Bobby Hutcherson Dies at 75
Bandleader and jazz vibraphone pioneer Bobby Hutcherson died yesterday at his home in Montara, California, following a long struggle with emphysema. Born in L.A. in 1941, Hutcherson spent the early 1960’s in New York helping to pioneer the vibraphone’s place in jazz music using an (at the time) original four-mallet technique. Hutcherson frequently hosted listening sessions in his New York apartment, and it was these sessions that led to his career as a recording artist for Blue Note Records, working with artists like Andrew Hill, Jackie McLean, and Joe Henderson, and eventually becoming the band’s leader. His first album as bandleader, Dialogue, was released on Blue Note’s label in 1965, the same year as his most popular song “Little B’s Poem.” Through run-ins with drugs and the law, Hutcherson continued to record for Blue Note through 1977 even after moving back to the West Coast. Bobby Hutcherson returned to Blue Note to record his final album Enjoy the View in 2014. Hutcherson was 75. (Pitchfork)
Man in Japan Installs Personal Electricity Pylon to Experience “Purest” Electricity in His Sound System
An 82-year-old man in Japan recently had his very own 40-foot electricity pylon installed outside of his home in hoped of improving the quality of his personal sound system. Takeo Morita had the pylon installed as the endgame to his quest to find the “purest” electricity to run through his system. He theorizes that the pylon ensures that the electricity isn’t experiencing any potential interference by being connected to other houses. He told the Wall Street Journal “Electricity is like blood. If it is tainted, the whole body will get sick. No matter how expensive the audio equipment is, it will be no good of the blood is bad.” Morita isn’t the first person in Japan to have this notion; the company who installed his pylon has installed 40 of these for clients in the last decade. (FACT)
-Taylor Wallace
