Just know that the less frequently I manage to update this, the busier I am in the studio. So with that, I’ll get to it.
In early April, I went to the GRAMMYs in Las Vegas, representing the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy as President. After nearly two years with minimal socializing and hardly any live music, this was whiplash. Highlights: Billy Porter bringing the room to tears at the Musicares tribute to Joni Mitchell. Meeting my fellow chapter Presidents. A blinking, rotating, edible GRAMMY dessert. The incredible uplifting vibes at the Black Music Collective celebration. Cocktails with the Archeophone folks, who were nominated in Best Historical and Best Album Notes categories. I didn’t gamble a single dollar, wore comfortable heels, hugged so many colleagues, and soaked in all the joy and all the music.
I’ve been busy with mastering & preservation projects galore! A few highlights: Pachyman dropped a new 7” with two songs mastered by me. If you have not seen this man on tour yet, get thee to a venue!
The fine folks at Aloha Got Soul have reissued Kalapana’s self-titled debut on vinyl for the first time since it was released in 1975. This is luscious music, featuring Mackey Feary (whose album was one of my favorites from last year). Don’t miss their cover of Hall & Oates “When The Morning Comes.”
I have a soft spot for cassettes, and working on the reissue of Cabaret du Ciel’s Raintears - a project from Andrea Desidera and Gian Luigi Morosin - was challenging and musically mind-melting.
During my college DJ days, I would have absolutely flipped out knowing future me would remaster Coil’s The New Backwards with never before heard bonus tracks for Infinite Fog.
You all know Awesome Tapes From Africa and I go way back. (I’ve mastered everything they’ve released!) Here’s release #029, Papé Nziengui’s Kadi Yombo, stunningly complex and intricate Tsogho music from Gabon.
During the pandemic, Art Schop revisited songs he’d recorded for Starguide (also mastered by me), and recorded this gorgeous, simple acoustic album, Out In Space.
Golden Age Ensembled dropped Feed The Feed in December, a wild sonic ride mixed by Robert Kirby and mastered by me.
Last summer, while still in the fog of the pandemic, I restored and remastered a collection of demos and studio recordings by an artist whose songs pierced my soul. Norma Tanega was a brilliant, pointed, and delicate songwriter, a rip roaring guitar player, a wit, a poet, an artist. This collection, I’m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971 comes out on Mexican Summer in May, and I’m so honored I got to spend so much time listening to her music during the remastering process.
Her song “Maggie My Dog” hits even harder, because I lost my beloved dog Eddie to canine lymphoma last week. He was my best bud in the studio, quiet, chill, never chewed stuff. He loved napping in the sun, walking around the neighborhood, snatching street food whenever he could scavenge it. He was a sweet little ding dong, and I miss him terribly.
In between mastering projects, I’ve been digitizing reels, cassettes and DATs for the Kitchen Sisters, whose collection has been acquired by the Library of Congress, for the Arhoolie Foundation, including some killer blues sets by Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, and for 924 Gilman Street, including tracks that landed on this compilation, The Thing That Ate Floyd. I never stop appreciating the range of recordings that come through my studio.
Wrapping it up with a few pictures of Eddie, may he enjoy unlimited street shrimp on the other side of the rainbow bridge.
