[Bob Attiyeh]

Dear John,

If you want to give the Realizer a try, I think you can contact Lorr Kramer directly.  His email address is lorr@smyth-research.com, and the website is www.smyth-research.com.  If you give this a try, let me know what you think if you'd be so kind.

Cheers and happy upcoming weekend,

Bob

[John Casler]

Hi Bob,

Sorry a little behind in my posts.  Thanks for the info.

[John Casler]

As long as I have been going to Audio Societies, GTG's, and CES, someone will always pull out the Bella Fleck and the Flectones cut of Flight of the COSMIC HIPPO.

HiFi Tommy laid it on me the first time at a GTG, and I knew I had to have it.

He explained that the Bassist Victor Wooten was the Eric Clapton of the Bass Guitar, and I might have to agree.

This cut will challenge you woofers and your system full spectrum, but the bass can really be a delight if your system is up to it.

Now I am NOT talking about over the top blow your wall out bass, I am talking about sonically textured rich harmonics BASS that must be heard to be appreciated.




Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

[John Casler]

Here is another Classic, and Reference Disc rolled into one.

The album is: Don't Smoke In Bed
The track/cut is: Get Out of Town
The artist is: Holly Cole and the Holly Cole Trio

While this has been around for ever, it is chocked full of System Displaying Reference Material of the best kind.





If you listen to nothing else today check out this LIVE VERSION of Get Out of Town and you'll be Hooked on Holly and her TRIO

[Bob Attiyeh]

Some time ago I wrote a post about a CD from Yarlung Records.  It was one of the "ONLY" well produced and engineered Piano recordings I had ever heard with a Piano that actually imaged like a "life sized" Piano, not some "room sized" Keyboard.

It was this CD of David Fung


I also liked the Janaki String Trio (which I now plan on re-visititing)




Bob Attiyeh is a very dedicated and personable fellow and LOVES recording great performances for Audiophiles.

He recently sent me 2 CD's to listen to and it is kind of a funny story.

The CD's are:

1) Inner World
Music by David S. Lefkowitz



and

2) Antonio Lysy at The Broad
Music from Argentina

Which was recently honored with a Latin Grammy Nomination.



So anyhow I recieve both CD's and they came at a very busy time.  I hadn't actually listened to my system in a while and when I did get a chance to quickly run through them, to be quite frank I found them nice recordings, but rather un-involving.

I spent most of the time on the Cellist Lysy CD and while a second run through gave me reasonable appreciation for the engineering quality, I still didn't connect to the music.

Well that changed BIG TIME today.  I was reintroducing my VMPS Subwoofers flanking my RM40s and blending them with the Rm40s.  I found out that I had a HUMMMMMM in my system and tracked it down and removed it.

I then just totally freaked out at how BLACK and QUIET my listening space was now.  I had been hearing this hum (noise) and simply mentally blocking it out while it was making the music BLAHHHHH.

So I spun up the Yarlung Music from Argentina and I was simply knocked out.

Oh the quality of this recording on a well tuned system.   From top to bottom you hear sonic pleasures of LIVE performers as good, if not better, than I have EVER heard before.

The Cello is quite a wonderful instrument that has an exceptional range and in the right hands some of the sounds that can be created are truly incredible.

But now that I had solved my NOISE problems and my concious and subconcious were able to melt into the music, I now made the connection and with eyes close had the artist, or artists in front of me performing the most incredible music.

Now aside from Yo Yo Ma, I haven't spent a lot of time with Cello Centric CD's.  And I won't say Lysy plays rings around Yo Yo, but I will say I heard Cellistic sounds and music that I have NOT heard from any previous artist.

And as I mentioned earlier, the miking and engineering here is SECOND TO NONE.

The rich harmonic overtones, from the strings, to the cellos surface, to its resonating body gave this recording a truly special sound.

You combine that with the passion with which Lysy (and the other musicians/particulalrly the pianist) perform and you have CD Magic.

Now I cannot guarantee you will connect with this CD in the same way for many different reasons, as Cello Faire may not be your cup'o tea, but if you are looking for some great classical music to listen to seriously then this could be it.

And I might add that it would also be EXCEPTIONAL to use as backround music for a HIGH CLASS Dinner party too.  It has that Latin Tango type lilt to it.

I don't know how much you can tell from listening to the tracks on your computer, but you can go HERE and take a listen.

This CD is definately included in my "CLASSICAL" Reference Discs.

Thanks again John! I owe you a happy update.  We just returned from Las Vegas (not my favorite city until this past week!) for the Latin GRAMMY awards.  Antonio Lysy won!

Yes indeed! Antonio Lysy at The Broad: Music from Argentina won the Latin GRAMMY award. I can still hardly believe it. We were so happy with the nomination. It felt like a trip to the moon, and now to win is almost inconceivable. Yarlung Records is a tiny label, and this is our first "Latin" album. The album is actually classical music from Argentina, but I guess that makes it "Latin American," even if not "Latin."

We were prepared to congratulate the Assad Brothers, who had two albums in our category. I enjoy and respect them so much, and they're powerful in the industry. I wish you could have seen Jacob's face (Jacob Horowitz is my assistant producer). He was sitting next to Antonio and Antonio's wife Margaret. When our album was announced as the winner, Jacob looked like someone had just removed all the oxygen from the room. The grin that followed stuck on Jacob's face for about three days.

Actually, we are all still grinning, and delighted with the results.

Thank you to so many of you who are Latin Academy members. Your vote made this possible for us. We are grateful, as you can imagine.

And thank you to the rest of you for being so supportive of our little label from the beginning. With enthusiasm like this we'll persevere no matter what happens in the economy.

If you like, you can hear the winning track (Pampas) in its entirety, for free (at least for a few more weeks) on the Yarlung Records website.  Go to www.yarlungrecords.com, scroll down to the album, and click on the "Listen" button.  Open Antonio's folder, and you'll see the track in full, in higher and lower resolutions.  Enjoy!

See? John Casler knows what he's talking about.

Cheers,

Bob.

[John Casler]

WOW! Bob.

Congratulations.  That is certainly a large achievement and hopefully a reward for your dedication to great recordings.

 

[Bob Attiyeh]

Dear John,

Thanks so much! And thanks to all of you on this forum for your support.  This has been an amazing week, to say the least.

Some of you have written to me privately asking for images from the awards ceremony.  We don't have any official material yet from the Recording Academy itself, but Antonio's daughter Clara took some fun snapshots I am happy to share with you.

First of all, the entire city of Las Vegas got "dressed up" for the Latin GRAMMYs.  The events were not at the Luxor Hotel, but even the "Magesty of Egypt" welcomed the nominees:





Here is the image on the backdrop, showing our Pampas, by Lalo Schifrin in the lineup:





I'm on the left, Antonio is in the middle, and his son Aidan Lysy, our Yarlung Records Mascot, is in front of Antonio.  My terrific assistant producer Jacob Horowitz is on the right:





Here we are right after Antonio whispered something to me about our next project together:

[Hipper]

Some years ago I had an LP by Camerata Lysy Gstaad, which was a string quartet, and the track I liked was Ernst Bloch's 'From Jewish Life'. Unfortunately I don't have the record now but did copy it onto CD and still love it.

A well recorded CD, I think, is Lorna Hunt 'All In One Day'. The only track I can find is 'Piece of My Heart':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTwTjGHR430

[Bob Attiyeh]

Dear Hipper,

This sounds like a wonderful Camerata Lysy LP indeed.  I shall try to find one, and I shall mention it to Antonio.  Thanks for letting me know about it!

[Hipper]

Actually, here it is:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chamber-Recital-Pyotr-Ilyich-Tchaikovsky/dp/B000027FVP/ref=sr_1_22?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1290113890&sr=1-22

Souvenir de Florence.

One day I was listening to the radio and a poem about love by Laurie Lee was being read and in the background was the music from this album by Kurt Atterburg. I found it very moving, so I searched high and low for this music and eventually found it on this record. In addition I borrowed a book of Laurie Lee poems from the library.

I read the poem - it did nothing for me. I listened to the Atterburg music - also nothing. I tried both together but still nothing! Oh well, it was just one of those moments. However the bonus was Bloch's 'Jewish Life'.

[Bob Attiyeh]

Dear Hipper,

Ah! I recognize the recording now, and I'm checking to see if Antonio has the original LP. 

This is Antonio's father Alberto, on violin, to whom our album is dedicated.  And on viola is my friend Paul Coletti (absolutely superb) who played for me on Inner World, another one of our Yarlung Records discs.

I love Bloch.  And if you like Jewish Life, you will also love Deep Dreams, on Inner World, which we commissioned from David S. Lefkowitz, who based this work (for 'cello and piano) on three Sephardic themes from 15th century Spain.  Absolutely luscious. 

[John Casler]

Artists: Emerson Lake and Palmer

Cut/Track:  From the Beginning

Album:   TRILOGY

A great sounding and musically special Cut from early ELP




Pretty soon I'll have all the cuts from this album posted here.

[John Casler]

While I tend to listen to more modern Reference Cuts, there are some spectacular cuts from the past simply because they are so talent rich and musical.

This is one of those cuts.

Julie London is well known to those of us in our 60's and her voice is so silky and pure that she deserves to be heard with all the other Divas.

She had her own TV show for a while and was quite popular in the late 50's and 60's.

She was a sultry and smokin hot songstress.

Here is one of her best known tracks:


Artists: Julie London
Cut/Track:  Bye Bye Blackbird
Album:   This is actually from the laser disc "Julie London Show", with the Bobby Troup Quintet, recorded on May-28-1964 in Japan.

Here is an album with that cut on it:

[PLMONROE]

She was a sultry and smokin hot songstress.

I GUESSS!!!! Sadly she passed away in 2000. Can you immagine that idiot Jack Webb divorcing an angel like that?

Paul

[John Casler]

I GUESSS!!!! Sadly she passed away in 2000. Can you immagine that idiot Jack Webb divorcing an angel like that?

Paul

All Jack wanted was the "facts".  Maybe she didn't sing the right song for him

[John Casler]

MERRY CHRISTMAS Everyone 

OK, I have a few Christmas REF CUTS




Maria Carey = ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU

MOODY BLUES = December Snow

Don't Need a Reindeer

Jethro Tull = God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
BOUREE

Chrissie Hynde = Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

John Williams - The Boston Pops - Sleigh Ride

[Hipper]

I'd like to add a track that I've been listening to recently:

Daniel Lanois - Frozen, from his album Belladonna.

This track is instrumental and is mostly pedal steel, bass and drums. I think it's a good test particularly for bass and percussion.

Happy New Year!

[John Casler]

I'd like to add a track that I've been listening to recently:

Daniel Lanois - Frozen, from his album Belladonna.

This track is instrumental and is mostly pedal steel, bass and drums. I think it's a good test particularly for bass and percussion.

Happy New Year!

While I haven't been aware of Lanois, it seems most of us have heard him and his work with other Super Stars. 

"He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson. Lanois is best known in his role as a producer, collaborating with Brian Eno, producing a number of albums for U2, including The Joshua Tree. His work in this capacity has brought him critical acclaim, with more than one of his clients' albums honored with the coveted Grammy Award for album of the year."
Couldn't find a Youtube of Frozen, but here is a "MIX" of some of his stuff and it sounds like some of it has REF CUTS written all over it.

[Hipper]

I first heard of Daniel Lanois through an Emmylou Harris album, Wrecking Ball, which at the time, 1996, was considered a good test for hi-fi. He produced the album.

I love pedal steel and that's why I got the 'Belladonna' album although in the end the only track I really like is 'Frozen'. Here's a review of the album.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18753

You can get an idea of the track here:

http://www.amazon.com/Belladonna/dp/B0013F47KU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1293447297&sr=8-2

[John Casler]

Oooops its been a while but I'm still here, and back with another CLASSIC ROCK ref cut.

Artists - Black Sabbath

Cut - IRON MAN
Man this is one of the classics and I was recently reminded that it has one of the BEST guitar runs of the era, that intermingles with a Drum riff.