Cut at Gerdes Folk City in New York on February 26, 1962, this record shows Big Joe Williams in top late-era form, enjoying himself before an audience of mostly white college kids and beats. He plays his signature nine-string guitar, accompanying himself on kazoo, which basically works (even subbing for what would have been a fuzz-tone guitar on "Bugle Blues"), although the kazoo was never meant to be captured in digital sound. The material includes Tommy McClennan's "Bottle Up and Go" and 11 traditional songs, including the intense "Trouble Take Me to My Grave" (his version of a song more familiar in Muddy Waters' version as "I Can't Be Satisfied"), "Mink Coat Blues," and "Burned Child Is Scared of Fire," all done in lively fashion with daunting finger-picking…

Enigma is the third collaborative CD by Opium (Matteo Zini) and Alio Die. Here the duo present mystifying a series of eight "imaginary landscapes" where beats are totally absent and musical structure is loose and meandering. The atmospheres are frequently disquieting, haunting and full of subtle perplexity. Acoustic and organic sounds are embedded deep within hazy drone textures, the artists employing drones and loops, zither, flutes bells and field recordings with Opium focusing on programming and wave editings. It must be said thought at the sounds produced by the items listed are not necessarily those you might expect, these guys are not into dainty melodies and sweet tunes.

Yesterdays is a pleasant but minor compilation of early Yes cuts. Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman put in an appearance on an up-tempo art-rock reworking of Paul Simon's "America"; listen for Bill Bruford's wah-wah bongos. The rest of this record is largely a showcase for the shunned talents of Tony Kaye and Peter Banks, although the song selections pass over the edgier material in favor of hazy tunes like "Survival."…

This 1978 Italian compilation, a double LP, has proved to be one of Julio Iglesias' most popular with Italian audiences. Sung almost entirely in Italian, its 20 tracks represent two-thirds of the three albums Iglesias recorded for the Italian market between 1976 and 1978, when he was at the peak of his international popularity…

This is an afternoon studio session between George Harrison, Bob Dylan and somefriends at Columbia Studio B (NYC) on May 1, 1970 while Bob was drumming up material for his New Morning project. The sound quality is absolutely perfect in every respect. T are a few remarkable performances , particularly “Da-Doo-Run Run” (Bob & George duet), the Everly Brothers' classic “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” “Song To Woody,” and the Beatles' “Yesterday” (which is hard to believe he actually sang!) Overall, it's a very enjoyable way to spend an hour.

Like many disco groups of the 70s, Saint Tropez was a producers' brainchild, in this case of American producers Laurin Rinder & W. Michael Lewis who had already been successful with disco groups El Coco and Le Pamplemousse. Saint Tropez was a female group made up of three session singers. The first two albums Je T'aime (1977) and Belle de Jour (1978), both hugely successful disco albums with big symphonic orchestrations and a tight disco backing, all the instruments played solely by the two producers. Je T'aime offered Serge Gainsbourg's well-known classic in an equally sensual disco symphony. They also covered material by Van McCoy and Gregg Diamond's "Heart To Heart" (sung in French as "Coeur à coeur"), originally written for The Andrea True Connection. Belle de Jour followed the same formula, yielding two successful 12"s "One More Minute" and "Fill My Life With Love", and also covering Gloria Gaynor's "Most Of All". Typical for this kind of studio projects, lots of different singers were involved in the earlier '77 and '78 projects.

This collection was recorded live across eight concerts at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin in June and July 2005.
Beethovens 32 piano sonatas have been at the heart of Daniel Barenboims musical life since childhood and through his remarkable career, Barenboim has gained a unique understanding of Beethoven s music. Having performed much of the composers solo, chamber, orchestral and operatic repertoire, Barenboims performances of these varied and complex works give a fascinating perspective into one of musics greatest geniuses from one of the most gifted and complete musicians of our time. Having first performed a complete cycle of Beethovens piano sonatas in Tel Aviv in 1960, Barenboim has repeated the feat many times around the world, most recently at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, in 2002, at the Vienna Musikverein in 2004 (when he also conducted the Palestine Youth Orchestra in its inaugural concert and played a Beethoven sonatas concert in Ramallah), at the Berlin Staatsoper in 2005, and at both La Scala, Milan, and Londons Royal Festival Hall in 2008.
Barenboim says of the Beethoven piano sonatas: This music encompasses everything that a great human being is capable of in thought, in feeling, in intuition, in temperament, in character. All the different attributes of the human condition are contained in this music.

Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock n roll. But it wasn t until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music; she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.

40 tracks over 2 CDs of some of the songs that made them famous.
The internationally famous quartet always gave it 100% on rousing vocals and equally rousing playing and knew how to pick the 'punters' songs.
These recordings might well be from the 1960s but that only goes to highlight the power and passion in the original sessions.
Guinness all round!

One of rock's most underrated guitarists (both from a technical and compositional point of view), Gary Moore is arguably one of the finest musicians that Britain has ever produced, with a career that dated back to the 1960s, there were few musical genres that Gary Moore had not turned his hand to. From his early beginnings in a local rock group called Skid Row, that featured a young singer by the name of Phil Lynott, Gary has been a resolute guitarist in music industry. His paring with Lynott was rekindled when Phil Lynott went on to form Thin Lizzy. Gary Moore went on to have a successful solo career with eleven UK Top 40 single releases. Here we present 28 tracks of some of his greatest work including Parisienne Walkways (Live), Nuclear Attack, Run To Mama, and Stormy Monday to name a few.

Vol. 3 of our recording of the string quartets of Ferdinand Ries with the Schuppanzigh Quartet presents selected works underscoring his great importance as a composer! Once again Ries proves to be a master and in retrospect a pathbreaking composer who today is a rewarding rediscovery. Throughout his life the Beethoven pupil Ries occupied himself with the composition of string quartets and string quintets. His String Quintet No. 2 received virtually hymnic praise in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1817: it was »in every respect one of the most outstanding works by this composer; in fact it even ranks with the most outstanding works of all that have come out in this genre for a number of years.« In this work Ries apparently hit on the blend of traditional and innovative elements corresponding to the expectations of discriminating listeners from his times.

After leaving Detroit and arriving in Los Angeles, Gerald Wilson formed his first big band in 1944. By 1946 he was firmly established as a fine trumpet player, arranger, and composer, and was developing a style fit not only for modern jazz, but also eventually film scores. The dramatics apropos for both formats is evident on this second installment of Wilson's chronological recordings for the Classics reissue label, culled from recordings originally on the Black & White, United Artists, Excelsior, Federal, King, and Audio Lab labels. There are five different mid-sized orchestras with musicians from L.A., all quite literate and displaying different areas of expertise, and Wilson writes with each player's individual sound in mind…

Dutch neo-prog band Marathon (not to be confused with Italian and German bands with the same name) were formed in Enschede in the early 90's. They recorded two albums and then followed up with a live CD just before breaking up. As far as influences go, Saga definitely comes to mind; add a few touches of Rush for the muscle and some AOR-like ballads à la Wings Of Steel, and you'll have a good idea of what they sound like. Guitarist Erik Ten Bos clearly dominates the first album with his Ian Crichton-like power chords, ringing arpeggios and jerky riffs; on slow numbers, he can get pretty emotional with some melodic solos à la Steve Rothery. As for compositional contents, both albums are a little uneven but still make for an enjoyable ride overall. Impeccable production (lush, polished, pristine sound), good vocals and choruses as well as solid musicianship.

Pictures at an Exhibition is a live album by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in November 1971 on Island Records. It is a recording of the band's arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, performed at Newcastle City Hall on 26 March 1971. Emerson wished to arrange the piece after seeing an orchestral performance of it several years before. He bought a copy of the score, and pitched the idea to Lake and Palmer, who agreed to adapt it. Pictures at an Exhibition went to number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 10 on the US Billboard 200.

Die zweite Folge unserer Quartett-Einspielung mit dem Schuppanzigh-Quartett präsentiert ausgewählte Werke von Ries, die die große Bedeutung des Komponisten unterstreichen! Ries zeigt sich erneut als Meister und im Nachhinein als wegweisender Komponist, dessen Entdeckung sich lohnt. Zeit seines Lebens hat sich der Beethoven-Schüler Ries mit der Kompositionen von Streichquartetten beschäftigt, aber erst 1816 trat er mit seinem drei Werke umfassenden op. 70 erstmals an die Öffentlichkeit, wovon das hier eingespielte Quartett op. 70, 2 das am stärksten an der Tradition orientierte in klassizistisch-heiterem Tonfall ist.