The Hybrid Wisdom Audio System:HP Tells a Tale

Survey: Four Integrated Amplifiers

Digital Signal Processors TACT RCS 2.0

Guilty Pleasures Disreputable Music We Love

T H E H I G H E N D J O U R N A L O F A U D I O & M U S I C

I S S U E 1 2 6 O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 0

www.theabsolutesound.com

10 Loudspeaker Reviews Wilson Maxx to Quad 989

$7.95 US / $9.95 CAN

Wilson MAXX loudspeaker

T H E H I G H E N D J O U R N A L O F A U D I O & M U S I C

ISSUE 126 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2000

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFHARRY PEARSON

EXECUTIVE EDITORSALLIE REYNOLDS

EQUIPMENT SET-UP & ACQUISITIONS MANAGERSCOT MARKWELL

SENIOR EDITOR & TECHNICAL CONSULTANTROBERT E. GREENE

ASSOCIATE EDITORSJONATHAN VALIN, NEIL GADER

ASSISTANT EDITORBOB GENDRON

SENIOR WRITERSARTHUR S. PFEFFER, JOHN W. COOLEDGE, JOHN NORK, ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN

THOMAS O. MIILLER, PAUL SEYDOR, ROBERT HARLEY, J. GORDON HOLT

REVIEWERSALICE ARTZT, ARTHUR B. LINTGEN, MICHAEL KULLER, MICHAEL ALAN FOX, DAN SCHWARTZ,

AARON SHATZMAN, JOHN HIGGINS, ANDREW QUINT, PETER H. BRAVERMAN, PAUL A. BOLIN, MICHAEL SILVERTON, ROMAN ZAJCEW, ADAM WALINSKY,

STEPHAN HARRELL, FRED KAPLAN

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSDAN DAVIS, DAVID DENBY, FRANK DORIS, ARIC PRESS, DAN SWEENEY,

ANNA LOGG, JOHN MARKS, LARRY ALAN KAY, DAVID MORRELL, MARK LEHMAN, THOMAS KAY, DON SALTZMAN, ALLAN KOZINN

ART DIRECTIONNANCY JOSEPHSON FOR DESIGN FARM

ARTISTSGARY OLIVER, JOHN GREEN

PROOFREADERAUBIN PARRISH

ABSOLUTE MULTIMEDIA, INC.CHAIRMAN AND CEO

THOMAS B. MARTIN, JR.

PUBLISHERMARK FISHER

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATIONTRISH KUNZ

ACCOUNTINGSCOTT PETTIT

ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESCHERYL SMITH

CIRCULATION MANAGERSTEVE WAYNER

LEGALJIM ROBINSON

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HOWARD ARBER (HPS LEGAL AFFAIRS)

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COPYRIGHT Absolute Multimedia, Inc., Issue 126, October/November 2000. The Absolute Sound (ISSN #0097-1138) is publishedbi-monthly, $42 per year for US residents, Absolute Multimedia, Inc. 7035 Bee Caves Road, Suite 203, Austin, TX 78746. PeriodicalPostage paid at Austin, TX, and additional mailing offices. Canadian publication mail account #1551566. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to The Absolute Sound, Subscription Services, Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834. Printed in the USA.

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2 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ISSUE 126

VIEWPOINTS

6 Editorial

11 LettersSurround Sound Controversy: JGH and the ReadersThe Impor-tance of Component MatchingPrice vs. PerformanceThe Blues in the NightThe LaLa Land of High End AudioTheir Guilty Pleasures

16 ErrataG. computerii Again

TAS JOURNAL

Features23 Arranged by Nelson Riddle David Morrell

Nelson Riddles distinctive arrangements for Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, are part of what we love in these great singers.

37 Whats Wrong With Loudspeakers? Robert E. GreeneMost designers, reviewers, and consumers arent worried about the right things in speakers.

Music Up Front39 Guilty Pleasures: Guilty as Charged Staff

HP asked the music writers to send us something on those musical selectionsthey adore but play only in secret. (HP himself started this surprisingly popular series in his editorial, Issue 125.)

THE SOUND

Upstairs49 Quad 989 Loudspeaker: Updating a Classic Paul Seydor

Comment Robert E. GreenePeter Walker & the Original Quads Barry Rawlinson

57 Horning Alkibiades Loudspeaker Scot Markwell65 Acarian Systems Aln Lotus SE Mk II Loudspeaker Aaron Shatzman69 Green Mountain Continuum 2 Loudspeaker Mike Kuller

Comment Roman Zajcew75 Lamm M1.1 Monoblock Amplifier & L1 Line-stage Preamplifier

Fred Kaplan79 Wilson Audio Maxx Loudspeaker Anthony H. Cordesman

Comment John Nork

The Landing87 Plinius M14 Phono Stage & M16 Line Stage Paul Bolin

Comment on M14 Dan Davis97 Audio Art Jota Amplifier Stephan Harrell

Comment Scot Markwell101 Digital-Signal Processing Devices Part I: Tact RCS 2.0 Digital

Preamp & Room/Speaker Correction Device Robert E. GreeneWhat DSP is and what it does.

Downstairs107 Four Over Two: Paul Seydor & Neil Gader

Survey: Four Integrated Amplifiers Magnum IA170, Roksan Caspian, NAD Silver Series 300 (plus a Bonus), Electrocompaniet ECI 3

117 Plinius 8100 Integrated Amplifier John MarksComment Neil Gader

119 PMC FB-1 Loudspeaker John MarksComment Mike Kuller

BreviTAS123 Krix Equinox and Totem Model One Signature loudspeakers

Neil Gader127 Yamaha CDR1000 CDR Recorder John Marks131 Waveform MACH MC Loudspeaker Robert E. Greene

HPS WORKSHOP135 Wisdom Audio M-75: A Planar/Magnetic Hybrid System

Inside the Brain Scot Markwell

THE MUSIC

Sounds Absolute147 Chesky Records: Christy Baron & Clark Terry; EMI: Ravels Piano

Concerto in G & Rachmaninoffs Piano Concerto No. 4; Mahlers Symphony No. 2; SLCC (Saint Louis Chamber Chorus): Romes GoldenPoets; Louis Armstrong; Sonny Rollins

Featured Label153 MA Recordings Neil Gader

157 Curmudgeons Corner: Audio-Audio, Video-Audio Arthur S. Pfeffer

Classical161 Webern; Creston; Le Cinma (Chaplin, etc.); Shchedrin; Gesualdo;

Waxman; Berlioz; Wiern; Purcell; For Children: Telarcs Dance ona Moonbeam

173 DISCoveries: Neglected Composers Dan Davis

Pop & Rock175 The Magnificent Seven: New Artists Emerge from the Fringes

Bob Gendron

FINALE

182 Where To Buy The Absolute Sound183 Ad Index

Last Page184 Math Test for Musicians

Front Cover: The Wilson MAXXEpigraph: Imagination is evidence of the Divine. William Blake

Contents

TAS VIEWPOINTS 3

Horning Alkibiades Wilson Maxx Quad 989 Green Mountain Continuum 2

6 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ISSUE 126

The reaction to last issues editorial on GuiltyPleasures caught me by surprise. Contrary to what many ofyou might suspect, we seldom get mail about any givenarticle, and less than seldom specific responses to eitherreviews or, gulp!, editorials (a notable recent exceptionbeing Jonathan Valins tribute to the courage of Dr. RogerA. West).

We had, quite evidently, struck a resonant chord. Andset me to thinking.

Meanwhile, the first batch of essays (but far from thelast) from select members of the staff on their GuiltyPleasures arrived and I found myself, as I trust you will,deliciously surprised. Whod have thunk that Robert E.Greene, that rigorous analyst and mathematician, would gofor Julie London? Or that the august Dr. Andy Quintwould find comfort in the musical arms of Eminem (a.k.a.Marshall Mathers).

Such have set me to thinking about another kind ofguilty pleasure, musical first loves: Those pieces of musicthat first turn us on to musics power to shape the imagi-native life.

In my case, the first that I remember was ProkofievsPeter and the Wolf, which I was exposed to at the tender ageof five. My parents loved to go out dancing to Big BandMusic, and their collection of recordings (played back on alarge-ish Zenith console) were mostly these. Dont ask why(unless one can be a reincarnation of a future self), butfrom the age of three or so, I became fascinated by thisdevice and within no time, since I couldnt read (despitemy entreaties), had learned to distinguish among their sin-gles by the color of the record label, the amount of printon it, and the size and spacing of the grooves. There werealso three, possibly four, albums. Including the Prokofiev,at the tail end of which when the captured Wolf is beingparaded through town you hear the unforgettable minor-key melody for the duck, earlier swallowed by the wolf.And the narrator tells you, as the orchestra executes adiminuendo, that the duck is still swimming around inthe wolfs stomach because, in his hurry, the wolf had swal-lowed him (pause, for dramatic emphasis) alive. A quickchord ends the piece, leaving the young Harry not justtroubled and upset, but somehow wounded. I could haveaccepted the fate of an eaten duck, but not one still alive.

I hadnt thought of this in some years, but as I did now,and thought of other pieces of music that have stuck inmind, the idea of an unresolved ambiguity has endured.During my later childhood, I loved a song on RCA calledBermuda by a female duo, The Bell Sisters, who had twohits and vanished. You learn at the outset that she (or thetwo sisters) went sailing with a guy she loved and that shelost her loved one there on the blue. She sees his hair inthe sunlight, his eyes in the water blue but as

the song wraps up, she tells you in Bermuda waters, soclear and cold, I await my loved one, as I grow old. Shedrowned? And she beckons? Not he?

A bit later, on Decca, Peggy Lee released a song shewrote called Sans Souci (without sorrow), in which thechorus is chanting Rowboat, go, go in the background, asLee pipes out elliptical lyrics, like, They got no roomhere/for someone like me. Here? Nobody has mentioned aspecific place. Someone like me? Whatever does this mean,since she has not defined herself, directly, as an outsider?Play it as often as I would, I could find no answer to the rid-dles the song posed. Guess youd called it an example of thePearson Principle of the Specific Vague (PPSV). And what,dear hearts, has Phil Collins been waiting for all of mylife in The Air Tonight? Or Jimmy Spheeris [Isle of View,Columbia 30988] in I am the Mercury when he sings Ihave been bought, I have been sold in the city/Ive dinedwith the demons and drunk of their fear.

Devoid of a specific context (the Spheeris being a bril-liant example), I found my own creative imagination setloose to take wing and, to quote Spheeris from the samesong, weave light where its storming.

Ofttimes, the music itself, minus words, would set thescene and I would, imaginatively, paint the picture. Thisbegan with the arrival of adolescent hormones, I suspect.And the very first classical piece to strike up those fancieswas Respighis Pines of Rome. Funny isnt it, how we tend tolook askance, if not down upon, those earlier classicalenthusiasms, and just as odd how the first interpretation wehear of a piece is the one by which well judge all futureinterpretations? In this instance, it was Toscanini (Reinerslater version is a carbon copy, by the way), and theCatacombs I imagined were one scary place. Vampires.Brain-sucking demons. Revenants. Or later yet, Munchconducting Daphnis & Chloe, where, to Sunrise, I was,cloud-like, floating over the European countryside, watch-ing the blue shadows stripe the green landscape. And writ-ing to the accompaniment of the music, using it to evokethe moods I wanted to invoke. I think of these as guiltypleasures because they are such intensely personal ones. Aswe grow more sophisticated, or so we think, we tend todetach the personal from our appreciation of the music, tothe point that we experience music in a more absolute way,as a pleasure unto itself without much reference to theimagination. Rather we enjoy it in a way approaching purefeeling. Our musical roots, though, first thrive in the soilof guilty pleasures, those pieces we remember becausetheyve spurred a longing for something outside of, beyond,and greater than ourselves. The nice thing is that theseencounters are not necessarily confined to the past we yetcome face-to-face with them through the love of music.

E D I T O R I A L

The Guilty Pleasures of a First Love

TAS VIEWPOINTS 11

Surround Sound Controversy I. Does JGH Have a Pointless Pen?Editor:

Thank you so much for printingmy letter (Issue 124). I was initiallydelighted to see a reply, only to be dis-appointed in the end. I found Mr.Holts usual pointless pen to havedegraded into condescending brable[sic]. No challenging exchange ofideas there!

I could have made comments like,Mr. Holt must never have heard a mod-ern stereo system or He must have aseason ticket in the brass section, butwhat do I know about his life?

To answer Mr. Holts ignorantinsults, let me first say that I did men-tion I am a professional classical musi-cian. I have vast experience with dif-ferent aspects of concert-hall acoustics,including many most music listenershavent thought of. Secondly, I failedto mention my day job, whichincludes acoustic-treatment installa-tions for custom-built surround-soundrooms stocked with names such asLynn, Lucas, Meridian, and othernosebleed-level systems.

TERRY PHIPPS

LA MESA, CALIFORNIA

JGH Responds: My apologies. I did notintend to insult or offend. Its just that Isometimes find it difficult to comprehendhow so many people have trouble seeingthings that seem self-evident to me.

An example: Since the ambience wehear in a concert hall is surround-sound,would it not seem to follow that the realismof the sound must increase when the repro-duction is in surround sound? Can anyonereasonably dispute that?

II. JGH in the Doghouse, er, Lobby, AgainEditor:

For Mr. Holt, a profound andrespected veteran of this industry, to

refer to stereo sound as like listeningfrom the lobby through an open dooris absolutely and utterly idiotic. Iveseen new technologies influence mag-azine writers before, but this is anextreme case of pushing the new. Iknow that pushing surround sound isgoing to generate a truckload of salesand ad dollars, but please, do it whenit makes sense. We are nowhere nearacoustically accurate surround soundand, to be quite honest and a littleskeptical at the same time, I dontthink that we ever will be. I ask [you]to put Mr. Holts talents to better use.Right now he is wasting my time, hisown time, and precious space in thismagazine. Im sorry, Mr. Holt, butTerry Phipps analogy [comparingJGH to Julian Hirsch, we assume. Eds.] is right on the money (Letters,Issue 124). Please do something con-structive with your time now that youare at a better magazine. Cheers!

GEORDY DUNCAN

RED DEER, ALBERTA, CANADA

JGH Replies: Mr. Duncan, as someonewho probably gets to hear more live sym-phonic music than any other reviewer, I feelqualified to recognize acoustically accu-rate reproduction when I hear it, and Ihear a lot more of it from good surround sys-tems than I ever did from any stereo system.

It seems obvious to me that a reproduc-ing system that can only deliver hall rever-beration from the front cannot possibly ren-der the full performing space as accuratelyas one that delivers side and rear reverbfrom the sides and rear. (Certainly, no homelistening room can do it, because small-roomreverb doesnt sound like concert-hallreverb.) If the simple truth of that proposi-tion outrages stereo Luddites, so be it.

Im not claiming that surround soundmakes reproduced music sound just like thereal thing, although, for the last few weeks,I have been living with a system that comesawfully close (more about this in Issue 127).What I am saying is that surround repro-

duction can bring reproduced realism to alevel that no mere stereo system can aspire to.

III. Give Surround Sound theBenefit of a ListenEditor:

After reading the numerous arti-cles written by the esteemed J.Gordon Holt in both The AbsoluteSound and Stereophile on the topic ofsurround sound, I feel compelled tocomment. Years ago in Stereophile, hereviewed an interesting piece of equip-ment manufactured by Audio Re-search, the SDP1 Spatial DefinitionProcessor. No other single piece ofaudio equipment I have owned has sochanged my listening habits. It is sadto see that the SDP1 (or a successor) isno longer offered by Audio Research. Isuspect it never really sold becauseaudiophile purists believed that musicmust be heard through only two chan-nels. I give Audio Research credit,however, for trying to challenge nor-mal listening habits.

With J. Gordon Holts recentseries of articles on surround sound(The Surround We Own, Issue 125,the latest), I recommend music lovers(I hope there are a few audiophiles wholike music) to finally take his argu-ment for surround sound seriously.There is much ambient informationon many LPs, CDs, and DVDs, and acapable processor offering sophisticat-ed surround modes will present a con-siderable realism in music. The senseof space (ambience) can bring a three-dimensional reality to the listeningexperience.

Although I have a considerableinvestment in audio equipment, aswell as a dedicated custom-built audioroom, its the music that matters. Myfriends, many of whom are naive onaudiophile equipment (and believe Iam in need of psychiatric assistancegiven some of my equipment purchas-es), consistently hear the benefits of

L E T T E R S

TAS VIEWPOINTS 13

ambient information extraction. So give J. Gordon Holt the benefit

of doubt, and give surround music lis-tening a try!

DR. NED F. KUEHNSOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN

JGH: Thanks. I needed that.

The Importance of ComponentMatching: A Real-Life StoryEditor:

I recently purchased a used pair ofAvalon Eidolons, thoroughly brokenin, I have been told. They replacedAerial 7Bs, a nice speaker, thoughlacking the refinement, accuracy, fre-quency extremes, and in many waysthe musicality of the Avalons. Asexpected, the equipment that workedso nicely with the Aerials have stunkup the room. These speakers are sorevealing that unless proper compo-nent matching is obtained, the idio-syncrasies of the upstream unitsbecome all I notice.

I presently have a Class 301 amp(ballsy and quite musical with theAerials. Actually they are remarkablyfast [dynamic?] with the Eidolons.Slightly toward white and too for-ward. Everything is there, only notmusically.), Jadis JP80MC preamp,Sony SACD, Purist Audio Dominusspeaker wire, Siltech gold cables, andElectra Glide expensive power cords.

A friend, who purchased my oldAvalon Ascents and subsequentlymoved to the Eidolons, lugged hisLamm M2.1s over. These amps, whichI have read nothing but exemplaryreviews of, fell short in almost all cate-gories powering my system. In all butstaging and warmth, these beautifulamps failed. The speed, delineation,bass tautness, etc. [were compromised].The highs rolled off, the bottom slug-gish. Some improvement in the mids,but not nearly enough to draw myattention from all that was lost.

Now, to my point. My buddy, whohas gone to tremendous lengths tofine-tune his system, was surprised tohear speakers identical to his, poweredwith his amps, offer such a differentpresentation. His source differs, asdoes his cabling, which we understandis not to be casually dismissed. Thus,comes my concern about reviewingcomponents. How can any piece ofstereo equipment, especially in theHigh End, be critiqued withoutaffording the reviewer many, if notcountless, pieces to bring the best outof a specific component? I know the

Lamm is an excellent piece. I believe itto better the Class in nearly all [waysin absolute terms] but not in my sys-tem. My friends system reached itspinnacle only after several wirechanges, swapping of tubes, and otherneurotic tweaks. The sound is musical,hard-driving, intensely accurate, and,most importantly, a joy to listen to.

I, on the other hand, have a way togo. In Milwaukee, auditioning certainequipment is [often] impossible. Ihave, over the years, somewhat trustedyour ears to lead me toward sonicbliss. I now understand the difficultyof achieving such an undertaking. Asmy friend hauled the amps back intohis car, I realized how assessing piecesof someone elses components was notsomething I would or could have any-thing to do with.

I feel quite sure that nothing Ihave written here is new. After all, weare all looking to the gods for theunattainable, slippery truth.

Thanks for trying. It makes forgreat reading and allows my heart tobeat just a bit faster when a new, allencompassing piece of wire makes itsdebut on your cover, spreading the joyof music to one and all.

STEVE NEUFELD

BAYSIDE, WISCONSIN

HP Replies: One of the reasons I try tokeep a variety of equipment on hand, anduse at least two listening rooms, is to sub-ject any component to as many variables asI can. This is one of the reasons that theobservational reviewing technique is notquickly accomplished. We know, and alltoo well, the dangers of incompatibilityamong components and how easy it is tomiss the boat. One component that springsimmediately to mind: our experience withthe Thiel CS-7, which only performed itsbest with high-powered amplifiers. Muchthe same is true, for example, of the WilsonAudio speakers of yore, which need eitheran amplifier of high power or one relative-ly insensitive to severe droops in a speakersimpedance curve. We could go on with this,i.e., the impedance mismatches that occurbetween tubed and solid-state equipment.Even so, we can only cover so many of thepossible combinations, as you have percep-tively noted. And sometimes we findstrange incompatibilities, ones we wouldnever have suspected say, the unhappycombination of the Atma-Sphere OTLamplifier with the hybrid Wisdom Audiospeakers planar/magnetic panels: Whowould have known? I, for one, would neverbuy a component until I had had a chanceto insert it into my own system to make sureits new home would be a happy one.

The (Lousy) Sound of DGsShostakovich QuartetsEditor:

I am a new reader, and I alwaysenjoy your magazine. However, I musttake exception to the review of theEmerson Quartets recordings of theShostakovich String Quartets. I boughtthe DG single recording with theEighth Quartet. As it was only $5.99, Ithought that it would give me an ideaas to what to expect sound-wise.

Well, I started with my rathermundane home system listening ses-sion No.1: Performance 5 stars.Sound 1 star.

Then I took the CD to my local hi-fi shop and played it on several sys-tems that ranged from about $8,000to $25,000. Performance still 5stars. Sound 2 stars.

As we myself, three salesmen,and several customers listened, wewondered if the group had beenrecorded in a closet. There was noambience, sparkle, space, depth, air. Infact, it sounded like the microphoneshad been placed right on top of theplayers! I know that Apsens stage isnot huge, but the recording makes itsound tight and closed.

Was this an effort to prevent audi-ence noise?*

I am a fan of the Emerson Quartet,but I am going to have to decide if Ican get past the rather poor sound toget into the wonderful performance.

Finally, Andrew Quint mentionsthe Fitzwilliams Quartet recording onDecca. Now thats a great recording!But the DG/Emerson the best soundof them all? mmmmm....

MARK WAGNER

AUSTIN, TEXAS

* Surely.

Andrew Quint Replies: My sense isthat Mark Wagner and I have similar pri-orities when it comes to the Shostakovichquartets. I gather he values this musichighly, and was impressed with theEmersons way with it, at least based onhis audition of the Eighth Quartet. Itson the matter of the sound that we partways. There is, of course, always more thanone valid way to make a recording, andthis is never more true than when it comesto chamber music. An engineer can seek tocommunicate the nature of the venue inwhich the performances were realized. Or,with a small number of musicians playingrelatively small instruments, he can trans-port the event to our listening rooms.

continued on page 16

16 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ISSUE 126

Without a doubt, the London/Decca CDs not to mention the LPs documenting theFitzwilliam Quartets Shostakovich havemore air and a feel of the space in whichthe group was recorded (a church). One is inthe audience at a great performance. Mr.Wagner is probably right: A more distantsonic perspective on the DG effort couldhave resulted in distracting audience noise.But even ignoring that issue entirely, it isthrilling to have the Emerson spread outbefore you, in an almost palpable fashion the immediate sound serves well the widedynamic excursions and dramatic intensityof their readings. The tonal truthfulness ofthe recording is notable and ensemble bal-ances are unassailable. Mr. Wagner is enti-tled to prefer the approach heard on theFitzwilliams discs, but to characterize theEmerson set as having rather poor soundis to overstate things considerably.

Price vs. PerformanceI. In a Fog Over the Pricing of Audio CablesEditor:

I just started reading your maga-zine and it is a refreshing change fromthe other High End publications.While others seem to try andimpress/befuddle readers with all sortsof techno-jargon, you simply tell itlike it is, and skip most of the infor-mation that most people do not under-stand and if they do understand it,and are not electronic engineers, thenthey have simply too much free time.

To me, the High End audio mar-ket, like the High End car market, is asubjective thing. One may prefer onebrand over another for personal reasons,while both are exceptional performers.What I enjoy about your magazine isthat your writers seem to recognize thisaspect in their reviewing.

One thing that has me in a fog,though, are interconnects and speakercables. I understand the reasoningbehind the construction. Where is thepoint of diminishing returns? Are$2,400 speaker cables worth it or arethey just the emperors new clothes?

TOM NEILSON

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

HP Responds: Sad to say, in most cases,there is a correlation between the price of thecable and the excellence of its sound. Notalways, of course. And this is where thesnake oil comes in. Often, cable and connectormanufacturers will mark up their productsmore than 80 points, thus allowing yourOlde Audio Shoppe to make a killing, or ineffect, to discount the price of an entire system

(and in a business that frowns on steeply dis-counted component prices). But there is littlepoint in paying high prices for interconnectsin a system that does not exhibit the lastword in resolution. The reviewer is at seahere because he cannot possibly guess the levelof resolution of any readers system and musttherefore evaluate the performance of connec-tors on an absolute basis (in other words, heattempts to determine the excellence of thecabling based on his own reference system,which, in all too many cases, may not be thelast word itself in resolving information).Making all of this more difficult is the pecu-liar way in which connectors, of all kinds,tend to react to an individual system, whichcan be unpredictable. In my own case, I refuseto evaluate cabling that sounds differentfrom system to system during the evaluationprocess. I want interconnects that sound thesame no matter the system in which they findthemselves.

continued from page 13

G. computerii AgainSharp-eyed reader Wolfhard Schulzuncovered one of several strangeerrors in Dan Sweeneys Recom-mended Music piece, Issue 124(page 143). Si Vous Passez Par L wascredited to a group called 3Moustaches 3, who really call them-selves 3 Mustaphas 3. (Our Grem-lins have a sense of humor, at least.)What Schulz didnt catch, butSweeney alerted me to, is that theTurkish saz, a long-necked lute, gottransmogrified into the Turkishsax. What neither knew: Whenthat article came in, the title of thispiece was completely garbled. Wecaught that, but not the others. TheGremlins dont speak French orTurkish, and changed words theydidnt recognize, spell-checker-like,into words they knew, however non-sensical the context. (Gremlins dontcare a fig for context.)

Not content with messingaround with Mr. Sweeney in 124,the little monsters struck again inhis review of the McIntosh in Issue125, page 81. The correct numberfor the Water Lily CD Saltanah,which he cites as reference, shouldbe WLA-ES-51CD. WLA-CS-47CD is the number for Bourbon &Rosewater, also cited in that review.(Okay, okay, Gremlins. That mis-take was mine, in the process ofediting.) SR

E R R A T A

Price vs. Performance II. If Price Is No Object, What Is?Editor:

In [Issue 123], you printed my let-ter. However, I believe my intent wastaken slightly out of context with thetile When Price Can Be The Object.My suggestion to use two pairs ofJoule Electra Marquis OTLs to drivethe Genesis speakers for the samemoney as one pair of AtmaSphereOTLs is about the music. Having gonefrom a single to a bi-amp systemmyself, my experience has been that abi-amp system does improve perfor-mance. Although you indicated thatyou do not want to get involved inmaking price versus performance com-parisons between components, I findthis at odds with reality in the market-place. People do consider what musicalperformance they can acquire for themoney they sacrifice, if only becausewhat they save can be more wiselyspent on records, trips to the concerthall, or piano lessons. Indeed, DanielSweeneys reply to another letter inthat same issue states: The PS Audio1200 is less than half the price of theAccuphase, drawing a possibleprice/performance comparison. In fact,you have also made a price/perfor-mance comparison, as I recall. I do notremember what issue, but you stated,if memory serves me correctly, that youthought the Merlin speakers soundedgood but were pricey for what theywere and did right.

PAUL PERSICH

NEW YORK CITY

HP Replies: This is a most sticky issue.Unless I were a mind-reader (which, giventhe colorful history of this magazine, I oftenwish I had been), I could not possibly eval-uate how any person would weight the valueof similarly priced components, since allcomponents have shortcomings in reproduc-ing or trying to reproduce the absolute. Howcould I tell which shortfalls you could livewith? It is best, I think, simply to point outthe shortfalls. Sometimes a component withfar fewer colorations, distortions, and thelike is priced lower than its more expensivebrethren, in which case, we point out theobvious, and that is, of course, a price/per-formance judgment.

The Blues in the NightEditor:

I just read Issue 124, on the rec-ommendation of a friend. I had neverbefore read your magazine. Most of itwas over my head. I am in the marketfor some new equipment. I read sever-al great reviews of different systems.

The drawback was that at the end ofeach there was a reference to the sys-tem not being for rock, hard rock,electric blues, etc. It seems that allof the music you use to test this stuffis basically unamplified. Usually it isclassical, chamber, jazz, or folk.Robert Harley writes, Because ofthese characteristics, this recom-mended system is better suited tosmaller scale music and vocals than tohard rock or electric blues (page117). Paul Seydor says, I thinktheyre just fine on what little rock Ilisten to; but if youre a real head-banger, you might want to destroyyoure hearing with something else(page 114). Problem is the blues is allI listen to, acoustic from the Twentiesand Thirties, and electric from thatpoint forward. The vibe I got fromMr. Seydor is that maybe my musicisnt worthy of audiophile qualitycomponents. Is it? You guys are theexperts. My room is my living roomand kitchen, which combined are 13x 40. I want to spend about $3,500on a set of speakers and an integratedamp. I need help. There are too manychoices. Any suggestions? Remember I listen to amplified music.

MARK NEFF

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

JV Replies: This letter really touched anerve with me. Sure, Mr. Neff, your musicis worthy of a High End system. The pointisnt that your music isnt musical. Thepoint is that your music (at least in itselectrified form) has a lot of mid-to-deepbass information (drumkit, Fender,Hammond B-3, etc.) that wont be repro-duced articulately or powerfully by manyof the Basement and Downstairs speakersrecommended in our feature (which arelimited in this regard by their size anddriver complement). Given your taste, Iwould suggest a subwoofered system (agood mini-monitor with a powered sub).You may not be able to achieve the ulti-mate in driver integration going thisway, but you will enjoy superior mid-to-upper bass rhythmic clarity and dynamicimpact and that is crucial to feelingthe pulse of the music you love.

The LaLa Land of High End AudioEditor:

Mike Silvertons chagrin at thereviewers Catch-22 [Last Page, Issue124] is correct on one point at least:In relation to the escalating prices ofHigh End gear, the market votes. Butthe High End market is also fickle,punishing, and unconcerned. It isLaLa Land for the Irrational Exuber-

TAS VIEWPOINTS 17

ance of the over-enthusiastic and out-of-touch, the spendthrift, the irra-tional, the uninformed, the confused,and those who have nothing better todo with their money or time.

If the buyer perceives that a com-ponent is priced unreasonably high,suggests Silverton, hell pass. Fromwhat Ive read in TAS and Stereophile,however, many readers complain andare outraged with unreasonableprices and with many reviewers andmanufacturers unwillingness to justifysuch high prices and over-engineering.Clearly, some readers are sourpusses:They just cant afford High End gearand will deny until the Third Comingthat High End is superior. Others,though, see no real value! This is espe-cially true for the experienced travelerwho knows that price and sound qual-ity do not always ride the same tracks.One often finds amps, speakers, car-tridges, and cables that outperform thehigh-priced spread

Moral outrage notwithstanding,many High End components are hand-built, limited-production instruments,and deserve to be priced accordingly.

Should reviewers expound on theworthiness and reasonableness ofprices? I think that is a personal mat-ter. I would, and I have, because I am,by profession, an appraiser and a trad-er: Value has always been integral inmy world view. Others may emphasizecharacteristics other than value. Thisemphasis, however, benefits only themanufacturer and seller, not the cus-tomer. Judgment of value, therefore, iscritical for the reader, and the abilityto determine value is morally andfunctionally valuable to commerceand the marketplace for all goodsand commodities.

Seen in this fashion, then, what themarket will bear is often unfair to atleast one person the buyer, who maybe more or less informed. As my fathersaid: A good business deal is whereboth parties benefit equally. Balance.

Because readers are also buyers,the reviewers ability to determinevalue for what he recommends is aserious responsibility, and, in and ofitself, of substantial value to readers.And I say to reviewers: Guide your-selves accordingly.

Additionally, I say to readers:Demand of reviewers that they valuethe component under review againstothers, and determine its place in themarketplace. Of course, reviewerswho have little knowledge of the mar-ket price of parts and components,

machinery and chassis building, sub-assemblies, advertising and publicity,and factors relating to manufacturingand marketing overhead, are clearly ata disadvantage. The reader/buyer paysthe penalty for that deficiency.

ANDREW G. BENJAMINQUEENS, NEW YORK

AGB is a sometime contributor to thepages of The Absolute Sound.

Their Guilty Pleasures: IDear Harry:

Among my guilty pleasures areSpike Jones Dinner Music for PeopleWho Arent Very Hungry, and A SpikeJones Christmas. [See HPs editorial,Issue 124.] The owner of the summercamp I went to as a young childinfected me with Spike Jones fever,causing me to buy his 78s and watchhis TV show.

Bob & Ray are another guilty plea-sure of mine and I often reflect on MaryBackstage, Noble Wife, Wally Ballou,Einbinder Fly Paper, and dozens of otherpriceless characters and routines. I alsofondly remember Homer & Jethros Iwoulda wrote you a letter but I cantspell (Bronx cheer), and a ChildrensGarden of Stan Freberg (the same sum-mer-camp owner turned me on to Fre-berg with St. George and the Dragonnet).

I still miss your Leicaflex pix.STUART NORDHEIMER

NEW YORK CITY

Their Guilty Pleasures: II Dear Harry:

I just finished reading momentsago your editorial about GuiltyPleasures. Your closing remarks aboutStan Frebergs magic brought backmany wonderful memories of howmany hours of guilty pleasure I hadlistening to him years ago. Do youremember his creation of the characterProfessor Herman Von Horn, thenoted authority on High Fidelity?

PETER MCGRATH

COCONUT GROVE, FLORIDA

HP Responds: Yes, Peter, and I alsoremember his other memorable characters,Edna St. Louis Missouri (the authority onTarzan and the Apes and his influence onTwentieth Century culture, from Face theFunnies), Jett Crash, a test pilot (hello,boys and girls, my name is Jett...Crash. Iam a test...pilot.) who is selling PuffedGrass (50 million moo cows cant bewrong). Oh, do I remember.

TAS VIEWPOINTS 19

TAS JOURNAL 23

These days, when recorded popular music isnt somuch performed as assembled from various tracks, soundengineers have taken the place of arrangers. But therewas a time, primarily in the 1950s and 1960s,when certain arrangers had fans of their ownand their names on album jackets were anadded attraction. Billy May, GordonJenkins, Don Costa, Richard Wess (onBobby Darins big-band hits, especial-ly Mack the Knife), and QuincyJones (perhaps the last of the line)come readily to mind. The best,however, the most well-known andmost highly regarded by his col-leagues was Nelson Riddle.

Riddles distinctive work com-bines his love for the French impres-sionist composers, particularly De-bussy and Ravel, and his equalenthusiasm for big-band jazz. Thisunique juxtaposition is a reflection ofhis childhood. He was born in 1921 inHackensack, New Jersey. His father, anamateur musician who knew how to playthe piano only on the black keys, encouragedyoung Nelson to accompany him on the trom-bone, playing (Riddle later said) such hit tunes of theday as Harbor Lights and Red Sails in the Sunset, whichmade my toes curl because they were so boring.Simultaneously, his mother and his aunt fostered his inter-est in serious music. A gift of an old wind-up phonographcame with a large Victor Red Seal disc that had a Debussypiano piece on each side, Reflets dans leau and LaCathdrale engloutie. Riddle wore out numerous cactusphonograph needles, listening repeatedly to the way theFrench composer created effects with tone color as much asmelody. Debussys La Mer so inspired Riddle that he stud-ied a copy of the score to try to learn the pieces secrets.

In the end, popular music won Riddles attention. Byage 17 in 1938, he was spending his summers away fromhome in nearby Rumson, New Jersey, where he played withseveral kid bands and where an up-and-coming arranger,Bill Finnegan, gave him lessons in orchestrating forexample how to write a chorus of Swanee River for fivesaxes (2 altos, 2 tenors and 1 baritone). After a fewmonths, the lessons were interrupted when Finnegan went

to work for the Glenn Miller band, but their teacher-stu-dent relationship continued on-and-off for the next decade.

Meanwhile, at the age of 19 in 1940, Riddle lefthome to work with clarinetist Tommy Reynolds

dance band as trombonist and arranger. Soonafter, he was traveling with trumpeter Charley

Spivaks band, doing arrangements for $5each ($7.50 if he made a copy of eachmusicians part). In 1943, he got a par-tial reprieve from the draft in the SecondWorld War when he joined theMerchant Marine. Working with itsband at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, helearned a good deal about writing forstrings. Released in 1944, he joinedthe Tommy Dorsey band, where helearned even more about strings and,equally important, how to get similareffects without strings (Dorsey wanted

backup arrangements in case he fired thestring section).

Finally drafted in 1945, Riddle spentthe remainder of the war working with a

military band in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Therea bizarre accident forced him to give up the

trombone in favor of arranging a garage door fellon him, knocking out his front teeth. The pivots that

replaced them made it impossible for him to blow on thetrombone without weakening his dental repairs.

T A S J O U R N A L

Arranged by Nelson Riddle

A brilliant arranger, like a brilliant moviedirector or the famous fiction editors ofthe Golden Age of American letters, helpsform the artistic identity of the musicianshe works with. Nelson Riddles distinctivearrangements for Sinatra, Nat King Cole,Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, RosemaryClooney, are part of what we love inthese great singers.

In 1946, he moved to Los Angeles to work for singingbandleader (and Dorsey alumnus) Bob Crosby. A subse-quent job as a staff arranger for NBC radio gave Riddle thetime to study string orchestration with the Italian compos-er Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Simultaneously, he studiedconducting with Victor Bay, an alumnus of Russias St.Petersburg Conservatory and the string section of thePhiladelphia Orchestra. But no matter how skilled Riddlewas becoming, his career needed a boost, an assignmentthat would get him noticed, not to mention better-payingwork so he could support his growing family.

That opportunity came in 1950 when Les Baxter, incharge of an ambitious Nat King Cole project, subcon-tracted Riddle (who was then 29) to write an arrangementof a song called Mona Lisa. For years, Baxter took creditfor that arrangement, along with those for Unforgettable(1950) and Too Young (1951), but eventually Riddlereceived his proper due. Cole, who had started his career asa virtuoso jazz pianist, was by 1950 drifting from his ori-gins. Partly out of bitterness for the way some segments ofAmerica discriminated against him, hewas determined to make as much moneyas he could, and one way to do that wasto record lushly orchestrated balladsthat appealed to audiences, especiallywomen, regardless of his race. MonaLisa, a love song about the famouspainting, was especially suited for Colesintimate, throaty, resonant voice.

The way Riddle treated the song,however, is astonishing, for he backedCole only with a mandolin and a stringsection. No rhythm section. No drums.No bass. And most astonishing of all,given that the piano was Coles trade-mark instrument and is used in virtuallyevery other arrangement in his career no keyboard. The strings provide vibrantfills behind Coles hypnotic voice, butwith no overt rhythm, the effect isalmost as if he is singing a cappella.

When word spread about whatRiddle had done, more work came his way, much of it fromCole himself who, until 1960, used Riddle as musical direc-tor and an arranger of more than 250 recordings, not to men-tion as arranger for his TV show. Their most intriguingalbum is 1955s The Piano Style of Nat King Cole, in whichCole concentrates exclusively on playing the piano with alarge orchestra. Half the tunes are slow, half up-tempo. Somesound bland, but most have the feel of jazz, and in all ofthem, Cole uses the piano as if it were his voice, while Riddlebacks him superbly. The album sold barely a copy, however,which may be why, for most of their association, Cole caredless about theme albums and more about singles. While thearrangements for the break-out hits Mona Lisa, Unfor-gettable, and Too Young are memorable, Riddles workfor Cole soon became formulaic, with oversweet strings andpiano supporting Coles make-no-waves, bland, balladeerpersona.

Those singles earned a lot of money for Capitol, and itsexecutives looked for other ways to use Riddle. In 1953,they decided to pair him with a once-famous singer whosepublic had turned against him when he left his wife andchildren for a glamorous movie star. Almost unemployable,Frank Sinatra needed an image change, and the arrangerfirst chosen to help him was trumpeter Billy May, whose

TAS JOURNAL 25

Riddle in Recordings

N elson Riddle was a Gerald Moore for popular singers,his instrument not just a piano but a full orchestra andmost combinations of instruments in between. UnlikeMoore, he was never an accompanist only, but a kind of sec-ondary composer, his charts filled with countermelodies near-ly as beguiling as the melodies themselves. Ive often thoughtit was the particular achievement perhaps even the sly joke of his most famous original composition, the Route 66theme, that it sounds less like a theme than a countermelodyin search of a theme.

So many albums in which Riddle participated are out ofprint (or in that limbo called out of stock, meaning listed inprint, but effectively unavailable) most of his recordings sanssingers, and his superb Academy Award winning score for TheGreat Gatsby that the following list cannot be definitive. Butseveral of these albums are essential and all contribute to aricher appreciation of the art of this remarkable musician.

Sinatra It is soberingto think that if CapitolRecords had been asadventurous as RCA inembracing the newmedium of stereo inthe mid-Fifties, some ofthe greatest albums ofpopular music scoredby the greatest arran-ger for the greatestsinger would be instereo. Not that theresmuch wrong with themonophonic reproduc-tion on such classics asSwing Easy [72434-96089-2-4], In theWee Small Hours[72434-94755-2-6],Songs for Swingin

Lovers [72434-96226-2-3], and Close to You [72434-CDP7-46572-2]: vibrant, colorful, exceptionally clear and dynamic,nothing except that stereo would be better, as is readily demon-strated by Only the Lonely [72434-94756-2-5], one of the rarepopular recordings that actually sounds realistic, that is, repro-duces the effect of a singer standing in front of a large orches-tra spread out behind him. The chamber album, Close to You,featuring the Hollywood String Quartet and perhaps the mostpath-breaking of all the Sinatra/Riddle collaborations, is nolonger available, which I hope means that it is due for re-releasein Capitols inexplicably stalled 20-bit remastering of all itsSinatra material.

Much of the Riddle/Sinatra Reprise work I find competentrather than inspired, a notable exception being The ConcertSinatra [Reprise 9 47244-2] from 1963, which can stand withthe best of the Capitol years in concept and execution (con-taining Sinatras tour de force Ol Man River). At the time itwas promoted as a sonic spectacular owing to the use of theWestrex 35mm recording system. Unfortunately, the LP sound-ed harsh and congested. According to Charles GranatasSessions with Sinatra (1999), the original 3-track tapes werespectacular, but something went amiss in the mixdown thatwas never corrected. The original masters seem to have been

dance-band hits made his name familiar to record-buyers.But Mays success put him on a performing tour while hewas supposed to be in the recording studio with Sinatra, sofor a second fateful time, Riddle was subcontracted to dothe work. The agreement was that Riddle would arrangetwo singles in the style of May (South of the Border andI Love You), along with two in Riddles own manner(Ive Got the World on a String and Dont Worry BoutMe). With their raucous brass and slurpy saxophones-in-unison, the first two sounded enough like May to fool themusicians, but there is no mistaking that the arrangementsfor the second two are by someone else entirely.

The bright trumpets and joyful rhythm of Ive Got theWorld on a String (indeed the songs title itself) were anannouncement of Sinatras comeback. But the gem of thesession and the indication of where Riddles genius wouldlead is the arrangement for Dont Worry Bout Me. Fromthe Capitol years onward, Sinatra wanted most of hisarrangements to have a story-like construction: Introducethe piece, establish its theme, build to a climax, and thentrail off. This approach contrasts sharply with the unmod-ulated arrangements that Axel Stordahl wrote for Sinatraduring his previous Columbia years. It also contrasts withRiddles similarly unmodulated work for Coles singles.

Riddles approach to Dont Worry Bout Me wasbased on what hed learned from the French impressionistcomposer, Ravel, whose Bolero is famous for its accumu-lating intensity. In an unusual choice for an arranger knownfor his melodic introductions, Riddle decided against aninstrumental opening. Instead, he begins directly and min-imalistically with Sinatras voice, which is immediatelyjoined by mellow saxophones. A guitar strums in time witha bass. A piano tinkles in the background. The saxes stop.Trombones take over. The trombones stop. Muted trum-pets take over. Except for the piano and the rhythm section,no instrument plays simultaneously with another. Therhythm section consists solely of the guitar and the bass.No drums. Then suddenly, as the songs 32 bars come to agentle close, we hear a subtle ding-ding of cymbals in thebackground. Having been silent from the beginning, thedrummer now comes dramatically into action, joined byevery instrument saxes, trombones, no-longer-mutedtrumpets playing for the first time simultaneously andexuberantly. Its a huge effect after the quiet control thatcame before. With equal suddenness, after eight bars, thedrummer stops. The instruments return to playing insequence rather than overlapping. The bass and the guitaragain act as the rhythm section. Regaining the control ithad at the start, the arrangement comes to a subtle close.

Find the peak of the song and build the wholearrangement to that peak, Riddle said. When the singerhas something to do, get the hell out of the way. Whenhes doing nothing, move in fast and establish some-thing. This approach is nowhere more evident than inthe 1956 arrangement that is widely considered Riddlesbest, certainly his most famous, and arguably the greatestarrangement for any American song: Cole Porters IveGot You Under My Skin (from Songs for Swingin Lovers!).There, Riddle again uses Ravel as his model, and again atrick with the rhythm section achieves the arrangementsmajor effect.

Rhythm. Riddle enjoyed songs that had the rhythm ofthe heartbeat, a pace that he associated with sex (just as thestructure he preferred can be described as foreplay, climax,and afterplay). Certainly it is the rhythm of Ive Got YouUnder My Skin that we first notice a light, bouncy, play-

TAS JOURNAL 27

lost, as the 20-bit remastering isnt much of an improvement.(See Sound of Sinatra, Issue 120.)

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira GershwinSongbook [Verve 314 539 759-2] is sonically and musicallythe high point of the Ella/Nelson collaborations (some of thesesongs never better realized), all in early Verve stereo: astonish-ing clarity, definition, and transparency, wonderfully atmospher-ic with first-class digital remastering and packaging.

Rosemary Clooney was the revelation of this assignment forme, rediscovering one of the really great popular singers. Allthree of these albums can stand easy comparison to the bestof Riddles work with Sinatra; and like Sinatras Capitol albums,Rosie Solves the Swingin Riddle [Koch KOC-CD-7991] andLove [Reprise 9 46072-2], both dating from the early Sixties,are also built around tight concepts. Swingin Riddle is in earlystereo, which is to say that while the vocalist is focused in thecenter, the instrumental separation is a little exaggerated; still,the recording captures all the vitality of an absolutely terrific col-lection. The string-colored Love is an altogether more mutedrecording, separation still exaggerated but with lovely sonorities,the strings especially sweet-toned. The fragile lightness ofClooneys reading of Someone To Watch Over Me and thedelicacy of Riddles instrumentation are enough to make youcatch your breath. Twenty-five years after this collaboration andten years after Riddles death, Clooney returned to CapitolStudios in 1995 and recorded Dedicated to Nelson [ConcordJazz CCD-4685], a tribute to her best arranger and former lover,using his painstakingly reconstructed arrangements. Every cuton this marvelous album is special; but go to LimehouseBlues, which Clooney owns lock, stock, and barrel, to hear howeffortlessly she and Riddle bridge the worlds of pop and jazz.The reproduction is close to state-of-the-art digital: supercleanand smooth, with superbly delineated textures that yet dontfeel coldly analytical, and excellent presence and warmth toClooneys voice.

Peggy Lee is a superb singer, even if she does apply her laid-back approach rather indiscriminately (how does she manageto be restrained on Something Wonderful?). No matter, thistwo-fer (only The Man I Love part is by Riddle) is required lis-tening not just for Lees singing and Riddles charts, but for theconductor, the Chairman of the Board himself, who is unusual-ly sensitive to the needs of his singer (all the more impressivewhen you consider how different a singer she is from him).Observe how carefully Sinatra shades the orchestral dynamicsaround her soft, pastel readings; no doubt Riddles carefularrangements were helpful, but they couldnt have done it all.Vintage Capitol mono sound [The Man I Love/If You Go. EMI7243-8-55389-2-6].

The Piano Style of Nat King Cole [Capitol CDP-0777-7-81203-2-2, mono] is highly regarded by some; in the linernotes (written with Dick Katz), the admirable Will Friedwald trieshis best to advance its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.But once Cole left jazz for popular music, his playing acquireda kind of easy listening patina that in my view it never lost.This album teeters too much between superior cocktail-loungejazz and background music, while Riddles arrangements dontexactly hold thoughts of Percy Faith at bay. The over-miking ofthe strings doesnt alleviate this impression.

Oscar Peterson & Nelson Riddle [Verve V-6 8562, the cat-

ful, moderate tempo that is established with a four-barintroduction in which a bass, a saxophone, muted trum-pets, and a piano (possibly in unison with a harp) play offeach other. A version of that introduction is repeated asSinatra enters, strings gradually joining him. While thearrangement is intricate, it is never crowded. Riddle does-nt go to the extreme of keeping the instruments separate,one group never playing over another as he did in DontWorry Bout Me, but the effect is the same. Even whenone group of instruments does overlap another, the two feelseparate. As the first verse ends and the second starts, herepeats the pattern, with saxophones replacing the trum-pets, slightly increasing the volume as if the instrumentswant to break loose but something is holding them back.The saxophones continue into the bridge, pulsing but incontrol. An alternate verse concludes the song, the orches-tra seeming to grow and get louder.

Now comes the miracle. One of the puzzles about thisarrangement is how a song so moderately paced can keepbuilding until it feels as if its being played at double thetime while the basic tempo remains the same. The effect isaccomplished with the bass, which throughout the firstpart of the arrangement emphasizes two beats in a four-beatbar. When the arrangement finally builds to its peak andRiddle introduces the blaring trombones which hes beenholding in reserve, the bass suddenly switches to a verysolid four beats per bar. Meanwhile, as in Dont WorryBout Me, the trumpets (unmuted) and the saxophonesplay simultaneously with the trombones, with such inten-sity that the musicians seem in danger of blowing theirbrains out. Sinatra reenters and supplies his own intensity,building and building until, at once, the arrangementresumes the quiet, gently pulsing manner it had at thestart, the bass returning to two beats per bar. Strings endthe song almost with a sigh.

While Ravel is the primary influence, a second is thebig-band part of Riddles musical passions. Given a shorttime to write the arrangement and stuck for a way to han-dle the all-out climax, Riddle phoned his trombonistfriend, George Roberts, who suggested using the trom-bone-based Afro-Cuban rhythmic pattern from the 1952Stan Kenton recording 23 Degrees North 82 Degrees West(the latitude and longitude of Havana, Cuba), written andarranged by William Russo. Riddle took the idea and madeit his own. The sound of the trombones is similar in bothpieces, but the nature of the two compositions (23 Degreesis Latin) takes them in vastly different directions. Roberts,who participated in the Kenton session, also worked onSkin but didnt get to do the famous trombone solo inRiddles arrangement, that honor going to Milt Bernhart.Twenty-two takes were needed to get the piece done prop-erly. When the session was finished, the musicians paidRiddle the rare compliment of applauding.

Riddle and Sinatra collaborated on 15 albums, severalmovie soundtracks, numerous television shows and con-certs, and so many singles that they fill a crowded four-CDset, Frank Sinatra: The Complete Capitol Singles Collection.Their favorite album together was Only the Lonely (1958), acollection of ballads in which Riddle expanded the saxo-phone section and used the misty, velvety French impres-sionistic feel of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, andtwo bassoons. Their most experimental album was Close toYou (1957), another collection of ballads in which a smallsubtle rhythm section backed the Hollywood StringQuartet in what amounts to popular chamber music. Hereagain, Riddle used combinations of instruments to create a

mood, each song tending to have a different instrument(oboe, clarinet, flute) enhancing the quartet.

While Riddles work with Sinatra is what hes mostknown for (see Will Friedwalds Sinatra! The Song Is Youand Charles L. Granatas Sessions with Sinatra), there werenumerous other major singers with whom Riddle collabo-rated. In 1956, the same year he arranged Skin (he was34), he did an album with Judy Garland called Judy, andfollowed it two years later with Judy in Love. An arrangeralways has to keep in mind the persona of the singer.Garlands parents were minor vaudeville performers, whotrained her in that tradition. Her model was Al Jolson, andher instinct was to belt out songs so that someone in thetheaters back row would pay attention. Thus, some ofRiddles work on Judy is generic big-band support (AprilShowers). Only when she pays attention to the nuances of

TAS JOURNAL 29

alog number of the LP, never remastered for CD] I list in thehope that Verve will be encouraged to dust it off via one of theirsuperb remasterings. The very conception here seems an oxy-moron: How do you arrange jazz, which is improvisational, foranything, let alone an orchestra, which needs a written-outscore? Riddle and Peterson brought it off somehow. This isRiddles most Ravel-influenced work since Only the Lonely andClose to You. Indeed, the first cut, My Foolish Heart, suggestsa lower-case, Americanized La Valse, the ghostly ballroom shift-ed from Vienna to Atlantic City during the war. Differentlyimpressive is Someday my Prince Will Come: Riddle laysdown a string-colored bed (with brass accents) that keeps themelody present while Peterson does arabesques above it; thebrass gets ever more aggressive until, when it becomes clearthe pianist will not be ruffled, soloist and orchestra jointly bringthe piece to an abrupt halt. No wonder Peterson singled this cutout for special praise. My LP, acquired used, is in poor condi-tion, nor is it an original pressing; but it is in self-recommend-ing vintage Verve stereo. Verve, JVC XR, Classic Records, some-one should reissue this ASAP.

Route 66: That Nelson Riddle Sound [Telarc DSD CD-80532]: I wonder what Riddle would have thought of his cur-rent high-reputation among the cognoscenti or this Telarc trib-ute to his arrangements, tweaked so that instrumentalistsreplace vocalists? As an experiment, its off-center rather thanoffbeat, Eric Kunzel, his Cincinnati Pops Big Band Orchestra,and a stellar group of jazz instrumentalists managing to make acrackerjack show of it. The only piece that doesnt work is IveGot You Under my Skin, because Sinatras voice is so indeliblyassociated with both the song and this particular arrangement.Otherwise, its entertaining stuff, concluding with Riddles signa-ture Route 66. Id recommend it even if it had it been broughtoff less well, because for the first time Riddles orchestrationsare accorded state-of-the-art sound. Telarc has been turning outone splendidly recorded CD after another lately, Cincinnati anespecially rewarding venue. What a pleasure to hear a popularorchestra recorded like a good classical one: slightly set back,lots of air, a true soundstage with soloists and concertante-likesections emerging from a sustained wholeness of perspective.Of course, no amount of superior reproduction can supplantthe original arrangements with the singers for whom they werewritten, nor is that the intent. But if you want to hear the Riddlesound recorded clearly enough to be able to transcribe thecharts by ear, and have a high time along the way, this is a goodplace to start.

PAUL SEYDOR

the lyrics, as in Memories of You, is Riddle able to pro-vide a distinctive background. His favorite arrangement onthat album was a double-time version of Come Rain orCome Shine, with bongo drums driving the rhythm. Theexperiment dates the arrangement, but once the listeneradjusts, the device is effective. The pace of the song was tootaxing for Garland, so instead of singing live with theorchestra, she performed with recorded tracks. The semi-submerged arrangement killed a great deal of the driveand excitement, Riddle felt. In the second album, Judy inLove, she is much more in control, providing sensitiveinterpretations (More Than You Know) that give Riddleroom to work his magic. In his effort to find a fresh way toarrange Day In Day Out, however, he blends cha-charhythms with those of jazz and produces a schizoid arrange-ment thats one of his oddest. These two albums are almostimpossible to find. The best way to get a sense of them isto play Spotlight on Judy Garland [Capitol CDP 7243 829396 2 7], which includes five songs from Judy and fourfrom Judy in Love.

In 1957, between the Garland albums, Riddle did aquite different, more satisfying, and artistic album withPeggy Lee, called The Man I Love. Its an indication of howstrongly everyone felt about the project that Sinatra agreedto help publicize it by putting his name on the album asthe conductor of the sessions. According to musicians whowere there, Sinatra was more skillful than expected at thepodium. Indeed, a year earlier he had commissioned andconducted Tone Poems of Color, in which various composerswrote mini-suites inspired by the color poems of NormanSickel. Riddle had written two of those pieces, Gold andOrange. It couldnt have escaped him that tone poems of

color is a way to describe French impressionist music.Certainly, Gold has an accumulating intensity borrowedfrom Bolero.

Now, on Lees The Man I Love, Riddle had a chance(even more than on Close to You) to arrange an entire albumimpressionistically. No matter how large the orchestra, hismusic seems buoyant, always rising. He achieves this light-ness by carefully positioning his categories of instrumentsso that some form a base upon which others float. Thustrombones are lifted by saxophones, which in turn arepulled up by muted trumpets. Above them hover thepiano, the flutes, the strings, and the harp, always comingin whenever an arrangement threatens to become heavy. Atthe same time, Riddle was careful not to orchestrate at thesingers pitch. Fills occur above and below that pitch, butthe middle is left open for the singer, which is one of thereasons that Riddles arrangements never feel congested.

On The Man I Love, these elements come together in asequence of ballads that feature some of the most colorfulorchestrations that Riddle ever wrote: oboes, harps, flutes,cornets, chimes, a lush string section, and a delicate hornsection. Its so satiny and multi-toned that it almost temptsthe listener to smoke dope. Lees voice is itself multi-toned,her whispery confiding cadences filled with multiple reso-nances. Listeners familiar only with her finger-snappingrenditions of songs like Fever will be surprised by herdelicacy as she interprets what amount to dramaticmonologs about a womans complex relationship with aman: Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, Hes My Guy,If I Should Lose You, There Is No Greater Love. Its dif-ficult to overpraise the album.

No discussion of Riddles work can avoid his relation-

30 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ISSUE 126

ship with Rosemary Clooney, with whom he had a romancein the late 1950s. He was the arranger for her 1956-57 tele-vision show and collaborated with her on a collection ofstandards, Rosie Solves the Swingin Riddle! This was a depar-ture for Clooney, whose early career was based on noveltytunes like Come On-a My House (1951) and Botch-a-Me (1952) as well as a series of successful childrensalbums. Her pairing with Bing Crosby in 1954s WhiteChristmas typifies her cheerful, likable, wholesome persona.But in 1955, she married Jos Ferrer, a domineering egotistwith whom she had five children in the nextwearying five years. Simultaneously,she began to seem old-fashioned tocontemporary audiences. Swing-in Riddle (1960), it washoped, would reinvent her.Unfortunately, her beam-ing wholesome personamakes the material(Get Me to the Churchon Time and Shine onHarvest Moon) soundso corny that evenRiddles usually hiparrangements suffer.

Their second albumtogether, Love, was anothermatter. Recorded in 1961 asClooneys career was fallingapart, it was never released by thecompany that made it (RCA) andappeared only in 1963, thanks to Sinatraand his new company, Reprise. This album features a quitedifferent Clooney. Not only her career but her relationshipwith Riddle was collapsing. As she faced her soon-to-be-ex-lover who conducted some of his most lovingarrangements (especially How Will I RememberYou), she somehow managed to sing while tearsstreamed down her face. Despite over-bright soundreproduction, the heartbreaking emotion on thisset of ballads is palpable. The most interestingorchestration is for Black Coffee, which com-bines a low string section with a bassoon, adding aguitar for good measure. But despite its inventive-ness (the major tone-painting influence was RalphVaughan Williams), Love found no audience in thechanging pop culture of the 1960s.

The pills and alcohol to which Clooney had becomeaddicted led to a nervous breakdown during a perfor-mance in Reno, Nevada, in 1968. Her career and perhapsher life would have ended if not for the encouragement ofCarl Jefferson, founder of Concord Records. It wasJeffersons idea that, beginning in 1977, Clooney would doan album a year for the label. Thus the reinvention that shehad hoped for in 1960 finally occurred. By now, her once-smiley voice had thickened and weakened, evoking sadnessand hard years that gave her interpretations authenticity,the readings amazing depth. In 1996, long after Riddlesdeath, she recorded Dedicated to Nelson, a tribute based ontranscriptions of arrangements (the pages now lost) thatRiddle had written for her mid-Fifties TV show. One,Come Rain or Come Shine, will sound familiar to anyonewho knows Judy Garlands first Riddle album. Pressed fortime, he wrote basically the same double-time bongo-dri-ven arrangement for Garland that he had earlier written forClooneys TV show.

Throughout the 1950s, Riddle worked with othersingers: Billy Eckstine (his ten-inch 1952 tribute toRodgers and Hammerstein is said to be wonderful, but Icant find its title, let alone a copy of it), MargaretWhiting, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Dinah Shore, KeelySmith (the Collectors Choice Politely Swingin is recom-mended), Johnny Mathis, Mel Torme, on and on. An undis-covered treasure is the work he did for once-famous butnow-forgotten Ella Mae Morse, who had a voice like PatsyCline and who combined delightful big-band blues withcountry and boogie-woogie. See The Very Best of Ella Mae

Morse, for three hits Riddle arranged for her, including1952s The Blacksmith Blues in which a big band

is accented by a drum key hitting a glass ashtrayin imitation of a hammer on an anvil.

Except for Sinatra, though, no singer ismore associated with Riddle than EllaFitzgerald. Norman Grantz, Fitzgeraldsmanager and the founder of VerveRecords, decided that Fitzgerald shoulddo various albums celebrating the workof American songwriters. The greatest ofthese was Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Georgeand Ira Gershwin Song Book. Originally it

was a five-LP set and is now on four CDs.The 1959 project involved 59 songs. And

yet, in spite of all the other work Riddle wasdoing, he managed to find ways of making

the entire 59 never repetitive or weary. Arranging for Fitzgerald had its challenges.

Exuding navety and good-nature, she has no personaexcept that of a wonderful musician. As a conse-

quence, cynical or sex-laden lyrics dontsound authentic. Her musical phrasing

and the quality of her voice are solelywhat we care about. But whilemany singers remind us of aninstrument, Fitzgerald has achameleons ability to sound likenumerous instruments. Thus itwas difficult for Riddle toachieve his customary lightnessby placing the orchestra aboveand below her voice, leaving herown register open. Because she

had a range of almost two-and-a-half octaves, he couldnt avoid plac-

ing instruments at her pitch. But hisarrangements for her dont feel crowd-

ed because he switched to a different tac-tic and relied on the buoyant effect of the phe-

nomenon of bell tones. Put simply, if you play a sequenceof octaves on a piano, holding them so that they build onone another, their combined resonance will cause sympa-thetic vibrations in the higher octaves, although thosehigher octaves havent been struck. Riddle often achievedthese phantom notes by playing different instruments inunison (a harp and a piano, for example) octaves apart. Thecombination produces a new note that is lighter and with adifferent color from the two notes played separately. TheFitzgerald-Riddle album that most relies on this techniqueis The Johnny Mercer Song Book (1965).

Riddle also did a Jerome Kern song book withFitzgerald (1963), this one emphasizing stereo effects, parts

TAS JOURNAL 31

Pictured: Riddle with Clooney; Fitzgerald

of the orchestra speaking to each other from the right andleft. Between the song books, he collaborated withFitzgerald on two other albums: the Grammy-winning EllaSwings Brightly with Nelson (1962) and EllaSwings Gently with Nelson (1963). The firstis as advertised, a delightful example ofRiddles famous rhythmic bright style.But the second, much of which wasrecorded in the same sessions asBrightly, is so gentle as to make a lis-tener feel on Prozac and creates a sus-picion that Riddle might have beenweary from too many projects.

Certainly he had plenty to do. In1963, he arranged his favorite album,Oscar Peterson and Nelson Riddle (alternatetitle: That Special Magic). An extension of ThePiano Style of Nat King Cole (Peterson was greatly influ-enced by Coles technique), this album takes advantage ofPetersons classical training to produce symphonic jazz. Acombination of five flutes, five horns, ten cellos, and a harpcreate what Riddle called a velvet cushion for Petersonsremarkable piano sound. Petersons long-time trio mem-bers, drummer Ed Thigpen and bassist Ray Brown, aremost welcome here. Riddles favorite selection was MyShip, which was played more slowly than most peoplewould consider tasteful, he said, permitting Oscar toweave a spell the likes of which Ive seldom heard. (Thismasterpiece has long been out-of-print, but a good place tolook for copies is As The Record Turns, 1-323-466-8742.)

Meanwhile, Riddle also wrote music for the TV showsThe Untouchables, Naked City, and most important,Route 66 (1960-64), a Jack-Kerouac-influenced dramaabout two young men in a Corvette in search of Americaand themselves. For that show, Riddle composed a newtheme every week, in addition to the pulsing-piano titlemelody that became a Top 40 hit for him in 1962, one ofthe few since his million-copy single, Lisbon Antigua in1956. He went on to be musical director for The SmothersBrothers Comedy Hour and The Julie Andrews Show.All told, he scored some 30 films, including The PajamaGame, High Society, Pal Joey, and Guys and Dolls, eventuallyreceiving an Academy Award for The Great Gatsby (1974).

Far from feeling gratified by his achievements, Riddle,worn down by overwork, suffered from almost chronic dis-couragement and low self-esteem. He was especiallydepressed that he never achieved the financial success ofHenry Mancini. These days, arrangers negotiate for residualpayments, but during Riddles prime, arrangements soldfor a one-time fee. It has been estimated that he got around$150 for his arrangement of Ive Got You Under MySkin. Nat King Cole used his $52 Mona Lisa chart sooften that Riddle calculated his pay averaged out to lessthan one cent per performance. Even when Riddle won theOscar, he found a way to see the dark side, claiming thatproducers no longer wanted to hire him because theythought that his fee would now be higher.

His career was in limbo when in the early EightiesLinda Ronstadt asked him to write some Sinatra-stylearrangements for an album on which she diverged fromrock-and-roll and sang standards. (A similar cross-over pro-ject involved the opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa: BlueSkies, 1985.) The Rondstadt collaboration was so commer-cially successful, it extended into three albums: Whats New(1983), For Sentimental Reasons (1984), and Lush Life (1986).But one can only imagine Riddles dismay as he listened to

the singer take a week to record snippets of tracks thatwould have taken Sinatra a couple of hours, live, withoutresorting to tape splices. Rondstadt attacks the songs soloudly that she almost shouts, while constantly going flatand allowing her vibrato to wander all over the place.Ironically, Riddles association with this inferior project

brought him the financial success he craved, for instead ofa flat fee, he earned royalties, and the first album alonesold more than three-and-a-half-million copies.

By the time the last Rondstadt-Riddle album wasreleased, Riddle was dead. Although he didnt abusealcohol, in 1980 hed had an operation for liver prob-lems. In 1985, the liver problems returned and killed

him. He was only 64. Riddle survived long enough to com-plete a definitive textbook, Arranged by

Nelson Riddle, from which many ofmy observations about his tech-niques are taken. Its hard to find,but musicbooks.com has copies.When his family went to hisoffice to gather his belongings,they found a new arrangementthat hed been writing for Sinatra.

Perhaps he achieved a measure ofsatisfaction when, not long before

his death, he attended a party thatJonathan Schwartz gave to celebrate the

renewed interest in Riddles work. From a stereo, Ive GotYou Under My Skin filled the room. Everyone turned andapplauded.

DAVID MORRELL&

TAS JOURNAL 33

Pictured: Riddle; Peterson

Whats Wrong With Loudspeakers

People who design, review, or even just buy loudspeakers worryoften and about many things. But sometimes they dont worryabout things they should worry about. Here are some problems withspeakers and their performance in rooms that seldom receive theattention they deserve, or in some cases, any attention at all. Theirexistence is a matter of fact. Whether you will think they are real-ly important well, you need to think, experiment, and most of alllisten for yourself.

1. Speakers are not smooth enough in the top end.A smooth, flat top end has been a nominal goal of audio forso long that it might seem boring to mention it. But theadvent of digital EQ devices like the Z-Systems rdp-1 hasmade it possible for the first time for everybody to checkout what is really going on here. Before, we could onlycompare different speakers or different crossover adjust-ments in the same speaker. Now we can make specifiedsmall changes of frequency response in a fixed speaker andsee what happens. The rdp-1 will let you punch in and outpeaks and dips as small as 0.2 dB and of varying widths(Q factor). Trying this out with pink noise is startling.The +/- 0.2 dB changes are quite obvious, especially in theregion of maximum hearing sensitivity centered around 3to 4 kHz, from 1 to 10 k, say. And the kinds of errors thattweeters, even quite good tweeters, typically make, on theorder of +/-1dB, are gross. On musics ever-changing sig-nal, it takes longer to hear the effects. But youll get there.And once you have heard what music sounds like with thepeaks in your tweeter massaged out by DSP, once you haveheard the marvelously relaxing and beautiful sound of atruly smooth top end, you wont want to go back. The besttweeters nowadays are good, but even the best can be madea little better. And others are really in need of help, orreplacement (bad ones cannot be fixed even by the DSP).We have all lived too long with abuse where our ears carethe most. And +/-1 dB is not good enough, not when +/-0.2 is so easy to hear.

2. Speakers are too noisy. When a speaker has no input, it is silent, so we tend not tothink of it as a source of noise in the sense that a hissingpreamp is. But as soon as a speaker gets an input signal, itstarts doing things it shouldnt and starts making noise,not just the music it should be making. Cones and sur-rounds flexing, mechanical structures vibrating, cabinetsflexing in unpredicted and unpredictable ways, air flowingturbulently, electrostatic diaphragms vibrating chaoticallyon the scale of small areas even if they are moving regular-ly on a large scale, such sources of noise are everywhere. Youcan see all this in the chaotic tail ends of waterfall plots,after the big signal and the resonance ridges have decayed.

You can see (and hear) it in the decay of the sound if a largesignal input to the speaker is suddenly switched off. Andyou can see it in the spectral noise contamination test,devised by the late Deane Jensen and Dr. Gary Sokolich, inwhich the input is a number of sine waves at spaced fre-quencies that are notched out of the measuring mike pick-up signal, leaving the noise exposed as a broad-band, lower-level signal. (This test is available commercially in theSys/Id software.)

How much noise are we talking about here? A lot, awhole lot by the standards of noise levels in electronics andrecording systems. Speaker noise appears only 20 to 30 dBdown from signal in some cases, and even the cleanestspeakers I know do not get the noise down much more than55 dB or so. (See my review of the Mordaunt Short MS30,Issue 103, for a discussion of what happens in a good situ-ation.) In a world where we worry about noise products inelectronics 80, 90, 100 dB down, maybe we should worrya little more about the noise of speakers that is much loud-er than that.

3. Speakers are not flat enough in rooms from themidrange down.This is a familiar problem I have mentioned often, espe-cially in terms of using digital-signal processing to correctit. (See my review of the SigTech, Issue 113; Accuphase,Issue 120; Tact RCS, this issue.) Still, it is shocking to mea-sure the actual performance of systems whose owners areassuming that because their speaker is anechoically flat, itwill be reasonably flat in-room. All you have to do is tolook at in-room response curves to see what an illusion thisusually is. Try it yourself, with warble tones and an SPLmeter (even a non-calibrated inexpensive one will be suffi-cient to reveal the gross problems that usually occur).Remember how sensitive the ear is to response errors, andbe appalled. If you can get +/-2 dB from 1 kHz on down toabout 40 Hz, count yourself wildly lucky. And thenremember that that is nowhere near flat enough for perfec-tion in audible terms. Without DSP correction, it is nearlyhopeless to expect reproducible high fidelity in any reason-able sense. Lest we forget.

ROBERT E. GREENE

I am indebted to Richard Black, Ole Christensen, and JormaSalmi for their comments on these subjects, and to Black for shar-ing his as yet unpublished noise measurements. REG

&

TAS JOURNAL 37

HP asked the music writers to send us something on those musicalselections they adore but play only in secret their GuiltyPleasures. (HP himself started the series in his editorial in Issue125.) Well, plainly, we touched a nerve you could almost feelthe writers blushing! Some couldnt believe that wed believe theydbe a little shamefaced about anything they listened to. All theirpleasures are on the up and up, how dare we hint otherwise?Others well, the list here is short, so somebodys not confessing

ANDREW QUINT

Love at the Movies. Michael Chertock, pianist. Telarc CD-80537

Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP. Aftermath/Interscope Records069490629-2

H eres a paranoid thought. What if my editors are justsetting me up? What if Im actually the only writerbeing asked to admit to potentially humiliatingmusical fetishes? It would be rather like a moonlit night atthe lake when someone suggests skinny-dipping and, five

minutes later, you emerge from the bushes to find youre theonly one who is naked. Well, Ill just have to take mychances, for my path as a record collector is littered withguilty pleasures. I even mentioned one as such MercurysBalalaika Favorites in Issue 124s best-sounding recordingsfeature. And thats just one indiscretion among dozens,maybe hundreds. How about the time I mortified my 16-year-old daughter by playing Crash Test Dummies (MmmMmm Mmm Mmm) to show off my system to a dozen ofher friends (who, it turns out, would rather have heardRespighi) because the bass locked into my room so well? Imay as well just recall the two most recent instances andacknowledge that many others preceded them, and manymore will follow.

Telarcs Love at the Movies programs 18 romanticmelodies, played on solo piano by Michael Chertock. Mostof the selections derive from films of the last 15 years,though some of this familiar fare dates back to the Sixties:A Time for Us, from Zeffirellis Romeo and Juliet or thetheme from Spartacus. I definitely check to be sure theresno one around to catch me enjoying the more treacly mate-rial, like The Wind Beneath My Wings or (gulp) My

TAS JOURNAL 39

Guilty As Charged

M U S I C U P F R O N T

Heart Will Go On from Titanic. It must be said thatChertock is quite good at this sort of thing (hes made threeother CDs of movie music for Telarc). His arrangements areimaginative, with spiced harmonies and slight dissonancesthat are miles away from the realm of the hotel lounge, orthe overwrought pounding of some Liberace wannabe.Chertock, who does have serious classical credentials, playswith a refined touch and has an even, confident technique.Moreover, he is recorded spectacularly well. You wont heara more natural piano recording a perfect blend of hammerhitting string and a glorious wash of sound when the play-er uses the sustain pedal. So, perhaps, creative arrange-ments, first-rate musicianship, and sonic excellence redeemG.P. No.1. But what can I say about No.2?

Ive always tried to share my love of music with mychildren. When my younger daughter was little, shed askfor Peer Gynt in the car and I was in heaven. Now, the kidlikes rap. I try, really I do, to detect positive artistic sensi-bilities in the material she provides for my listening plea-sure as I take her to a sleepover or the mall, nodding alongin the interest of a good father-daughter relationship when,actually, its all I can do to keep from turning into oncom-ing traffic. Her current passion is Eminem, aka MarshallMathers, or his alter ego Slim Shady. Slim does have a dis-cernible sense of humor and an oddly appealing wise-guyvoice, but the content of 95 percent of his ah oeuvre isjust awful: ungenerous; violent; misogynist. My 13-year-old glances over at me from the passenger seat every sooften to be sure Im suitably appalled. Then she got me myown personal copy of Mathers newest parental-advisory-if-there-ever-was-one mega-hit: The Marshall Mathers LP.

Im driving to work, alone, and dont really have to lis-ten to it, but I find myself somehow drawn to the CD. Justone selection, in fact, as most of the disc is too brutal forme: The Real Slim Shady, the cut used for the heavy-rota-tion music video. In it, Slim proclaims his uniqueness andgeneral superiority (Im Slim Shady, yes Im the realShady/ All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating.) Overa repeating, arching bass figure in C minor (shades ofBachs Passacaglia, BWV 582), Slims verbal elaborationsdance lightly and knowingly over, around and inside theinsistent beat. Theres a kind of majesty to the chorus when

it comes up each time, an almost baroque feel with organ-like chords heard faintly. I struggle to understand myattraction to this music. Perhaps its post-modern Mozart:the sexual bravado of Don Giovannis title character, or thesputtering, vengeful viciousness of Osmin, the harems pro-tector in The Abduction from the Seraglio. Maybe? I dontthink so, as I drive on, another fortysomething gangsta in asuit and tie. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

DAN DAVIS

Phillip Kent Bimstein: Garland Hirschis Cows; The LouieLouie Variations; Dark Winds Rising; The Door; Vox-Dominum. Modern Mandolin Quartet (The Louie LouieVariations); Turtle Island String Quartet (Dark Winds Rising).Phillip Bimstein, producer. Starkland ST-205

Iwas inclined to ignore the editors request for a guiltypleasurea recording you love and listen to a lot, butare a little ashamed of liking so much. I dont have oxy-moronic guilty pleasures since Im arrogant enough tothink that if I like something and the rest of the worlddoesnt, the fault lies with those whose taste, refinement,and understanding are inferior to my own. But then, wan-dering around midtown New York one summers day, Ifound the Big Apple littered with fiberglass cows. Really.Five hundred of them, scattered in public places through-out the five boroughs in a delightful summer-long art fest.Thats a lot of cows and they reminded me that I do indeedhave a listening pleasure I no longer seek to share with oth-ers, since my enthusiasm for that serious, thoughtful workwas too often met with scornful disbelief.

Its a piece called Garland Hirschis Cows [Starkland ST-205] by Phillip Kent Bimstein, whose curriculum vitaincludes a stint as rock band leader, composer of concertand dance pieces, and mayor of Springdale, Utah. Throughcomputerized digital sampling techniques, Bimsteinmanipulates real-world sounds, spoken texts, and conven-tional instruments to convey the emotional impact centralto any valid musical experience.

In Garland Hirschis Cows, described as a concerto inthree moovements [sic], Bimstein combines sound sam-ples, farmer Hirschi talking about growing up in a smallcow town and various aspects of cows, and of course, lotsof mooing by cows, as individuals and in chorus. Itsfunny, a real leg-slapper, as moos come at you from alldirections. But its a lot more. The first moovement is anallegro, with Hirschi asking You wanna know a little bitabout my cows, huh? Bimstein loops that line and oth-ers so its repeated, fragmented, speeded, and slowed. Thesecond moovement, titled Pasturale is a moving paeonto a lost way of life. Hirschi talks of growing up in a two-

room house in a smallUtah town whereeveryone had cattle.He tells of the daysbefore refrigerationwhen meat from cowswould be hung out-doors at night tokeep cold. Mournfulmoos and instrumen-tal interjections turnthis sectio