Looking Back at 2004
 I feel a sense of pride as I
look over GoodSound!’s monthly publications from the last year. We have
provided reviews of four loudspeakers, three digital sources, and six amplification
components (including integrated amps, a headphone amplifier, and two pre-power combos).
The most recent of these is the review of the Parasound P3 preamp and A23 power amp that
graces this month’s review page. Our "How To" pages have begun to explain
the basics of turntables and jazz, two threads I hope to continue in the coming year (a
review of a Thorens turntable is coming soon). Our "Features" pages have offered
show reports aimed at the GoodSound! audience and a series documenting a personal
journey to owning a high-quality system. Our "Music" pages have seen 60 reviews
of CDs, SACDs, and DVDs, and the "Ask Me" page has offered sound advice on many
aspects of audio equipment. I think GoodSound! is the best guide to affordable
high-performance audio available; we are committed to making the site even more valuable
to readers in 2005.
It is, of course, those readers who make it so worthwhile.
We could produce this site for our own enjoyment even if no one else read it, but that
would not be rewarding. What’s rewarding about GoodSound! is that readers
enjoy it, learn from it, even contribute to it. I’ve been very pleased to receive
letters from readers, and the constant stream of questions keeps our "Ask Me"
section moving forward. In this final column of 2004 I wanted to thank the readers. I
decided I would give the gift of music -- or, at least, some musical suggestions -- by
offering you a look at the albums I have most enjoyed this year.
My recommendations here are, I hope, different from other
year-end lists you’ll see. The albums discussed should not be thought of as the
"Best of 2004," because I don’t want to choose some criterion for
"best." Things are not simply better or worse independent of some criterion by
which they are judged. If the term best is taken seriously, then I don’t know
how a real list could emerge without being at least somewhat arbitrary. Nor have I simply
listed my favorite albums of the year, though some of these are just that. Some of my
favorites are not those that are most enjoyable or easy to listen to. For example, I love
Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No.2 (and just about everything else from this
composer), performed by the Flux Quartet and available on a music-only DVD [Mode 112].
However, the quartet is more than six hours long, which means that I don’t play this
disc very often. Something’s being a "favorite" or a "best"
doesn’t necessarily mean that it is easily enjoyed.
What I offer here are albums that are enjoyable both for
serious, contemplative listening as well as for casual listening with friends or walking
the dog or cooking dinner. The criteria I used were simple: Which albums had I played the
most over the past year, and which of these would appeal to the greatest number of people?
Had I been able to give each of you a gift this year, I would likely have chosen one of
the following.
Two of my choices share a geographical location: Brad
Mehldau’s Live in Tokyo [CD, Nonesuch 79853] and Joćo Gilberto’s In
Tokyo [CD, Verve B000254502]. Gilberto’s set finds him, at 73, performing live,
alone with his guitar. This mellow concert doesn’t offer all of the songs he’s
best known for (no "Girl from Ipanema" here), but I like it all the better for
his having eschewed such hits. I find the album a perfect match for late nights before
retiring to bed. Mehldau’s latest album is the one that always seems to remain in my
CD player. His solo-piano renderings of Nick Drake’s "Things Behind the
Sun" and "River Man" are fantastic, and his 20-minute take on
Radiohead’s "Paranoid Android" keeps me engaged in a way the original never
did. Mehldau’s jazz renditions of pop tunes bring them into the jazz tradition in a
way that the Bad Plus’s similar forays fail to do. I enjoy the Bad Plus, but
Mehldau’s less brash renditions of pop songs come out on top for me.
Caetano Veloso’s A Foreign Sound [CD, Nonesuch
79823] shares something with each of the two suggestions above. Like Gilberto’s In
Tokyo, it is an album by one of the giants of Brazilian popular music; and like
Mehldau’s Live in Tokyo, it gives pop tunes new settings. Veloso has been an
active musician and composer for more than 30 years, but some of his renditions of
American songs here are fresher than anything the youngsters are doing. This album
contains Veloso’s take on the great American songbook, which, thanks to Veloso, now
includes songs by Nirvana and the Talking Heads. Some of these tunes may seem too
lightweight (his rendition of "Feelings" does little for me), but there are many
gems, including versions of "Blue Skies" and Kurt Cobain’s "Come As
You Are." I was slow to warm up to A Foreign Sound, but find myself coming
back to it months after I bought it.
The Great Jazz Trio’s Some Day My Prince Will Come
[CD, Eighty-Eight’s/Columbia 092819] and Malta’s Manhattan in Blue [CD,
JVC VICJ-61172] are two great straight-ahead jazz releases that I’ve listened to many
times throughout the year. The Great Jazz Trio consists of Hank Jones (piano), Richard
Davis (bass), and the late Elvin Jones (drums), and the name of the band is simply
accurate. All three are excellent musicians, and they play through some classic songs,
driven by Jones’s drums. Each time I listen to this CD I’m reminded of the
drummer’s recent death, but his music remains immortal. When I asked JVC’s Akira
Taguchi which XRCD release would best show off the XRCD production values, it didn’t
take him long to hand me this disc by Malta, a Japanese saxophonist. His band includes
such recognizable names as Cedar Walton, Peter Washington, and Jimmy Cobb, and Manhattan
in Blue includes standards and originals. I’m still not sure I’m ready to
plunk down $30 a pop, which XRCDs seem to cost, but this CD’s music and sound are
great. Its excellence in both areas would make it a good reference disc for checking out
new equipment.
I hope I’ve suggested at least one thing that
interests each of our readers. I look forward to more interaction with our audience in the
future. Enjoy your holiday season with family, friends, and, of course, good sound.
…Eric D. Hetherington
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