Last week, the 55th Montreux Jazz Festival wrapped up in Switzerland. Started in 1967 by Claude Nobs, Geo Voumard and Rene Langel, the yearly festival was at first true to its name and focused exclusively on jazz performers. However, over the years, it has grown to encompass nearly all types of music and has seen a wide range of performers including Etta James, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Lauren Hill, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, James Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye, Miles
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Michael Nesmith, Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) For our first release of 2021, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music take a deep dive into the archives for Michael Nesmith's Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings. This compendium features 22 tracks on CD drawn from the RCA Victor vaults, every one of which is previously
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is one of those great time capsules of the rock and roll era. Filmed at the Intertel TV Studio in Wembley on December 11, 1968 and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the movie was part rock show and part sideshow. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featured the original lineup of The Rolling Stones - Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman - who served as the main music draw and the night's hosts. They were joined by a
"I've never gotten over the pleasure of someone covering one of my songs," Leonard Cohen once said. "I don't have a sense of proprietorship, which probably stems from coming up as a folksinger where it was understood that songs develop a patina through interpretation. I feel that's the mark of excellence." Ace Records has just released a new collection of excellent Leonard Cohen covers with Hallelujah: The Songs of Leonard Cohen. It's the latest volume in the label's Songwriter series, and it
With his acumen for gripping poetry, inimitable baritone, and trademark Spanish-influenced fingerpicking, Leonard Cohen married his talents for poetry and song-craft to create some of the most enduring music of the singer-songwriter era and beyond. Like every great songwriter, Cohen's work continues to inspire an array of cover versions. Sure, there's the million-and-one covers of "Hallelujah," but even before the 1967 release of his debut Songs of Leonard Cohen, early supporters like Judy
It's been more than 50 years since The Rolling Stones and a host of friends converged at Intertel TV Studio in Wembley to film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, the concert film that featured the band alongside friends like The Who, Jethro Tull, The Dirty Mac (a supergroup featuring John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell). The once-lost documentary has been newly restored and will be screened in select theaters throughout the United States in early
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Melissa Manchester, Mathematics: The MCA Years (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music bring Melissa Manchester's 1985 MCA album to CD for the very first time in an expanded 2-CD deluxe edition! Mathematics: The MCA Years features the original Mathematics (produced by George Duke, Brock Walsh and Robbie Nevil, Trevor Veitch and executive producer Quincy Jones!) on
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Cilla Black, Surround Yourself with Cilla/It Makes Me Feel Good [Expanded Edition] (Cherry Red/SFE) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Cherry Red celebrates the late, great Cilla Black with a new reissue campaign. The first 2-CD set pairs 1969's George Martin-produced Surround Yourself with Cilla with 1976's It Makes Me Feel Good, produced by David Mackay (Cliff Richard, Blue Mink, The New Seekers). 22 bonus tracks (13 new to CD) are
As one of the most influential songwriters of his generation - or any other - Bob Dylan's music has long transcended borders, physical or otherwise. The Minnesota native's music struck a chord in Britain, both on the concert stage (see: the famous "Judas!" concert) and on records, and his influence on British artists from The Beatles down can't be underestimated. It's no surprise that his songs were seized upon by British artists with a zeal equal to that of their American counterparts. Ace
The new anthology Milk of the Tree, from Cherry Red's Grapefruit label, sets forth its mission statement clearly in its subtitle: An Anthology of Female Vocal Folk and Singer-Songwriters 1966-1973. Still, how to anthologize such a broad and powerful group of artists during one of the most creatively fertile periods in popular music history? Grapefruit does a fine job in distilling the essence of the period - and charting the growth of artists from a pure pop framework to one in which they
We recently filled you in on the ninth volume of Ace Records' long-running series, Where the Girls Are. Today, we spotlight two companion volumes dedicated to Beat Girls of the 1960s! Pye Records, home of Petula Clark and The Kinks, practically defined the British "big beat" sound of girl-pop with its urbane, sophisticated productions. Scratch My Back! Pye Beat Girls 1963-1968 offers a cross section of the label's brashest sounds with 24 well-selected nuggets from artists both familiar and
As reported in this morning's Release Round-Up, Marianne Faithfull's iconic Broken English is getting the deluxe treatment from Universal's U.K. catalogue arm. Upon initial release in 1979, Broken English was a major surprise for almost everyone involved and listening. Then in her early 30s at the time, Faithfull had lived enough for a handful of people, going from chart-dominating folk singer (debut hit "As Tears Go By" was written for her by Mick Jagger) to swinging London sex symbol (she
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours: Expanded/Deluxe Editions (Warner Bros.) Ahead of the band's forthcoming tour, a new 4CD/1DVD/LP deluxe box set edition of their most popular album, featuring the original album on CD and vinyl, two discs of studio outtakes (including the one from the 2004 reissue) and an unreleased documentary. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) A three-disc edition collects the album and the two new bonus CDs, so if you own the last expansion and can live sans DVD, you can pick the rest up for