This 77-minute CD is close to an ideal compilation, reaching back to before the band's beginnings for the original 1965 recording of "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" and across seven of the better cuts off of Electric Music for the Mind and Body, up through the Woodstock Festival and the band's farewell concert that same year at the Fillmore West. It reels in most of the notable album cuts in between, all in surprisingly good sound (not usually a strong point on Vanguard CDs of the late '80s). The 19 songs, which don't follow a strict chronological order, encompass some of the band's most celebrated experimental material, as well as more traditionally structured songs such as the fiery double-lead guitar workout "Death Sound Blues," the catchy, folk-rock-style "Sing Sing Sing," and the counterculture singalong "Marijuana" and works of serious personal significance (and intimately focused genius), including "Grace" and "Janis." The disc offers a good balance between the various sides of the group's sound and includes several notable live tracks, including the November 1968 Fillmore East performance of "Superbird," an anti-Lyndon Johnson song that dated back to 1965 and which is adapted here to include an attack on president-elect Richard Nixon. The sound is amazingly good and consistent throughout, and the track order, as well as the music itself, is downright spellbinding at times; the annotation is minimal, but this CD really has only a single flaw – apparently, between the 1965 original version of "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" and the 1969 Woodstock performance, there was no room for the standard studio version off of the band's second LP.

1967 marked an era of creative expression, political rebellion and experimentation, climaxing in The Summer of Love; and no other location on Earth was quite as synonymous with this period as San Francisco – the center of the counterculture movement. Perhaps one of the best musical representations of this time, place and environment came from a rock band across the Bay, who married progressive protest with groundbreaking, experimental music: Country Joe & the Fish. In that one year, the Berkeley musicians rose to prominence, releasing two albums which would go on to influence some of the biggest psychedelic acts of the decade: their debut LP, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, and I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die.

This is a collection of John Lennon home recordings at the Dakota home in New York, Cannon Hill in Cold Spring Harbor (NY) and Villa Undercliff, Fairylands, Bermuda during the last six years of his life. All tracks have been remastered and speed corrected from the best available sources. Some are previously unbooted. It took nearly three years to put his set together - collecting and mastering everything and researching the correct chronology of the recordings.

From a Cuban collaboration with an American Roots pioneer to a partnership between the current Nigerian king of Afro-Beat and the Crown Prince of Brit-Pop, 'World Duets' features some of the best crossover tracks between world music artists and some of the biggest names in rock and pop. These are songs that if you don't know already, you have to hear to see how well the two worlds of music can combine… This is the follow-up album to the massive selling Very Best Of Latin America and Very Best Of Africa collections recently released on Nascente. These albums have combined the accessiblity of TV-advertised albums with the careful programming of any great Nascente album.

Interpretations of six “Pet Sounds” compositions are among the highlights of this celebration of Brian Wilson’s songwriting genius. It’s hard to believe 12 years have passed since “Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions”, one of the first releases in our much-admired Producers series. Not before time, Wilson now joins such greats as Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Goffin & King, Dan Penn, Bacharach & David, Jackie DeShannon and Serge Gainsbourg in our high-profile Songwriters series.

This box-set contain all of Ray Wilson's eight studio albums he has released either on his own or in band projects he was involved in (the only exception is Stiltskin's debut album The Mind's Eye).

When Los Angeles-born, Oakland-based pianist-turned-producer Gene Russell co-founded Black Jazz in 1971, the 39-year-old journeyman was just two years removed from a small-trio release on Decca that landed squarely in the lighthearted, pop-friendly, ‘Up-Up And Away’ and ‘Born Free’-covering world of cocktail-bar jazz. But with the turn-of-the-seventies emergence of revolutionary developments from electric Miles to the spiritual directions of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane – and all sorts of funky mutations in Russell’s soul-jazz wheelhouse, to boot – the tight-knit collection of artists he assembled took full advantage of all the possibilities that lay ahead for jazz in the young decade.

Indulge in a blissful audio escape with "Loungin' - The Easy Pop Album." This 3-disc collection is a haven of easy listening classics that will provide a calming and enjoyable backdrop to any part of your day. Ease into the captivating melodies of "Chanson D'Amour" by The Manhattan Transfer, and the sentimental "Forever & Ever" by Demis Roussos. With tracks like John Denver's "Annie's Song" and Bread's "Make It With You", this disc sets the tone for a serene musical journey. End the disc on a dreamy note with the timeless "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton. Continue your journey with the soulful "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell, and "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich. Heartfelt renditions like "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen and "Without You" by Harry Nilsson encapsulate the heartfelt essence of this disc. Close out with Ralph McTell's touching "Streets of London," for a perfect end to this auditory voyage.

The latest in a long line of Queen compilations stretching back to 1981's Greatest Hits, 2009's Absolute Greatest runs a generous 20 tracks yet still manages to miss several classic Queen songs, such as "Fat Bottomed Girls," "Bicycle Race," "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy," "Flash's Theme," and "Tie Your Mother Down." In their place are several latter-day singles that were hits in Europe but not America ("The Show Must Go On," "Who Wants to Live Forever," "These Are the Days of Our Lives"), so it makes sense that this compilation in its various formats – a single-disc set, a double-disc where the second CD contains commentary by Brian May and Roger Taylor, one with a hardcover book, one with LPs – appeared in the U.K. and Europe first, because it was tailored for this market.

These much-lauded performances deserve the highest possible recommendation. One example suffices to detail the level of Martinon’s interpretive perceptions. Ravel was, of course, a stunning orchestrator, and yet most of the music here was originally conceived for keyboard. The end of the Mother Goose ballet contains one of his rare orchestral miscalculations: the original glissandos for piano are given to the harp, which is almost never audible against the loud final climax–except here. Martinon, with his keen ear and evident knowledge of what Ravel intended, makes sure that the harp comes right through, and the result is magical. His textural awareness is matched by an equally natural sense of pacing, and the orchestra (not one of the world’s great ones) gives him 100 percent in music that it clearly knows and loves.

Mahan Esfahani veröffentlicht sein Debütalbum “Time Present and Time Past”, und damit erscheint auch die erste Cembalo Veröffentlichung bei Deutsche Grammophon seit über 30 Jahren! Sein Album, das maßgeblich durch Gedichte von T.S. Elliot inspiriert wurde, vereint Barockmusik von Bach und Corelli mit minimalistischen Klängen von Komponisten wie Reich und Gorecki. Mit seinen eingängigen Interpretationen begeistert Esfahani nicht nur seine Zuhörer für das historische Tasteninstrument, durch die Begleitung des “Concerto Köln”, einem auf historische Aufführungspraxis spezialisierten Orchester, gelingt es ihm, die Musik besonders authentisch wirken zu lassen.

A highly skilled guitarist known for his fluid, effects-heavy playing, British musician Steve Hillage has collaborated with countless musicians and influenced several genres over the course of his lengthy career, particularly space rock, prog, ambient, and techno. Initially associated with the Canterbury Scene during the late '60s and early '70s, Hillage played in groups such as Uriel and Khan before becoming a key member of psychedelic cult favorites Gong during the '70s. He launched his solo career with the ambitious 1975 prog rock suite Fish Rising.

The Parry revival gathers pace. This is the first disc in a Chandos series which is to embrace the five symphonies and some of the choral works, including the rare and lovely The Lotus Eaters. A special significance attaches to it because the conductor is not British. Who would have expected a Swiss conductor, Matthias Bamert, to explore such a rare English preserve as the Parry symphonies? It is an encouraging act of faith, and the quality of the performances and interpretations is such as springs not from duty but from conviction and enthusiasm. Chandos give the music one of their clear and faithful recordings, with admirable balance and slight resonance.

Bevor sich das Jahr 2024 dem Ende neigt, erscheint mit der „BRAVO – The Hits 2024“ der alljährlich beliebte Jahresrückblick voller Hits und Chartstürmer. Ganz nach dem Motto „End Of Beginning“ vereint das Album von Anfang bis Ende die erfolgreichsten Songs und musikalischen Highlights des Jahres 2024.

Released only ten months after their debut album, Stay With the Hollies, their second album was a huge leap forward in every respect. Their famous airtight harmonies were now in place, and the sloppiness of the instrumental attack gone. Most important, the group developed enormously as songwriters. Eight of the 12 tracks were Hollies originals and quite skillful in their mastery of the British Invasion essentials of driving, catchy melodies and shining harmonies. A couple of the covers are duds, but the "Nitty Gritty/Something's Got a Hold of Me" medley is first-rate, and the version of "It's in His Kiss" (retitled "It's in Her Kiss") respectable. The Hollies weren't from Liverpool (though Manchester is fairly close), but this nonetheless ranks of one of the very best Merseybeat albums not released by the Beatles themselves…