The departure of Ronnie James Dio gave Ritchie Blackmore a chance to reinvent Rainbow, which he does to a certain extent on Down to Earth. Adding former Deep Purple colleague Roger Glover as bassist and Graham Bonnet as vocalist, Blackmore tones down some of the excess of the Dio years, particularly in terms of fantastical lyrics, and turns to straight-ahead hard rock, only occasionally adorned by prominent synthesizers. In general, their material is fairly solid, and "Since You Been Gone" easily ranks among the band's best songs, but overall the record is a little generic and sounds very much of its time – namely, the late '70s, when album rock still ruled the arenas.

Comping on guitar and piano, West Coast bluesman J.J. Malone displays his chops for traditional blues as well as more modern forms on his second album for Fedora. John Jacob (J.J.) Malone (August 20, 1935 – February 20, 2004) was an American West Coast blues, electric blues and soul blues guitarist, singer and keyboardist. His best-known recordings were "It's a Shame" and "Danger Zone". Malone was a member of the Rhythm Rockers, and he variously worked with other musicians, such as Troyce Key, Jill Baxter, Al Green, Joe Simon, Etta James, Scott McKenzie and Frankie Lee. Malone was born in Pete's Corner, Alabama. He sang in his local church and learned to play the harmonica, guitar and piano.

Arthur Fiedler's recording of Shchedrin's Carmen Ballet is excellent in every way. The composer's imaginative rescoring of several sections of Bizet's opera for strings and percussion is a superb reorchestration exploiting a full range of percussion timbre that reveals an incredible array of views of the score that continually delight the listener. The Ballet, composed as a vehicle for his celebrated wife- prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet, Maya Plisetskaya - is an extraordinary orchestration which invites the listener to explore new and very different colors with music originally scored for Bizet's classically constituted orchestra of the opera pit. While the disk also includes the Incidental Music to "Hamlet" by Shostakovich and Glazunov's Carnival Overture, it's the Shchedrin performance that makes the disk worth any price for the listener who values discovering new things in music well known in an earlier guise.

No one will accuse Steve Freund of having the greatest voice in the blues world. While Freund is an impressive guitarist, he is merely adequate as a singer. But when you're evaluating an album, it is important to look at the big picture. Taking different things into consideration - impressive chops, adequate singing, likable songwriting - one concludes that "C" for Chicago, although slightly uneven, has more plusses than minuses. Freund won't blow you away with a great voice, but he still gets his points across on enjoyable (if derivative) Chicago-style blues numbers like "Everytime I Get to Drinking," "Working Man," and "Please Love Me" (which employs Boz Scaggs as a second guitarist). One of the CD's most memorable tracks is "I Love Money," a humorous account of having champagne tastes and a beer budget…

Let's make no doubt about this review from the start: Alvin Lee solo is not the same thing as Ten Years After and such comparisons miss the mark entirely…

The Lion King proved to be one of Elton John's most successful projects – which is quite an achievement for one of the most successful rockers in history. Given its level of popularity, it's only logical that John would reteam with his Lion collaborator Tim Rice…

Vol 1 of Jordi Masó's Mompou cycle was given the warmest of welcomes and Vol 2 is no disappointment, either. Everything is presented with crystalline clarity, and if the manner is unusually robust it's never less than musicianly.
Directions such as énergiquement and très clair (Prélude No 2), the forte climax of Prélude No 6 or the sudden blaze of anger that erupts in Prélude No 7 are arguably more sympathetically conveyed than Mompou's gentler, more characteristic instructions (con lirica espressione in Prélude No 8 or un peu plus calme in the second 'Gitanes' from Suburbis).

Romeo and Juliet begins with 4 minutes of an intriguing, mysterious, adagio theme, followed at 5 minutes by an energetic, allegro theme. At 8 minutes we hear a beautiful, adagio melody over rippling French horns. After that, the existing themes are developed to express passion. Francesca da Ramini has an opening theme that evokes a netherworld. Thereafter Tchaikovsky extensively develops a powerful theme. Then at 10 minutes a clarinet begins a beautiful melody to be continued by violins then flute. Near the end the piece builds to a climax.

Nuclear Blast Records managed to get lots of well-known good bands for this tribute to the best rock band ever. One of the best is Steel Prophet's rendition of "Fast As A Shark", which features the "heidi heido heida" intro played on electric guitar & also ends with the intro to "Restless & Wild"…

Albert Cummings is an extremely talented blues/rock guitarist, somewhat flavored with Stevie Ray, but certainly not a clone. His tone is stinging, the sound clean, and he varies in style but not in quality. His vocals are also above average, something that seems to be the downfall of many guitarists of this level. The band is three piece and both Don Chilson on bass and Ken Pallman on drums are first rate supporting players. Maybe more importantly than that, they are very complimentary to Cumming’s guitar and vocals, as the pieces of this band fit together like finely precisioned watch parts. Six of the nine tracks on the CD are Cummings originals, and again, of very high quality.

In 1999, Mobile Fidelity reissued Blue Oyster Cult's first two albums, Blue Oyster Cult (1972) and Tyranny and Mutation (1973) on a single 24-karat gold CD that was aimed at audiophiles. Hearing the albums back to back on the same disc, one is reminded how much crisper, tougher and sharper Murry Krugman and Sandy Pearlman's production was on Tyranny and Mutation – it's a production that's more suitable for a heavy metal/hard rock band…

It makes an ideal coupling having the Symphony No. 4 alongside the ballet score from which Prokofiev drew most of the material. The 1947 revision of the symphony, now generally preferred, is richer in both structure and instrumentation. Kuchar’s readings are both powerful and idiomatic, with crisply disciplined playing from the Ukraine Orchestra bringing home the weight and violence of much of the writing. These are performances to mach and eve outshine current rivals at whatever price; the Naxos recording is satisfying full-bodied, not least in vivid brass and percussion sounds, with the piano both clear and well integrated in the Symphony.

In this final recording with pianist Michel Petrucciani, saxophonist Grossman's usually more extroverted tendencies are willingly sublimated in order to play more romantically inclined mainstream jazz. Many of the tunes are ballads, embellished by Petrucciani's languid or forceful pianistics, while solid bassist Andy McKee and drummer Joe Farnsworth keep the flickering flame alive with their steadying rhythms.
Of course the fire has to be stoked on occasion, and Grossman really digs in on the Sonny Rollins evergreen "Why Don't I?" It's perfectly played, a flawless uptempo swinger with head nodding, bluesy elements. Contrasting easy swing with double timed tenor on "Don't Blame Me" shows Grossman as riled up as he gets on this date…