Profile Pieces

Profile Pieces


  • LaFaro’s Lament: A Young Legend’s Unfinished Symphony

    In the annals of jazz history, few names resonate with the profound impact and meteoric rise of Scott LaFaro. His journey from a musically gifted child to a revolutionary jazz virtuoso is a tale of raw talent, relentless passion, and a groundbreaking approach to the double bass. LaFaroโ€™s story is not just about the notes…

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  • De-Kloss-ified: Decoding the Genius of Henry Kloss

    In the sleepy town of Altoona, Pennsylvania, during the twilight of the Roaring Twenties, a future luminary of sound, Henry Kloss, entered the world. Born on February 21, 1929, Kloss was handy with tools from a young age. In his childhood, he was known for his precocious building skills, adding fixtures and even rooms to…

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  • Miles Davis: Eight Great Tracks

    Davis made over 50 studio records. Here are 8 cherry-picked tracks.

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  • Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Rock’s Overlooked Matriarch

    Beginnings in the Delta Cotton Plant, Arkansas, 1915: Nestled amidst a sea of cotton fields, this town, where the Mississippi Delta begins its stretch, bore witness to the birth of Rosetta Nubin. It wasnโ€™t just any place; the Delta was the cradle of American music, a melting pot of African rhythms, field hollers, and church…

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  • Klipsch, Klipsch, Boom! The Explosive Brilliance of Paul W. Klipsch

    The Roaring Twenties was not just a decade of economic prosperity and cultural explosion; it was also an age of technological marvels. And even amidst this transformative era, Klipsch’s feats stood out. The 15-year-old, from the confines of his makeshift workspace, constructed a radio receiver. This was not just any youthful experiment; it was a…

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  • From War Radios to World-Class Speakers: The Journey of KEF founder Raymond Cooke

    In the tumultuous world of 1925, Raymond Cooke was born, a spirit destined to echo through the annals of audio engineering. By the time the clouds of World War II gathered, young Cooke found himself thrust into the vast expanse of the Royal Navy. While the seaโ€™s mighty roars and the skiesโ€™ thunderous clashes became…

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  • Soundwaves & The Roaring Twenties: The Legacies of Edward W. Kellogg and Chester Williams Rice

    In the early 20th century, particularly the 1920s, America was alive with the hum of innovation and the beat of cultural renaissance. At the heart of this dynamic period, two engineers, Edward W. Kellogg and Chester Williams Rice, set out to transform the world of sound.

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  • Bassist Ron Carter: 60 Years of Jazz โ€“ and Counting

    This article first appeared inย PS Audioโ€™sย Copper Magazine. According to reliable sources, bassist Ron Carter has well over 2,000 recording credits. On the majority of those heโ€™s a sideman for other peopleโ€™s albums, but itโ€™s still a staggering sign of esteem that hundreds of the top musicians in jazz pick up the phone and call him…

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  • Tri-Cellโ€™s new mega-showroom is a feast for the eyes and ears

    โ€œIโ€™m a headbanger,โ€ Tri-Cell Enterprisesโ€™s Vince Scalzitti responds when I ask him what kind of music he likes.

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  • Audio by Mark Jones did what??

    My first thought when Iโ€™d heard that retailer Audio by Mark Jones had relocated from Markโ€™s home to an actual brick-and-mortar establishment was, โ€œReally? In our day and age?โ€.

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  • One on One with Vincent Bรฉlanger, cellist virtuoso

    They donโ€™t come more musical family than the spanning-four-generations family of 42-year-old cellist Vincent Bรฉlanger. His relativesโ€™ musical accomplishments are too many to be enumerated here, but suffice to say that the musical career that Vincent chose for himself, and the success he achieved in it, are not uncharacteristic of his lineage. Among his own…

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  • Metaxas & Sins: The Ferrari of audio

    If there’s a specialist audio company that better exemplifies the meeting point between high end audio performance and objet d’art aesthetic than Netherlands-based Metaxas & Sins, I don’t know about it.

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  • My (factory) trip to (the) MOON by Simaudio

    I love meeting the top designers at an audiophile-catering audio company because theyโ€™re always so passionate about what they do. Why else would they be involved in perfectionist audio, if not to fulfill a burning nerdy-esque desire to create an audio product people will hopefully love? Dominique Poupart, Product Manager at MOON by Simaudio, is…

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