New Smokin' Hot "Texas Blues" at it's very best featuring Dr. Wu'… once again backed by Buddy Whittington and his "all star" band…. with help from B-3 "guru" Red Young ….along with Yolanda Walker and the Walker Effect. This is Volume 4 of Dr. Wu's TEXAS BLUES PROJECT… a project that was started in 2007 by JIM ASHWORTH and BRYAN FREEZE (a.k.a. Dr. Wu') … originally conceived to spotlight top artists from the Fort Worth, Texas area… and to write, produce and record the very "Best Texas Blues" available. As the Project progressed, it became obvious that the winning studio combination was to team up with Texas Bluesman… BUDDY WHITTINGTON… along with his band members… Mouse Mayes, Wayne Six, and Mike Gage. Other top session musicians include… Red Young on the B-3 Organ, Gary Grammer on harmonica, and more recently the Walker Effect on back up vocals…featuring Yolanda Walker on solos.

Originally released in 1976, this smoothly accomplished set features the trumpeter Eddie Henderson accompanied by many stars of the `70s jazz-fusion scene, including the pianist Patrice Rushen, the drummer Billy Hart, and the trombonist Julian Priester. On such tracks as the opening "Inside You" and "Acuphunture," the collection leans towards Headhunters-style jazz-funk (various members of that outfit are also present), recalling a somewhat more commercial late-period Miles Davis.

In 1964 Deutsche Oper Berlin still had no General Music Director. But Artistic Director Gustav Rudolf Sellner made a virtue out a necessity and – in addition to the permanent conductor Heinrich Hollreiser and the regular guest conductor Karl Böhm – brought in further conductors from home and abroad for individual productions. For “Don Carlos” he invited Wolfgang Sawallisch, who since 1957 had been making a name for himself at the Bayreuth Festival, above all with “Tannhäuser” and the “Flying Dutchman” and since 1960 had been acting General Music Director in Hamburg. He had at his disposal an ensemble of outstanding soloists. In addition to Josef Greindl and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, they included James King in the title role, Pilar Lorengar, Martti Talvela, Patricia Johnson and Lisa Otto as the Voice from Heaven.

The debut release of a Scandinavian singer has seldom been as surprising as that of the Swedish vocalist Ida Sand two years ago with her album Meet Me Around Midnight (ACT 9716-2). It simply didn’t sound at all like a typical Scandinavian record. What the critics and the public heard was, “the most soulful white female singer to come along in some time” – earthy, tart, deep black, and authentically bound to gospel and blues. Beside this, another basic difference to a lot of other singers is that Ida Sand plays piano, and her singing and piano playing go hand in hand.

In the '90s, things became complicated for the Crusaders fans. Keyboardist Joe Sample, and tenor saxman Wilton Felder, recorded 1991's Healing the Wounds as the Crusaders for GRP, and the mid- to late-'90s found Felder and trombonist Wayne Henderson recording for various indie labels as the Jazz Crusaders (despite Sample's objections to their use of that name). Then, in 2002, Sample, Felder and drummer Stix Hooper reunited as the Crusaders – not the Jazz Crusaders – and recorded Rural Renewal for Verve. Henderson is the only original member who is absent on this CD, which is surprisingly solid. Because the Crusaders/Jazz Crusaders have been in a state of uncertainly since the '80s and recorded their share of uneven, disappointing albums, one greets Rural Renewal with a certain amount of trepidation.