Release Round-Up: Week of August 24

August 24, 2018 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Linda Clifford, If My Friends Could See Me Now / Let Me Be Your Woman / Here’s My Love / I’m Yours (Blixa Sounds)

If My Friends Could See Me Now: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Let Me Be Your Woman: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Here’s My Love: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
I’m Yours: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Blixa Sounds reissues four albums (three new to CD) from seventies soul/disco songstress Linda Clifford boasting productions by the starry likes of Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes! Read our full coverage here!

Bob Marley and The Wailers, Kaya: 40th Anniversary Edition (Tuff Gong/UMe)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

2018 marks the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley’s “peace treaty” album, Kaya, and Universal is celebrating with a new edition on 2 CDs or 2 vinyl LPs. Both sets feature the remastered original album and new 2018 mix by Marley’s son Stephen. Also available digitally.

Leonard Bernstein, An American in Paris: Recordings and Concerts with the Orchestre National de France (Warner Classics) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This budget-priced (under $25 at the time of this writing) 7-CD box set features previously released studio recordings of the Maestro in France, along with a previously unissued 1975 live program celebrating the Ravel centenary (with Bernstein soloing on piano) and orchestral suites of Bernstein’s scores to West Side Story and On the Waterfront.

Leonard Bernstein, Best of Leonard Bernstein: Conductor, Composer, Pianist (Sony Classical) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Sony distills the Bernstein catalogue into a 2-CD greatest hits-style package, designed as an introduction to his legacy. This set features music by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich and Copland, with soloists including clarinetist Benny Goodman and mezzo Frederica von Stade, violinists Joshua Bell and Zino Francescatti, pianists Glenn Gould and Philippe Entremont, plus Bernstein himself playing and conducting Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Bernstein the composer is represented, too, with selections from West Side Story, Mass, Serenade, Candide, On the Town, and more.

Various Artists, For Discos Only: Indie Dance Music from Fantasy & Vanguard Records 1976-1981 (Craft Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Craft Recordings taps the catalogues of Fantasy and Vanguard Records for a set of lesser-known, but still killer, dance grooves from artists including Sylvester, Idris Muhammad, Damon Harris, The Blackbyrds, Ike Turner, and many more. Almost every track is presented in a rare disco remix. Also available as a 5-LP box set.

Summer – The Donna Summer Musical: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Republic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This year’s hit Broadway musical based on the life of Donna Summer receives an original cast recording starring LaChanze, Ariana DeBose, and Storm Lever all as Donna in three different stages of her career. Also available digitally.

Gilbert O’Sullivan, Gilbert O’Sullivan (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The “Alone Again (Naturally)” and “Claire” troubadour has joined with producer Ethan Johns for his 19th studio album. Gilbert is both nostalgic and in the moment with this collection of 12 new songs. Available on CD, vinyl, and cassette.

Categories:

Release Round-Up

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classical/Opera, Disco/Dance, R&B/Soul, Reggae

Tags:

Bob Marley, Donna Summer, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Leonard Bernstein, Linda Clifford

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.