Warning: conceited system owner at work ;-)

uglymusicuglymusic
in Systems

Now, I don’t want to brag, but on Thursday night my vision of what my main hi-fi should sound like was vindicated. Oh, how it was vindicated. 

Where do I start? I went to a concert at Turner Sims in Southampton. This small concert hall is blessed with fantastic acoustics, to the extent that some performers choose to forget their amps and play acoustically there. 

On Thursday, it was the turn of Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim and his quartet - acoustic bassist Mats Eilertssen had the sole amplification, presumably because he was playing a (perhaps) 3/4-size touring bass.

Sitting centrally in the second row, just above ground (stage) level with the musicians arranged around me I could hear everything straight from the creators (that’s not the Creator, you’ll understand) with comparatively little reflected sound to mush things up.

There are some, of course, who like to sit at the back and luxuriate in the mush, but each to his or her own. 

Closing my eyes, I suddenly realised the space occupied by the musicians was spookily similar to the space they would have occupied at home. I know we have issues of production, mixing, mastering and so on, but I have a lot of well recorded small group jazz and I know what it's like to listen to at home. Without a load of dodgy PA in the way, live and recorded sound were very much in the same bag.

I'm a very happy bunny. But what about you?

Comments

  • phorizephorize
    I have some new open stands for my p3esrs (something solid xf) and noticed last night that Seb Rochfords’ cymbals on Trio Libero sounded more or less real when played loud and in the dark. I’m not sure it compares though to a live performanc-I’ve seen Rochford in a small setting. Sometimes we only have to suspend our disbelief.

  • uglymusicuglymusic
    Trio Libero is a great album, so wth! 

    And on ECM, as well.
  • cj66cj66
    A tad OT but I always loved going to small venues for live music.
    Strangely I'm far more accepting, i.e. enjoy, of a far wider range of music this way. Types I would never play at home are great live......even jazz! ;)
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    cj66 said:
    A tad OT but I always loved going to small venues for live music.
    Strangely I'm far more accepting, i.e. enjoy, of a far wider range of music this way. Types I would never play at home are great live......even jazz! ;)
    Oh yes. I even enjoy folk live (sometimes)!
  • phorizephorize
    uglymusic said:
    Trio Libero is a great album, so wth! 

    And on ECM, as well.
    It certainly is. In co-motion  was the first jazz record that I seriously listened having heard it performed live on Radio 3 on the early 90s,  but I didn’t really listen to Sheppard again until I heard Surrounded by Sea quite recently. I guess I went off down the cool jazz route back in the 90’s and disregarded a lot of contemporary stuff. I saw Rochford  play with Damon Brown a long time ago and looked to see what he was doing these days. Looks like I missed all of Polar Bear and almost Andy’s ECM stuff, which I rate as some of the best jazz I’ve heard. My observation is that Sheppard Is on a musical paradigm that can only be reached by lifetime of study. I think that the new wave of younger uk based jazz musicians is a really good thing but the distance between them and artists like Sheppard and Rochford is enormous. I guess I should pay more attention!
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    phorize said:
    uglymusic said:
    Trio Libero is a great album, so wth! 

    And on ECM, as well.
    It certainly is. In co-motion  was the first jazz record that I seriously listened having heard it performed live on Radio 3 on the early 90s,  but I didn’t really listen to Sheppard again until I heard Surrounded by Sea quite recently. I guess I went off down the cool jazz route back in the 90’s and disregarded a lot of contemporary stuff. I saw Rochford  play with Damon Brown a long time ago and looked to see what he was doing these days. Looks like I missed all of Polar Bear and almost Andy’s ECM stuff, which I rate as some of the best jazz I’ve heard. My observation is that Sheppard Is on a musical paradigm that can only be reached by lifetime of study. I think that the new wave of younger uk based jazz musicians is a really good thing but the distance between them and artists like Sheppard and Rochford is enormous. I guess I should pay more attention!

    Andy Sheppard is an interesting one. From my POV, he seemed to be an artist with a bit of an inflated rep from the 80s. His ship seemed to have sailed.

    However, his series of albums on ECM and his connection with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow have shown I was wrong. 

    I'm not sure there's so much of a gulf between the latest batch of younger jazz musicians and older ones. It's all a continuum, to my mind. The longer I listen to jazz, the further back and forward I go, and the greater in width, too. 
  • phorizephorize
    uglymusic said:
    phorize said:
    uglymusic said:
    Trio Libero is a great album, so wth! 

    And on ECM, as well.
    It certainly is. In co-motion  was the first jazz record that I seriously listened having heard it performed live on Radio 3 on the early 90s,  but I didn’t really listen to Sheppard again until I heard Surrounded by Sea quite recently. I guess I went off down the cool jazz route back in the 90’s and disregarded a lot of contemporary stuff. I saw Rochford  play with Damon Brown a long time ago and looked to see what he was doing these days. Looks like I missed all of Polar Bear and almost Andy’s ECM stuff, which I rate as some of the best jazz I’ve heard. My observation is that Sheppard Is on a musical paradigm that can only be reached by lifetime of study. I think that the new wave of younger uk based jazz musicians is a really good thing but the distance between them and artists like Sheppard and Rochford is enormous. I guess I should pay more attention!

    Andy Sheppard is an interesting one. From my POV, he seemed to be an artist with a bit of an inflated rep from the 80s. His ship seemed to have sailed.

    However, his series of albums on ECM and his connection with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow have shown I was wrong. 

    I'm not sure there's so much of a gulf between the latest batch of younger jazz musicians and older ones. It's all a continuum, to my mind. The longer I listen to jazz, the further back and forward I go, and the greater in width, too. 

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