News of a previously unreleased recording by any of jazz’s ‘holy trinity’ is a reason to get excited. Now two have come along in the space of a few months, for hot on the heels of Verve/Impulse’s chart-topping Coltrane release comes this precious lost treasure from the prime-era of Thelonious Monk, featuring a previously unreleased recording of his most critically acclaimed Quartet (with whom he also recorded ‘Criss-Cross’ and ‘Monk’s Dream’) live at Old Fellow Palæet, Copenhagen in 1963.
With the original tapes recently saved from a skip, some 55 years later the recordings have now been faithfully restored, mastered and cut using Gearbox’s legendary all-analogue process (even using the exact same lathe as Blue Note did back in the day). The result reveals a window into a performance that shows Monk in his prime, just one year before he would go on to become one of only 4 jazz artists to ever appear on the front cover of TIME magazine.
Each month we bring you the fantastic, and free Hifi Pig E-magazine. The whole month in an easy to read format with exclusive new content. This month there is an in-depth interview with Holger Fromme of German Horn manufacturer, Avantgarde Acoustic. More »
Harbeth Audio Ltd. have launched an exclusive music video series entitled Harbeth Live. Produced by Kent-based audio and video production company, Duet Media Technologies, the series will include three videos released throughout 2018 featuring British music artists, the first of which stars pianist, David Rees-Williams. More »
Nordoff Robbins are a charity who use music therapy to help vulnerable people across the UK. Get Loud is Nordoff Robbins’ national awareness day on 13 September 2017, when they use the power of music to raise awareness of their life-changing music therapy services. More »
Formed 5 years ago but playing music together going back as long as 15 years ago, Miss Lucid have created their 5 track, self-titled debut record, due for release in April 3rd on Fat Hippy Records. The debut single, ‘The Beast’ was unleashed on March 6th and they will also have some live dates that will be announced imminently. Luckily I got my hands on the full album for review! More »
It’s the new record from Moshi Moshi signings Happyness, who are releasing the follow-up to their acclaimed cult hit debut album, ‘Weird Little Birthday’, on April 7th this year. This new album “Write In” was recorded in their studio, right above a now-demolished old book shop, and is said take in a much wider range of influences, highlighting many new sides to the band’s song writing style. With the band only gaining more steam and heading for promising things by all accounts, it was only right that this little piglet here got her hands on it for a listen to see what all the hype is about!
Janine Elliot spends a day in the studio with Mike Valentine More »
Oxford Audio Consultants will be having an event at Oxford University, playing a £6,300 lacquer of Sarah Vaughan, Live at Laren Jazz Festival in 1975, that only survives one play. More »
December was a busy month at Hifi Pig, catch up on the news we brought you here, just in case you missed anything.
We would like to wish all of our readers the very best for 2017, may your year be happy, healthy and full of great music! More »
A movie charting the history of Denmark’s Street’s Tin Pan Alley now has the backing of PMC, which has donated to a crowd-funding campaign aiming to raise the £28,000 needed to get the film made. PMC say they are helping out because they are “passionate about preserving Britain’s hugely important musical heritage”. More »
New Hifi Pig contributor James Fleming does a bit of Soul Searching and is likely to ruffle a few feathers along the way. More »
If you are a hifi enthusiast, you may well think that there would be no better way to spend a couple of hours than listening to a system from one of the world’s most respected hifi companies. You would, however, be wrong. More »
Linn is giving away a great gift to all music lovers this Christmas with the chance to download a free daily track from a host of 
major Linn artists – in Studio Master quality, the highest download quality available.
From 1st December Linn’s online advent calendar will offer 24 days of free downloads, giving everybody the chance to explore and expand their musical taste. Every day up until Christmas Eve, Linn will be giving music loversx the chance to discover a new piece from its music catalogue, with a different track free to download.
There’s sure to be something for everyone to enjoy, including a diverse selection of genres, in addition to well-known favourite artists such as: Britain’s First Lady of Jazz Claire Martin, the compelling Australian singer-songwriter Emily Barker, Scottish legend Dougie MacLean and many more. I downloaded some of the tunes last year and was suitably impressed…and who doesn’t love a freebie?
24-bit Studio Master downloads can be enjoyed using a dedicated network music player or via a laptop or PC, and are the highest quality music files available. They allow the listener to hear music exactly as it was recorded, before it was altered to fit on a CD or squashed down to MP3 size.
I was discussing with a fellow hifi nerd (sorry audiophile) the merits of CD over vinyl and during the discourse he happened to mention that he was firmly in the digital hi-fi camp and had sold all his vinyl, 400 albums or so, about 10 years ago. This reminded me and caused a certain melancholy to descend as I thought back to the day I sold my beloved record collection.
What Music Means To Me
Michael Howell is Hifi Pig’s latest sometime contributor. In the first of his ‘semioccasional’ articles he tells us how he came to love music and what it means to him…there’s a few recommendations in here too. More »