For the second volume in its Lost Broadway series of 2-CD sets, the U.K.’s Stage Door Records label has turned its attention to the years 1956 and 1957. Musical hits during the 1956-1957 and 1957-1958 seasons included Bells Are Ringing, Li’l Abner, West Side Story, and The Music Man, but Stage Door’s attention doesn’t lie with those smashes but rather with the largely-forgotten, but certainly worthy, shows that haven’t received nearly as much love over the years. Like the first volume (which looked back to 1961), this edition features original cast performances…
Kritzerland Ain’t Misbehavin’ With Complete, Expanded “Stormy Weather”
Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky… Well, the sun has come up, and the reason’s clear: Kritzerland has a new 2-CD complete edition of the soundtrack to Stormy Weather, Twentieth Century Fox’s 1943 musical extravaganza starring Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Dooley Wilson, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, The Nicholas Brothers and many more. Loosely based on Robinson’s life, the film is short on plot but long on song-and-dance, with musical figuring into over 70 of its 78 minutes! Kritzerland’s upcoming reissue of its soundtrack, currently available for pre-order,…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 11
Sid Selvidge, The Cold of the Morning (Omnivore) A long out-of-print classic, produced by Big Star producer Jim Dickinson and featuring a killer set of tunes written or arranged by the late Memphis folk master (and father of Steve Selvidge, current guitarist of The Hold Steady, who produced this new reissue) and featuring six unreleased bonus tracks. CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Bayeté, Worlds Around the Sun (Omnivore Recordings) The debut album by jazz keyboardist Todd Cochran, known for his work with names as diverse as Carl Palmer, Peter Gabriel and Joey Scarbury, is released on…
Starbucks Goes Hip and Jazzy On Venti Release Slate
If you’re looking for a little music to go with your grande toffee nut latte, Starbucks has recently unveiled a number of new audio offerings to kick off 2014. In addition to its annual Sweetheart disc – an anthology of new(ish) artists playing old(ish) love songs including, this year, songs by John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Harry Nilsson – the coffee giant has curated a selection of Music for Little Hipsters, sets dedicated to Women of Jazz and When Jazz Meets Guitar, and an Opus Collection volume for the one and only…
The Lady and Her Music: “The Essential Lena Horne” Coming in August
Thanks to our friends at MusicTAP for the tip that, on August 24, Legacy will celebrate the life of a great lady of song with its release of The Essential Lena Horne: The RCA Years. Like The Essential Henry Mancini (scheduled to be released on the same day), this release is far from definitive, but appears to be a solid introduction to one period of the late Horne’s magnificent career. That career saw the artist rising from her nightclub roots to break racial barriers in Hollywood, becoming one of America’s first African-American…
Lena Horne Soars, The Lion Roars
As previously mentioned, Hip-O Select had yet another release up their sleeve: Lena Horne Sings: The M-G-M Singles Collection. It’s a set of 16 early Lena Horne classics cut for M-G-M Records in the ’40s and ’50s and largely unavailable on CD until now. There’s a heap of standards, including “‘Deed I Do,” “Where or When,” “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “The Lady is a Tramp,” plus liner notes from Horne biographer James Gavin. Pre-order it here and hit the jump for some specs (culled together with much effort, as…
News Round-Up: Disintegrated, Devo and Lena Horne Unearthed
Chain of Flowers reports that the upcoming expansion of Disintegration by The Cure still lacks a release date. In a related story, ARRRRRRRGH. Amazon is taking pre-orders for a reissue of Duty Now for the Future, Devo’s 1979 sophomore album. This title, due on April 13 (presumably with bonus content), follows the deluxe versions of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice released last year. Hip-O Select tweeted a tease for an upcoming release: “Lena Horne did 16 singles on MGM – never on CD, until…….
