Recorded May 1960 in Kingsway Hall by Kenneth Wilkinson. Huge soundstage (large and deep), yet most precise and acute focalisation. In the explosive intro, the rumbling bass drum is more felt than heard; a ferocious test for extra-low registers restitution. Incredible dynamic range. Orchestral image both smooth and strong, and neutral colors. Total transparency: one can even hear when pages of the score are turned. A stellar recording, sounding much better than some modern high-res stuff. By many ways, including Solti’s muscle and handsome seduction, the most thrilling performance of this gorgeous Gaité Parisienne. All musicians of Covent Garden are outstanding there, but let’s say trombones and percussion play the game of their life.
No wonder this one sounds as good as the best Yello (Boris Blank) recordings, just with better music.
Incredible depth of bass, definitely a recording to evaluate differences AND to have fun listening to it.
Play “Magnetic lies” for a check.
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My Wilson dealer used this as his set-up disc.
Interesting music…
Thanks for the tip.
i made a playlist in Roon with about 20 songs where Yello had female singers - very good music! Plus all of the songs test out your system nicely!
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Thanks for the recommendation. Order placed for the CD. Looking forward to it.
I was reminded again last night just how good a recording Paul Simon’s first solo album was. At least on the original LP; I haven’t heard it on CD or streamed, or any vinyl reissues (if there are any). It seems to have everything - broad dynamic range, good frequency extension (in both directions), solid imaging and soundstage, realistic timbral textures.
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I like the music of Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd. The conductor was Geeson and the choris is beyond words, literally. Gilmores intro to the band. A unique album.
Gilmores first LP with Pink Floyd was Atom Heart Mother, his first note on that LP was a master Piece.
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I saw her live earlier this year at the Savannah Music Festival. Had a great time listening to her.
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I’m in the process of putting together a list of exceptional female vocal performances from my own library (and Qobuz streams) for posting in The Listening Chair’s FB group, but it’s turned out to be more massive than I’d expected, at least by social media standards. I’ve sorted them into three groups: Startlingly Real, Extremely Good, and Better Than Average. The first group is the smallest, but even it’s something like 17 albums long. Keeping in mind, these are nothing more than recordings that sound good (particularly the vocals) through my system and to my ears. Others may have different results. Here’s the Startlingly Real batch (streams or downloads without a specified sampling/bit rate are standard Redbook):
Melody Breyer-Grell: Fascinatin’ Rhythms (Rhombus Records, Qobuz stream)
Rosanne Cash: The List (Manhattan Records, CD)
Kasey Chambers: The Captain (Asylum-Warner Records, CD)
The Chieftains, with various guest artists: Tears of Stone (RCA Victor, CD)
Mary Gauthier: Mercy Now (Lost Highway Records, CD)
Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingué Lovers (Verve, Qobuz 192/24 stream)
Lillie Huddleston: How Long Has This Been Going On (CD Baby Records, CD)
Diana Jones: My Remembrance of You (New Song Recordings, Qobuz stream)
Jenna Mammina & John R. Burr: Moonlight Ladies (Blue Coast Records, 96/24 download)
Natalie Merchant: Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch, Qobuz 88.2/24 stream)
Joni Mitchell: Blue (Mobile Fidelity, SACD)
The MonaLisa Twins: The MonaLisa Twins Club Duo Sessions II (Woolgoose Records, CD)
Anaïs Reno: Lovesome Thing: Anaïs Reno Sings Ellington & Strayhorn (Harbinger Records, CD)
Cécile McLorin Salvant: Dreams and Daggers (Mack Avenue Records, CD) (Qobuz 96/24 stream available)
Kendra Shank: Afterglow (Mapleshade Records, CD)
Veronica Swift: Confessions (Mack Avenue Records, Qobuz 96/24 stream)
Dinah Washington: For Those in Love (Verve Reissues/EmArcy Records, Qobuz stream)
I’m sure many of you are already familiar with some of these. My hope is that you all may find something among these that you like and that are new to you. I’m debating posting the other two groups; the problem is that the “middle” one (Extremely Good) is many times as long as this one. It may be more trouble than it’s worth. We’ll see.
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Any recordings from Groove Note Records could be added… Vanessa Fernandez, Jacintha et al. They’re all gorgeous sound.
Yeah. Play that for your girlfriend and insist she listen to it start to finish. Taxi!
A recent acquisition that’s part of RR’s Secret Treasure Room. These were unearthed recently in their warehouse and I just had to get one for my B-Day last week. It even showed up the day of !
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Hey Craig, I just wanted to give you some appreciation for this list. Like several here, I’ve heard many of these, but many I haven’t. My older brother who is even more of an audiophile than I am likes to make fun of me and my obsession with female vocalists, but I just feel like their voices require and pull more from my sound system than most men, or maybe I just can’t help it.
A few on your list I’d expand on:
- Mary Gauthier’s Mercy Now - I bought this CD when it came out - suggested by a friend. I’ve loved many of her albums from an audiophile perspective, like " Between Daylight and Dark produced by Joe Henry. The track on Mercy Now that was why it was recommended is “I Drink”. I had just gotten sober and there are very few songs that have ever captured the wonderful (sic) world of alcoholism like that one. When I heard her in concert once, when she sang “I drink,” several in the audience laughed, which is fine - they don’t get it, nor should they - but it brings tears of pain for me.
- Billie Holiday - Songs for Distingue Lovers - you should check out the remastering of this by High Definition Tape Transfers. I’m a big fan of their stuff, and this one is really really good.
- The Mona Lisa Twins - not only do I love female voices, when you put them together in harmony, I’m spellbound. Check out the album “Can We Go Home Now” by the Roche Sisters - also a very good recording. I did preview The ML Twins’ version of “Junk” and have to admit it might take some real getting used to compared to Tom Waits’ original version.
- Anais Reno - not familiar with her, but it features pianist Emmet Cohen and I have become a huge follower of his - got the chance to meet him at a concert in Charlotte recently. One of the greatest jazz pianists ever.
- Cécile McLorin Salvant - my favorite of hers is “The Window” - just her and pianist Sullivan Fortner. It won a Grammy in 2019 for Best Jazz Vocal album. Some incredible interplay between the two. Another similar album, up for a Grammy now, is Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap’s album “Elemental”
- Dinah Washington - her version of “Blue Gardenia” is her best-ever song in my opinion. I need to listen to this again from an audio perspective.
So yeah, we have similar interests for sure. Thanks again for posting the list.
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Thanks for the note, I appreciate it.
I first found Gauthier when her album Filth and Fire crossed my path. I don’t recall exactly how or why, but I think it might have been the result of a number of her songs appearing on sampler discs from a coupe of magazines I used to subscribe to, like Paste. As much as I like her work, and the quality of her recordings, all I have in my library (besides those sampler discs) are F&F and Mercy Now. I’ll have to dig into her catalog a little deeper. I bought her book a couple of years ago, but haven’t started reading it yet - my TBR pile is way too big right now.
The Holiday album is interesting. There seem to be a couple of versions of it, and as well-known as it is, I’ve never heard anyone talk about that. I don’t know that the sound quality itself differs, but if I remember correctly, the number of tracks is different between them. I admit it’s been a few years since I last looked into getting a copy, but I may take another gander at the HDTT offering. Thanks for letting me know.
The Mona Lisa Twins (or at least their Club Duo Sessions discs) is one of a few happy surprises I’ve had from engaging with musicians who market through Facebook (others include Grace Morrison, whose album Maybe Modern is as good a record as any major-label roots/rock/country album I’ve heard, and jazz artist Søren Bebe). I also got their Why? but haven’t dug into it yet. I admit their primary appeal to me was their covers. Not sure yet about their original material. As for “Junk,” you might want to double-check your reference to Tom Waits’ original. This song was written by Paul McCartney and recorded for his first solo album (I think it may also appear on one of the Beatle demo records). I know a lot of other artists have covered it, including John Denver, but I don’t think I’ve heard one by Tom Waits.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Roches since their debut album, or come to think of it, even before that, when two of them appeared as vocalists on Paul Simon’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon album - their picture is in the gatefold liner notes. I’ve seen them live several times, all together and in various duo settings. I also have several of their solo and duo albums (Suzzy issued several on her own, and before the trio’s first album came out, Maggie and Terre had a duo album with several stunning songs on it). But as much as I love their music, I’ve never been impressed with the sound of any of their records. If you think Can We Go Home Now is different, I’ll dig it out and give it a clean listen. I admit I haven’t listened to it in years.
Reno I heard about on some TV show a few years ago, maybe CBS Sunday Morning or something. She was being profiled because she was such an incredibly talented interpreter of song for such a young woman (still in her teens at the time, I think, kind of like early Jane Monheit). As with Gauthier and The MonaLisa Twins, the sound quality of the recordings was unexpected icing on the cake.
I’ll have to look for Salvant’s The Window. Besides Dreams and Daggers, I have WomanChild and For One to Love. And I’ll look for the Bridgewater/Charlap Elemental, too. Charlap may be my favorite jazz/standards pianist right now. The way he combines intellect with musicality amazes me. I kind of think of him as the heir to Bill Evans.
Thanks again for the note. I still may post the contents of my two other groups, or at least some of them - there’s a lot there. 
Good old Ted Smith used this recording, among other things, when testing the results of his fpga programming work. Those were the days…
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Oh man, I am so embarrassed about “Junk” - the reason I thought it was Waits was because I have a CD by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter called “For the Stars” that was produced by Elvis Costello. She did a medley of Waits’ “Broken Bicycles” and McCartney’s “Junk.” There’s also on that CD quite a good rendition of “The Other Woman,” a big hit for Nina Simone.
I DO think “Can We Go Home Now” is different from any of the Roches’ other albums, especially from a production angle, almost as though maybe they’d gotten picked up by a major label and serious money was sunk into it. But disclaimer: my threshold for what constitutes a “good recording” is pretty low it seems. My favorite track on the album is You (Make My Life Come True) (Qobuz link) that also has some fantastic instrumental work.
Gauthier is an interesting person for sure. But none of her other albums has grabbed me quite the way Mercy Now does.
You won’t be disappointed with the Salvant or Bridgewater CDs. I first heard of Dee Dee back in the late 1970s when I was studying jazz and producing radio programs. She did a duet called “Love in the Middle of the Air” with bassist Reggie Workman. A few years later I was working in a record store (remember those?) and a promo album by Dee Dee came in. Nobody wanted it, so I took it home, eagerly dropped the needle, and WHAT?? It was disco. Well, she wasn’t the first serious jazz artist to go commercial. I was greatly excited when I found she’d gone back to her roots.
I could go on for quite some time about other female artists, but I’ll mention a few who seem to regularly put out high-quality recordings:
- Sinne Eeg - she’s a Danish jazz singer who’s quite good. She did a fantastic album with the Danish Radio Big Band called We’ve Just Begun (Qobuz link).
- Madeleine Peyroux - also jazz, but quite an interesting crossover artist. My favorite of hers is Anthem (Qobuz). Her rendition of “Gentle on My Mind” from her album The Blue Room (Qobuz) - probably tied for favorite - totally redefined that song for me
- Anne Bisson - you’ll find her name mentioned on audiophile sites. In fact I heard her live at the AXPONA audio show a few years ago. I wouldn’t personally rate her as one of the greatest singers, but her albums really are well-recorded. My fave of hers is Blue Mind, recorded in 2009. It’s not currently on Qobuz, but on a compilation album, it has “September in Montreal” (Qobuz) which I often use to evaluate piano, vocal, bass, drums presence.
- Amber Rubarth - she also did a performance at that same AXPONA show. If I remember correctly, she was “discovered” by Chesky Records and has gone on to do several hi-end audio albums. She did an album for Chesky in 2016 called Scribbled Folk Symphonies (Qobuz)
- Melody Gardot - I haven’t often seen her associated with audiophile stuff, but I think her recordings are quite good, and she is fascinating in her own right. I really like her 2015 album Currency of Man (Qobuz) for its showing her talent and recording quality.
As I said, I could go on for hours. My guess is you’ve heard of at least some of these - maybe in one of your other lists. But if not, have fun!
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