Sonny Rollins Allegri Miserere Tallis Scholars

Left: Great pic from NYT. I love that almost Rococo feel.

New York Diary (20-7) Sonny Rollins, Jazz and the Audiophile

I just read this past week's Sunday New York Times, in which there is a short but interesting interview of Sonny Rollins, a spiritual fellow who now cannot play because of pulmonary fibrosis. I am writing this short blip because every audiophile knows Sonny Rollins (they usually play his Saxophone Colossus or Way Out West, both good choices), and I shall use this opportunity to write again on how many audiophiles listen to "jazz".

With every audiophile I meet, I always ask what he likes to listen to, and usually the answer is "a little of everything, jazz..." If we look into why, it is kind of interesting. I think most audiophiles are not into large scaled music and have short attention span. It would be ungenerous to say a substantial subset of audiophiles are into sound effects rather than music, but sometimes I do wonder. I actually think being intensely involved in audio (upgrading, tweaking, A/B'ing) actually takes away time for development as a music lover and listener, and the less one knows music (of any kind), of what instruments really sound like (live music) the more difficult the task of getting the right sound out of one's system.

Jazz is perfectly suited for the audiophile. In a cut, say 5 minutes, one gets intense exposure to a few instruments. The sax (trumpet) and percussion provide the jump factor and surely can be used to see if the system's treble is too hot (it often is, especially at dealers and shows); the bass tests, well, the bass response (usually one-note and bad too)! If a piano is present, it is often ignored. I am going to reprint here what I previously wrote (while testing a Decca cartridge) on one of the most popular audiophile jazz albums, Dave Brubeck's Time Out.

A Little Time Out The first LP I played was the mono Time Out. It only took a few notes for me to recognize the Decca's well known qualities: Clean leading edge and fast transients. Morello was most obviously showcased - the drums were tight and tuneful; the cymbals positively shimmered, with great harmonic faithfulness. Even Brubeck's piano, which I have never found well-recorded or tonally alluring, came through clearer than usual. But the Decca is not just about speed; it effortlessly unearthed a myriad of details and rhythmic felicities.

Like many others, I have long used the Take Five track as a test (search this blog for Take Five and you will see many mentions). Morello's long drum solo serves as a most accurate means of assessing a system's transient response, microdynamics and rhythmic exactitude. But this is also one of the tracks that I morbidly fear on home visits. 

Me, the long suffering audiophile Given the popularity of this track, you can imagine the uncountable number of times I had to suffer through it on home visits in HK. More often than not, particularly in the case of tube users (especially vintage types), when the saxophone cuts out and the spotlight is on the percussion, the proceedings become so lethargic that each round just drags me further into that audiophile quicksand known as boredom. And in HK, audiophiles are in general not sensitive to rhythm and pace. They simply don't get the intricacies of the drum solo, instead patiently waiting for the saxophone's return; by then it is too late for me, all energy drained out of my body, too weak to go on and time for, yes, time out! Yes, home visits can be hell when Take Five is played.

For me, a successful replay of this track must reveal how Morello varies his beat, his touch: the varying force of each strike and the speed of withdrawal that the drummer uses to color his playing. Now, this is not the most coloristic of compositions, but whatever color there is must be revealed for the whole to have rhythmic finesse, to draw one into the music. What I previously wrote on the YBA DAC's plaback of this track also sums it up: "...All of a sudden, you can hear all the stressed beats effortlessly. This kind of replay enlivens a track like Take Five from Brubeck's Time Out. Focusing on Morello's drums, the bad CD player can make the strong beats only that little louder than the weak ones; the average CD player gives you an approximation of the playing; but the truly outstanding player, like the YBA (or an old Naim, say the CD2), makes you aware of the infinite dynamic shading and brings out the full flow. Whatever the CD, the YBA delivers the music in spades..."

And, oh, the other day I was in a record store and overheard one man saying to the manager: "...and I don't understand why Paul Desmond is well regarded...he just plays the same thing over and over..." I cannot agree more based on what I know of Brubeck's albums (there is a reason why the other ones are much less known). Well, Sonny Rollins is definitely not like that! Neither would be John Coltrane, though audiophiles usually find his flights much harder to take (they prefer the Coal Train instead). But of course, the mellower sounds of Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster have even more followers among audiophiles, for good reasons.

All that is good jazz, but what passes for jazz now is frightening. Put a lady with a girlish voice who can barely sing, not to mention have a way with the lyrics, together with some session men playing "bossa nova" and it is suddenly a hit with the audiophiles!

And now, a cut for you.

Basic Repertoire: Allegri's Miserere (wiki)

I am not usually into choral or renaissance music, but this piece holds a special place in my heart. One evening in 1980, I was browsing in Tower Records, and all of sudden I heard a track that stopped me dead in my tracks by giving me goosebumps. It was this piece, as performed by the Tallis Scholars, on Gimell, and I just had to buy it that night (expensive) to listen to it again. It became a personal favorite. Mind you, the Tallis Scholars re-recorded the piece later (with a different cover), but I only know this one. Also, as you can see from the review, not everyone thinks this is the greatest piece but check it out for yourself. I think it is, and never tire of it. While searching for the youtube, I discovered a later actual performance video (lower one), which gives much insight into the highly effective antiphonal (even multi-channel if heard live) placement of singers.