Welcome to The Vinyl Beat’s yearly rant about the quality of music played at audio shows. First, a “hot off the (vinyl) press” update of some recent arrivals.
New Grooves
Fresh arrivals at Casa Rudy include two release day titles for March 27 – Frank Sinatra’s Songs for Swingin’ Lovers and the Stan Getz/Luiz Bonfa record Jazz Samba Encore. A week prior, Eddie Palmieri’s Vamonos Pa’l Monte arrived, the March 20 reissue from Tico Records (via Craft Recordings).
Sinatra’s Swingin’ Lovers sounds nicely balanced. It is less muddy than I remember some versions sounding, and doesn’t have the brightness one of the early CD pressings exhibited. The only vinyl I’ve ever had of this album were two worn copies that were handed down through the family, so I have no comparison I can make with original gray-label Capitol pressings. (On both of those old LPs, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is exceedingly worn, to the point of almost becoming white noise!) Sinatra’s voice sounds clean and natural here, and everything else falls into place around it. The packaging knocks this release out of the park – the album is in a gatefold with large session photos on the interior. Hats off to Kevin Gray for the sound, as well as Joe Harley (the Tone Poet) for overseeing this reissue. The music? Again, arguably among his best work with Nelson Riddle and at Capitol.
While the Stan Getz/Luiz Bonfá album Jazz Samba Encore isn’t as strong as some of Getz’s other bossa nova recordings, it’s still a welcome reissue. (Getz/Gilberto is so overdone at this point.) Maria Toledo contributes her vocals, Luiz Bonfá his guitar, and Antonio Carlos Jobim makes an appearance on five of the eight tracks on the record. You’ll find familiar bossa nova classics like “So Danço Samba,” “O Morro Nao Tem Vez,” and “Insensatez.” The audio is clean and nicely balanced like other Verve recordings of this era – past reissues (aside from the recent high-res digital) haven’t touched on this amount of clarity. Big Band Bossa Nova (with Gary McFarland) arrives later this year. I have fingers crossed that the Stan Getz with Guest Artist Laurindo Almeida LP is reissued in 2027; recorded mere days after Getz/Gilberto, it’s the last of the five bossa nova records Getz made for Verve and Creed Taylor, and with Jazz Samba, they both rank as my two favorites.
Eddie Palmieri’s classic salsa-jazz record Vamonos Pa’l Monte on Tico/Craft Recordings is the first of his albums to be reissued. Many of the recordings from Fania/Tico during this era weren’t exactly audiophile recordings to begin with (I’ve found that they tend to sound compressed and a little sloppy), so the sound of Vamonos really isn’t anything all that spectacular. At times this album can sound stuffy. But at least with this vinyl reissue, it’s presented here in as good of a quality as we’ll ever hear it. Two of Palmieri’s best-known salsa tracks are on this record – the title track, and “Revolt/La Libertad Lógico.” As I’ve said before, I’m hoping that three of his other Tico albums are reissued by Craft, given his passing last year – Azucar Pa’ Ti, Mozambique, and Bamboleate (with Cal Tjader). And hopefully…all three in stereo.
Which brings me to my final vinyl update for the month. Yesterday’s e-mail from Craft Recordings announced that Ray Barretto’s popular classic salsa record Acid is going to be reissued later this year. Sadly, this landmark record is being reissued only in monaural…for the second time in three years (VMP reissued it in 2023). For that alone, I may pass on it. It’s a typical sloppy, messy Fania recording and needs that stereo separation to prevent it from being a congested mess!
Show Grooves: Settling the Demo Music Score
The demo music at 2025’s AXPONA was a double-edged sword. In some cases, exhibitors were taking chances and playing a wider variety of music than usual. The usual suspects weren’t blaring out of every room. Yet in other cases, demos tended to feature the same songs in room after room, many of them more recently recorded…and honestly, many of these modern recordings simply do not sound good! Last year’s most overplayed had to be Ghost Rider’s “Make Us Stronger.” So. Many. Rooms. Please, exhibitors…never play that track again.
One issue I have is that much of modern recorded music produced in the past 20 to 30 years has been extraordinarily bass-heavy and boomy. There is no natural tonal balance. Now, I’m a bass lover (bass notes, not fish), so don’t get me wrong. I like to hear it, feel it, and have it extend way down low. But I don’t like it boomy.
Adding insult to injury, much if not most of everything new in music (including popular Top 40, rock, contemporary jazz, etc.) since the mid 1990s has been brickwalled (digital compression that shaves the peaks off and makes everything louder), and it is tiring to listen to. Some recordings are much worse than others. One explanation I read years ago stuck with me – brickwalled music is like taking a picture of someone’s face, smashed up against a plate glass window.
Please, let’s hear naturally-recorded music mixed in with the popular music we are expecting.
To sum it up, we don’t want to hear what your music sounds like. We want to hear what our music sounds like. If you want us to buy your products, at least demo them with music that we will listen to when we eventually buy these products.
Here are some ideas. I’m sure none of these will be played. But it can’t hurt to plant some seeds anyway. Most are on vinyl (for those exhibitors capable of playing it), but these are readily available digitally as well, many in recent high-res masterings that sound quite good.
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life and Innervisions. Both are not always perfect sonically, but there are some standout tracks on both albums that are ideal for demos. 
Quincy Jones: You’ve Got It Bad Girl. I could list a handful of albums Quincy produced, but this record on A&M has a wonderful downtempo A-side that has plenty of space around the voices and instruments. If you want to spice things up, play “The Streetbeater” on side two. Teaser: it’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser, and easily recognized by many who grew up on 1970s television reruns.
Zapp: III. “Heartbreaker” is the one track that will make most systems fall to pieces. I’ve clipped a 250-watt amplifier playing this track at only a moderate volume – the transient on the bass drum quickly makes amplifiers and speakers quickly run out of gas.
Ralph Towner: Solstice and Oregon: Crossing. Both are on ECM Records. Both are well-recorded and natural sounding. The vinyl or digital both sound excellent.
While it’s only available digitally, Nik Bärtch’s Ronin’s Stoa is good demo material, especially the interlocking percussion in “Modul 35” or the dynamics of “Modul 33.” (A contrabass clarinet as percussion? Here you go.) Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile released Continuum on both digital and vinyl, and this album has a lot of contrasting dynamics and fine details that also make for good demo material.
Leave the overplayed Debby and the Village Vanguard at home and bring Bill Evans’ You Must Believe in Spring instead. Or the sumptuous Moon Beams.
My recent Wes Montgomery vinyl acquisitions – Boss Guitar and Bumpin’ – are also nice for demonstrating your systems with a nice, clean guitar tone throughout.
Here’s a general recommendation for Blue Note’s classic recordings. Not all are well-recorded, but many are, and there are also a handful that don’t fall into the all too common overly-noodley rabbit hole that will clear a demo room in about ten seconds. That said, many audiophiles I know personally are big on Blue Notes. They’ll appreciate this! I prefer some of the sparse trio recordings like Grant Green’s Green Street, Sonny Clark Trio (self-titled), or Herbie Hancock’s Inventions and Dimensions. Or the more recent Don Pullen, New Beginnings. What about Donald Byrd’s Royal Flush, or Kenny Burrell’s Midnight Blue? All are recently reissued and arguably sound better than the original pressings.
Audio show demos need more big band music. Maynard Ferguson’s Roulette recording Newport Suite is one of his better records, long before the years of “Rocky II Disco.” Christian McBride’s Bringin’ It (released on vinyl) or any of his others on Mack Avenue Records are good demo material also, as are Gerald Wilson’s on Mack Avenue or Pacific Jazz.
To recommend a series of classical recordings, Reference Recordings has released a number of albums with Eiji Oue conducting the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. The Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances (et al) is a good one, and is my favorite in terms of sonics. The Stravinsky set (The Firebird Suite, The Rite of Spring, etc.) is musically good but a bit over-boosted in the highs and lows; that said, it can also be a stunning demo piece due to the dynamics. Some of these Reference Recordings titles were released on vinyl. Also demo-worthy are some of the original RCA Living Stereo recordings – the imaging and soundstage are frighteningly good for being made with only three (or sometimes two) microphones.
That wraps up this month’s The Vinyl Beat. If all goes well, I’ll be pounding the carpet at AXPONA within the next week, and I’m already doubling down on the exercise and vitamins…and cholesterol pills. Wish me luck!
Header image: Clearaudio Celebrity Al Di Meola Edition turntable.
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