The Gift (One Microphone Recording)

The excellent musicianship of Michael Moore, clarinet, and Paul Berner, piano, bring life and a bit of a thrill to this album... Featuring a rich collection of standards including songs by Richard Rogers, George and Ira Gershwin, Charlie Parker, Irving Berlin, Bobby Troup, Mel Torme, Sammy Fain, and Oscar Hammerstein, The Gift is truly that—a gift of marvelous music beautifully played by this excellent duo.

Having experimented with various microphone set-ups, the duo settled on this one as sounding most like the way they heard themselves, then just played – and that’s what comes over in the spontaneity and fluidity of the performances here, captured in perhaps the most unforced sound you’re likely to hear this year.

The soundstage here is that created by the way the musicians were positioned relative to the microphone, and the balance between the two entirely natural, so it’s not a bad way to find out how well your system images!

Meanwhile the way the two feed off each other is entirely enchanting. The vivid sound of the two instruments creating real magic from the simplest of ingredients, from the opening ‘The Sweetest Sound’ right the way through to a beautifully paced and poignant ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.