Piano Man gave Billy Joel his long-desired big hit, but it also somewhat threw him for a loop. He had been driven on Piano Man, determined to deliver an album that established him as both a serious artist and a commercial contender. Having achieved at least one of those goals (critics never gave Joel much credit), he had to release another album quickly if he wanted to keep his profile high, which he did. The problem is, Joel had put all of his best songs on Piano Man, leaving him with a shortage of material. Furthermore, promotional duties ate up his time, leaving him little to write new songs. As a result, Streetlife Serenade, the crucial third album, was a bit of a slump. Stylistically, it was a reiteration of its predecessor's Tumbleweed Connection obsessions, spiked with, of all things, Rockford Files synthesizers and ragtime pulled from The Sting…

Personne d'Autre est le vingt-huitième album, édité en France de la chanteuse Françoise Hardy. L’édition originale est parue le 6 avril 2018.

"Tee" in Tee & Company is the nickname of Three Blind Mice's founder and producer Takeshi Fujii, who formed the all-star group of eight top Japanese jazz musicians in 1977 for a series of concerts and seven days of studio recording that produced three separate albums. This supergroup included who's who of the Japanese jazz scene: Kenji Mori and Takao Uematsu on saxophones, Masaru Imada on piano, Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar, Hideto Kanai on bass, Nobuyoshi Ino on electric bass, Hiroshi Murakami on drums and Yuji Imamura on percussion. Fujii and the musicians at the time were pursuing jazz as a new art form and not just as commercial entertainment. This is an important historic document of the energy that jazz had in Japan in the late 1970s!

This two-hour-plus compilation of the first five years of the history of John Mayall and his band the Bluesbreakers in their many permutations covers all the expected bases and then some. Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor are all represented, but so are Bernie Watson and Roger Dean, both of whom preceded Clapton in the guitarist's spot in the band. What's more, they're not bad; they may not have been the assertive soloist that Clapton came to embody, but Dean plays a pretty hot solo on "Crocodile Walk," which was good enough to make the A-side of a single in 1965. Moreover, there was more to any of the Mayall bands than their guitarists, and Mayall's blues harmonica is showcased throughout, on tracks such as "Crawling Up a Hill" and "Blues City Shakedown."

Sting spent the entirety of his career studiously avoiding the appearance of having a good time, which is why his 2018 collaboration with reggae star Shaggy seemed so odd: at the age of 66, the rock star decided it was finally time to crack a smile. 44/876 – a collaboration named after the phone codes for their respective home countries – is most certainly a party record, albeit one that cooks at a low simmer as it swings between fleet-footed reggae sunsplash tunes and mellow grooves. If Sting seems subservient to Shaggy, that makes sense. Shaggy specializes in doing one thing well, while Sting took it as a point of pride that he could do anything from jazz to symphonies.

The harpist hooked up with a young Maryland-based band called Tough Luck for this disc, certainly one of his better outings. The traditional mindset of the combo pushed Bell back to his roots, whether on the originals "Just like You" and the Horton homage "Big Walter Strut" or revivals of Muddy Waters' "Short Dress Woman" and "Walking Thru the Park" and the classic Little Walter title cut.

Fur Ein 3/4 Stundchen (1974). Long Hair proudly presents one of the most sought after German albums of the early seventies, now for the first time officially re-released on CD: Tortilla Flat's 'Für Ein 3/4 Stündchen', originally recorded in winter 1974 and released as a private pressing. The instrumental album is very flute and electric piano driven, with very exciting guitar playing accompanied by rocking drumming with slightly jazzy influences and nimble bass lines, very tight! Many mention Supersister as a comparison, Kraan's first album, Brainstorm or Mel Collins' Circus (Crack In The Cosmic Egg), but all this is not really true. In fact the music is very unique, not typical Krautrock, but psychedelic, complex but very tuneful, with slight jazzrock influences and a little bit of British Canterbury sound…

Kim Skovbye is a composer, songwriter and poet. Born in copenhagen in 1955, he grew up in a home frequented by artists. The Celtic harp is his main instrument, but as a true multiinstrumentalist he also knows how to handle the guitar, violin, bouzouki, mandoline, flutes, cello, dulcimer and keyboards. During the eighties, Kim made numerous trips to Ireland, Wales and Bretagne, the old Celtic countries. His meeting with the Celtic music has become a lasting inspiration for him. But he does not play Celtic music, 'the Celts are better at that'. His music is born out of Scandinavian tradition, incorporating the light and the landscapes to give form and color to the music.
In 1997 Kim released the album 'There and back again', and as Tolkien lovers will know, this title is the subtitle of Tolkiens 'The Hobbit'…

Relish can be a sharp, bittersweet condiment; it can also suggest a determined gusto to live to the fullest. Combined, these two images provide a good taste of Joan Osborne's major-label debut (the live Soul Show was self-released in 1992). Grounded in blues, soul, and gospel, the Kentucky native wields her gritty voice with personality and forceful presence, kind of Melissa Etheridge meets Sophie B. Hawkins with a splash of Jann Arden. Osborne's passion for life oozes from the grooves. There's an uplifting fervor to her material and delivery, as if every second, every note, was being individually savored.

Two classic easy-listening albums by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, originally released in 1965 on the Philips label, together on one CD and remastered from the original analogue stereo tapes for Vocalion's trademark crystal-clear sound. French composer/conductor Paul Mauriat is a classically trained musician who decided to pursue a career in popular music. His first major success came in 1962, as a co-writer of the European hit "Chariot." In 1963, the song was given English lyrics, renamed "I Will Follow Him," and became a number one American hit for Little Peggy March. Mauriat is best remembered for his 1968 worldwide smash "Love Is Blue."

One of the series that provides a relaxing sound space, this work directs a comfortable afternoon with The Beatles songs in Bossa Nova style.

Following their massive 1986 European stadium tour for the A Kind of Magic album, Queen took an extended break. Rumors swirled about an impending breakup, but it turned out the break was brought on by a painful marital divorce for guitarist Brian May (who subsequently battled depression and contemplated suicide), and Freddie Mercury being diagnosed with AIDS. Instead of sinking further into misery, the band regrouped, worked on each other's mental state, and recorded one of their most inspired albums, 1989's The Miracle.