patricia barber - diana krall - holly cole

I can't say much about either Diana Krall or Patricia Barber live, but I can say that Diana Krall's albums are generally magnificently recorded, especially Live in Paris and Love Scenes.  Patricia Barber . . . another artist that I would love to see in concert, but I suspect that nothing can top her Companion XRCD.  That is one of my go-to test albums for any new equipment or cables.  To me, that recording is just magnificent . . . especially the opening bass line to Use Me, among others.

Each of them sounded boring to me after a while. Dinah Washington held singing lessons for many other "stars". As for Melody Gardot - her story is amazing. As teenager she made money riding bicycle to local bars and playing piano - until she got hit by the car and spent whole year in hospital bed. Her whole neurological system was damaged and she could not speak. Doctor in desperation suggested singing and that cured her. The only leftover of the accident is cane and sunglasses for damaged eyes.

Patricia Barber . . . another artist that I would love to see in concert, but I suspect that nothing can top her Companion XRCD.

@moto_man  , I didn't know that "Companion" was on XRCD.  I have the Blue Note  digital pressing that I bought before 9/11, and I did like it so much that more recently I bought the MFSL SACD pressing.  I have four different digital pressings of Cafe Blue, and I'll usually choose one (actually I haven't listened to one of them yet)   for auditioning changes to my system.

I have a Japanese digital pressing, that I bought a long time ago, of Holly Cole "It Happened One Night" that I like a lot because it does a good job of conveying the immediacy of her vocals, particularly on "Cry If You Want To." 

Oh well, ramble on. . . .

I wonder how the SACD version compares to the XRCD?  Let me know if you want to compare them by PM

@moto_man  , my ears probably aren't good enough for that, but I was planning on doing some listening tomorrow after the 1pm game.  I will put "Companion" at the top of my list (after playing a warm up disc) and I am game.

I haven't heard much on XRCD?  I have Tina Turner "Private Dancer" on XRCD, and that definitely has something extra (when compared to most other CDs, although I have made no direct comparison to any other "Private Dancer" CDs) and I paid way more$ than I wish I would have for "Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits" because 1) the few times I listened to it I never thought the sonics were anything special, and 2) about the 3rd time I was going to listen to it, when I was extricating it from its case (it fit tightly) it broke!  I almost felt like crying.  I wound up buying a used DCC pressing of that one, but it's not really anything special either.