An Evening In Mono (A Medley)

I never could have imagined how affected I’d be by last month’s unexpected passing of Art Dudley. For those unfamiliar with the name, Art was a hi-fi writer best known for his work in Listener Magazine and Stereophile. Even amongst the eccentric bunch that is the audiophile community, Art was especially unusual— where most of his colleagues reached for Norah Jones and Diana Krall LP’s as references discs in reviews, art was spinning the Incredible String Band but the biggest difference between Art and his peers is that Art could have been a great writer about anything, he just happened to have chosen hi-fi. Many of the biggest revelations on my personal hi-fi journey these past ten years were kick-started by Art’s reviews….Shindo amplification, vintage Altecs, vintage idler drive turntables with 12” tonearms, Devore speakers, and the jaw-dropping possibilities of a mono LP played thru a true mono cartridge— which brings us to this mix… in tribute to Art Dudley, here are tunes from some of my favorite mono LPs recorded using an emt 930 turntable with a Miyajima zero mono cartridge on a 12” Schick tonearm fed into a Miyajima etr-mono step up transformer and a Shindo Monbrison preamp. – Zach Cowie/LA

yusef lateef – the plum blossom / kathy & carol – green rocky road / mississippi john hurt – pay day / anne briggs – blackwater side / jackson c frank – kimbie / john martyn – back to stay / shirley collins & davy graham – lord gregory / terry callier – oh dear, what can the matter be / jeanne lee and ran blake – laura / mal waldron with eric dolphy and booker ervin – warm canto / johnny mathis – an open fire / duke ellington & his orchestra – autumn leaves

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