Happy Birthday Bob Levi!
Bob Levi
Robert H. Levi, President and CEO of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, has done everything he can to encourage audiophile enthusiasts around the world. This whipping up of enthusiasm results in tremendous support for musicians, labels and equipment manufacturers. Yuko and our executive producers Craig and Diane Martin wanted to dedicate the new Yuko Mabuchi Trio vinyl pressing to the Audio Society’s 25th Anniversary, and to Bob Levi in honor of his 70th Birthday.
Not a week passed, from concept to delivery, when Maestro Levi didn’t call me asking for updates, enthusing in advance, and generally saying thank you. Fortunately, Bob liked the album when I sent him the first copy the other day. He arranged a listening party the next morning with two critic friends, played the CD first, and then the sparkling new LP. Michael Wechsberg and Richard Revell were Bob’s listening partners, both Audio Society executive vice presidents, and both friends whose ears and advice we treasure.
Yuko’s CD is one of Bob’s favorites in Bob Levi’s jazz library. Bob reviewed the CD warmly and he confided he was nervous, after so much personal pent up enthusiasm for the LP, that this could be one of those instances when the CD outperformed the vinyl. Bob told me he demagnetized the CD and played it on his state of the art transport and DAC. Bob told me he and his friends sat dumfounded once again, at the life Yuko, Del and Bobby brought into the listening room for them on the CD.
Bob has a special LP liquid and sonic record washer, given to him a few years ago by the Audio Society. I have seen this machine in action, and it cleans dirt that isn’t even there. Bob put Yuko’s new LP through the machine, and then sat back to hear what it could do on the turntable. Bob’s headline in his subsequent phone call to me was “WORLD PREMIERE OF PUREST LP PERFECTION.” Those of you know who know Bob Levi will not be surprised by his elegant turn of phrase in characteristic Bob Levi capitals. This is not a man who holds back when he loves something, but even Bob admits this is a mighty strong phrase that he had never used before to describe any LP.
Bob continues “The overall performance is delicious and delicate with a strong jazz bass foundation. Yuko is not a brilliant original female piano artist; she is a brilliant original piano artist of all artists. And her musical collaborators Del and Bobby shine with great distinction, bringing depth and elegance to the ensemble.”
Bob’s phone conversation and subsequent letter to me waxed poetic, and I will treasure it always. I want to leave you with Bob’s final words. He described the joy he and Mike and Rich experienced leaning into the performance as they heard this album for the first time: “You live this LP while you listen,” Bob wrote. “Never before have I heard such utter You-Are-There Truthfulness.”
Yuko Mabuchi Trio gave this live concert in the Brain and Creativity Institute’s Cammilleri Hall, built by Antonio and Hanna Damasio. Yuko performs on a Steinway concert grand. We used Ted Ancona’s AKG C24 microphone (celebrated in many Yarlung albums and even more famous because of its previous owner, Frank Sinatra). We fed the “Sinatra” into microphone amplification designed by Elliot Midwood, and then into Arian Jansen’s SonoruS ATR12 tape recorder.
If you hear this album in your own home, I hope you enjoy it as much as Bob Levi and I do. Thank you Yuko, Del and Bobby for your musical gifts, thank you Bernie Grundman for cutting the lacquers for this album. I am personally grateful to engineers Arian Jansen and Steve Hoffman for working with me to make this possible for our musicians. Craig & Diane Martin, David Levinson, and Randy & Linda Bellous, you have our sincere appreciation for your underwriting, wisdom, friendship and good advice.
Rick Hashimoto and Kathy Waldron personally supervised and shepherded this first pressing at RTI. Thank you my friends. Here they are in front of the press that made Yuko’s LP for you.
Kathy Waldron and Rick Hashimoto, at Record Technology Inc.
Sincerely and a thousand thanks to the team,
Bob Attiyeh, producer