No frills on the final Excello blues sessions of the late 60s and early 70s aimed at the Southern Blues audience, but here for hippies, yuppies and anyone with the ears to hear the heart & soul of the real blues. Although Excello Records is famous for its swamp pop sound, a good part of which was due to Jay Miller's production approach that favored a deadened, muffled drum sound and tons of delay and reverb, by the late '60s and early '70s the label was struggling to grab hold of its share of the Southern soul market, and the sound of the label's singles became much slicker, sharper, and more funk-driven. Excello never really abandoned the blues, but the studio started to give the genre some fancier clothes, as this interesting collection of late-era singles recorded between 1966 and 1974 clearly shows. Slim Harpo's "I'm So Sorry" from 1968 and his cover of John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun" from 1970 are cases in point. Both singles are far more professional sounding than his earlier output, and decidedly less swampy in feel. Better production and clearer sound didn't translate into more sales, however, and these tracks are some of the last gasps of the famed Excello catalog. Worth noting are two fine 1970 cuts from Otis Spann, the atmospheric and off-kilter "Bloody Murder" and the sharp-edged title track, "Blues for Hippies," where Spann sings about meeting Daniel in the metaphoric (one assumes, anyway) Lion's Den.

A1 for electronic sounds and voices, 1969. A2 music for multi-piano, orchestra and electronic sounds, 1968. B1 for electronic sounds and Japanese traditional instruments, 1968. B2 for electronic sounds, 1968.

Almost every track new to CD. Includes best-selling albums from the mid-70s. Features numerous major Jamaican hits.
Few Jamaican music makers have demonstrated greater versatility or proficiency than Lloyd Charmers, who first made his name on the Jamaican music scene as a youthful singer- songwriter in the early 60s, performing as half of the popular duo, The Charmers. Subsequent solo works along with a spell with The Uniques vocal trio ultimately led on to a move into record production. Over the years that immediately followed, his output as both a performer and producer included multiple major reggae hits, most notably Ken Boothe’s chart-topping version of ‘Everything I Own’, the success of which confirmed Charmer’s position as one of the Jamaica’s finest talents. Soon after this international best-seller, he produced works by a number of other leading Jamaican-based acts, their number including keyboard maestro Harold Butler, popular singer Dobby Dobson and the multi-talented Richard Ace - and it is these three supremely gifted artists whose work primarily comprises this collection.

As far as drummer Brandon Sanders is concerned, everyone should have a grandmother who runs a jazz club. It was at the Casablanca, his grandmother's nightspot in Kansas City, that he was first exposed to the music of such greats as Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, and Lou Donaldson. Sanders may be long removed from those formative days, but on this CD, his sophomore recording for Savant, he pays homage to the influence and memory of his grandmother, Ernestine Parker, in the the album's first track, "Miss Ernestine."

This 2 CD set looks at the beginnings of country rock in the late 60s and follows it through the heady days of the 70s. Includes tracks both classic and rare from a stunning array of artists, including Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, David Crosby, Michael Nesmith and many more.

The selections presented here are all of Bunny Berigan's Brunswick, Parlophone and Vocalion sessions as a leader as well as the Mildred Bailey and Bud Freeman-led Parolophone dates in which he played a significant role. We have also included selected ARC sides where Berigan as a sideman, offers a significant solo passage or obbligato. We have not included a number of recordings where a short Berigan solo is strictly a paraphrase on the melody, regardless of whether it be from a commercial dance band arrangement or within a jazz context. Therefore you will not find in this collection such Berigan items as Let's Try Again by Smith Ballew or Was That the Human Thing To Do?by the Boswell Sisters. Although Love Letters in the Sand(session E) falls into this category, we have decided to include it for its rarity.

Grumiaux and Haskil were close friends and long-time playing partners. This collaborative relationship lasted until a few days before Haskil's death. Their duet gained wide popularity among music lovers through numerous published recordings. This concert in Besançon in 1957 is a legend. The first publication in the world spans time and space with beautiful sound quality, allowing us to immerse ourselves in this happiness.

Johannes Brahms's soul shines through in his chamber music. Following in the footsteps of Mozart and Schubert, Brahms wrote two string quintets that rank among his greatest chamber music masterpieces. He took up this genre rather late in life, but in it he was able to express both the joy and the nostalgia he carried with him into his maturity. The Quintet in F major, Op. 88, held a special place in the composer's heart, and he considered it to be his finest work. A bucolic spirit and a gentle joie de vivre pervade the work, sometimes referred to as the 'spring quintet'. A majestic, pastoral first movement testifies to this cheerfulness, followed by a melancholy movement before the spirited finale.

Despite its moments of inspired songcraft, Julian Lennon's fourth album, Help Yourself, didn't find an audience in 1991. Shortly after its release, Lennon parted ways with Atlantic and entered a period of seclusion. By the time he returned to recording in 1998, the Beatles had already undergone one of their periodic "hip" phases, thanks to the hook-crazy Brit-pop crew. In many ways, bands like Oasis and Blur gave Lennon the go-ahead to return to the Beatlesque songcraft of his debut, Valotte, and that's exactly what he does on Photograph Smile, his first album in seven years. Much of the record is devoted to piano ballads similar to his big hit, "Valotte," with a couple of guitar pop numbers thrown in for good measure. There's not much range on the album, but all the music is well crafted and melodic – the kind of music that would receive greater praise if it weren't made by the son of a Beatle.

It was much to soul singer Spanky Wilson's surprise – she didn't realize she had had such an impact – when British multi-instrumentalist/producer Will Holland contacted her in her Los Angeles home in 2004, professing his love of her music and wondering if she'd collaborate with him. Still, she agreed to go the studio, and together they did two songs, "Don't Joke with a Hungry Man" and "When You're Through," for Holland's solo project, Quantic, on the album Mishaps Happening. That collaboration worked out so well that they decided to make an entire record together, this time with Holland's full band, the Quantic Soul Orchestra. Wilson's lovely voice is the centerpiece of I'm Thankful, and it does show a bit of its age, but only in the best of ways, deepening it and giving it an added measure of credibility and authenticity while still preserving its expressiveness and strength.

Brand new recording from guitar master is his long-awaited follow-up to 1997's "Shadowman" - now over 70 years old, Link still dishes up what he does best, displaying the depths of his musical roots with some acoustic songs, plus his trademark blistering guitar lines.

Andre Previn was a celebrated German/American pianist, composer and conductor, whose long career – he died in 2019 at the age of 89 – encompassed movie music, jazz and classical music. He composed or arranged music for more than 50 films, and was music al director and conductor for many top symphony orchestra as well as composing classical art music. This collection focuses on his early career as a jazz pianist. His family, who were Jewish, left Berlin for Paris and then the USA in 1938, and when he graduated from high school in Los Angeles in 1946, started working at MGM studios. However, by then he was already playing jazz piano in Hollywood clubs and had made his first records. This 66-track 3-CD collection comprises most of his recordings from these early years as a solo pianist, with small groups and with strings, released on the Sunset, V-Disc, Monarch, RCA-Victor and Tops labels. It includes the titles from his “Andre Previn Plays George Gershwin” and “Andre Previn Plays Fats Waller” albums. He was especially noted for his recordings with his trios, and this set features trio and quartet recordings with Irving Ashby, Red Callender, Lee Young, Al Viola, Charles Parnell, Jackie Mills, Bob Bain, Ralph Collier, Lloyd Pratt, Art Shapiro, Irv Cottler, Al Hendrickson Buddy Clark and Shelly Manne. Among his remarkable musical accomplishments, he was a brilliant pianist, and even at this early stage of his career, his playing is fast, fluent and imaginative, and this collection offers a fine showcase for those talents.

Following 2023’s Good Rockin’ Tonight: Killer In Stereo, Country Sides: Killer In Stereo is the second LP in our series of remastered Jerry Lee Lewis stereo mixes. Recently inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame, this collection foreshadows Jerry Lee's future country stardom with of his versions of country classics like “Cold, Cold Heart” and “I Love You Because,” plus alternate takes of “How’s My Ex Treating You” and “One Minute Past Eternity.” Pressed on blue and gray splatter vinyl.

Anyone who knows Abbey Lincoln’s history is aware of the sizable recording gap-a barren stretch from 1962 to 1972 followed by close to two decades of very sporadic live and studio sessions-that preceded her vibrant comeback in the early ’90s. Any unearthed Lincoln material from that fallow period is a welcome find. This 54-minute date, captured at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner in 1980, is a particularly great discovery.

3CD box set spotlighting the pioneering movement that brought the world The Beatles but has been overshadowed by their success. Merseybeat was a brief phenomenon but hugely influential throughout the world. It blew up nationwide in 1963 before Merseybeat groups spearheaded the ‘British Invasion’ of the US charts. This box celebrates the scene on the first two discs, then on disc three presents some of the brilliant mod, freakbeat, psych and Mersey soul music that came from Liverpool when the Merseybeat bubble burst and press and public looked elsewhere. Inspired by US rock ‘n’ roll, R&B and Motown and the D.I.Y. attitude of skiffle, the Liverpool beat groups rocked clubs such as their hometown’s The Cavern and the Star-Club in Hamburg and larger ‘Big Beat’ sessions at The Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. The Searchers and Gerry And The Pacemakers achieved success on the world stage, others never made it out of their local area, made a couple of 45s or even demos and disappeared.