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Reviews and Commentaries for Airto’s Brilliant Fingers Album
At times this record really sounds like what it is: a bunch of guys in a big room beating the hell out of their drums and singing at the the top of their lungs. You gotta give RVG credit for capturing so much of that energy on tape and transferring that energy onto a slab of vinyl.
Of course this assumes that the record in question actually does have the energy of the best copies. It’s also hard to know who or what is to blame when it doesn’t, since even the good stampers sound mediocre most of the time. Bad vinyl, worn out stampers, poor pressing cycle, it could be practically anything.
Fingers is one of our all time favorite records, a real desert island disc to be sure. I’ve been playing this album for more than thirty years and it just keeps getting better and better. Truthfully, I have to admit it’s the only Airto record I like. I can’t stand Dafos, and most of the other Airto titles leave me cold.
I think a lot of the credit for the brilliance of this album has to go to the Fattoruso brothers, who play keyboards, drums, and take part in the large vocal groupings that sing along with Airto.
We Love Fingers
Fingers checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:
- It’s a jazz demo disc, especially when played on big speakers at loud levels
- It’s the best sounding Airto album we know of
- It’s a masterpiece as well as a member of our core jazz collection
- It’s a personal favorite, as well as a record we’ve been obsessed with for more than 40 years
Further Reading