Collection includes 3 solo albums by percussionist and vibraphonist Marc Wagnon and also one collaboration with Mike Clark & Paul Jackson.

Pages was an American pop rock band active during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The band consisted of Richard Page and Steve George on vocals and keyboards supported by various studio musicians, some of whom from time to time were considered part of the band. Although Pages was highly regarded for its well-crafted pop and jazz-fusion sound, the group did not achieve commercial success, and disbanded after recording three studio albums. Pages is perhaps best known as the launching pad for the recording careers of Page and George, who later formed the band Mr. Mister who topped the charts during the mid-1980s with the hits "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie"

This is where Miles Davis turned funk into jazz, rock into soul, and chaos into Beauty. With a rotating cast of bands featuring keyboardists Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, guitarist John McLaughlin, percussionist Airto Moreira, saxophonists Gary Bartz and Wayne Shorter, and myriad other explorers, Davis kept up with the times…and surpassed them. He rocked harder than Sly, got funkier than J.B., and turned jazz inside out, slicing the music open till blood spilled on to the floor. More focused than Bitches Brew, which is all the more surprising since it's actually a piecemeal recording from various dates and venues–some in the studio, some on stage, but all very much l-i-v-e.

When it was released at the end of 1974, this album seemed pretty redundant to fans of Brian Auger's band. Two of the four songs had just been released in superior studio versions a few months earlier, and the two other selections from Second Wind had little new to offer over their studio versions. In retrospect, the music is good, but this record is not the place to start for an introduction to the music of this fine band.

The group were finishing off a huge US tour that had roared down the east coast then across the Midwest and by the time they hit LA, as Brian recalls the group was performing at their height.
The show opens with a hyper fast version of 'Beginning Again' due to drummer Steve Ferrone being almost an hour late and running high on adrenaline, Brian remembers thinking “I don’t even know if I can play it that fast!”. Fortunately, he and the Oblivion Express including stellar vocalist Alex Ligertwood rise to the challenge and the result is akin to some frenetic jazzy drum & bass but also pushes the group onto another level altogether for the rest of the show. Across both volumes there are no fillers and the highlights are many, but especially the epic version of 'Maiden Voyage' which Mos Def sampled on his 1997 'If You Can Huh! You Can Hear', and both DJ Mitsu in 2004 and 2017 Crimeapple both dipped into Live Oblivion to sample that fire for their own projects.

Brian Auger's Oblivion Express was the phoenix that rose from the ashes of sixties combo The Trinity. Fusing R&B, jazz, soul and funk, keyboard maestro Brian Auger created a new breed of music that took the US and the UK by storm. Auger's unique experimentation culminated in rhythm-infused jazz funk that united Black and white '70s audiences.
The 6 studio albums that make up Complete Oblivion illustrate the group's diverse musical influences and progression, from the 1970 self titled debut's heavy jazz- rock to the jazz fusion, latin and disco tinged Reinforcements from 1975 - this process no doubt powered by the groups' evolving line up, which included guitarists Jim Mullen and Jack Mills, drummers Robbie McIntosh & Steve Ferrone, bassists Barry Dean and Clive C h a m a n and vocalist Alex Ligertwood.

A triple box set sampler taking 50 tracks released by Polydor Records between the 1967 and 1974, including songs by by Audience, Arthur Brown, Jack Bruce, Cream, Pink Fairies, Soft Machine, The Who, Tony Williams' Lifetime, John McLaughlin and many more, including some early recordings by familiar names.

This chapter in the Complete Columbia Albums series showcases the end of Return to Forever's initial run that had begun on Polydor with a very different band. The best-known line-up – Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and guitarist Al di Meola – appears only on the first album in this set, the iconic 1975 session Romantic Warrior, which was issued in 1976 (the rest of their recordings together are all on Polydor). According to many, it is the apotheosis and end of jazz-rock fusion proper. The lackluster Musicmagic was issued in 1977 with only Corea and Clarke remaining in the lineup – though saxophonist and flutist Joe Farrell had returned from the band's earliest incarnation in the early '70s. The last three discs in this collection are made up of Return to Forever's Live: The Complete Concert, with the same basic lineup as Musicmagic. This live album had a checkered release history in the United States. It initially appeared as a single LP simply called Live – single because it had been edited down from the two-and-a-half-hour concert.

How 'bout a little fusion to liven up your otherwise oppressively hopeless existence? And how did I only just find out earlier today that Bill Frisell plays on a bunch of The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull? Crazy. Discovering that made me want to hear maybe some more obscure Frisell stuff, which led me to Good Buddies. Features, among others, Frisell on guitar, and gratuitous nudity on the album cover.

Limited six CD set. Colosseum came together in 1968, the brainchild of virtuoso drummer Jon Hiseman and saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith (who had played together in the Graham Bond Organisation and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers). Teaming with bass guitarist Tony Reeves and keyboard player Dave Greenslade, the line-up of the band was completed with the recruitment of guitarist and vocalist James Litherland. Their debut album, 'Those About to Die Salute You' was was one of the first successful attempts to fuse jazz, blues and rock reaching number 15 on the UK album chart. Their second album, 'Valentyne Suite', was the first release on the Progressive Vertigo imprint and spent nine weeks on the UK album chart, peaking at number 15. The album's focal point was the three part 'Valentyne Suite' which earned the band critical praise and is now regarded as a milestone in early Progressive Rock. In the USA and Canada the album appeared in different form in 1970 as 'The Grass is Greener' remixed and featuring new member Dave "Clem" Clempson (guitar, vocals), who replaced James Litherland in the group. The album also featured a series of songs unreleased in the UK. Released on the Vertigo in December 1970, 'Daughter of Time' heralded another line-up change within the group, featuring new recruits Mark Clarke (bass) and the distinctive lead vocalist Chris Farlowe. The album spent five weeks in UK Top 30. A series of UK concerts were recorded in 1971 and were issued in June of that year as the double LP 'Colosseum Live', a UK Top 20 hit. Colosseum dis-banded in October 1971, but were to reform in 1994. This Esoteric Recordings release also features studio bonus tracks and an additional CD of further live recordings from 1971.

The Miles Davis: The Electric Years box set collects seven albums from one of the most daring eras of Miles Davis’ career — In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute To Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, On The Corner, Big Fun and Get Up With It.
Starting in 1969 and ending in 1974, this box tells the story of a fertile period in Miles’ career, the third or fourth time he basically blew up the rules of jazz and made it again in his own image. Endlessly influential, these albums impacted basically every genre of music to follow in their wake. The albums have all been mastered AAA from 1-to-1 tape transfers of the master tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound. With GRAMMY Award-winning Steve Berkowitz supervising and consulting, the 11 LPs featured in the box come on 180g black vinyl, pressed at GZ, and will be limited in the first edition to 2,000 units. You can learn the story of these albums via an extensive Listening Notes booklet written by jazz historian and critic Ben Ratliff.

The Brecker Brothers join forces for a set of mostly high-powered originals at a concert in 2003. Their post-bop music is generally funky (although "Freefall" is an uptempo cooker) and sometimes a bit bombastic yet is never predictable. Trumpeter Randy Brecker and tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker take many fiery solos while also sounding warm on ballads. They are supported by a particularly strong rhythm section. In addition, the WDR Big Band contributes 14 horns and a guitar to accompany the core group. The individual songs may not be overly memorable (although "Some Skunk Funk" has been getting covered by other musicians) but the Breckers' solos are full of exciting moments.

Emboldened by the popularity of Inner Mounting Flame among rock audiences, the first Mahavishnu Orchestra set out to further define and refine its blistering jazz-rock direction in its second – and, no thanks to internal feuding, last – studio album. Although it has much of the screaming rock energy and sometimes exaggerated competitive frenzy of its predecessor, Birds of Fire is audibly more varied in texture, even more tightly organized, and thankfully more musical in content. A remarkable example of precisely choreographed, high-speed solo trading – with John McLaughlin, Jerry Goodman, and Jan Hammer all of one mind, supported by Billy Cobham's machine-gun drumming and Rick Laird's dancing bass – can be heard on the aptly named "One Word," and the title track is a defining moment of the group's nearly atonal fury. The band also takes time out for a brief bit of spaced-out electronic burbling and static called "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love." Yet the most enticing pieces of music on the record are the gorgeous, almost pastoral opening and closing sections to "Open Country Joy," a relaxed, jocular bit of communal jamming that they ought to have pursued further.

The Hot Spot [Original Soundtrack] Review by Eugene Chadbourne
A return look and listen to this historical and breathtaking collaboration between two of the great figures of modern music should naturally be prefaced by a few key facts. Although this album presents itself as the soundtrack to the film The Hot Spot, like many such releases it bares little relation to the music that was actually used in the film – not that much of this music was actually used.

(5CD) Four classic albums from the early 70s for a great price; 'Tribute to Jack Johnson' 'On the Corner' 'Big Fun' (2CD) & 'Water Babies'.