ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues guitar style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. They are popular for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the matching appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who wore sunglasses, hats and long beards. ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums and sold an estimated 50 million albums worldwide. They have won three MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2004, the members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Gibbons the 32nd greatest guitarist of all time.

Philip Cannon’s Concertino for Piano and Strings (1951) dates from his formative years. It was written for the Petersfield Festival, where it was premiered on 27 January 1951 by soloist Joseph Cooper, with the Petersfield Orchestra conducted by Kathleen Merritt. This lively, neo-classical piece has achieved over a thousand performances internationally. Though John Addison’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra is, for the most part, couched in a light-hearted language, it is the product of a serious, and unfailingly inventive, approach to keyboard and orchestral writing. Speaking of the work to Leslie Ayre of the London Evening News, the composer remarked that, ""it is a real concerto in the full sense of the word…

A terrific and comprehensive overview of Ratt's entire career, Ratt & Roll 8191 contains 19 tracks, including all of the group's hits ("Round and Round," "Wanted Man," "Lay It Down," "You're in Love," "Dance," "Way Cool Jr."), as well as all the best album tracks from their frequently uneven records. In other words, it's a definitive package, containing everything that anyone but hardcore fans could ever need.

San Francisco's Tommy Castro has been at this roots and blues-rock thing for some 20 years now, and while at one time he was heralded as the next great guitar slinger, such claims only last until the next guy comes down the line with good tone and flashy technique, and since that seems to happen every other week, it's probably good that Castro brings a whole lot more to the plate than just his guitar playing. There's his voice, for one thing, a soulful and versatile blue-collar growl that sounds like Bob Seger working his way through the Stax/Volt catalog, and he's also turned into a pretty good meat-and-potatoes songwriter, too, although yes, it's his guitar playing that keeps the pot boiling.

Veteran Spanish label, Margen/áMARXE, returns after its outstanding releases of recent years with the first album by an incredible French duo called Fulguromatic. Deeply fascinating, creating unique spaces between the sounds of Canterbury, jazz-rock and incorporating a light, playful and somewhat mischievous touch from the planet Zeuhl that is tremendously addictive. Absolutely captivating, both musically and timbrally, thanks to the use of invented instruments that give it a French flavor "naïve", far from any false transcendence, that ends up creating a singular album that is a breath of fresh air in the progressive scene and an almost magical experience from the first sound to the last.

Originally released as a double-album set in 1986, just after the Kinks had their last run at chart success, Come Dancing With the Kinks (The Best of the Kinks 1977-1986) does an excellent job of summarizing their stadium rock and AOR radio favorites on Arista. It leaves no single or radio favorite behind, while adding such terrific obscurities as "Long Distance" (originally only released as a bonus track on the State of Confusion cassette; the early '80s were a completely different world than the late '80s), the non-LP single "Father Christmas," the wonderfully sentimental album track "Better Things" (a close, upbeat cousin to Dylan's "Forever Young"), and the charming "Heart of Gold." In addition to these, there are live takes of "You Really Got Me" and "Lola" taken from the fine One From the Road album. It winds up being a representative selection of the Kinks' time as stadium warriors.

The Great American Songbook has many top-drawer interpreters, but Nancy Wilson is rarely spoken of in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald or Dinah Washington or Frank Sinatra or Mel Tormé. The reason lies less with her talents, which are sizeable, and more with her orientation, which fits the show tunes concept of putting the song across with precise diction as well as emotion instead of the jazz vocal tradition of personalizing a song. Those who know only Wilson's crossover work and think she intrudes in the field of vocal jazz should simply listen to her 1959 performance of "On the Street Where You Live," where she often varies notes and tempo but preserves the essential ebullience of the song intact – an excellent musical performance combined with an excellent reading of a classic standard. That song is only one of the treasures present on the two-disc set The Great American Songbook, one in a loose series of three Capitol compilations to compile Wilson's late-'50s and early-'60s prime, the others focusing on blues ballads and lost love. There is a lot of music to wade through (more than twice as much as the other volumes in the series), but the compilers ably mix up the proceedings, balancing small-group performances that have a loose touch from all involved with large-band spectaculars featuring impeccable arrangements (often by masters of the form Billy May or Gerald Wilson).

The career of Nancy Wilson has been compiled many times and in many ways, but never like this. Focusing in-depth on her Capitol recordings during the 15 years of her prime, this three-disc set is a wonderful collection for those who appreciate Wilson's ability to combine Broadway power and finesse with jazz rhythm (and a certain degree of improvisation). While the complete record of her '60s and '70s work would require at least a dozen discs she recorded more than 30 original albums between 1960 and 1976 alone the compilers chose these 71 performances with care. They show her excelling in any format, whether small-group or big-band or strings; singing America's greatest show tunes or pop songs of the day; and thriving whether in the controlled confines of a studio or the freewheeling atmosphere of the Cocoanut Grove. (The latter was the place where her 1964 appearances earned her a nationwide profile, and several performances from her accompanying 1965 album finally appear on CD here.) She also worked with superior musicians, including George Shearing, Cannonball Adderley, Billy May, Oliver Nelson, and Gerald Wilson, among others. While some of Wilson's best peers (Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone) could have been expected to deliver as much excellent material during relatively short periods of their careers, The Very Best of Nancy Wilson: The Capitol Recordings 1960-1976 should stand as a revelation to fans of the pop and soul end of vocal jazz.

Diva Nancy Wilson was among contemporary music's most stylish and sultry vocalists; while often crossing over into the pop and R&B markets – and even hosting her own television variety program – she remained best known as a jazz performer, renowned for her work alongside figures including Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing. Born February 20, 1937, in Chillicothe, Ohio, Wilson first attracted notice performing the club circuit in nearby Columbus; she quickly earned a growing reputation among jazz players and fans, and she was recording regularly by the late '50s, eventually signing to Capitol and issuing LPs including 1959's Like in Love and Nancy Wilson with Billy May's Orchestra. Her dates with Shearing, including 1960's The Swingin's Mutual, solidified her standing as a talent on the rise, and her subsequent work with Adderley – arguably her finest recordings – further cemented her growing fame and reputation. In the years to follow, however, Wilson often moved away from jazz, much to the chagrin of purists; she made numerous albums, many of them properly categorized as pop and R&B outings, and toured extensively, appearing with everyone from Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan to Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker.

The live album Live in Europe/Stage Struck captures Rory Gallagher at his finest, as he tears his way through many of his very best songs. Though the performance quality is a little uneven, there are gems scattered throughout the record, including smoking versions of "Messin' with the Kid" and "Laundromat."

Whereas Rush's first two releases, their self-titled debut and Fly by Night, helped create a buzz among hard rock fans worldwide, the more progressive third release, Caress of Steel, confused many of their supporters. Rush knew it was now or never with their fourth release, and they delivered just in time – 1976's 2112 proved to be their much sought-after commercial breakthrough and remains one of their most popular albums. Instead of choosing between prog rock and heavy rock, both styles are merged together to create an interesting and original approach.

London’s Black Cat Bones were one of those bands from the late '60s that served as an incubator for its various members’ later rock incarnations, in this case the bands Free, Foghat, and Bad Company, all of whom drew members from Black Cat Bones. As an intact band, they only released a single album, Barbed Wire Sandwich, on Decca Records in 1969, and then splintered into the future. The album itself is a collection of rather generic period British blues pieces, a bit reminiscent of Cream in sound, although that doesn’t hinder cuts like “Chauffer” and the best track here, “Please Tell Me Baby,” from taking off into some interesting territory.

Live at the El Mocambo is a live video by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. The film was recorded at El Mocambo club in Toronto, Ontario on July 20, 1983, during the band's Texas Flood Tour. It was also released as a DVD on December 21, 1999, with interviews from drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon. The performance was later released in 2014 on the album The Complete Epic Recordings Collection (Live) with two bonus tracks, Howlin Wolf's "You'll Be Mine" and Vaughan's own "Rude Mood".

It took almost a hundred years for Charles Koechlin’s First Symphony to receive a recording worthy of its stature, and over a year for conductor Ariane Matiakh to prepare the performance materials. After her highly praised recording of Koechlin’s Seven Stars Symphony (C5449), this album is another welcome foray into the largely unexplored symphonic world of a fascinating composer, a sort of French chameleon who felt comfortable anywhere between Bachian counterpoint and the heights of French impressionism. The earlier Au loin, Poème symphonique and 3 Mélodies (orchestrated posthumously) complete the scintillating programme.

Simple Minds release 'Live in the City of Diamonds', a live album of all their hits which was recorded in Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome in 2024.