Melissa Manchester announced her independence from Arista Records when she signed to MCA Records after nearly a decade with Clive Davis' famous label. At Arista, Manchester had established herself as one of the finest singer-songwriters of her era (or any other!) as well as a first-class pop interpreter. At MCA, she reinvented herself further by jumping headfirst into the world of dance-oriented synthpop, Hi-NRG, and new wave. 1985's Mathematics bore the period's hallmark of multiple big-name
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We've got the latest release from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music as well as plenty more that we know you won't want to miss! Eddy Arnold, Each Road I Take: The Lee Hazlewood and Chet Atkins Sessions 1970 (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Our newest release brings together two seminal, never-before-reissued albums by Eddy Arnold on one CD, both from 1970. Love and Guitars captured Arnold
Never-before-heard music by Wes Montgomery isn't easy to come by. Montgomery - an influence to George Benson, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny and every great guitar man in between - didn't enter a recording studio until 25 years of age, didn't record as a leader until another ten years had elapsed, and was dead ten years after that, felled by a heart attack at age 45. His body of work can neatly be divided into three distinct periods at different labels: Riverside (1959-1964), Verve (1964-1966) and
It’s not quite time yet for the long goodbye to new announcements for 2012, but for Quartet Records, it is time for The Long Goodbye. John Williams’ score to Robert Altman’s 1973 film leads off another group of essential new buys for soundtrack fans and collectors. Quartet is pairing The Long Goodbye with a late-period Henry Mancini classic, the score to Blake Edwards’ 1988 comedy-western Sunset. But that’s not all. Kritzerland has a true "wow" release with a gloriously restored stereo
Frank Zappa, Official Reissues #15-26 (Zappa Records/UMe) FZ's 1972-1979 discography, almost entirely sourced from original analog masters. (Joe breaks it all down for you here!) Various Artists, A&M 50: The Anniversary Collection (A&M/UMe) Three discs of hits and favorites from a most eclectic of major labels. Elvis Presley, A Boy from Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings (Follow That Dream) The King's complete Sun tenure, with single masters, alternates, live takes and more -
Great catalogue music often arrives in the unlikeliest of places. Universal Music Classics and Jazz’s German division has created the budget Jazz Club label, celebrating artists from the various labels under the Universal umbrella. And though its titles may not be available at your local shop, they’re well worth seeking out, offering plenty of material not available elsewhere. Two of the most recent Jazz Club releases are of a particularly rare vintage. Wir Lieben Bacharach! collects 18
If you don’t know the name Neal Hefti, you undoubtedly know the man’s music…whether it’s the indelible, insinuating, harpsichord-and-brass theme to The Odd Couple, or the frenetic, groovy Batman theme from the Caped Crusader’s campy television show. And Quincy Jones, the man known as Q, needs no introduction. Like Hefti a veteran of jazz and big band, Jones’ trailblazing productions on landmark albums such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller (to name just one) ensured his place in the pantheon.
With the release of another major holy grail in the world of soundtrack collecting yesterday, it's worth pointing out another four awesome archival titles that may have been lost in the shuffle this past week. First, Intrada's latest batch of catalogue soundtrack releases, announced Monday, bring to light two underrated gems from two very different composers. First up, after years of waiting, is an official release to the score to the 2003 sci-fi cult-classic The Core. Composer Christopher
When Frank Sinatra met Count Basie, it was far from a clash of the titans. No, the “historic musical first” that occurred between the grooves of Reprise 1008 in 1962 was more like a perfect union. Both were Jersey boys, with Basie’s formative years spent south of Hoboken, in Red Bank, New Jersey. The men were unusually simpatico, similar in their enormous respect for musicians. Though Basie titled a 1959 album Chairman of the Board, the title was later bestowed upon Sinatra. When Basie put
UPDATE 4/4: We now have confirmation on the track lists for each set! Original post: Next week, another batch of ICON compilations will be released by Universal Music Group. This is particularly interesting, considering that all of the track lists for these upcoming sets have yet to be revealed. Indeed, pre-order links on Amazon and other sites don't even have all of these track lists, or cover art, finalized. (This is doubly ironic considering another batch of ICON titles is slate for May,
The next batch of Universal's ICON series is out in a few days, but we're already seeing more on the horizon. Two Icon country titles are coming out on March 22: one by Josh Turner, who enjoyed his biggest hit on the country charts last year with the No. 1 single "Why Don't We Just Dance," and Billy Currington, who's racked up an impressive nine Top 10 singles on the country charts since his debut in 2003. But that's not all - April 5 is going to see another batch of ICON discs from all
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. This week, Quincy Jones' latest mingling with a new generation of artists leads to a recollection of the first (and best) time he did it. Last week saw the release of Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, the first full-fledged studio album by Quincy Jones since Basie and Beyond back in 2000. Now, Q is one of the greatest figures in pop and soul music alive today. He's