World Saxophone Quartet: Metamorphosis (Nonesuch/Elektra, 1991)
I’ve saved the wildest recording for last. For speaker and headphone testing, the killer track on Metamorphosis is the first one, Hamiet Bluiett’s “The Holy Men.” This dense group improvisation, with the Quartet soloing simultaneously to the backbeat of clanging African percussion, gives your audio gear a chance to show off its resolving power. If you can clearly pick out the sonic images of David Murray’s tenor at hard left, Oliver Lake’s alto just left of center, Arthur Blythe’s alto just right of center, and Bluiett’s bari at hard right, your system’s doing a pretty good job.
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