Music at the Stereophile Show
The Home Entertainment Expo 2001 was held in the New York
Hilton May 11,12 and 13. As usual, it was a great chance to take the pulse of the industry
and to mingle with fellow audiophiles -- and, as always at the "Stereophile"
shows, some of the very best sounds produced were in the ballrooms.
I'm always stunned at how few people take advantage of the
free concerts. For one thing, you get to sit down, for another the AC is always turned waay
up, so it's ice and cool -- but best of all, there's always some amazing music being
produced.
I got a chance to hear a spectacular performance on Friday
by the Joe Lovano Trio -- sort of like a power trio, only hard bop not hard rock. Lovano
rained chorus after chorus on the audience and we fortunate few just lapped it up.
Simaudio's Lionel Goodfield was there, flashing his
schedule for the Montreal Jazz Festival, where Lovano will appear at $30 a head -- Lionel
was walking on air at the chance to hear him for free.
As were the rest of us. Lovano didn't fool around, he came
to play and play he did. Some Coltrane, some Rollins and even a tune of his own. It
was uncompromising -- but it was also real music making of a very high order. This
concert was Stereophile's Music Editor Robert Baird's baby and it was a high point
of the show. Thank you Joe, thank you Robert.
I also heard Arturo Delmoni in a recital that stood every
hair on my body on end. His Bach reminded me of the old saying that Bach is Bach as God is
God." And sometimes there seems a fine line -- Delmoni's playing was supernal. He
played unamplified and it was amazing how loud he sounded in the Hilton's Mercury
Ballroom. It drove home how few chances we get to hear unamplified music these days. Go
out of your way to hear some soon -- it's good for what ails ya!
Hyperion Knight was also a gas. If you think a classical
concert pianist is a dull fellow, you've never hung around Hype. His gimmick for the
concert? It was an all-request program, with choices ranging from "Stairway to
Heaven" to "Dancing in the Dark." Knight explained that 19th century
virtuosi frequently played concerts in which the second half consisted of arrangements of
the popular opera arias of the day, so since he only had one hour, he thought he'd do a
concert with just a second half. Even then, he wound up with about an hour's worth of
classical requests and an hour's worth of pop and had to trim.
But ask anybody in the audience, it was a solid hour's
worth of fun. Hyperion played a lot of the Gershwin and extracts from the Great American
Songbook for which he is well known, but he also branched further afield with a lovely
"Dear Prudence," in which he plucked out a solo on the strings inside the
instrument, and a wild ride of a "Sabre Dance." Stuffy? I think not.
I also went to hear a trio/quartet made up of some friends
of mine -- the John Atkinson, Allen Perkins, Bob Reina trio, augmented by Zan Stewart on
sax. It was fun to see critics (and an innocent manufacturer, in Perkins' case) get up on
stage and expose themselves to the scrutiny of their usual victims.
What you want to know is, were they any good? Well, yeah --
they actually were, more so in the few jams where they opened up some space and got a
groove going. Atkinson and Perkins had an ability to sync up that belied their almost
non-existent practice time -- and I was really impressed with Zan Stewart's Coleman
Hawkins-like mellow authority and ability to play just the pretty notes.
But the best part of the set was the audience's realization
that the musicians were just a bunch of geeks like us. Good job, guys!
Some people left early to go hear Keb' Mo'. As for me,
nothing could top that as a final Show experience, so I left the Hilton and dined at New
York's quietest restaurant, The Princeton Club. After the sensory overload of Home
Entertainment Expo, silence seemed the only experience we'd been deprived of.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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