The success of Carol Welsman's I Like Men: Reflections of Miss Peggy Lee defies the odds. The idea of doing "tribute" albums to more famous performers in the jazz genre is as commercially enticing as it is artistically dicey. It's hard to gain a footing in jazz, and associating oneself with a well-known name is an obvious way to get attention. But the jazz section of record stores (brick-and-mortar and in cyberspace) is strewn with failed efforts in which performers were saddled with material unsuited to them, and with which they were unfamiliar before the call came from their managers. Then, too, the tribute concept works better in a live setting than on disc, since the question always comes up, why not just listen to a recording actually by the original artist?…

Schumann - Complete Organ Music - Roberto Marini (2014) {Brilliant Classics 94721}
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© 2014 Brilliant Classics | 94721
Classical / Romantic / Pipe Organ

Robert Schumann is probably best known for his copious amount of piano works and lieder – music that, fuelled by vivid imaginings and unfettered emotions, represents one of the highest expressions of the Romantic spirit. It shouldn’t be forgotten, however, that the composer also wrote masterly works for the organ, an instrument which interested him only occasionally but which he praised in his Rules for House and Life (1850): ‘If you pass near a church and you hear the organ playing, go inside and listen… Never waste an opportunity to practise the organ: there is no other instrument able so swiftly to dispense with all that is impure and imprecise, both in the music itself and in the manner of playing it.’

This EMI release of The Four Seasons gives violinist Sarah Chang top billing (as would be expected) and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra a smaller, less significant listing. As far as the quality of performance goes, however, Orpheus should absolutely be considered the star of this recording with Chang getting the footnote instead. This is simply not the case; from the ridiculously posed glamour photos filling the liner notes to the balance of the performance itself, this album is all about Chang. The most fulfilling aspects are the orchestral tuttis. Orpheus is truly at its best here, playing with as much energy and passion as the much ballyhooed recording with the Venice Baroque Orchestra.

Eric Dolphy - Vintage Dolphy (1963) {GM Recordings 3005-2 rel 1995} (featuring Don Ellis)
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© 1963, 1995 GM Recordings | 3005-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Reeds

This is our all-time best seller. Selected ‘Jazz Album of the Week’ in the New York Times and on numerous ‘Best Recordings of the Year’ lists upon its original release, these live recordings from Carnegie Hall and Syracuse, New York, are now remastered and repackaged and include additional, previously unreleased Dolphy performances of Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream masterpiece Variants on a Theme by Monk. An incredible sampling of Dolphy’s artistry from ’62 to ’63, in action with his own quartet, in contemporary chamber music settings created for him by Schuller and in the heat of an all-star jam session on “Donna Lee”… Dolphy was never more brilliant.

While they started out in the late '60s as a psychedelic band, delved into progressive rock, and even recorded an album in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deep Purple achieved their greatest success as a strong, straightforward, hard rock band, anchored by the powerful guitar work of Ritchie Blackmore and the show-stopping vocals of Ian Gillan (and later David Coverdale). From 1970's Deep Purple in Rock to 1974's Stormbringer, Deep Purple were one of the most popular hard rock bands on Earth, and Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple captures the band at the top of their form on some of their best-known songs…

There's no denying that Fountains of Wayne know how to craft a great pop record. They know how to write a hook, they can pull of mild rockers and sweet ballads with equal aplomb, and they write melodies that feel like half-forgotten favorites. They have all the elements of a classic power pop band but they suffer from that peculiar '90s ailment – detachment. For all their flair, talent, and craftsmanship, the band don't really dig deeper than the surface. Of course, that doesn't mean they make bad records, and their second album, Utopia Parkway, is, if anything, every bit as good as their fine debut. All the songs immediately make a connection and all of their melodic attributes simply strengthen with repeated listens. However, those repeated listens reveal that Fountains of Wayne don't have a lot to say. That's not a cardinal sin in guitar pop, since most bands simply recycle the same lovelorn themes, but Fountains choose to have fun with clichés, throwing in goofy asides even in their ballads.

The 80s Summer Album features sixty summertime sounds of the eighties across 3CD’s in a sleek and summery digipak design. Featuring Wham!, Adam & The Ants, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Luther Vandross, Dead or Alive and more!

V – Metal Machine Music is the ninth album by German Industrial/EBM band Die Krupps. The album was released on 28 August 2015 as digital download and double CD as well as limited bundles…

Kenny Wheeler - It Takes Two! (2006) {Cam Jazz CAM 5016}
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© 2006 Cam Jazz / Cam Cine TV Music | CAM 5016
Jazz / Post Bop / Flugelhorn / Guitar

It Takes Two! finds Kenny Wheeler in an instrumental context with which he has not previously recorded. Throughout he is partnered by guitarists John Abercrombie and John Parricelli and the Swedish bass virtuoso Anders Jormin. The musical sensitivity of all those involved has resulted in what is, even by Wheeler's sometimes introspective standards, an extremely intimate sounding recording. Indeed, the shades, textures, and contrasts of the two guitars (harp-like, steely and incisive by turns), Jormin's bass and Wheeler's horns create something akin to a conversation to which the listener eavesdrops.

I Dig Dancers was, as the title indicates, aimed at attracting dancers and securing an identity for the band as a dance organization. There is, therefore, a plenitude of tunes eminently suitable for tripping the light fantastic to a band with a full solid ensemble sound and relaxed, clever and swinging arrangements at tempos tailor-made for the ballroom. The band assembled here was an all-star aggregation that was put together to support a European tour of “Free and Easy”. When that show ended, Jones took this great band, that featured Benny Bailey, Clark Terry, Phil Woods and others, on a tour of Europe and also made many of these recordings. After returning to the states, Jones made some more recordings, this time with Freddie Hubbard and Oliver Nelson on board.

In a world narrative dominated and controlled by powerful, wealthy individuals with vested interests in skewing the truth, what trust can be placed in our governments, our leaders and our sources of information to guide us to evolve as a species?

In most bands, there's someone who saves everything – the set lists, the fliers, the photos, the board tapes (or CDs), the T-shirts, and the minutiae that add up during a group's career. In the Beatles it was Ringo Starr, in the Velvet Underground it was Sterling Morrison, and while playing drums with Cheap Trick throughout most of their history, Bun E. Carlos was also the band's pack rat, keeping track of the group's artifacts and holding onto copies of their demos and outtakes. Carlos helped annotate and provided the tapes for many of the tracks on The Epic Archive, Vol. 1, a collection of odds and ends from Cheap Trick's peak creative period of 1975 to 1979. The set opens with three songs from a demo the band cut at Memphis' Ardent Recording in 1975 (power pop devotees can pause to wonder if they bumped into Alex Chilton, who was recording Big Star's 3rd that same year), while also delivering a handful of session outtakes and demos, live tracks from a 1977 gig at the Whisky, a clumsy single edit of "Ain't That a Shame" from At Budokan, rude alternate versions of "I Dig Go-Go Girls" and "Surrender," and three tracks from their 1979 return to Budokan.

Wilco’s legend-making 2002 opus Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of the best albums ever recorded. You know it, I know it, and the good people at Chicago-based podcast Better Yet know it. Apparently, so do many of the best artists in today’s indie and punk underground.