Booker Little - Booker Little 4 & Max Roach (1958) {Blue Note, CDP 7 84457 2 rel 1991, Ron McMaster}
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© 1958, 1991 Blue Note / Capital-EMI Music | CDP 7 84457 2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Trumpet / Drums

This CD reissue features trumpeter Booker Little at the beginning of his tragically brief career. The first six selections find the distinctive soloist playing with a quintet also including the young tenor George Coleman, pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Art Davis, and drummer Max Roach (who was his regular employer at the time). Little contributed three now-obscure originals and also plays two standards and an early version of Miles Davis' "Milestones." The remainder of the CD has lengthy versions of "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" and "Blue 'n Boogie" from a jam session that matched Little with fellow Memphis-based players including Coleman, altoist Frank Strozier, and the masterful pianist Phineas Newborn. Overall, this forward-looking hard bop set is easily recommended.

Luc Ferrari - Danses Organiques (1999) {Elica MPO-3340 rec 1971-1973}
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© 1971-73, 1999 Elica | MPO-3340
Electronic / Avant-Garde / Musique Concrète / Modern Classical / Electroacoustic

The composer lends his tape recorder to two girls who are to meet and to start a relation and then builds his imaginary folklore music around their confidential dialogue, sighs and moans, with the addition of his deep observations on organ-ic music. The resulting music has a groovy rhythmic quality in its surreal synthetic development and is outstandingly modern with its similarities to some unacademical artisanal music made today with electroacoustic means.

John Lewis - The Bridge Game, Vol 2 (1986) {Philips 825 698-2}
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© 1986 Philips / Nippon Phonogram | 825 698-2
Classical / Jazz / Third Stream / Baroque / Piano

… hear Bach performed on modern piano – if you are one of those calcified troglodytes who proclaims that you 'don't like the sound of the harpsichord' – then you might consider this recording of the Preludes and Fugues by John Lewis, the classically-trained pianist of the Modern Jazz Quartet. It has the virtue of integrity; that is, it treats the piano as a piano, and not a harpsichord wannabe. Bach's compositions do NOT employ the full resources of the modern grand piano, for the obvious reason that those resources were not available on even a double-manual harpsichord. But the harpsichord had resources that the modern piano has lost.

This Classics CD has all of the recordings made under violinist Stephane Grappelli's name during the 1935-1940 period. The earlier selections (with his Hot Four) match his violin with Django Reinhardt's guitar in what was essentially the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. There are also nine duets with Reinhardt; a couple find Grappelli switching to piano. The set concludes in 1940 with Grappelli (in London) leading an octet on two numbers that also feature the young pianist George Shearing.

Here it is: the Spinal Tap-like, end-of-career live album recorded on that final Japanese tour. Everybody's done it, and Night Ranger certainly doesn't break the mold with this efficient greatest-hits set…

This Deluxe Edition CD features 5 previously unreleased tracks in addition to the standard release.

Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets (1973) {2009 Virgin DSD Remaster}
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© 1973, 2009 Virgin / EMI / Astralwerks | 50999 6 84533 2 9 / ENOCDX 1
Rock / Electronic / Ambient / Experimental Ambient / Art Rock

Eno's solo debut, Here Come the Warm Jets, is a spirited, experimental collection of unabashed pop songs on which Eno mostly reprises his Roxy Music role as "sound manipulator," taking the lead vocals but leaving much of the instrumental work to various studio cohorts (including ex-Roxy mates Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay, plus Robert Fripp and others).

Though Les Rallizes Denudes, also known as Hadaka no Rallizes, were one of the earliest and most revolutionary Japanese psychedelic rock bands, and have existed off and on through four decades, they are also one of the most obscure, barely known even in their native country. This cult of noise terrorists shrouded themselves in mystery, seldom touring and releasing very few records, usually with no discernible label. Their sound presages the later psychedelic experimental noise of Fushitsusha, High Rise, and others in the current crop more than any other Japanese psychedelic group from the late '60s…

Mandalaband was a great melodic symphonic rock band led by keyboardist/composer David Rohl. They made two albums in the ’70s and then dissolved with most of the band forming Sad Café. Thirty years later, David Rohl has put together a new edition of the band featuring old and new members. Back is the great Ashley Mulford on guitar and Woolly Wolstenhome (ex-Barclay James Harvest) on keyboards as well as Troy Donockley on pipes, whistles, keys, etc. Lots of people appear. Like the previous album, "BC - Ancestors" is a conceptual work and the music stays true to form - this is pure unadulterated symphonic rock that is essential for any fan of Barclay James Harvest and The Moody Blues.

Sharon Van Etten’s career since the release of her second album, 2010’s Epic is well-known; critically lauded albums, films, and television shows have continually displayed her expanding artistry. Upon its release, Epic laid a romantic melancholy over the gravel and dirt of heartbreak without one honest thought or feeling spared. Her songs covered betrayal, obsession, egotism, and all the other emotions we dislike in others and recognize in ourselves. Van Etten's grounded and clenched vocals conveyed a sense of hope - the notion that beauty can arise from the worst of circumstances. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this special album’s release, and to acknowledge the convergence of Van Etten’s present and past work, she asked fellow artists she admired to participate in an expanded reissue, where each artist would cover one different song from epic in their own style. Some are musicians Van Etten herself admired in her early days (Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, and Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon of Big Red Machine), some are peers (Courtney Barnett, IDLES), and others are part of a younger generation of innovators (Shamir, St. Panther). What they all share is embodied by Epic - a musician frankly communicating themself through the power of music.

Finding Wildflowers (Alternate Versions) features 16 studio recordings of alternate takes, long cuts and jam versions of Wildflowers songs as Tom, band members and co-producer Rick Rubin worked to finalise the album in 1994.

Ensemble Perceval - Manuscrit Du Roi: Trouvères & Troubadours (1993) {Arion ARN68225}
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© 1993 Arion | ARN 68225
Classical / Medieval / Early Music

he Manuscrit du Roi was recorded in 1992 by the Ensemble Perceval, and was published in 1993 by Arion. The Manuscrit du Roi or Chansonnier du Roi ("King's Manuscript" or "King's Songbook" in English) is a prominent songbook compiled towards the middle of the thirteenth century, probably between 1255 and 1260 and a major testimony of European medieval music. It is currently French manuscript no.844 of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is known by various sigla, depending on which of its contents are the focus of study: it is troubadour manuscript W, trouvère manuscript M, and motet manuscript R. It was first published by French musicologist Pierre Aubry in 1907 ("Les plus anciens textes de musique instrumentale au Moyen Age").

Most of Ciconia’s eight surviving motets are dedicated to prominent Paduan and Venetian dignitaries of the time, including three bishops of Padua, a Venetian doge, and cardinal Francesco Zabarella, Ciconia’s main Paduan patron. They constitute a highly solemn repertory in which virtuoso singing hides and at the same time reveals complex and fascinating musical structures. Sidus preclarum presents Ciconia's motets in a blend of four to six singers and four to five instrumentalists.

Wayne Shorter - Odyssey Of Iska (1970) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD TYCJ-81071 rel 2014} (24-192 remaster)
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© 1970, 2014 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | TYCJ-81071
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. Odyssey of Iska was the outcome of the second recording session with Shorter that was produced by Duke Pearson (Nevertheless Moto Grosso Feio was issued not until 1974.) Despite Ron Carter there was a completely different line-up, although with a similar instrumentation: beside Shorter on saxophones there was no further reed or horn, also no keyboards, but a guitarist, two double bass players (Carter plays also cello on the prior session) and two, respectively four musicians on various percussion instruments including marimba and vibraphone.

Along with The Definitive Collection, The Essential Alan Parsons Project gives the casual fan the proper mixture and proportion of radio hits, Alan Parsons' signature instrumentals, and Eric Woolfsons' thought-provoking ballads. Best of all, SONY/BMG has included the once lost gemstone No Answers Only Questions (Final Version) that Eric Woolfson composed and guitarist Ian Bairnson arranged. Everything has been digitally remastered from the best available source tapes…