Jackie DeShannon’s status as a singer is assured. Her vocal range, diversity and skill, as exemplified by her original and stunning performances of ‘Needles And Pins’, ‘When You Walk In The Room’, Bacharach and David’s ‘What The World Needs Now Is Love’ and the generational anthem ‘Put A Little Love In Your Heart’, will be well known to readers of this article. But her status as a songwriter also deserves to be celebrated – something that Ace have done for us with this 27-track cracker, “Break-A-Way”.

Les Barbares was premièred at the Paris Opéra (Palais Garnier) in October 1901, having originally been intended for the Roman theatre of Orange, in Provence. Rather than concentrating on bloodshed and slaughter, the plot focuses on the evolution of the relationship between Floria, the chief vestal, and Marcomir, the leader of the Barbarians, with the musical interest of the opera culminating furthermore in their splendid duet at the end of Act II. Saint-Saëns, like Massenet too at that time, shows here his ability to adapt his style to suit his literary inspiration. Les Barbares is in the same vein as Berliozs Les Troyens and contemporary with Faurés Pénélope.

This 2 CD set of Shostakovich's Ballet Suites and film music is a treasure. If you have yet to hear the Ballet Suites, do give this a listen. This is Shostakovich at his most genial and witty. Much credit must be given to the man who compiled and arranged these suites: Levon Atovmyan. Atovmyan is the man responsible for not only arranging these ballet Suites. He also arranged most of Shostakovich's film scores into concert suites. As much as I love Shostakovich's original work, these Atovmyan arrangements are even better. Much of the material used in the Ballet Suites was salvaged from one of Shostakovich's most unipsired works, the ballet The Limpid Stream.

Known in his lifetime as 'El cantor de Maria', Guerrero was second only to Victoria in Spanish renaissance music. His Marian motets are celebrated as some of the most beautiful compositions of the period: we include five of the best, including Ave virgo sanctissima, one of the most loved and imitated pieces of polyphony from any country.

For many Hollies enthusiasts, Evolution (1967) is considered the band's most accessible blend of pop and psychedelia. The quintet were headed into musical territories beyond simply "moon-June-bloom" and boy-meets-girl lyrics coupled with the tightly constructed vocal harmonies that had become their calling card. Nowhere is this more evident than in the tripped-out cover art from Dutch multimedia artists Seemon Kooer, Marijke Kooer, Josje Leeger, and Barry Finch – known collectively as Fool. Although "Carrie-Anne" could be considered an extension of the trite, somewhat predictable Brit pop, there are clear indications of new horizons on cuts such as the modish "You Need Love," the arguably passé distorted electric guitar on "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," and the wailing fretwork on the driving freakbeat rocker "Then the Heartaches Begin."

An R&B band that only played pop to get on the charts, Manfred Mann ranked among the most adept British Invasion acts in both styles. The fact that their range encompassed jazz as well as rhythm & blues, coupled with some elements of their appearance and presentation – co-founder/keyboardist Manfred Mann's bearded, bespectacled presence – also made the Manfreds more of a thinking person's band than a cute, cuddly, outfit like the Beatles, or sexual provocateurs in the manner of the Rolling Stones. Yet, their approach to R&B was as valid as that of the Stones, equally compelling and often more sophisticated. They charted an impressive number of singles from 1964 through 1969, and developed a large, loyal international fandom that lingers to this day.

Three-disc, 64-track collection. The folk revival that took place at club level during the Sixties introduced a whole new audience to traditional folksong, while also bringing to the fore the concept of the earnest young singer/songwriter. When, by the end of the decade, centuries-old songs were being given a sonic makeover by the new breed of electric folkies (headed by the likes of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, both of whom are represented on this collection), folk music had long since escaped out of the clubs and into the charts. This companion piece to similar 3CD sets concentrating on the Irish and Scottish folk scenes focuses on the astonishing depth of talent emanating from the English folk scene during this most tumultuous of decades. Every facet of the English folk genre is encompassed, ranging from club singers and trad folksong revivalists like Isla Cameron and Shirley Collins, the post-Dylan singer/songwriter (Donovan, Ralph McTell), folk-based fusion act Pentangle, and even such turn-of-the-decade acid folk iconoclasts as Synathesia and the mighty Comus.

George Winston's Autumn has served as an emotional backdrop to the change of season. A beautiful recording for solo piano, Autumn finds Winston developing simple melodic motifs with studied left-hand underpinning, on hypnotic pieces like 'Woods,' which moves from a brisk rhythmic figure to rubato minor-key runs. Leaving pauses and breaths in all the right places, Winston suggests the play of color and light, the comfortable melancholy, and the encroaching slow-down that characterizes the fall season. Full of memorable themes and moods, Autumn is a timeless album, and serves as a good introduction for someone who has not heard George Winston. In the context of a career in which he has sold over fifteen million albums, Autumn is the first album that George himself recommends (and often gives to) new listeners.

The Art of Fugue or 'complete practical fugal work', as C. P. E. Bach described his father's giant contrapuntal achievement, is well represented in the current recording catalogue. The approaches to it vary considerably with performances on solo keyboard—harpsichord and organ—and mixed ensembles with markedly different shades of instrument colour. Varied too, is the sequence in which the performers play the fugal parts which comprise the whole. Some complete the final fugue, some do not; some find a place for all the pieces included in the posthumous original edition of 1751, others have given reasons for omitting those which seem not to play a directly relevant part in Bach's scheme. Kenneth Gilbert leads us down another fascinating path his performance on a solo harpsichord follows not the 1751 printed edition but Bach's own autograph material differing from the other both in content and layout.

STUNNING TRIPLE DISC SET FEATURING THE FINEST BROADCAST RECORDINGS MADE DURING ROBERT PLANT S LENGTHY CAREER Born in 1948, Robert Plant s best-known role has been as the Rock-God frontman of Led Zeppelin between 1968 and 1980. But Plant s musical career both before and, more significantly, after Zep has been intriguing, and this 3-CD Set now celebrates all eras of Bob Plant s trajectory by bringing together live and studio broadcast recordings, as a solo-artist, as part of the Page & Plant Duo, and as main-man in Led Zeppelin. Kicking off with a solo-show, on DISC ONE Plant s astonishing set at Glastonbury Festival in 1993 is often hailed as Robert s finest ever solo-performance, and is presented here in all its complete glory. DISC TWO features an extraordinary gig Bob, alongside his old mucker, Jimmy Page, played together under their Page & Plant moniker, at the Bizarre Festival in Koln, Germany in 1998, while the set concludes on DISC THREE with a real treat. Eighteen Tracks that Led Zeppelin recorded for the BBC in 1969, all of which were broadcast by the BEEB at the time, when Led Zep were but a little known new blues band, playing the London circuit.

Reissue of Chet Baker Quintette - Chet Baker Quintette, released in 1963 on Crown Records.
Chet Baker was a primary exponent of the West Coast school of cool jazz in the early and mid-'50s. As a trumpeter, he had a generally restrained, intimate playing style and he attracted attention beyond jazz for his photogenic looks and singing. Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals (Chet Baker Sings, It Could Happen to You). Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one." His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame; Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and '80s.

In the four-year interim between Gov't Mule studio albums, guitar boss Warren Haynes has been busy: He played on the final Allman Brothers Band tour, paid tribute to Jerry Garcia with a symphony orchestra, issued an Americana-esque solo album, and played on James Cotton's Cotton Mouth Man. That said, no other music he makes resonates in the same way as what he creates with Gov't Mule (co-founder and drummer Mat Abts, keyboardist/guitarist Danny Louis, and bassist Jorgen Carlsson). Revolution Come…Revolution Go began on election night 2016.

Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore resurrected the beloved hard rock band Rainbow in 1995 for the album Stranger in Us All. The new lineup – technically named Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow – was not an all-star who's who of hard rock like the groundbreaking original version with vocalist Ronnie James Dio or the radio-targeted AOR version with vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. All incarnations of Rainbow, even the mid-period lineup fronted by bellower Graham Bonnet, are generally revered in hard rock circles. In its own way, Rainbow's music was just as influential as the music Blackmore made during his years in Deep Purple.

Moving seamlessly between TV and film studios and the recording studio, John Leyton cut a series of masterful pop singles during the early 1960s, often tied in to his on-screen work. Embellished by Joe Meek’s inventive production and the writing talents of Geoff Goddard and others, he quickly became a firm favourite on the pop scene, complete with his “lonely” outsider image. ‘Lone Rider’ brings together the highlights of John’s recordings found among Meek’s legendary Tea Chest Tapes. From early and alternate versions of well-known hits, never-before-heard stereo masters (including the entire ‘Two Sides Of John Leyton’ album), demos, session outtakes, instrumentals, rehearsals and a number of previously unknown songs, this is another remarkable window into the world of Joe Meek’s independent home studio, situated in a first floor flat on North London’s Holloway Road.

It is difficult to sum up in few words the history and influence in the history of rock music that an act like Nazareth has had. Having celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2018 with the release of their 24th studio album, “Tattooed On My Brain”, the long-running UK hard rockers will enter their 54th year of existence in 2022 with the release of their 25th studio album, "Surviving The Law". The line-up for "Surviving The Law" is the same as the previous release, consisting of Jimmy Murrison (longest serving guitarist in the band’s history), Lee Agnew (drummer since Darrel Sweet’s death in 1999), Pete Agnew (founding member, on bass) and vocalist Carl Sentance.