Mongo Santamaria - Olé Ola (1989) {Concord Jazz Picante CCD-4387}
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© 1989 Concord Jazz Picante | CCD-4387
Jazz / Latin / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Congas

I've been a big fan of Mongo Santamaria's for many years and have a number of his sides on vinyl, tape and CD. I bought Ole Ola in vinyl and have since replaced it with the CD and it's always been part of my steady playlist. The whole album is very, very good, but my favorite tune is a composition by Ray Vega called "Now is Forever," which features a sublime Flugelhorn solo by Mr. Vega, intro'd by another very fine piano solo by Bob Quaranta. Quaranta's left hand chording adds a spacey, dreamy quality to his part as he works the melody. And make sure to listen closely to Bernie Minoso's heartbeat bass on this one, too. It adds a huge amount of soul to this somewhat minimalist, yet very beautiful and haunting number.

Peter Gabriel is the second solo album by the British singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, released in 1978. The album is the second of four with the same eponymous title. Guitarist Robert Fripp served as producer, whose influence on the album is evident in the use of Frippertronics on the track "Exposure"…

Lick It Up is the 11th studio album by American band Kiss. On the day of its 1983 release, the band members appeared on MTV without their trademark make-up. It was the first public appearance without make-up by Kiss since their very early days. Lick It Up built upon the harder sound Kiss had displayed on 1982's Creatures of the Night. But while Creatures of the Night was a commercial disappointment for Kiss, Lick It Up sold much better. It was certified gold on December 22, 1983, the first Kiss album to achieve certification since 1980's Unmasked. This is partially attributable to the increased publicity the band received after their unmasking.

Silverhead's second record, 16 and Savaged, finds the unit much tighter, yet like any great rock & roll band, they maintained that all-important swagger. The addition of guitarist Robbie Blunt gives the group an added punch, and he and Rod Davies proved to be one of glam's best twin-guitar attacks. Vocalist Michael Des Barres steps up as well, and his Steve Marriott-bumping-into-Rod Stewart rasp never sounded better, before or since. The boys come out blazing on the groovy opener, "Hello New York," nailing the Bolan strut and swiping the "Get It On" licks, while the gleefully sleazy "More Than Your Mouth Can Hold" has a definite Faces vibe, an intro borrowed from "Street Fighting Man," and all the subtlety of a Gene Simmons lyric.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is the last great Iron Maiden album, reconnecting with the band's prog rock roots and reversing the signs of decline that had been evident on their previous record. By this point, Maiden had earned the respect of metalheads the world over with their steadfast adherence to unadulterated metal and their grandiose aesthetic…

Vibe’s Maestro Khan Jamal’s “Infinity” features a Stellar line up, a drums and percussion-rich sextet that features altoist Byard Lancaster and a Philadelphia-based rhythm section, Clifton Burton on harmonica and the legendary free drummer Sunny Murray. Khan Jamal contributed four of the five songs, while pianist Bernard Sammul brought in a cooking "The Angry Young Man."

Heart Attack is the tenth studio album by the Swiss hard rock band Krokus, and is described by the band as "the last attempt to keep the band together in a deep crisis". As well as being the band's first album on MCA Records, it saw the return of original Krokus founding member Chris von Rohr. The track "Rock 'n' Roll Tonight" was a live hit, and is still played by the band in concerts. Krokus is a hard rock and heavy metal band from Switzerland. They enjoyed great success in North America during the 1980s. Krokus was founded in Solothurn in 1975 by bassist (and original lead vocalist) Chris von Rohr and guitarist Tommy Kiefer. Former TEA vocalist Marc Storace joined the band as frontman in time for their Metal Rendez-vous album in 1979.

SWANS have announced a remastered reissue of Children of God on 13 November 2020 via Mute / Young God Records. The album, originally released on Product Inc. (a subsidiary of Mute) in 1987 will be available on vinyl in its original packaging for the first time since that release and both the CD and vinyl issues will include the live album, Feel Good Now, recorded on the 1987 Children of God European tour.

Security – which was titled Peter Gabriel everywhere outside of the U.S. – continues where the third Gabriel album left off, sharing some of the same dense production and sense of cohesion, yet lightening the atmosphere and expanding the sonic palette somewhat…

For the first 17 years of their history, the only official live Doors album was Absolutely Live, which had its virtues – especially as it captured elements of their harder, more ambitious repertoire – but also left more casual fans rather cold, owing to the absence of any of their biggest hits…

Gunner Møller Pedersen - A Sound Year (2001) {6CD Set, Dacapo 8.224174-79 rec 1977-1982}
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© 1977-82, 2001 Dacapo Records | 8.224174-79
Electroacoustic / Modern Classical / Electronic / Experimental

A year in six hours - or twelve months in electronic music, as its composer calls it. This Wagnerian undertaking by Gunner Moller Pedersen is nothing less than the depiction, in electronic music, month by month, of the passage of a whole year. In practical terms the piece is in quadraphonic sound. Pedersen calls his music "spatial" - multi-channel music with preferably four speakers, utilising reverberation and phasing to intensify the sense of space. Optimum listening conditions are therefore larger spaces - unsurprisingly A Sound Year has been performed in galleries and in concert halls and also shown on films and television.

Similar to AOR rockers Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon, Night Ranger yielded the same electric guitar wallop via Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis and sported a high-powered lead singer in the likes of Jack Blades. Since their albums only contained a small amount of strong material, Night Ranger's Greatest Hits is the essential one-stop for all of this band's best work…