let," while a rolling "Basie Boogie" comes to life under the Count's fleet THE MURA RED SET III. hands. Don't expect anything like high-fideli- ty from Jazz Giants; the sound quality is TRUE SPECS. uneven - many tracks reflect the noisy transmission of the AM broadcasts of the At Mura, we believe the unadorned truth is our strongest ally. day. John Lissner That's because we produce superior and innovative products of uncompromising quality. Products that don't require puffery and Live On Maxwell Street: Robert half-truths to sell them. Nighthawk Take our top of the line mini heiphones, the Red Set 111T" The Rounder 2022, mono, $7.98. graph below represents the Red Set l 's frequency response. Note the Sound: C+ Performance: B+ 105 dB Performing on what amounts to little more than a street corner must represent the epitome of a musican spontaneously interacting with his community. Live On 90 Maxwell Street captures blues guitarist Robert Nighthawk leading his small band 05 t- in just such circumstances in 1964 at 80 Chicago's best known open air market, 10 D Hz 50 100 20C Hz 500 MCO 2000 Hz 5000 10000 20000 40000 long famed for its casual Sunday per- use of 1313 increments so that maximum performance retail is formances. revealed (rather than using larger ina-ments as others do to make Although Nighthawk enjoyed playing their curve look flatter). Also note tha: our measurements are taken before Maxwell Street's openly enthusi- at realist c sound pressure levels anc :hat there is no peak or valley of astic crowds, he surely deserved greater more than 2dB from 1000 Hz reference level over the range of 150 Hz recognition just three years before his to 19,0e1) Hz. death. B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Elmore is James and many others were influenced Of course one graph not a corplete presentation of the specs by Nighthawk's introspective slide guitar on the Red Set III. For instance; THD is less than 0.3% at 100 dB out- work, heard for many years on different put from 100 to 20,000 Hz. radio stations throughout the Mississippi Bu-. the most impressive spec of a® is that sound of this quali:y Delta as well as in juke joints that dotted can be produced by a headset that weighs only 1.6 oz. the region. Try it for yourself. We think yoL'Il be truly amazed_ Yet Nighthawk did little to court possi- ble fame, as Peter Guralnick points out in liner notes that are a model of informa- tive annotation. Nighthawk (who took his colorful surname from one of his first hits) recorded under a number of differ- ent names but never his own (Robert Lee McCollum). His rambling ways wouldn't let him remain in Chicago long enough to capitalize on that city's burgeoning post-war blues scene, which continues to this very day. Live On Maxwell Street, one of only two full albums from the Arkansas -born bluesman, both coincidentally released posthumously, finally explains why his contemporaries spoke of the late guitar- ist with such awe. Nighthawk's solos combine the grittiness of Delta blues with an atypical degree of urban sophistica- tion. The unique blend of Mississippi and Chicago is striking, particularly on "Sweet Black Angel," the source of B.B. King's chart -topping "Sweet Little Angel." The material on this set isn't performed with the precision evident in the Nighthawk tracks released on the fine Kansas City Blues album on Pearl, but it's the very rawness of these cuts that gives them their visceral power. If you're a fan of amplified slide guitar, Live On Maxwell Street is required listen- MURA ing. Roy Greenberg You'll be Hearing From Us t:)1981, Mura Corpoation. Westbury, N Y 1159C AUDIO/OCTOBER 1981 1 51 Enter No. 35 on Reader Service Card .