980s ...
The transition from the 1980s to the 1990s would be a bittersweet moment. In 1989, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sold A&M Records, the largest independent record label ever, to...
Where To Buy (High-Quality) Classical Downloads
With the recent resurgence of interest in vinyl, we are seeing the slow return of dedicated record stores. But let’s be honest: it’s still very much a niche market and...
Why I Quit Buying New Vinyl
Vinyl is a medium which my opinion is torn on. I like the sound, the experience, the large cover art, and the ability to read the liner notes without a...
Cats and Dogs…Well, Mostly Cats (Part Two)
(Cat haters might want to hit the “Next” button, but if you do, you’ll miss a new photo of Otis, my neighbor’s Golden Retriever, formerly the cutest puppy, with three...
Getting the Most from an A/V Receiver: Yamaha’s...
In Part One (Issue 166), we briefly covered some of the highlights of the Yamaha Web Editor SetUp online utility, which is designed to get the best sonic performance from an Yamaha...
The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society...
I first met Sunil Merchant at T.H.E. Show in 2021, an audio show that took place in Long Beach, California (as it did in June 2022, and I’ll be reporting...
Reconsider Baby: Elvis, the Movie
Among other things, Elvis Presley invented the rock ’n’ roll comeback. Up until 1968, ”coming back” from a career break barely existed in the new style since most fell short,...
The Exotic Sounds of Madagascar
Most people’s knowledge of Madagascar comes from nature documentaries or Disney’s series of loopy animated movies. But Copper readers may also be intrigued by the music of Madagascar, which is every bit...
Getting the Most From an A/V Receiver: Yamaha’s...
Yamaha has recently released a slew of A/V receivers in their higher-end AVENTAGE range, with upgraded power transformers, amplifier circuits and many other features. Some of them offer powerful sound-tailoring capabilities, such as...
The History of A&M Records, Part Five
The 1980s proved to be even more successful for A&M Records than previous decades. (Previous articles appeared in Issue 160, Issue 161, Issue 162 and Issue 165.) In the late 1970s Illegal Records, a small independent...
Favorite Venues, Part Three: Madison Square Garden
After completing my relocation back to the East Coast, I was in closer proximity to my brother and we had the opportunity to commiserate more often, usually on the front...
My Favorite Venues, Part Two: Colorado
In my article “My Favorite Venues, Part One” (Issue 164), we explored some of the larger venues on the Front Range of Colorado. While there were occasional jazz acts, these concert locales...
John Cooper Clarke: Bard of the People
Poets are not exactly part of mainstream culture these days. I’m only familiar with a few headliners from the last 3,000 years: Homer, Geoffrey Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and...
Cats and Dogs…Well, Mostly Cats (Part One)
(Cat haters might want to hit the “Next” button, but if you do, you’ll miss a photo of Otis, my neighbor’s Golden Retriever puppy, a serious candidate for the world’s...
The Secret History of Tribute Albums, Part Two
The news occasionally carries a story about the World’s Worst Record Collection. The journalistic ball gets rolling when a blood clot of ancient LPs is offered to a record shop...
Rallying With Lemons, Part Two
In the first half of this travelogue of the 2022 Rocky Mountain Breakdown Lemons Rally (see my article in Issue 163), we passed through Colorado and New Mexico, and arrived in...
Bascom H. King: In Memoriam
With reminisces by Paul McGowan and Frank Doris The late Bascom H. King, who passed away last May at age 84 from complications of pneumonia, was not as well-known a...
My Favorite Venues, Part One: Colorado
In my article, “My First Speakers” (Issue 158), I touched on the beginning of promoter Chuck Morris’ career as the booking agent at Tulagi. It’s now time to further develop that theme, as...
The Secret History of Tribute Albums, Part One
Are there two Americas? Are they red versus blue, conservative vs. liberal, conspiracy-minded vs. reality-based? The answer is yes, but the divide is not along these lines. The two Americas...
Rallying With Lemons, Part One
I’ve liked cars back since my days as a youngster and have been involved in various activities most of us perform with our cars – commuting, road trips, maintenance, detailing,...
Customer Relationship Management: Give it Some ...
Almost 20 years ago, my family and I took over a guitar shop business. It was a fantastic opportunity and represented some of the most rewarding, fun and enjoyable experiences...