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.

Autumn is my favorite season. I like cardigans and warm beverages, changing leaves, falling leaves, leaves that crunch under my feet. Even though I haven’t been in school in over a decade, I still love that back-to-school vibe. So, the teacher’s pet in me says it’s time for an update. On the mastering front:

We did the math, and it turns out I’ve been working with Ken Urban and his band Occurrence for over 8 years. Their most recent album I Have So Much Love To Give (produced by the band, mixed by Daniel Kluger) is smart, dark, weird, danceable, and so much more.

Matthew McNeal has a new album on the way, so for a preview of this hotness, check out the first two singles, “Texas Heat” and “The Spark.” These were recorded by Andre Black at Matte Black Sound and mixed by Ted Young.

I first heard of the Grassy Knoll when I played their records while DJ-ing at my college radio station. Many years later, I had the pleasure of revisiting and remastering Short Stories Redux.

I cannot get enough of multi-instrumentalist Pachyman’s The Return Of…, truly a joyous and genius record. For more on Pachy, check out this piece about his record on NPR.

I mastered all the music for Desert In, an astonishingly moving and rather racy eight episode opera mini-series, created by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, playwright christopher oscar peña, and director James Darrah, commissioned by the Boston Lyric Opera. Desert In is streaming exclusively on operabox.tv.

Awesome Tapes is releasing two records this fall that came through my studio: Ephat Mujuru & the Spirit of the People’s delicate yet electrifying mbira record Mbavaira and Native Soul’s Teenage Dreams. Listen and read more about both on their Bandcamp pages.

Aloha Got Soul dropped some total knockouts this summer, Eddie Suzuki’s blissful High Tide, Arthur Lyman’s last recorded album, the dreamy Island Vibes, and a record that really hit my soul, Mackey Fearey Band’s 1978 self-titled LP. All three of these records are worth diving into for repeated listens.

I’ve always got a backlog of tapes to digitize, including some deep cuts from the Lookout! Records catalog and live recordings from the Freight & Salvage. My new custom-made 1/4” / 1/4-track / 1/2-track / full track mono head assembly is serving me well.

This is a little taste of what I’ve been working on. I’m always grateful to collaborate on records both new and old. In fact, I’d better get to work on this next one. Until next time…!

For me, May brings the triple crown of conferences/meetings: ARSC, AES, and the Recording Academy on top of my usual mastering, restoration and preservation work. Fair warning: I have poured a glass of wine and am procrastinating working on a highly challenging but utterly beautiful record in order to write this.

I joined Rich Martin (Archeophone), Bryan Hoffa (Library of Congress) and Seth Winner to teach a workshop on Digital Restoration in the 21st Century for the Association of Recorded Sound Collections annual conference. I love that we have to specify 21st century. I had to clarify to attendees that I frequently restore recordings made in the 1990s, not 1890s, as some of my colleagues specialize in the pre-electrical era of recorded music.

For the AES 150th, I offered my take on audio preservation outside of major institutions for a panel put together by Nadja Wallaszkovits. I also had a deeply moving conversation on mentoring with fellow mastering engineers and friends Piper Payne, Anna Frick, Maria Rice and Margaret Luthar.

Exciting news on the mastering front! I am thrilled to be a longtime part of the Erroll Garner preservation team, and we will all be popping the champagne to celebrate Erroll’s Centennial this year with 3 New Releases from Octave Music & Mack Avenue Music Group, including a never-before-heard sold out concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall in 1959. This exquisite collection includes the 12 LPs from the Octave Remastered series plus the Symphony Hall concert and Erroll’s last performance at Mister Kelly’s in Chicago. I shared the mastering duties with Osiris Studio’s Michael Graves. This box set was produced by Peter Lockhart and Steve Rosenthal and has expansive liner notes written by Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, Terri Lyne Carrington and Cécile McLorin Salvant. A truly glorious career-spanning collection of music that will redefine Erroll’s legacy as a jazz pianist.

A few more mastering projects…

The Return Of… Pachyman drops this summer on ATO, but you can hear the first single and pre-order now.

DJ Black Low’s amapiano banger Uwami is out now on Awesome Tapes From Africa, but Bandcamp says the vinyl already sold out.

Hailu Mergia is releasing a reissue of an incredibly rare cassette only release from 1975, Tezeta. Pitchfork had some nice things to say about it.

Here’s a red hot single from Life In Sweatpants, Good 2 Yourself.

And a modern exotica record that requires a cocktail, This Is Vintage Now, Vol. 2.

Finally, I spoke with Geoff Stanfield for the Tape Op podcast DISCussion about my love for Scott Walker’s Scott 3, a cracked doorway from early heartthrob Scott to later avant-garde noisy Scott. My dream is to sit alone in a velvet banquette on my second martini and listen to Scott sing to a half empty room.