The Great Christmas Hymns

I was brought up Catholic because my mother was Irish and my father didn’t care. I never saw him in a church. At a certain point my mom stopped going....

Blue Mood

Capital Audiofest 2019. If you took a wrong turn from the lobby-level exhibits you'd end up here at the hallway to nowhere.

Alternate Reality

New York Audio Show 2019 Report: Part 1

New York has been host to audio shows for a very long time – since the 1950s. The 1954 New York Audio Show marked the introduction of Henry Kloss’ landmark...

Life at KQV Radio in the Seventies

Back in the 1970s Pittsburgh was a top ten radio market, i.e.; the Big Time. KQV AM was number two to the mighty KDKA the first radio station to be...

Three Solid Hits!

David Bowie – Space Oddity (Tony Visconti 2019 Remix) David Bowie’s Space Oddity has something of an oddity of a history; Bowie’s first album, David Bowie, was on the Deram label, but didn’t make much of a...

John Meyer, Part 1

John Meyer is a legendary pioneer in the field of sound reinforcement. Many of you have heard Meyer’s gear without knowing it – Meyer Sound equipment is the choice of...

Coleman Hawkins: Eight Great Tracks

Before Coleman Hawkins, few musicians took the tenor saxophone seriously as a jazz instrument. Once Hawkins hit the scene, everyone clamored for it. Hawkins was born in 1904 in St....

Artek

I looked down at the bowl of pasta covered with green sauce. “Eat it!” Said Artek, “It’s delicious.” And it was. My wife’s uncle Artek was born in Poland and...

Further Thoughts on System Synergy

For the past week, I’ve been thinking a bit more about the issue of system synergy – and its opposite. I have a sort of “wild” idea about what may...

Led Zeppelin: Into the Rock and Roll Stratosphere

When the British band The Yardbirds split up in 1968, guitarist Jimmy Page was left with contracts to perform shows in Scandinavia but no band to play them with, so...

Pretentious! (No, Progressive)

(An Introduction to Progressive Rock – the Most Critically Maligned Genre of Pop Music This Side of Disco) In the late ‘60s, rock music experienced a period of experimentation unprecedented...

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

  “An antique dry sink can often be used to house stereo equipment as shown.” Who knew? From Stereo Design for the Home, 1962. Stylus replacement early 1960s style. Try that...

Haydn and the Theatre

Today we most often encounter Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) as the celebrated “father” of the string quartet and composer of over a hundred symphonies. But for much of his lifetime, Haydn’s...