Recorded November 6 & 7, 1984, at Delta Recording Studios, New York, NY.
A subtle and lightly swinging jazz singer, Maxine Sullivan's delivery was very likable, and she did justice to all of the lyrics she sang during her long career. After moving to New York, Sullivan sang during intermissions at the Onyx Club and was discovered by pianist Claude Thornhill. Thornhill recorded her with a sympathetic septet singing a couple of standards and two Scottish folk songs performed in swinging fashion - "Annie Laurie" and "Loch Lomond." The latter became a big hit and Sullivan's signature song for the rest of her career.

For many prog heads the legendary progressive rock band Änglagård belongs to the best Swedish prog bands. Their music, mostly inspired by King Crimson, certainly contains great moments and their short back catalogue of only three studio albums feature some outstanding pieces.
In March 2013 Änglagård played a series of three concerts at Club Citta, Tokyo in Japan to promote their latest studio album Viljans Öga (2012). At the time they were sharing the bill with The Crimson ProjeKCt. This live CD contains songs from all three studio albums. In addition to the older pieces, you also get one brand new piece on this record, namely Introvertus Fugu, part I, which was previously unreleased. This new piece shows that the band can still write fantastic prog rock tunes!

The blues scene in Chicago has sadly deteriorated over the last 10 years or so. Most of the old, legendary musicians have died. Only a very few places still feature live music in the black neighbourhoods (the South- and Westside, where Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, and all the other greats had their home base). Many new blues clubs opened on the (white) Northside, but the music there is mostly aimed at the white tourist market. The same old songs played over and over again, no steady bands, personnel in the. bands always changing, definitely never any rehearsal. One of the few bands that have maintained a high musical standard, is The Big Four Blues Band. They were formed more than ten years ago, have not changed the personnel, became better and better over the years, and without trying to become rock stars they are still playing that old Chicago Blues…

The pop/rock power pent up in "High on Emotion" established the fact that Chris de Burgh could be just as energetic as he could be romantic. Its explosive chorus followed by some dynamic electric guitar riffs highlighted 1984's Man on the Line, making a rocker out of the usually complacent balladeer. Following suit, only with a little less vigor, is the title track that sparks a little bit of dramatic anger in de Burgh's voice. He hasn't left his mellifluous candor behind completely, though, but his slower pieces do seem to be a tad more hearty. "Sound of a Gun" deals with a civilian's outlook of living in a war-torn country, which has de Burgh singing in whispers at one point.

Six years after its initial appearance, Ronnie Wood's fifth solo album, Slide on This, is reissued by KOCH International in a deluxe package. There is one bonus track, a remixed version of the leadoff song, "Somebody Else Might," but the real draw to this version of the album is the 56-page booklet packaged with it, which contains examples of Wood's painting. He takes as his subjects his fellow members of the Rolling Stones, along with other musical peers such as Pete Townshend and Keith Moon of the Who, the Edge from U2 (who contributes some guitar work to the album), and Bob Dylan, as well as music legends like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, and even a few animal portraits.

Taking the hard rock inclinations of Generation Terrorists to an extreme, the Manic Street Preachers delivered a flawed but intriguing second album with Gold Against the Soul. Inspired by Guns N' Roses, the Manics decided to rework their working-class angst as heavy arena rock; they seize upon the latent politicism of Guns N' Roses' tortured white-trash metal, interpreting it as a call to arms. Since the Manics are more intellectual and revolutionary than the Gunners, Gold Against the Soul burns with inspired, if confused, rhetoric. The Manics, however, aren't quite as gifted with hooks at this stage – their power derives from their self-belief, which they can't quite translate into songs.

The 14th installment of Dave's Picks is devoted to another 1972 show, this one taken from an appearance at New York's Academy of Music on March 26, 1972 - i.e. before the Dead headed across the Atlantic for their legendary series of European shows. Generally, it's a pretty muscular performance, getting off the ground with a driving "Greatest Story Ever Told" and featuring a hefty dose of Pigpen in the first set, including "Mr. Charlie" and the one-two punch of "Big Railroad Blues" and "Big Boss Man." Here, his blues leanings seem of piece with the other roots the Dead lay down early - Jerry Garcia sings Hank Williams' "You Win Again," Bob Weir turns Marty Robbins' "El Paso" into one of his signature cowboy rambles - but by the time Pigpen surfaces toward the end singing the crawling "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)"…

The eighteenth century is probably the most extraordinary period of transformation Europe has known since antiquity. Political upheavals kept pace with the innumerable inventions and discoveries of the age; every sector of the arts and of intellectual and material life was turned upside down. Between the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the revolution of 1789, music in its turn underwent a radical mutation that struck at the very heart of a well-established musical language. In this domain too, we are all children of the Age of Enlightenment: our conception of music and the way we ‘consume’ it still follows in many respects the agenda set by the eighteenth century. And it is not entirely by chance that harmonia mundi has chosen to offer you in 2011 a survey of this musical revolution which, without claiming to be exhaustive, will enable you to grasp the principal outlines of musical creation between the twilight of the Baroque and the dawn of Romanticism.

ECM celebrates the occasion of pianist Keith Jarrett's 70th birthday with two simultaneous releases. One is a classical date for its New Series on which he performs piano concertos by Béla Bartók and Samuel Barber with two different orchestras. The other is Creation, a solo piano offering. While Jarrett has made dozens of solo records, this is unlike any in his catalog. Rather than document the unfolding of his in-the-moment ideas through a single performance, this set features nine sections compiled from half-a-dozen performances in four cities and five venues (all notated in the sleeve) during 2014. They have been sequenced and produced by Jarrett as a new, episodic, single work. The brief silences between the sections don't mar the flow; instead, they reveal, time and again, a vast dynamic range, where the moment of inspiration meets the precise moment of articulation in improvisation…

Here comes the sun - a golden sun. A double album, filled with Lemongrass essentials of the last 5 years, released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the project. Selected by Mister Lemongrass himself, these 27 songs portray the essence of a grown artist, who is considered as one of the leading figures of the global Chillout and Downtempo community. Lemongrass aka Roland Voss picked his personal highlights from 16 (!) different releases, plus “My Heart Dance”, which is previously unreleased. His selection is containing tracks, to which he developed a special emotional bonding, as well as gained the best feedback from his fans and followers. The album title has been chosen by full purpose. The sun and its enormously nourishing impact on body, mind and soul, has become a golden guide line for the Lemongrass music cosmos…