Chester Arthur Burnett, known as Howlin' Wolf, was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, originally from Mississippi. With a booming voice and looming physical presence, he is one of the best-known Chicago blues artists. Musician and critic Cub Koda noted, "no one could match Howlin' Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits." Producer Sam Phillips recalled, "When I heard Howlin' Wolf, I said, 'This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies'". Several of his songs, including "Smokestack Lightnin'", "Back Door Man", "Killing Floor" and "Spoonful", have become blues and blues rock standards. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 51 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time."

Gaucho is the seventh studio album by the American jazz rock band Steely Dan, released on November 21, 1980 by MCA Records. The sessions for Gaucho represent the band's typical penchant for studio perfectionism and obsessive recording technique. To record the album, the band used at least 42 different musicians, spent over a year in the studio, and far exceeded the original monetary advance given by the record label. Gaucho marked a significant stylistic change for Steely Dan, introducing a more minimal, groove and atmosphere-based format. The harmonically complex chord changes that were a distinctive mark of earlier Steely Dan songs are less prominent on Gaucho, with the record's songs tending to revolve around a single rhythm or mood, although complex chord progressions were still present particularly in "Babylon Sisters" and "Glamour Profession". Gaucho proved to be Steely Dan's final studio album before a 20-year hiatus from the recording industry.

Frank Sinatra turned 80 in 1995, and Capitol released this two-disc "best of" in celebration. Sinatra's initial tenure at Capitol, which lasted from 1953 to 1962, is generally considered to be his artistic watermark. His voice and technique had improved considerably since his initial peak of popularity in the mid-'40s (the "swinging" phrasing most commonly associated with Sinatra's style really came to the fore during the Capitol years); he also had the good fortune to work with Nelson Riddle and Billy May, whose inventive arrangements certainly brought out the best in Sinatra's singing. This set's song selection is tough to argue with, but you'll really need to get all of Sinatra's Capitol albums to gauge the true measure of the man's artistry. ~ Dan Epstein

Shout! Factory's two-disc The Funk Anthology compiles the best of blues icon Johnny "Guitar" Watson's recordings for the DJM label from 1970 to 1981. Also included are three tracks off Watson's 1994 comeback album, Bow Wow.

UK four CD set. The definitive Motors release, a 42 track round up of all that the band released during their time with Virgin Records 1977-80. Includes the UK hit singles "Dancing The Night Away" (#42), "Airport" (#6), "Forget About You" (#13) and "Love And Loneliness" (#58). Features the band's three studio albums The Motors (#41), Approved By (#60) and Tenement Steps. Disc 4 features the band's two sessions for the legendary John Peel show, neither of which has been commercially released before now. 20 page booklet features detailed liner notes by Record Collector journalist Joe Geesin, a long time champion of the band. Many rare B-sides, 12" versions and re-mixes have been added to give a comprehensive collection of The Motors recorded output. Housed in a clam shell box with each CD coming in it's own cardboard wallet - The Motors have never looked or sounded better!

This is the seemingly unavoidable Sibelius/Tchaikovsky pairing, one that has launched many a young career. Itzhak Perlman recorded these very same pieces for his own debut album on RCA, and with this very orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf. That's a fine disc, but Perlman would later surpass those efforts in later recordings. Nor do I find Leinsdorf an ideal partner, with the comically booming percussion in the Sibelius perhaps the biggest audible gaffe. These current readings are much more satisfying overall. Mullova has not redone these pieces, nor is she prone to recording much at all, so these early efforts deserve credit for holding up so well.

Daniil Trifonov, winner of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, is probably the world's most exciting young pianist. On his first Mariinsky recording, he joins Valery Gergiev for a scintillating performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1. Trifonov also presents a selection of recital repertoire including music by Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Liszt transcriptions of Schubert and Schumann lieder. In 2011, Trifonov gave his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra and has since performed with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as touring throughout the USA, Europe and the Far East. In the coming season he will make debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony orchestras, as well as performing recitals at Salle Pleyel, Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall and Wigmore Hall.

Romanian born trombonist, composer/arranger Peter Herbolzheimer led one of the most innovative, successful European big bands, Rhythm Combination & Brass. Composed of international stars, the band zeroed in on a big brassy sound, usually incorporating a single reed player – the great saxophonist Herb Geller. Recorded in early 1973, the album exemplifies RC&B’s playing during its early innovative period, when blues, gospel, bop and rock dominated. The lushly orchestrated Waitaminute features stellar solos by Geller on flute and Danish trumpet great Palle Mikkelberg before the music ascends into collective improvisation and a return to the theme.

World-touring rockers Devon Allman and Donavon Frankenreiter make ultimate highway music on their new collaborative EP Rollers.

Norman Greenbaum was much stranger than his big hit "Spirit in the Sky" would suggest. Then again, that tune – a confident, fuzz-toned paean to God, that sprit in the sky – is hardly the most conventional of '70s AM anthems, so perhaps it isn't surprising that the album bearing the same title is all over the map, with sub-War low-riding anthems ("Junior Cadillac"), singer/songwriter introspection, eerie post-psychedelic pop (the genuinely unsettling "Marcy"), and utter oddities ("Canned Ham"). That, of course, means that it's far more fascinating than many soft rock curiosities of the early '70s, and the near-schizophrenic cavalcade of material means that the record doesn't hold together, but that's part of what makes it worth hearing. And while Greenbaum wasn't exactly a consistent songwriter, he did hit the mark several times ("Skyline," "Canned Ham," "Jubilee," and "Junior Cadillac" are all strong), and even the misfires are interesting and well-crafted, at least in terms of its early-'70s peers. This doesn't mean that it's a lost gem, but for listeners who want to dig into early '70s AM pop and soft rock, it's certainly worth hearing.

The only Australian musician ever to be recognised in the American Blues Foundation (Memphis) 'Blues Music Awards', with 8 nominations, including 2019 'Traditional Female Artist of the Year'. Performances featuring guitars, vocals and unique cigarbox instruments. International recording artist and touring musician.

This recording of Turandot, Puccini’s spectacular final opera marks a number of important firsts. Before the recording sessions in Rome in March 2022, Sir Antonio Pappano had never conducted Turandot; neither Sondra Radvanovsky, who takes soaring title role, nor Jonas Kaufmann as Turandot’s suitor, Calaf – who sings ‘Nessun dorma’ – had previously performed the opera. It is also the first studio recording of Turandot to include the entire, crucial final scene as completed after Puccini’s death in 1925 by Franco Alfano.

Tatjana Masurenko and the Yaruss Quartet are therefore in good company when they clothe the music of the Russian Romantics in novel acoustic garments. Using viola, soprano domra and alto domra, accordion and double bass, they play 19th century works in their own arrangements, using gut strings for all of their instruments, the domras sounding somewhat like Italian mandolins. In this guise, compositions by Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky, Borodin and Glazunov seem lighter, more open and agile, their music expressing a fresh elegance with different colours, taking on a completely new character.

These two splendid violin concertos breathe the air of Late Romanticism. Well orchestrated and skilfully written for the soloist, they have retained their footholds in the repertoire, even though their respective composers have gone out of fashion. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Violin Concerto in B minor had the absolute certainty and conviction of a masterpiece. Saint-Saëns wrote it early in 1880 for the popular Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate.

This album features works by composers for whom the conception and creation of music was intimately bound up with a religious attitude towards the world. Before the birth of aesthetics in the 18th century, the symbolic or “external” meanings of music resided in the music itself; neither its expressiveness nor its purpose as an integral part of social and religious rituals were separated from a larger context of moral and spiritual considerations. In this sense, although their tonal languages and forms differ greatly, later composers such as Liszt, Franck and Messiaen followed the spirit of Bach, reflecting a musical philosophy in which musical means and theological ends were deeply intertwined, if not one and the same.