As a child she sang for Duke Ellington and was praised by him. As a teenager she heard Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and lived hippily ever affter. Well it wasn't that simple - or easy, But if show business was in her blood, jazz crept into her bones. She rubbed elbows with Stella Brooks; subbed at the Apollo Theater for Billie Holiday and became a caring friend to Lady Day; was married to Kenny Clarke and recorded with an incipient Modern Jazz Quartet; wrote the lyrics to Wardell Gray's "Twisted" and Art Farmer's "Farmer's Market" and vocally negotiated their serpentine contours with uncanny elan; was a nightclub entrepreneur in London at "Annie's Room"; appeared with Anthony Newley in Cranks; Vanessa Redgrave in Three Penny Opera; and was directed by Robert Altman in The Player and Short Cuts…

As part of the Finest Hour series from Verve, guitarist Wes Montgomery is spotlighted on 16 tracks recorded between 1964 and his death in 1968. These sessions highlight the widely accepted jazz-pop combination he achieved on these Verve and A&M releases, which followed a four-year stint on Riverside where he attracted a limited, mainly jazz audience. The guitarist employed a winning formula that combined his straight-ahead jazz style while exploring current trends in pop music that encompassed Latin, funk, and string-laden arrangements. The impressive coverage of guest musicians includes Herbie Hancock, Ray Barretto, Ron Carter, Jimmy Smith, and Clark Terry.

"In the Court of the Crimson King" is the 1969 debut album by the British progressive rock group King Crimson. The album reached #5 on the British charts, and is certified gold in the United States.
The album is generally viewed as one of the strongest of the progressive rock genre, where King Crimson largely stripped away the blues-based foundations of rock music and mixed together jazz and Classical symphonic elements. In his 1997 book "Rocking the Classics", critic and musicologist Edward Macan notes that "In the Court of the Crimson King" "may be the most influential progressive rock album ever released".

This album is one of guitarist Kenny Burrell's best-known sessions for the Blue Note label. Burrell is matched with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, bassist Major Holley, drummer Bill English, and Ray Barretto on conga for a blues-oriented date highlighted by "Chitlins Con Carne," "Midnight Blue," "Saturday Night Blues," and the lone standard "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You."

Already the 14th release from French producer/songwriter Frederic Slama and possibly one of the strongest releases so far. As usual with first class singers like Bob Harris (Axe), Jesse Damon, Paul Sabu, Tommy Funderburk & Erika. French composer Frédéric Slama, playing guitar as well keyboards continuously gathers an illustrious bunch of singers foremost to make his vision of classic AOR/Melodic Rock reality.

Desert Dwellers has its roots in the Southern California dance collective known as Moontribe … and tribal dance rituals at magical locations deep within the vast expanse of the New Mexico, Mojave, and Black Rock Deserts.

Some 22 years later after forming, in the world without The Ramones or Type-O-Negative, The 69 Eyes release their 10th studio album. To celebrate that and their long existence, the band has decided to name the album as Roman tenth, “X”. It also has ten songs. In the world where albums mattered, the 10th album of The Rolling Stones was “Exile on Main St.”And indeed “X” is also a turning point for The 69 Eyes. It clearly starts something new. Once again it sounds completely fresh and ambitious. It’s more melodic than its predecessor, Hollywood-made glam metallic “Back In Blood”. It’s also the most catchy and hooky Goth’n’Roll you have ever heard – no wonder since the album is made under the supervise of the Swedish pop orientated production team called On The Verge.

Julie London - Latin In A Satin Mood
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 163 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Toshiba EMI # TOCJ-5390 | Country/Year: Japan 1991, 1963
Genre: Jazz | Style: Vocal

"Exotic and Latin albums were big deals in the 1950s and early '60s, and singers as diverse as Dean Martin, Lena Horne, and Peggy Lee were recording with castanets and bongo drums. Peggy Lee was so successful at the style that she cut two albums of light pseudo-Latin jazz in 1960. Like Peggy Lee, Julie London combined a restrained vocal approach with jazz phrasing and a cool attitude with icy sex appeal…"

The Van Cliburn Complete Album Collection brings together, for the first time, all of the live and studio recordings the legendary pianist made for RCA. Beginning with his 1958 debut recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1, the Complete Album Collection features his personal selections of favorite Chopin, Brahms and Debussy pieces, selections from his 1972 Moscow performances, his popular album of Favorite Encores plus his last recording for RCA of Brahms pieces.

Recordings of Tchaikovsky symphonies are appearing less frequently since the great major label implosion of a few years ago, and the upside is that we can once again approach new releases with interest, and even anticipation. Conductor Tugan Sokhiev’s light, sinewy reading gives the impression of a fresh approach to this warhorse work. He elicits bold if not particularly brazen sounds from the Toulouse orchestra brass in the dramatic opening and throughout the first movement–especially the close, where I was once again reminded that this is pretty scary music. He achieves this effect not only by energetic tempos, but also by highlighting the harmonic tension Tchaikovsky built into the score, and by taking great care with the music’s unique timbral characteristics (woodwinds in particular).

Noriko Ogawa and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra return to the works of Rachmaninov with a disc featuring his first and fourth piano concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Rachmaninov’s first concerto was written while he was a student at the Moscow Concervatory, but underwent considerable revisions up to 1917.