DR JOHN: Before his death in 2019, the master of the voodoo groove fulfilled his lifelong dream of recording a country and western album. Kevin E G Perry gets the lowdown on disagreements with the artist’s estate from producer Shane Theriot, and finds out why the funk and blues icon turned to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash in his final hour

When Dr John first emerged in the late Sixties, it was as if a voodoo priest had risen up from the Louisiana swamps and immediately landed a record deal. It was an image the New Orleans-born singer-songwriter played up to, dressing like a medicine man in an elaborate feather headdress and performing with skulls and […]

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BLUE OYSTER CULT: Complete Columbia Albums Collection (16 CD + DVD)

Blue Oyster Cult – The Columbia Albums Collection brings together the group’s 14 official Columbia Records albums–including newly-mastered editions of On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Fire of Unknown Origin, The Revolution by Night, Mirrors, Cultosaurus Erectus, Extraterrestrial Live, Club Ninja and Imaginos–alongside two newly-curated bonus discs: Rarities and Radios Appear: The Best of […]

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SUBWOOFERS: An unnecessary luxury … fact or fiction?

The very term luxury defines whatever it is added to as unnecessary. Air and water are necessities. Love and affection are luxuries. But while many would argue it’s the luxuries that make life worth living, I would extend that to subwoofers make stereos worth listening. Ok, that’s a stretch. Clearly, stereos are worth listening even […]

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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: New exhibition at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles is a fun, informative collection of memorabilia from one of the planet’s greatest live acts, writes Kevin E G Perry, even if it gets its jeans backwards

Over the past five decades, Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band have set the bar for live rock’n’roll shows. Their epic performances regularly steam past the three-hour mark, with their longest ever set, a 2012 gig in Helsinki, Finland, clocking in at a staggering four hours and six minutes. Earlier this month, Sir Paul […]

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JAMES MICHAEL HUGHES: “Sound Quality ceases to be an Issue – and (Almost) nobody notices… “

Hi-Fi Nerds have long been the butt of jokes. Our obsession with sound quality is seen as something suspect and even perhaps slightly unhealthy. Almost fifty years ago the comedy due Flanders and Swann wrote A Song of Reproduction which affectionately (?) ridiculed the man whose sole interest was high fidelity sound, and ‘…never did […]

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SUSUMU SAKUMA: He builds some of the most desired tube electronics in the world from within his little restaurant in Tateyama-shi, Chiba in Japan.

Chris Sommovigo writes: This is a story about the legendary Susumu Sakuma, who builds some of the most desired tube electronics in the world from within his little restaurant in Tateyama-shi, Chiba in Japan. It’s all in Japanese. If you’re not able to understand Japanese, you can still enjoy watching the vide and seeing the […]

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How to make a classical superstar

From the archives Ivan Hewett writes: Britain’s conservatoires are among the best in the world. As the Royal College of Music launches a £25m appeal to reinvent its campus, Ivan Hewett explains the conservatoires’ success and profiles some of their most exciting graduates. Please click HERE to continue

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What is the Society for Music Theory?

Our Mission Statement Here are the goals of the Music and Philosophy Interest Group: to further strengthen the interdisciplinary community committed to philosophical problems in the study of music to embrace Classical, Analytic, and Continental traditions of philosophy to expand upon the disciplines already committed to the study of music and philosophy (e.g., aesthetics, history […]

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CUBAN JAZZ: Havana and Beyond

“Fans of Cuban jazz may think first of pianist, composer and producer Chucho Valdés, who presides over the Havana Jazz Festival and the steady flow of North American jazz artists to the island. Those who’ve traveled to woodshed, network and sometimes record in Cuba include Jane Bunnett, George Benson, Terence Blanchard, Steve Coleman, Roy Hargrove, […]

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