AN ACOUSTIC-LED CELEBRATION
John Martyn, Fairport Convention, Nirvana, Sandy Denny, Richard And Linda Thompson, The Incredible String Band, Jethro Tull and more!

After the disorganized and often unlistenable Alan Douglas-produced reissues in the '70s and '80s, MCA has been releasing the vast Hendrix archives in an intelligent and methodical manner. Blues is a perfect example, making the case that–on top of everything else–Jimi Hendrix was one fine blues guitarist. Combining the fluid lines of B.B. King with the spikiness of Hubert Sumlin and the crying tone of Elmore James with his usual synapse-frying intensity, Hendrix manages to both honor the music tradition while remaining uniquely himself. These studio outtakes and warm-ups (plus one previously released track, the magnificent "Hear My Train a Comin'") include a playful "Mannish Boy," the slow burn of "Once I Had A Woman," and a metallic "Bleeding Heart." –Steven Mirkin

Some "Best of" CDs really are not. This CD really is! This CD covers 16 of John Lee Hooker's greatest hits from 1965 to 1974, over 70 minutes of music. All of these songs were recoded in the `60s and `70s too, long before his gold and platinum album days. These are the same songs that would make Hooker famous 25 years later. Most of his better-known songs can be found on this disk. Throughout it all, Hooker's music remained unchanged. His rich and sonorous voice, full of ancient hurt, and his brooding and savage style remained hypnotic but unpredictable. To the strains of his own guitar, he sang of loneliness and confusion. Neither polished nor urbane, his music was raw, primal emotion. His one-chord boogie compositions and rhythmic guitar work were a distinctive sound that influenced rock 'n' rollers as well as rhythm and blues musicians. According to John shortly before his death, "I been doing the same things as in my younger days, when I was coming up, and now here I am, an old man, up there in the charts."

During a career more than six decades long, the veteran blues singer from the Mississippi Delta estimated he recorded more than 100 albums. To have a "best of" CD with that much material to pick from is a hard task, but the producers have done well.

If you only own one John Lee Hooker CD (if that is possible) this is the one to own.

There is a last disc of the J.S.Bach - Partitas series. Henceforth all Bach's Partitas, performed by T.Nikolayeva are in the Global Network.

Gogol's poem Dead Souls formed a compulsory part of the school literature programme. Pupils were tormented by writing essays on the characters of Chichikov, Plyushkin and Nozdryov, serfdom, or rather the lawless state of the Russian people prior to the Bolshevist revolution. In a word, instead of joy, the writer was burdened by enmity and boredom. And he was even forced to cut the text of the lyrical deviation "Eh, a troika, a troika-bird..." This text contained a literary interpretation of the belief of the writer in the bright future of his people. And that future was our Soviet life... And so when I took to considering the libretto for the opera, the first thing I resolved was the following: not to include the text of the "Troika-Bird", to do without it. That was, probably, my first impulse in creating the idea of the opera Dead Souls. This dream lived within me for ten whole years. First consideration, then reading and rereading the great book, notes of the most important things for the musical dramaturgy of the text, sketching the music. And, lastly, the joys and the tortures of working every single day. No contracts, promises, guaranteed theatres or production dates - absolutely nothing of that kind at all.
Rodion Shchedrin. Autobiographical Notes

Последний альбом, записанный и выпущенный при жизни Фредди Меркьюри… Разнообразная музыка, красивая лирика и, конечно же, потрясающий, неповторимый вокал.