Two gems from The Undisputed Truth – back to back in a single package. First up is Method To The Madness – a killer classic from the second chapter of the Undisputed Truth – that time when the group stepped away from their Motown home, and followed producer/creator Norman Whitfield to his own label in California. The shift of record companies also marks a cool shift in styles too – an approach that still has all the bold, bassy elements you'd know from the earlier hits – but one that also has some fuller, more cosmic elements too – which are hinted at by the image on the cover.

"In It to Win It" is the eighth studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Charlie Wilson. It was released on February 17, 2017, by RCA Records. The album includes collaborations with Snoop Dogg, Lalah Hathaway, Wiz Khalifa, T.I., Robin Thicke and Pitbull.

Steve Forbert's youthful features and boyish voice certainly become misleading once his lyrics are heard. His folk-rock styled songs are usually centered around life's ups and downs and the problems of adulthood, portraying him as an artist who's just trying to get by. Alive on Arrival is an album full of earnest tunes about loneliness, self-worth, aspirations, and disappointments. Forbert's wispy, innocent sounding voice floats gently (and cuts roughly) over his acoustic guitar to homespun ditties with a down-to-earth feel. This album represents Forbert's music perfectly, and even though his latter albums sound less subtle, it is Alive on Arrival that so aptly personifies him.

Although Jackrabbit Slim was Steve Forbert's best-selling album, containing his only Top 40 hit, "Romeo's Tune," and his only other chart single, "Say Goodbye to Little Jo," it took Nemperor (formerly part of CBS, now part of Sony) 17 years to put it out on CD (on September 3, 1996). It sounds as good as it did before, thanks both to Forbert's excellent songwriting (also included: "January 23-30, 1978," one of his best diary songs) and to John Simon's production. In a newly added note, Forbert says Simon was a late addition, after his producer was stolen by Barbra Streisand.

Shostakovich - String Quartets - Jerusalem Quartet (2012) {2CD Harmonia Mundi HMG 508392.93}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 530 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 299 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 20 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Harmonia Mundi | HMG 508392.93
Classical / Chamber Music

A judicious coupling of Shostakovich recordings by the Jerusalem Quartet who have won BBC Music Magazine Awards no less than three times. “Vivid, profoundly intelligent accounts of six of Shostakovich's Quartets. The Jerusalems prove eloquent exponents of these works' tragic intensity and bittersweet lyricism.” - BBC Music Magazine, February 2013.

Terence Blanchard - Breathless (2015) {Blue Note B002295602}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 484 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 183 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 18 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2015 Blue Note | B002295602
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Crossover Jazz / Electric Jazz / Post-Bop / Trumpet

Terence Blanchard's 2013 return to Blue Note, Magnetic, built upon his decades-long history of post-bop dynamism with a forward-thinking approach that blended edgy, modal improvisation with a sophisticated, genre-crossing compositional style. It was a concept he had been investigating on his previous efforts Bounce (2003), Flow (2005), and Choices (2009), and, though it had been years since Blanchard was considered a young lion, the eclecticism of the album matched the work of many of his younger contemporaries like trumpeter Christian Scott and pianist Robert Glasper, the latter of whom even played on Bounce.

ome artists are marked for their entire life due their works with famous bands or musicians. To start this review, Big Daddy here must remember my dear nephews and nieces about legendary names as THIN LIZZY and NOEL REDDING BAND. Both are extremely known and important and consolidated names from the 70s, and influenced a great range of musicians. Well, the two bands have one thing in common: the presence of ERIC BELL, an Irish guitarist and composer, who wrote hits as "The Rocker" for THIN LIZZY. He also played in the band of the Rock and Roll/Blues legend Bo Diddley as well for some time…