UK compilation for the Scottish hard rock quartet. 19 tracks including the classic rock staple, 'Love Hurts', 'Ruby Tuesday', 'Star', 'Where Are You Now', 'Place In Your Heart', 'Holy Roller', 'Love Leads To Madness', 'Veteran's Song', 'Fallen Angel', 'Country Girl', 'Guilty', 'Moonlight Eyes', 'Dream On', 'Heart's Grown Cold', 'I Don't Want To Go On Without You', 'Sunshine', 'Games', 'Take A Little Piece Of My Heart' & 'Child In The Sun'. Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band formed in 1968, that had several hits in the United Kingdom, as well as in several other West European countries in the early 1970s, and established an international audience with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog, which featured their hits "Hair of the Dog" and a cover of the ballad "Love Hurts". The band continues to record and tour.

The second of a pair of 2001-released discs compacting two full Manfred Mann albums onto a single CD, this covers their sophomore album (The Five Faces Of) from 1965 and fourth (Pretty Flamingo) from 1966, the latter being the last to feature original vocalist Paul Jones and multi-instrumentalist Mike Vickers. Taken as a whole, these 22 tracks exhibit the remarkable breadth of the band as they tackle blues covers ("I Put a Spell on You"), Beatleesque Brit Invasion pop hits ("Pretty Flamingo" and "Sha-La-La"), jazz (a vocal version of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man"), and folk ("John Hardy"), as well as contributing their own derivative yet enthusiastic originals.

Perhaps the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 sound was at last beginning to show signs of wear, for not only didn't Ye-Me-Le produce any hits ("Wichita Lineman" reached a lowly number 95), but the album is also less enterprising and fresh-sounding than its predecessors. There is a surprising shortage of Brazilian material, which was always Mendes' most valuable contribution in the long run, and more reliance upon routine covers of pop/rock standards like "Easy to Be Hard" and "What the World Needs Now." But there are special moments, like the hypnotic "Masquerade" (no relation to the Leon Russell/George Benson hit), Sergio Mihanovich's haunting "Some Time Ago," and another winning treatment of a Beatles tune, "Norwegian Wood," where Mendes cuts loose a killer solo on electric piano (believe it or not, the 45 rpm single version features more of that solo than the LP).

A really fresh look at the music of Smokey Robinson – a package that mixes obscure tracks with hits, with a range that spans over two decades – all with the great Free Soul approach to a groove! The series normally focuses on sounds of the 70s – but here, they do a great job of showcasing solo Smokey moments from those years, mixed with really groundbreaking tracks with The Miracles – almost presenting them all together as if Smokey and the group were a key precursor to 70s soul. The set features a whopping 23 tracks – over 80 minutes of music.

Iron Duke is a Danish 1970's symphonic rock band. The 1974 debut album First Salvo line up was: Tommy Hansen, Jens Olesen, Hans Resen and Claus Sarup. The music of Iron Duke is keyboard oriented from the 70's and like ELP, they re-arrange classical songs with their first album in 1974. The second album was released in 1977 and contains rock versions of Danish songs. The song "Rockin Edward" adapted from "Per Gynt suite" and from the first album is probably the best one. They recorded a song for the benefit EP Greenpeace Sange Med in 1983.

A stellar collection of work from the legendary Brunswick Records – put together with the special vibe of the Free Soul series! The tunes here are upbeat and soaring – not club or disco, but earlier soul numbers that sparkle with this sort of positive energy – a vibe that's very much the best side of the Brunswick Records approach of the late 60s and early 70s – as the imprint picked up Chicago soul, and gave it a whole new sort of groove! Yet not all this work is Chicago-based, despite the title – and the set's got a really nice range of Brunswick cuts that includes 'We Need Love" by The Directions, "Loveland" by The Lost Generation, "Broken Home" by Ben Monroe, "It Only Happens When I Look At You" by Jackie Wilson, "When Temptation Comes" by The Chi-Lites, "Following You" by Dana Valery, "Here Is A Heart" by Ginji James, "I Always Wanted To Be In The Band" by Step By Step, and "Love The One You're With" by Herman. 24 tracks – and over 80 minutes of music!

On the occasion of the 85th birthday of Arvo Pärt (September 2020) and the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Chorus (May 2021). The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, born in 1935, has succeeded in bringing sacred music back to a broader audience, and away from the confines of the church service, more than almost any other contemporary composer. The meditative character of his works, and his return to the simplest and most basic musical forms, convey moments of intense spirituality. Before his emigration from the Soviet Union, Pärt had already invented what he termed the tintinnabuli style of composition (from the Latin word for a bell).

Fusion jazz is a genre I would normally not expect to come from arctic Finland. Guitarist Tuppu Orrenmaa must have decided to hit it really big on his third album with his Orrenmaa Band, hiring a genuine who-is-who of the international jazz scene. All drums on Make My Day were played by the legendary Billy Cobham, who should be known even to novices for his collaborations with artists like Miles Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra. The horns section of Tower Of Power, another American collective of artists with cult status, can be heard on six songs. This is also the first time they can be heard together with Billy Cobham on a record.

Only few testimonies provide us any details about this now little known but once esteemed composer. Born in Coburg, 1735, Anton Schweitzer died 1787 in Gotha, where he had settled following the Weimar palace fire in 1774. Regrettably, only relatively few manuscripts have survived. Some of the works recorded here (which comprise almost the entire existing church music) have been preserved in several copies, which were recently found in different archives in Thuringia. This recording shows us a colorful virtuoso music of an unjustly forgotten composer.

The Biblical story of Belshazzar’s hubristic arrogance set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story with West-Eastern resonances which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young American stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of immense experience and sympathy.

Ashkenazy and Previn are broadly agreed on choice of tempos throughout the work. At the very opening, after the magical silvery flutes, Ashkenazy is a shade more volatile and he certainly echoes the words "sparkle and dash" in the evocation of the "sledges dashing in a row, their bells jingling". Here his tenor soloist, Ryszard Karczykowski, brings an added degree of temperament to the singing. In the slow movement too, Natalia Troitskaya's contribution has all the freshness of Armstrong, yet there is a natural slavonic feeling too—the singing opens up that bit more, yet without a hint of crudeness.

"The St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the greatest works in the history of music. Whenever I study this epochal composition, I always ask myself the question: How can a work of music, which is performed each year in thousands of performances, has been scientifically and artistically interpreted for decades, and worshiped for centuries, remain a new, contemporary, and at the same time universal and supreme idea?It can be achieved if that which is defined as established and comprehensive, and appears or is accepted as unshakeable, is set in motion without capping the connections to the work itself and its musical- historical, intellectual and theological foundations." says Hans-Christoph Rademann about one of the monumental sacred works of music history. In November 2020, Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey ensemble and chorus, together with an extraordinary group of soloists, set out to lend a new and fresh perspective to Bach's timeless masterpiece of raging choirs, intimate chorales, and emotionally charged arias, which, with its drama and pictorial quality, allows the listener to experience the well-known Passion story again and again as something completely new and unheard-of.

This is not the first time that these four artists have played together in concert, but this fact does not diminish in the least, indeed, it only serves to further enhance the attractiveness of the event. Anyone who has already heard flautist Noémi Győri playing with her string colleagues Katalin Kokas, Dóra Kokas and Péter Bársony knows full well that they are in for a chamber music experience unlike any other. Just like their Marble Hall concert last January, here too the bulk of the programme comprises works by Haydn and Mozart.

Drummer Billy Cobham played some of the most exciting music of the 1970s. As a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and as a leader of his own bands, Cobham was at the forefront of the jazz fusion movement and was a prime mover during its glory days. He was still at it as of 2007, and proved more than capable of keeping up with both the new breed of fusion players and fellow veterans. Assisted by such stalwarts as Jan Hammer, Jeff Berlin, and Brian Auger, Cobham storms, crackles, and soars through a dazzling brace of dynamic, concise compositions on DRUM 'N' VOICE 2.