Artists associated with audio quality

[JLawry]

I have been listening seriously to recordings my whole life, but only within the past 10 years have I gotten interested in high-end audio quality. Sure I liked punchy recordings with great bass, crisp highs and present midrange, but I was too busy listening for music-analysis things like creative composition, interpretations, fascinating rhythm (thanks George and Ira), innovative improvisation, interesting interpretation, swing, arrangements, timbre, etc. to be bothered with things like soundstage, imaging, realism, accuracy, etc. I also had this notion that most truly-audiophile recordings weren’t really good musically, that it was like reading a book and only caring about the quality of print, photos, and binding. But when I added high-end audio to my interests, I quickly learned that the majority of audiophile-level recordings ALSO meet many of my music analysis standards.

Even more, I began to discover through audiophile social media like this forum many artists I knew nothing about, asking myself, “Why the heck had I not heard of them before?” It’s almost like there’s a hidden category of fantastic musicians that aren’t as well known BECAUSE they’re audiophile, where I HAD to raise my level of detailed audio listening to be allowed into the club.

So I thought it might be fun to list audio-quality-focused musicians, primarily ones where I could drop the needle pretty much anywhere in most of their output and be impressed.

I’ll first list the names of artists I already knew were associated with audio quality - categorized, but in no particular order:

Rock, Pop, Alternative

• Steely Dan, and Donald Fagen’s solo work
• Pink Floyd
• Joe Jackson
• Elvis Costello
• Radiohead
• Joe Henry
• James Taylor
• Joni Mitchell
• Chicago
• Tower of Power
• Blood, Sweat & Tears
• Supertramp
• Gino Vannelli
• XTC
• Yes
• The Beatles (some)
• Billy Joel
• A lot of recordings put out by A&M Records
  Please note that rock is not my strongest suit - I’m sure I’ve missed plenty.

Jazz & Blues*

• Wynton Marsalis
• Chick Corea
• Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• Herbie Hancock
• Keith Jarrett
• Most jazz on the ECM label
• John Jorgenson
• Most recordings engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
• Lots of stuff on the Wyndham Hill label (some qualifies as jazz)

*The reason there are fewer jazz artists is because for many years I listened to so many mono and 78 rpm records, I didn’t care whether they were good recordings or not

Classical

• Almost anything on Telarc Recordings
• Almost anything on the Archiv label

Country, Folk, Americana, Singer-Songwriter, Alt-Folk

• Alison Krauss
• Mary Black
• Nickel Creek

Here’s a list of artists I knew already, but when I got deeper into audio, learned they were much more involved in high-end audio quality than I thought:

Rock, Pop, Alternative

• Dire Straits and solo work by Mark Knopfler
• Paul Simon
• Beach Boys
• k. d. lang
• Frank Zappa
• Prince
• Livingston Taylor
• Tom Waits

Jazz & Blues

• Andre Previn
• Art Pepper
• Bill Evans
• Count Basie
• Patricia Barber
• Duke Ellington
• Dave Brubeck
• Joshua Redman
• Lee Konitz
• Maria Schneider
• Melody Gardot
• Shelly Manne
• Gil Evans
• Ryan Truesdell
• Miguel Zenon

Country, Folk, Americana, Singer-Songwriter, Alt-Folk

• Lyle Lovett
• Willie Nelson
• John Prine

And here are artists I’ve met for the first time through my audiophile hobby:

Rock, Pop, Alternative

• Daft Punk
• Feist
• The Staves
• The Blue Nile
• Sara K
• Rebecca Pidgeon
• Amber Rubarth
• Eva Cassidy
• Lyn Stanley
• Sara Gazarek

Jazz & Blues

• Arne Domnérus
• Sinne Eeg
• Diana Krall
• Anne Bisson
• Cecile McLorin Salvant
• Jane Monheit
• Madeleine Peyroux
• Holly Cole
• Christy Baron
• Emilie-Claire Barlow
• Dave’s True Story

Country, Folk, Americana, Singer-Songwriter, Alt-Folk

• Ron Sexmith

Classical

• Lots on Reference Recordings
• Lots on 2xHD

I guess I could have listed more audio-centric labels, but wanted to keep this mostly to artists. So who did I miss? Lots. Teach me.

[JLawry]

I’ll add one already: I recently discovered a fantastic jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen. She was born in Israel, but came to New York in the early 2000s. She is one of three siblings who are gifted jazz players - her brother Yuval Cohen (soprano sax) and Avishai Cohen (trumpet). Together as the 3 Cohens, and separately, they are really good, but as I’ve worked through their output, I am finding that their recordings are remarkably good.

One of my favorites so far is Anat Cohen’s 2006 album Noir (Qobuz / Apple Music) with the Anzic Orchestra.

[allan.thunes]

That’s a hella long list of artists, more than a few of which are new to me.
Steve Wilson would be my only contribution

[tomhail]

An impressive list! I only have two to add related to audio-quality-focused musicians who IMO have world class production.

Peter Gabriel

Alan Parsons

[aalumkal]

Glass Hammer

It helps that the two primary members owned a recording studio, which was their main source of income (vs. royalties from a prog rock band in the 90s and 2000s).

[Clover]

I’d like to nominate the Grateful Dead under the rock category. They pushed things forward and went to extremes for sound. Their roadies figured out how to remove the audio from the lead singers mic so they could put speakers behind the band and hear themselves play, among other advances. Beyond that, they built The Wall of Sound and actually toured around with it. You’re looking at 586 speakers powered by 48 130lbs McIntosh tube amps weighing 75 tons in total that they would setup and take down on tour. It took a team of 25 and was so expensive, it forced them into a 20 month hiatus.

The idea was for each player to have their own speaker system built specifically for their instrument. Those bass towers are built to play a full bass wave length, which is why it is so high. Man do I wish I had heard them play on it. If I could go back in time for a concert…

[JLawry]

Dope-slapping myself for forgetting Steve Wilson! And I guess I feel bad for listing so many and not giving others a chance to say, “WHAT? You mean you forgot Boxcar Willie?”

[JLawry]

Great additions. My brother who is 4X the audiophile I am, was big into Alan Parsons in the 70s, not to forget he produced DSOTM. I don’t know why, but I was never into Peter Gabriel back in the day, but I am now. Another vocalist I found through audiophile channels is Ada Morghe - I read where she recorded at Gabriel’s home studio to get the right quality.

[JLawry]

I’ve never been a Dead-head; I look down my nose at groupie-ism - I’m not proud of it - it’s just the way I am. I do like Jerry Garcia’s work with other artists like David Grisman. When I was working for a recording studio in the late 1980s, one of our engineers was a big-time Dead-head and managed to get their road sound guy to come to our studio to give a talk on things he did differently from other soundies. I don’t remember anything other than their using Monster Cable. But it does support what you’re saying about their interest in sound quality.

Do you have an album of theirs you’d suggest that’s got really great sound? See, I’m not as snobby as I used to be.

[jazzophile]

In the jazz category, I’d add the Blue Note remasters by Kevin Gray. While not a jazz artist, his work here takes these already good recordings to another level. I feel similarly about Mark Wilder’s remixes for Miles, etc. And, his work on Sarah Hanahan’s “Among Giants” is stellar.

On the not-jazz front, I’d add the solo recordings of Eric Hilton, who is half of Theivery Corporation, and the solo recordings of my wife’s favorite the late George Michael. I can’t speak to whether either of these artists wanted or intended their releases to be audiophile quality, but here we are.

On the classical front, I find the recordings by violinist Lina Tur Bonet to be of excellent sound quality, regardless of label. The same is true for lutenist Hopkinson Smith.

Perhaps these are all “audiophile by accident”.

[lonson]

“From the Mars Hotel” (especially in the Mobile Fidelity Lab half-speed master version) has excellent sound, as well as “Blues for Allah.”

[JLawry]

Hey, the Blue Note Tone-Poet series is a fantastic addition to the topic. I’m not familiar with any of the others you listed, so I’ve got some listening to do. Thanks!

[JLawry]

Great, thanks for the recommendations. I’ve learned to trust your ears as looking for a lot of the same things mine are.

[John_Dubya]

I’ll add all or most of the Sheffield Lab recordings.

[hadaelgr47]

Vienna Teng

[JLawry]

Yeah, I should have included labels in the title of this topic, but you’re right that SL is all-around great sound. So is Stockfisch, Reference, Chesky. David Chesky’s newest ambition - Audiophile Society - is releasing some great sound, but I’m not crazy about some of the artists. A few of the jazz albums, as my jazz-aficionado friend would say, “swing like a dead monkey.”

[JLawry]

I didn’t have Vienna on my list? Shame on me. I love not just the sound, but her creativity. I wish she’d do more.

[JLawry]

I mentioned Nickel Creek, but their mandolinist Chris Thile puts out great recordings with the Punch Brothers and several things on Nonesuch, which is another label that like A&M usually focuses on serious audio.

[flowcharts]

Nala Sinephro is worth a mention for newer/experimental jazz. Both the albums “Space 1.8” and “Endlessness” are good listens

[aalumkal]

Then there are all of the bands that Wilson remixed. I think he took the early King Crimson albums to another level. Ditto with Yes.