Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer's debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year's Woodstock Music & Art Fair - with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Cat Stevens, Harold and Maude: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (A&M/Cat-o-Log/UMe) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada A&M/Cat-o-Log/UMe delivers a long-awaited official wide-release soundtrack of Hal Ashby's 1971 dark comedy Harold and Maude featuring the songs of Cat Stevens. The new release, available on CD, LP, and digital formats, includes the seven songs reprised from
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Legacy Recordings delivers a soundtrack to Questlove's acclaimed 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, chronicling the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Live recordings are featured from headliners including The 5th Dimension, Nina Simone, David Ruffin, Sly & The Family Stone,
Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer's debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year's Woodstock Music & Art Fair - with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers
Welcome to the first Release Round-Up of the last month of 2021! The Doors, L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Edition (Elektra/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com) The sixth and final studio album from The Doors featuring Jim Morrison gets a 50th anniversary expansion from Rhino on 3 CDs and 1 LP. The original stereo album (newly remastered by Bruce Botnick) is present on both CD and LP while the bonus discs have more than two hours of previously unreleased
BMG is following up its reissue earlier this year of Nina Simone's 1959 Bethlehem Records debut Little Girl Blue with the label's follow-up, Nina Simone and Her Friends. Like the earlier title, this newly remastered edition will be available on CD, LP, and in both high-definition and standard digital/streaming versions. The LP will be a Record Store Day Essentials emerald green 180-gram pressing available at record stores everywhere. All formats will arrive in stores on December
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Paul McCartney, III-Imagined (MPL/Capitol) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop CD with alternate art insert: Target 2-LP black vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop 2-LP red vinyl: Newbury Comics 2-LP gold vinyl: Your Local Record Store 2-LP splatter vinyl: Paul McCartney Online Store (limited to 3500 copies in the US) 2-LP "Spotify" green vinyl: Paul McCartney Online
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses): 50th Anniversary Edition (Grateful Dead/Rhino) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Dead.net (B&W Vinyl) Rhino continues its series of 50th anniversary reissues for Grateful Dead with the band's 1971 self-titled live album with the famous "Skull and Roses" cover. The centerpiece of the reissue is more than hour of
BMG is continuing to celebrate the legacy of late trailblazer Nina Simone with an upcoming reissue of her 1959 debut album for Bethlehem Records, Little Girl Blue. The remastered stereo album will arrive on CD, LP, and digital services on August 13. Though it didn't see release until February 1959, Little Girl Blue - so named for the Rodgers and Hart standard introduced in their Broadway musical Jumbo - was actually recorded in one session near the end of 1957. Although Simone was
Since 1967, the annual Montreux Jazz Festival has brought fans to Switzerland to enjoy world-class music from top-tier artists. Over the years, the festival's purview has expanded beyond pure jazz; Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Elton John have all played there as well as Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and Herb Alpert. Numerous concert albums have been recorded at Montreux, among them sets from Alice Cooper, Carlos Santana and Wayne Shorter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chick Corea. Now, BMG is adding to that
Black History Month is on the way in February and to celebrate, Rhino will release a number of limited-edition colored vinyl reissues along with a digital initiative to bring legendary recordings to digital service providers for the first time ever. The Rhino Black initiative begins on February 5, with the vinyl reissue of George Benson's multi-platinum Breezin' (issued on blue and beige vinyl) and a the first-ever vinyl issue of the Donny Hathaway compendium, A Donny Hathaway Collection, which
While The Bee Gees have never truly faded from the popular consciousness, it's fair to say the group founded by Barry Gibb and his late brothers Maurice and Robin is currently experiencing a renaissance. Director Frank Marshall's documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart earned acclaim for its candid chronicle of the group's ups and downs while Barry has reaffirmed his legacy with the new album Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook Vol. 1. On the latter, he's joined by an array of country
November 27 is always a special day for vinyl enthusiasts. Still filled up on last night's Thanksgiving meal, music fans line up at their local shop for a chance at limited-edition vinyl. While the celebrations may look a little different this year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (RSD has announced they'll be less stringent about online sales) one thing remains the same: There are some excellent releases on offer, available exclusively from your local participating record shop! Here are
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Andy Williams, Emperor of Easy: Lost Columbia Masters 1962-72 (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Real Gone Music has the first-ever collection of never-before-heard music from Andy Williams' Columbia Records years. Emperor of Easy: Lost Columbia Masters 1962-72 boasts 20 selections direct from the Columbia vault encompassing 16 previously unreleased studio outtakes and four rare singles. Every track on Emperor of Easy
Few singers could conjure as much emotion through words and tone as Nina Simone. While many of her best-known albums from the '60s and '70s have become widely available in recent years, music from her ex-U.S. years have been much harder to find. Among the most sought-after is Fodder On My Wings, a 1982 album originally released on the French label Carrere. Decades out-of-print on a major label, the album will be re-released by Verve and UMe - complete with new cover art - on April 3. Whether
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elvis Presley, Live 1969 (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) RCA and Legacy celebrate Elvis Presley's triumphant return to live performing at Las Vegas' International Hotel with a new 11-CD box set. All of The King's exhilarating performances from August 21 to August 26, 1969 will be presented on Legacy's new box . Some of the concerts have been previously issued in the last decade on various BMG and Follow That Dream
"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
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Concert for George [Various Formats] (Craft Recordings) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD/2DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD/2BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD/2DVD/2BD/4LP Limited Online Exclusive Box Set: George Harrison Shop The star-studded 2002 concert celebration of the life of George Harrison - featuring Paul McCartney,
Listeners experiencing 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Nina Simone's debut recordings for the first time might be taken aback at the ferocity and determination which mark these fourteen sides, compiled for the first time in complete form on CD as Mood Indigo: The Complete Bethlehem Singles (BMG 538320282). Those qualities distinguished this remarkable artist throughout a long and fiery career, but were thrillingly present at her very first sessions. Pianist-singer Simone began her
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Stax Singles Vol. 4: Rarities and Best of the Rest (Stax/Craft) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Craft Recordings boxes up a fourth volume of rare singles from the Stax vaults. Volume Four lives up to its subtitle, collecting odds and ends from Stax and its various imprints by artists including not just the label's usual heavy hitters but also Big Star, Billy Eckstine, Delaney and Bonnie, and others. 80 pages of
Few artists have had the impact on pop, soul, rock and jazz as the iconoclastic Nina Simone. Simone (1933-2003) played by her own rules in life and art, recording some of the most electric and eclectic music imaginable in any genre. It wasn't uncommon on a Simone album to find politically charged protest music alongside popular Broadway hits and reworkings of contemporary rock songs. This April, she will enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though she preferred to call her singular fusion of
Cherry Red's Robinsongs imprint is turning up the Cool Heat with a new 2-CD, 25-track collection celebrating The Best of CTI Records and featuring many of the classic jazz label's most renowned artists including instrumentalists George Benson, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, and Stanley Turrentine, and vocalists Nina Simone, Patti Austin, and Esther Phillips. Chances are, if you think of a jazz artist, it wouldn't take many degrees of separation to reach Creed Taylor. The esteemed producer
With a recent Grammy Awards salute, a new catalogue deal, and the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever, the music of the Bee Gees has been front and center in 2017. Ace Records has joined the celebration of the brothers Gibb with a new entry in the label's long-running Songwriters Series. To Love Somebody: The Songs of The Bee Gees 1966-1970 pulls into focus the early professional years of Barry, Robin, and Maurice, with 24 choice cover versions of songs both familiar and lesser-known.
If there was ever any doubt as to the versatility, adaptability and endurance of the songs of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, it would certainly be dispelled by Ace’s new release of Let It Be: Black America Sings Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. The latest volume in the label’s Black America Sings series (also encompassing volumes dedicated to Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, and the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David) and the second dedicated to the music of The Beatles,