May 3, 2019 sees the start of Stereolab's seven album reissue campaign via Warp Records and Duophonic UHF Disks, as expanded and re-mastered editions on vinyl and compact disc. Each album has been re-mastered from the original 1/2'' tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane. Bonus material will include alternate takes, demos and unreleased mixes. You want retro? Get a load of their equipment, from the vintage Farfisa and Vox organs to the ever-lovable Moog synthesizers. You want futurist? It's the sound of not-so-well-oiled machinery, churning and sputtering into space age bachelor pad heaven and postindustrial hell. You want pure pop? Dig how they mine mod sounds of the '60s, from Burt Bacharach to Françoise Hardy, and pull melodies straight out of a bubblegum wrapper. You want avant garde? Check the blatant liftings from '70s krautrockers Neu! and Can, plus their appropriations of Philip Glass's disjointed wordplay and Ornette Coleman's jagged alto sax. You want meaning? These are songs loaded with optimism, progressivism, humanism, and dashes of Marxism. You want nonsense? There's plenty of "la-la-la's" to lead us into oblivion, and head vocalist Laetitia Sadier sings half the time in French.

May 3, 2019 sees the start of Stereolab's seven album reissue campaign via Warp Records and Duophonic UHF Disks, as expanded and re-mastered editions on vinyl and compact disc. Each album has been re-mastered from the original 1/2'' tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane. Bonus material will include alternate takes, demos and unreleased mixes. Stereolab have attracted one of the most loyal audiences in modern pop, with every album outselling it's predecessor. The raw artiness and German rock influences heard on this U.K. sextet's landmark Transient Random-Noise Bursts (1993) have been distilled into a smooth sour-mash cocktail here. As with sister act The High Llamas, there's a buoyant '60s whimsy to these tracks, recorded in Chicago (with Tortoise's John McEntire), Düsseldorf and elsewhere. Laetitia Sadier has refined her Françoise Hardy routine, and Tim Gane marshals his vintage synths to fine effect on "Prisoner of Mars" and "The Flower Called Nowhere."

2014 collection from the Alt-Rock/Indie singer/songwriter and former Screaming Trees frontman including 12 unreleased tracks. As one of America's great modern day vocalists and songwriters, Mark Lanegan has much in common with the timeless work of such legends as Fred Neil, Tim Hardin and Karen Dalton. Collecting Lanegan's solo material for Sub Pop, Beggars and more plus 12 unreleased tracks, this is the archive treatment Mark has long deserved. The 32 tracks shine a light on Mark's rare talent, and span the singer's entire career, from 1990's debut album The Winding Sheet to a treasure trove of recent unreleased gems and feature such guests as PJ Harvey, Josh Home and J Masks. His is a sound of grizzled vocals and dark melody, its lyrics chiseled out of late night thoughts and dark humor.

Live set cut in Fort Worth, TX, that presents an accurate depiction of the breadth and scope of a Gatemouth Brown concert. Switching between guitar and violin, Gate offers everything from a reprise of "Okie Dokie Stomp" to a tender "Please Send Me Someone to Love" from Percy Mayfield's songbook and personalized renditions of "St. Louis Blues" and "Frankie and Johnny."

Tigran Hamasyan was born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1987. Ely the age of 7 he was listening to jazz melodies and improvising on piano all day long. He began to study the art of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Miles Davis and others, comprehending everything so fast and so deeply that he soon reached a high technique and unique jazz thinking. The First International Jazz Festival of Yerevan (held in 1998) opened a new stage in his creative life; the jazz community looked at him as a real discovery and he received invitations to play concerts and sessions. At the 2000 Festival, he became acquainted with jazz stars Chick Corea, Avishai Cohen, Jeff Ballard and An Roland; the following year he took part several festivals in France, where he played with Philip and Christophe Le Van and was introduced to Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin. Joe Zawinul, Danillo Perez and John Patitucci.

The young, Armenian-born pianist Tigran Hamasyan possesses an almost intimidating virtuosity, a style that owes as much to Art Tatum's two-handed volubility and the sweeping refinement of Impressionist composers as it does to the spiraling, East-meets-West melodies of his homeland. Winner of the 2006 Thelonious Monk Institute's piano competition, New Era (2008, Nocturne) found Hamasyan settling into a familiar, if impressive trio aesthetic, mining the angular vernacular of modern jazz piano on now-standard vehicles like "Well, You Needn't" or "Solar," as well as on some of his own lovely compositions. So it is a welcome surprise to hear the dreamlike, tinkling sustain of the minute-long "Rain Shadow" that opens this new disc almost like a lullaby, an otherworldly state that A Fable, by and large, maintains across its length.

Murray Perahia's account of the Grieg Concerto is utterly absorbing. The playing is brilliant, but the pianist's approach–more Chopinesque than Lisztian–keeps that brilliance at the service of larger expressive goals. The result is a performance aglow with understated intensity, one in which the prevalent feeling is often melancholy, at times even bleak. Sir Colin Davis draws a wonderfully refined accompaniment from the Bavarian orchestra in this live reading of the score. The recording, from Munich's Philharmonic Hall, is excellent and effectively captures the beautiful tone Perahia coaxes from his piano.

I suppose if I had to choose a single recording coupling both of Chopin's concertos, it would be this one. Perahia is a sensitive, extremely persuasive artist who understands his own particular gifts better than anyone. He's not a muscle-bound virtuoso by any means–neither was Chopin, for that matter. All of Perahia's interpretations are finely graded, carefully prepared, and sensitive to the music's every nuance, but they never sound stiff or studied.

McCoy Tyner - Counterpoints, Live In Tokyo (1978) {Milestone 00025218933926 rel 2004}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 273 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 116 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2004 Milestone Records / Fantasy / Universal | 00025218933926
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Jazz / Piano

Although these live tracks were recorded on the same evening in 1978 as McCoy Tyner's earlier Milestone album Passion Dance, they inexplicably remained unreleased until 2004. With Tyner joined by a powerful rhythm section consisting of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams, the fireworks begin with an explosive interpretation of the pianist's "The Greeting." Next are two solo piano features, including a return to Tyner's exotic "Aisha" and "Sama Layuca," the latter building upon a hypnotic vamp from Tyner's left hand as thunderous chords with occasional tremolos are played by his right hand.

Usually, writers loathe simple sayings and well-worn cliches, but when it comes to describing the evolution of Ledisi Anibade Young, “art imitating life” is only one that fits. Since childhood, the Oakland, California transplant (by way of New Orleans) has nurtured her craft, performing in city-based productions (as part of a cabaret troupe and as Dorothy in a local rendition of The Wiz), studying opera and piano at the University of California of Berkeley and enrapturing music lovers with her effervescent stage aura and gumbo-styled approach to lyrics and vocalization (some jazz phrasing here, a pinch of blues there, a dash of funk and hip-hop stirred into a steamy, urbanized concoction of soul).