Before I got deeper into high-end audio, I knew of Audioquest only as making what I thought at the time were ridiculously overpriced cables. I’ve since learned more about cables - still haven’t bought any Audioquesters yet, but you never know.
Then a few years, my more-audiophile-than-me older brother surprised everyone by selling his turntable, speakers, pre-amp, amp and went 100 percent digital through headphones. I was getting back into vinyl, so he sold me a bunch of his records at the bratty little brother discount. I bought several released under the Audioquest label and I think in general they have been the most impressive vinyl I’ve heard, purely from an audio perspective - dynamics, balance, quietness, soundstage, and that incredible vinyl feel.
The best so far has been Bruce Katz Band 1993 album Transformation, but that is from audio only; I wasn’t quite so taken by it musically. This weekend I listened to Katz’s first album (1992) Crescent Crawl (also for Audioquest). I found it more fascinating musically. But this one I listened to digitally (Qobuz link) and learned that all the Audioquest releases have been bought and made available digitally by a label called [Sledgehammer Blues]. (Sledgehammer Blues - Wikipedia). They can be purchased on Bandcamp. Another I have is Les Arbuckle’s No More No Les and like Transformation is amazing sonically, but not quite up as high musically.
All of the Mighty Sam McClain releases on Audioquest, Bruce plays on a lot of them. Also the three Doug MacLeod releases. I own all of the original Audioquest releases from both artists plus several of the Bruce Katz albums.
As far as cables go, multiple members of this forum have moved on from their cables. I currently have one remaining cable of theirs in my main system (and one in my 2nd system). Once you hear the nice improvement that really good cables can make, it then becomes easy to fall down the cable rabbit hole.
Yeah, I mentioned Audioquest’s cables only to say I knew nothing about them. I would go out on a limb and predict that their cables are probably good, given they care enough about sound to start an audiophile record label that’s produced some pretty good stuff to my ears.
Audio company… caring enough about sound… starting an audiophile record label… where have I seen that before? Oh yeah - Linn.
Hey, I listened to the Terry Evans recording last night. Some really serious blues going on, and yes, some fantastic sound. I saved “Walkin’ in the Same Tracks” in my Great Soundstages playlist for its authentic live dispersion. “One-Sided Love Affair” is a well-written song that has great movement. It was past my bedtime, so I considered skipping the final track “Love No More” and boy am I glad I waited. Incredible emotion and I love trombone in blues. Great recommendation.
A couple weeks behind on my forum reading, but for me my favorite AudioQuest album is Sasha Matson “Steel Chords - i-5”. More of a modern classical album, but great music and sound quality for me. I’ve got several of the Jazz/Blues albums, which all sound great, but musically not as much to my liking.
And I’m almost 2 weeks behind on the TOPIC I STARTED. Sheesh. But I did take a listen to the “Steel Chords” and had no idea anyone had ever written classical music for steel drums. I need to listen more intently and I’ll get back to you with my reactions.
Interesting story: in the late 1980s I worked doing various things for a recording studio - the first fully-digital studio in Atlanta. There was a family that lived in central Georgia, something like 13 kids, all adopted by a man and wife originally from Trinidad. They called themselves The Steel Bandits and every one of the kids was in the band. They decided to do a CD, so they came in and despite being a semi-amateur act, were really good. I remember that the father was working in the telephone industry and had no musical talent, just wrote checks as they went along. One day during the mixing sessions, a small elderly gentleman was there. He was none other than Ellie Manette, one of the inventors of the steel drum (described in the Steel Drum article in Wikipedia). Apparently he was living with the Steel Bandits family in Georgia. I remember his eyes filling with tears as he said it was the best Steel Drum sound he’d ever heard recorded. I didn’t think anything from these sessions remained, but just found on YouTube the best song they did - “Native Drums.” Note that there’s another Steel Bandits group, from the 1960s in Queens NY where Andy Narrell got his start.
Here’s the Wikipedia article:
And here’s the YouTube audio of “Native Drums”
One more piece of the story. My family and I were vacationing in Miami Beach and the Steel Bandits were playing at the Fontainebleau hotel. The Bandits’ father and my father hit it off and sat together enjoying several frozen drinks. That fall, they had a CD release party at the studio and I invited my parents to attend. The father of the family immediately recognized my dad and came over to shake hands. “So what do you think of the CD?” he asked. “I hardly recognized you without the sound of the blenders,” Dad replied.
Hold on just a dadburn minute! I just got things really mixed up. The “Steel Chords” album is not about steel drums - it’s about steel GUITAR. The weird thing is I did just encounter some music somewhere that was classical for steel pans. OK, never mind - I’m going to leave my story about steel drums anyway. But now I’ll listen to the steel guitar thing.
Because I felt so dumb mixing up steel drums and steel guitars, I felt I had to give the Sasha Matson “Steel Chords” a serious listen last night. First, I really like the music - drawing from several classical genres, including minimalism, but not too minimalistic which I find boring. The use of the steel guitar is interesting and fits well with the purpose and ensemble. I actually found the “i-5” pieces for string quintet and harp more to my liking. The second movement titled “Slaughterhouse” was fascinating and I kept looking for what it was trying to say about a slaughterhouse. Never figured it out, but interesting music.
But it was the recording itself that probably did more for me than anything. Having been involved in recording way back when, I know how much control the recordists have over sound, so I know that in the mixing/finalizing stages, a choice can be made between “I want them to feel like they’re in a concert hall” vs. “in a cathedral” vs. “in a small intimate venue.” This one did something I’m not sure I’ve heard before: “I want them to feel like they’re in a rehearsal room.” I found myself so immersed in detail of sound to where the only times I’ve experienced that live was when I was rehearsing back when I was trying to be a budding classical and jazz trumpeter. The sound in a rehearsal room is something not everyone gets a chance to hear. But man, talk about realistic immersion - not the so-called immersion which is more of a marketing gimmick.
Thanks for the suggestion. Now I need to find that classical steel pan thing.
JLawry, no problem with the confusion! I was surprised when I read steel drums, was my hearing that bad? Luckily you had already corrected yourself so no worries for me or you. The sad part for me is I found other Sasha Matson music, but it was nothing like this CD.
Apparently Sasha Matson has spent a lot of his life doing what was called “third-stream” music in the 1950s - a mix of jazz and classical music. I’ve actually enjoyed a lot of the work, such as music by Gunther Schuller. So I’m going to do a bit more listening to Matson, but if jazz isn’t your thing, I understand.
off topic.
