CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER, JOHN T. PLASKET!
Take a Giant Step with "Complete Columbia Albums" of Taj Mahal
The Complete Columbia Albums of Taj Mahal, by the numbers: 13 albums, 15 CDs, 170 tracks. This all adds up to a mighty legacy worthy of the man’s namesake! The former Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. made his name as a blues renaissance man at Columbia Records with a string of well-received albums released between 1968 and 1976, and the new Complete Albums box set due in stores tomorrow (February 5) collects them all under one roof for the first time, plus two archival compilations. Now 70
Review: The Miles Davis Quintet, "The Bootleg Series Volume 2: Live in Europe 1969"
“Directions in music by Miles Davis,” read the subtitle of the trumpeter’s late-1968 Columbia album Filles de Kilimanjaro. It was the first, but not the last, of his albums to bear those words. But listeners couldn’t have been expected to know which direction Davis would take with each album. Nefertiti, recorded in June-July 1967 but released in March 1968, turned out to be Davis’ last fully acoustic LP, with its follow-up Miles in the Sky (recorded January and May ’68 and released in
Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars: Él Collects Vintage Gilberto, Jobim, Bonfá on CD
Fewer images in music are more evocative than that of the tall and tan and young and lovely girl from Ipanema, walking like a samba and inspiring passersby to go, "Aaaah." Jazz musicians of every stripe and every instrument latched onto Brazil's bossa nova sound after it exploded to popularity in the wake of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luis Bonfá, Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto's soundtrack to the 1959 film Black Orpheus. Though Black Orpheus was the breakthrough, it wasn't the birth of bossa
Short Takes, Classic Pop Edition: What's Coming From Willie Nelson, Bing Crosby, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett
Today’s Short Takes looks at a variety of upcoming releases with one thing in common: great vocalists in the tradition of the Great American Songbook! First up, let's take a look at an album of new recordings from a favorite reissue label. One genre has never been enough to contain the musical restlessness of Willie Nelson. The country legend and honky-tonk hero created his own standards with his early songs such as “Crazy” and “Funny How Time Slips Away” before paying tribute to the Great
Review: Dick Jensen, "Dick Jensen" - A Lost Philadelphia Soul Classic
When Dick Jensen was signed to ABC’s Probe Records label in 1969, only one album title seemed appropriate: White Hot Soul. The Hawaiian-born entertainer’s stage moves earned him comparisons to James Brown and Jackie Wilson, while his voice recalled the booming sonorities of Tom Jones or Engelbert Humperdinck. Tucked away on Side Two of that Don Costa-produced LP, Jensen included The Soul Survivors’ “Expressway to Your Heart” as part of a medley. That 1967 Top 5 hit, of course, was written by
Big Break Serves Up Soul, Jazz and Funk from Carmen McRae, Billy Paul, Azteca and More
Timeless soul music knows no regional boundaries, at least based on the latest quintet of releases from Cherry Red's Big Break Records imprint. With this group of reissues, you'll travel to Philadelphia by way of Hawaii, Oakland, Harlem and Chicago. All of the titles previewed below are available now in the U.K. and next Tuesday, February 5, in the U.S.! Two new titles hail from the Philadelphia International Records catalogue. Perhaps most exciting is the first CD release outside of Japan
Ace Embarks On Final "Sea Cruise" For Concluding Volume of "The Ace Story"
In 1979, Ace Records of London released Volume One of The Ace Story on LP, celebrating the music of its namesake label, Ace Records of Jackson (Mississippi). Roughly five years later, Ace issued the fifth and final volume in the series. Fast-forward to 2010. That was when Ace revisited The Ace Story with a CD reissue of that original 1979 LP, expanded with bonus tracks. The new and improved Ace Story series has itself just come to a close with the recent release of Volume 5 on CD. The new
Skydog, Celebrated: Life of Duane Allman Explored in New Career-Spanning Box Set
Duane Allman was just 24 when he perished on the streets of Macon, Georgia, the victim of an accident involving his motorcycle and a flatbed truck carrying a lumber crane. Yet in a short but intense period of time, the Nashville-born slide guitar virtuoso had established a reputation as a creative and versatile musician with invention to spare. His distinct tones on a Wilson Pickett recording caught the ear of Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler, and while based at Rick Hall’s Muscle Shoals studio,
Call "Echo Valley 2-6809" For 7Ts' Latest Partridge Family Reissues
Even Reuben Kincaid might be happy with two upcoming releases from Cherry Red’s 7Ts label: two-for-one reissues of The Partridge Family’s Sound Magazine and Shopping Bag; and The Partridge Family Notebook and Crossword Puzzle. Continuing 7Ts’ David Cassidy and Partridge Family reissue series, both two-fers are out now in the U.K. and on February 5 in U.S. stores. 1971’s U.S. Top 10 album Sound Magazine, the third LP from the TV group fronted by David Cassidy and Shirley Jones, followed its two
There He Goes Again: Marshall Crenshaw Launches New EP Subscription Service
Marshall Crenshaw has marched to the beat of his own drum (metaphorically speaking!) since making a splash with his self-titled 1982 major label debut. Though he hasn't exactly been away, the power pop hero has returned this week with the official release of I Don't See You Laughing Now, a new 3-track vinyl EP that also happens to mark Crenshaw's launch of a new music subscription series. With shifts in the music landscape occurring on what seems like a day-to-day basis, Crenshaw's new model
Duke Ellington Is "In Grand Company" with Ella, Basie, Satchmo, Coltrane and More
The legendary composer-arranger-pianist-bandleader Duke Ellington is In Grand Company on a new collection of the same name from Starbucks Entertainment, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Much has been written of Ellington’s fertile creative partnership with “Take the ‘A’ Train” composer Billy Strayhorn, and indeed, Strayhorn is represented on this disc. But he’s just one of the many, varied artists represented on this collection’s fifteen tracks. Spanning four decades of recording on
Review: Billy Joel, "She's Got a Way: Love Songs"
“She’s got a way about her…I don’t know what it is,” Billy Joel sings on his very first album. But it isn’t long before the song’s narrator explicates many of those ways about her, like a “smile that heals me” or “a light around her.” Even if he can’t put his finger on it, he’s confident that “a million dreams of love surround her ev’rywhere.” Yet rarely (in life or in art) has love been so simple for Billy Joel. “She’s Got a Way” lends its title to a new compilation subtitled Love Songs
Big Beat Has "Too Much to Dream" with Two New Psychedelic Sixties Collections
When one thinks of musical psychedelia, the city that most often comes to mind is San Francisco. That rock epicenter hosted the likes of The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Blue Cheer and Moby Grape at venues including The Fillmore, The Matrix and the Avalon Ballroom. But psych-rock exploration wasn’t limited to San Francisco, with New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Austin among the other American spots making major contributions to the genre.
Reviews: Buck Owens, "Honky Tonk Man: Buck Sings Country Classics" and Don Rich, "Sings George Jones"
With its two latest releases, Omnivore Recordings continues its great Bakersfield rescue mission. Texas-born and Arizona-raised, Buck Owens made his mark in that California city, answering the prevailing “countrypolitan” style with a return to a pure and unadorned honky-tonk sound. But that “natural” sound had roots that ran deep in Bakersfield. Yet Owens’ parallel career as the avuncular, perpetually joking co-host of television’s cornpone Hee Haw may have caused audiences to take his
Kritzerland's Got the Action with "Butch and Sundance" and Vintage Dean Martin Comedy
Kritzerland has just announced its first releases for 2013, and these two rare soundtracks, both of which are making their CD debuts, couldn’t be more different: George Duning’s Who’s Got the Action? and Patrick Williams’ Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. Almost ten years after the runaway success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 20th Century Fox realized its hopes for a follow-up film with Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. At the conclusion of the first film, though, raindrops
Rare Gems Hidden in New "Playlist" Wave
The latest wave of Playlist releases is almost here from Legacy Recordings, and the series dedicated to collecting “the hits plus the fan favorites” doesn’t look to disappoint. On January 29, Playlist volumes will be released for an eclectic cadre of artists in a variety of genres: vintage metal (Accept), traditional pop (Andy Williams), blue-eyed soul (The Box Tops), classic rock (Mountain, The Doobie Brothers, Harry Nilsson), country (Sara Evans, The Highwaymen), hip-hop (G. Love and Special
Let's Hang On to Two Volumes of Frankie Valli and 4 Seasons' "Gold Vault of Hits"
Whether you consider them the East Coast answer to The Beach Boys, or rivals to The Beatles (as on a famous Vee-Jay LP compilation), Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons have had a long, illustrious career. Despite having scored his first hit with the Seasons back in 1962, Valli has hardly slowed his pace over the years, overseeing companies and productions of the 2005 musical Jersey Boys, readying a film version, and recently performing a concert on Broadway with a new line-up of Seasons. The
Morning of Their Lives: Bee Gees' Original Australian Albums Reissued on CD by Festival Label
Though Bee Gees’ First introduced Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb to the world at large, the album title was actually a misnomer. The Bee Gees’ first album was, in fact, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs, released in Australia in 1965 on Festival Records’ Leedon label. Two albums were released in Australia before the Gibbs’ international debut, with a third “odds-and-ends” collection having arrived in late 1967 just months after Bee Gees’ First. The Bee Gees’ Australian output has
Stephen Stills Turns Back the Pages with New Retrospective Box Set
If, like me, there’s a gaping hole in your box set shelf between “C” (for David Crosby’s 2006 Voyage) and “N” (for Graham Nash’s 2009 Reflections), fear no more. That hole is ready to be filled with a March 26 release from the third member of the Crosby, Stills and Nash triumvirate. Carry On celebrates the career of guitarist-singer-songwriter Stephen Stills in a new 4-CD box drawing on his legendary associations with CSN, CSNY, Buffalo Springfield, Manassas and of course, his solo projects
Review: Roger Cook, "Running with the Rat Pack"
The rules of pop music were changing, and Roger Cook didn't want to be behind the times. The songwriter of such nuggets as "You've Got Your Troubles," "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," "My Baby Loves Lovin'" and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" had long balanced his work as a behind-the-scenes songwriter with a singing career. As one-half of David and Jonathan (with co-writer Roger Greenaway) and a member of Blue Mink, Cook was a familiar vocalist, and as a background singer, he added
Otis Redding's "Deepest Soul" Explored on New Concept Album
When is a lost album not a lost album? In the case of Lonely and Blue: The Deepest Soul of Otis Redding, the answer is, “when the album has been created in 2013 to look, sound and feel like a Stax/Volt release from almost five decades prior!” On March 5, Stax and Concord Records will release this newly-created concept album of the late soul shouter’s most torrid ballads on both CD and a special blue vinyl LP. Compilation producer David Gorman set out with one goal in mind: “to find the
Say Their Name: "Love Songs" Arrives from Destiny's Child, Includes New Song
The upbeat dance-pop/R&B of Destiny’s Child successfully updated the girl group sound for the late 1990s and early 2000s, and launched the careers of Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams and Beyoncé Knowles. In late 2012, Legacy Recordings marked the fifteenth anniversary of the group’s No. 1 debut single with the release of Playlist: The Very Best of Destiny’s Child. That disc soon became the most successful entry in the Playlist series. So it might come as no surprise that the label will
Big Break Goes Disco with KC and the Sunshine Band, George McCrae, Johnnie Taylor
The Temptations had sunshine on a rainy day, John Denver had it on his shoulders, and the O'Jays took their cue from an old standard to address a loved one as "my sunshine." But Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch, forming Miami's KC and the Sunshine Band, had sunshine both in the band name and in the joyful, exultant brand of music they played. Big Break Records has recently reissued one title recorded by those disco titans, one title produced by them, and one with another connection to the
Mary Wells' Early Motown Albums Collected in Mono on New Release
The third major Mary Wells release in recent months has arrived courtesy Ace Records’ Kent label. The One Who Really Loves You/Two Lovers combines Wells’ second and third Motown long-players on one remastered CD, with every track taken from the original mono masters for the first time in the compact disc era. Though Wells’ time at Motown was relatively brief, her star burned brightest there. The first true superstar to emerge from Hitsville, she was also the first of the company’s artists to
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