What made Ellington a Duke? Though born in the final year of the 19th century, few figures in 20th century music were as influential as composer, pianist and bandleader Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington. By the time of his first ever long-playing album, 1951’s Masterpieces by Ellington, he was already American royalty, well-established via films, Broadway musicals and the enduring compositions he gifted to the Great American Songbook. Masterpieces also kicks off the nine-disc journey through
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Various Artists, "Surf Age Nuggets: Trash and Twang Instrumentals 1959-1966"
In 1996, Rhino Records released Cowabunga! The Surf Box, a four-disc celebration of surf music, both vocal and instrumental, from its earliest days to the then-present. It’s taken more than fifteen years, but James Austin, the co-producer of that long-out-of-print box, has returned with an all-new companion piece. Surf Age Nuggets, released through the RockBeat label (ROC-CD-3098), offers another four discs’ worth of “trash and twang instrumentals,” as the cover promises. Its 104 tracks
Miles Runs The Voodoo Down: "The Bootleg Series Volume 2" Sheds Light on Third Great Quintet
Where was Miles Davis at in 1968? In a June 1968 interview with Leonard Feather of Downbeat, the journalist observed of Davis’ hotel suite, “I found strewn around the room records or tape cartridges by James Brown, Dionne Warwick, Tony Bennett, The Byrds, Aretha Franklin and the Fifth Dimension. Not a single jazz instrumental.” Feather asked “Why?” but concluded that most likely, “when you have reached the aesthetic mountaintop, there is no place to look but down.” Feather’s summation was
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Johnny Cash, "The Complete Columbia Album Collection"
Are you ready to add some Black to the red and green this Christmas? If you are, you’ll be richly rewarded thanks to Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings’ Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection (88697 91047 2, 2012). It’s no easy feat to distill the essence of an artist into one package, let alone when the artist in question is John R. Cash. Yet this collection spanning 33 years (1957-1990), 61 albums and 63 CDs succeeds in revealing the man behind the black in all his many
Still On The Line: Glen Campbell's "American Treasure" Box Set Arrives This Month
Way back on August 6, we confirmed a delay to Surfdog Records' box set An American Treasure, a limited edition box and gift set dedicated to the life and career of Glen Campbell. We're happy to report that this 3-CD/1-DVD limited edition of 1,000 units is finally available for pre-order, with delivery guaranteed before Christmas for domestic purchasers. To bring you up to date: An American Treasure will mark only the second box set to be devoted to the entirety of Campbell's career; the
Black Friday 2012: Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa Lead Off Packed Slate of RSD Exclusives
Here in the U. S. of A., Black Friday is almost upon us: that unusual date following the prior day of giving thanks, in which consumers make a mad dash to the local big-box store, mall or shopping center to procure bargains for the holiday season ahead. Retailers are controversially beginning Black Friday “festivities” even earlier than usual this year, with many sales starting on Thanksgiving Day itself and not even at midnight but in the early part of the evening. For a number of recent
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Elvis Presley, "Prince from Another Planet"
"I'm not kidding myself. My voice alone is just an ordinary voice. What people come to see is how I use it. If I stand still while I'm singing, I'm dead, man. I might as well go back to driving a truck." Though Elvis Aron Presley's vocal instrument was one of the greatest in the entirety of American popular music, the singer wasn't simply being modest. Whether threatening staid fifties culture in a pair of tight pants, shaking his famed pelvis, or taking to the Las Vegas concert stage in
JSP Goes Beyond the Rainbow with 4-CD Collection of "Creations" by Judy Garland
Judy Garland’s place in the annals of popular music would have been all but assured if she had only introduced Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” to the world. After all, the Academy Award-winning song from The Wizard of Oz (1939) was ranked the No. 1 Song of the Century by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and topped a list of the 100 Greatest Movie Songs compiled by the American Film Institute. Garland
Release Round-Up: Weeks of October 30 and November 6
Election Day is upon us today! But if you're looking to cast your vote for some music, too, we might be able to help! Though we were able to keep the lights on each day at The Second Disc, Hurricane Sandy kept us from publishing a Release Round-Up last week. So without further ado, here's the best of the best for the weeks of October 30 and November 6! Louis Armstrong, The Complete OKeh, Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings 1925-1933 (OKeh/Columbia/RCA/Legacy) (10 CDs) / Charlie Christian,
Gems from the Diamond Mine: Blue Rodeo Collect Early Albums, Unreleased Demos on New Box
Fans of Canadian country-rockers Blue Rodeo have something to get excited about, with the recent release of a box set collecting their first five albums with another three discs of unreleased material. Blue Rodeo 1987-1993 celebrates the Northern rockers, who have won 11 Juno Awards in their native Canada and placed 10 singles in the Top 10 of the Canadian charts, including "Try," "Til I Am Myself Again," "Lost Together" and "5 Days in May." Anchored by singer/songwriter/guitarists Jim Cuddy
Review: Peter Gabriel, “So: Immersion Box Set” – Part 2: This is the Picture
In yesterday's first part of the So box set review, we discussed the original album proper and the accompanying So DNA bonus disc. Part 2 continues with a look at a live show, some visual content and more. If there's a major mistake on the So box set, it's keeping the So DNA disc exclusive to a $100+ box set. As much as it replicates the original album (with a different spin, naturally), it feels closer to the mothership than the great but best-taken-separately experience of Live in Athens
Review: Peter Gabriel, "So: Immersion Box Set" - Part 1: Let There Be No Doubt About It
When Peter Gabriel's So hit stores in the spring of 1986, it wouldn't be unfair to call almost everything about the ex-Genesis' fifth record a complete surprise. For one, the record had a title, boldly marked in the upper left corner as if a challenge to the reader. Moreover, the album sleeve showed not a Hipgnosis-created aberration of Gabriel - obscured by raindrops, jagged scratches, or photo manipulation that seemed to melt half his face off - but a Peter Saville-crafted black-and-white
Release Round-Up: Week of October 22
Peter Gabriel, So: 25th Anniversary Edition (3CD Deluxe Edition: U.S./U.K.; 4CD/2DVD/2LP Box Set: U.S./U.K.; Classic Albums: So DVD (U.S./U.K.)/BD (U.S./U.K.)) (Real World) A year late for the actual 25th anniversary (PG never was one for deadlines), So sledgehammers record shops with a variety of expanded formats, including one of many mega box sets released this year. The Beatles, Love Me Do (50th Anniversary Single) (U.S./U.K.) (Capitol/EMI) Originally bungled due to a mispressing, The Fab
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin': Sony Masterworks Boxes "Complete Rodgers and Hammerstein"
Back on September 10, we reported on Sony Masterworks’ Broadway in a Box, a 25-CD primer on the impressive musical theatre catalogue of Columbia, RCA Victor and associated labels. Contemplating Masterworks’ vast library, we opined, “A deluxe Rodgers and Hammerstein box could represent each of the duo’s stage musicals (save the posthumous adaptation of State Fair) with a disc from the Columbia and RCA Victor archives.” Well, such a deluxe box set is here, much sooner than we anticipated! On
41 Years of Maximum R&B: UMe Plans Vinyl Box Set for The Who
We've seen a lot of new product for fans of The Who lately: Eagle Rock released the Live in Texas 1975 DVD, UMe is planning a standalone release of the Hull show from 1970 that appeared in the Live at Leeds box set a short time ago, guitarist Pete Townshend's memoir - and now, Universal announces a newly-remastered vinyl box set of The Who's studio albums. The simply-titled The Studio Albums features all 11 Who albums on 14 180-gram vinyl discs, from 1965's My Generation to 2006's Endless Wire.
Wonderful Tonight: Clapton's "Slowhand" Goes Super Deluxe This Winter
Eric Clapton gained the nickname “Slowhand” from Giorgio Gomelsky in the 1960s, once recalling that the impresario and Yardbirds manager coined it “as a good pun. He kept saying I was a fast player, so he put together the ‘slow handclap’ phrase [when a restless audience claps slowly hoping the performer will arrive onstage] into ‘Slowhand’ as a play on words.” Clapton fully embraced the name in 1977 as the title of his fifth studio album as a solo artist, following stints in the Yardbirds, John
Take the Power Back: 20 Years of Rage Against the Machine Celebrated on "XX"
When current Republican Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan earlier this year listed Rage Against the Machine among his favorite bands, more than a few eyebrows were raised, including those of the rap-rock-metal band’s guitarist, Tom Morello. In a withering op-ed piece for Rolling Stone, Morello cited Ryan as “the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” affirming that “his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is
GRRR! And The Stones Keep On Rolling with Career-Spanning Box Set, All-New Songs [NOW WITH TRACK LISTING]
When the Rolling Stones kick a celebration into high gear, they're not kidding. Hot on the heels of various and sundry documentaries, DVDs, Blu-rays and luxury vinyl box sets, the world's greatest rock and roll band has just announced its first-ever compilation-styled career-spanning box set. GRRR! is a joint project of ABKCO and Universal Music Group, and it's slated to arrive on November 13 in the U.S. and one day earlier in all other territories. The new set is more comprehensive than the
Rancid Think Big and Small for 20th Anniversary Vinyl Box Set
Raise your hand if you're excited about a box set featuring nearly the complete discography of punk revivalists Rancid. Now, keep your hand raised if you're excited that it's on vinyl. Still with us? Now, how about a 46-disc vinyl set? No, we didn't add wrong. Rancid Essentials, to be released later this year, includes all seven of the band's studio albums, their 1992 debut EP and the 2007 B Sides and C Sides compilation, newly remastered and pressed as 45 RPM 7" vinyl discs. That's four discs
White Light/White Heat: Sundazed Preps Velvet Underground Vinyl Box with Rare "1969" LP
The Velvet Underground is going back to mono, thanks to the Sundazed label. On October 30, the seminal underground rock band’s first three albums will get the deluxe box set treatment in their original mono versions. But that’s not all. The Verve/MGM Albums will also include the mono version of Nico’s 1967 solo debut Chelsea Girl (featuring the Velvets’ Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison) as well as what the label is billing as “the definitive version of the band’s unfinished fourth
Festival of Life: T. Rex's "The Slider" Gets Super-Deluxe Treatment from Edsel
T. Rex's iconic The Slider is getting the super deluxe treatment from Edsel for its 40th anniversary, The Quietus reports. The band's seventh album followed up the head-turning glam rock style of Electric Warrior, which featured the U.S. hits "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" and "Jeepster." Working again with producer Tony Visconti in Paris, The Slider is a tight, heavy-duty album - perhaps a bit denser than its predecessor, but no less rewarding. Singles "Telegram Sam" and the "festival of life" song
Release Round-Up: Week of October 9
The Beach Boys, 2012 Remasters / Greatest Hits / Greatest Hits: Fifty Big Ones (Capitol/EMI) The summer gets a little more endless with a new compilation (in two formats) and remasters of nearly all of the band's '60s albums. (A full breakdown of those albums is here, and a full review is coming up from Joe today!) The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour (Apple/EMI) The Fab Four's kooky film is making its Blu-Ray debut in standard and deluxe box formats. Deep Purple, Machine Head: 40th
"Mellon Collie" to Get More Infinite on Six-Disc Deluxe Set
Iconoclastic Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, never one for subtlety or restraint, is continuing the ongoing Smashing Pumpkins reissue campaign this holiday season with a humongous six-disc edition of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The Pumpkins' most ambitious project at the time, the double-album Mellon Collie was described by Corgan as "The Wall for Generation X." Produced Corgan with Flood and Alan Moulder, Mellon Collie attempted to showcase the band closer to how they were
New Box Set Spotlights 10cc and the Things They Did for Love
10cc: smooth rock pioneers? Irreverent architects of "art for art's sake"? The debate continues this year with the U.K.'s first-ever career-spanning 10cc box set, Tenology, to be released by Universal in November. The group U.S. audiences know best for the immaculately-crafted "I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love" are only seeing half the picture: singers/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, who were responsible for the poppier songs in the 10cc
Brownie Box, Ruffin Reissue Are Latest from Hip-O Select
Two new releases from Hip-O Select are on the horizon: one closing the book on a trumpeting legend at a beloved jazz label, and one reissue spotlighting one of Motown's most underrated voices. First, the Motown news: David Ruffin's self-titled, unreleased LP is coming back to the CD format. David was intended for release in 1971 and featured songwriting and production from the brightest stars on the roster at the time, including Henry Cosby co-writes "Each Day is a Lifetime" and "I Can't Be
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