Dans le catalogue Ocora consacré à la musique japonaise, ce CD est la première parution dédiée à la musique du royaume du Ryûkyû, aujourd’hui Okinawa, dont la musique est encore très peu connue hors du Japon. Parmi les rares écrits consacrés à la musique d’Okinawa et des archipels environnants de l’ancien royaume des Ryûkyû, outre on peut signaler une récente parution de Matt Gillan (2012), ainsi que divers articles. 2Bien qu’il présente un historique du royaume Ryûkyû, le livret aurait mérité d’être un peu plus étoffé. Ces îles ont été envahies par le clan Satsuma de l’île japonaise de Kyûshu en 1609. Grâce à un commerce lucratif avec la Chine, le royaume a pu maintenir une certaine autonomie. La cour royale a été destituée en 1879 lorsque le Japon a entièrement occupé ces îles. Bien que cette culture ait eu subi des influences autant de la Chine que de la Corée et du Japon, sa musique, ses coutumes et sa religion en sont demeurée distinctes (Gillan, 2012 : 11-12). Cependant, depuis les années 1990, nous assistons à un mouvement de revitalisation musicale auprès des jeunes.

From 1958 to 1993, Thomas and Louise Boddie’s industrious Boddie Recording Company issued nearly 300 albums and 45s, recorded 10,000 hours of tape, and remained in operation longer than any other studio, pressing plant, or label group in the history of Cleveland. Long forgotten even by the standards of the chronically overlooked northeastern Ohio music scene, Boddie was a fusion of its owner’s engineering genius and his limited economic means, its DIY recording studio housed in a humble barn, churning night and day to capture the sounds emanating from Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods. The 58 tracks on these three CDs (or 65-track 5LP) represent the best of the Boddies’ in-house Soul Kitchen, Luau, and Bounty labels, which released an unspoiled treasure trove of kitchen-sink eccentric soul, fuzzbox funk, shoestring doo-wop, and haunted, eerily hook-laden spirituals. Enclosed inside is a mountain of office-styled ephemera: two massive booklets brimming with detail on the Boddies and their artists; extensive notes and scores of unpublished photos; a complete detailed discography folio; reproduced fliers; and a Boddie greeting card—all rendered with the handcrafted charm that was the Boddie hallmark. Call it a self-contained secret record industry crammed into one box.

This album, part of Ace Records' "Soul Harmony" series, brings together vocal soul tracks from the 1960s and 1970s that were either lost to time or have achieved cult status.

Vinegar Joe might very easily have been Island Records' answer to the Allman Bros. or Wet Willie. A sextet formed out of a busted big-band rock outfit called Dada, they were brought together at the suggestion of Island founder Chris Blackwell. Elkie Brooks (vocals), Robert Palmer (vocals, guitar), Pete Gage (guitars, piano), and Steve York (bass, harmonica), were at the core of the group, with Tim Hinkley and then Mike Deacon on keyboards, and Conrad Isadore and Keef Hartley, and then John Woods and Pete Gavin on drums–the band cut three albums for between 1971 and 1973. Their live shows were well reviewed and attracted significant audiences in England, but this was never reflected in their record sales. They split up in 1973, with Robert Palmer becoming an international star as a pop-rock blue-eyed soul singer and Elkie Brooks a success as an MOR singer with Pete Gage as her arranger. Collection includes: Vinegar Joe (1972); Rock'n Roll Gypsies (1972); Six Star General (1973); Six Star Gypsies (1993).

Colin Linden is a genuine renaissance man of roots music. He’s a singer and songwriter of great skill; an in-demand and prolific record producer (Bruce Cockburn, Tom Wilson, Colin James); a side-man to the stars as guitarist for the likes of Bob Dylan, Greg Allman, Bruce Cockburn, Emmylou Harris, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; a member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings; plus there's his on and off-screen musical work on the TV series "Nashville." Linden’s songs have been covered by The Band, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Keb’ Mo’, and Colin James. His new release includes guests Charlie Musselwhite, Reese Wyman and Amy Helm.

The Allman Brothers Band's fifth live release in 25 years, cut during 1994 in Raleigh, NC, and at the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey, is a high-water mark in their Epic Records catalog. If anything, they're even better here than they were on the earlier Evening with the Allman Brothers Band, the old material getting fresh new approaches – the band was on for both nights, and presented sets, including an acoustic version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Jessica" (which won a Grammy Award), that soared and flowed, especially Dickey Betts and Warren Haynes' guitars. What's more, the clarity of the recording and the volume at which it was recorded make this a most rewarding 70 minutes of live music on a purely technical level – you can practically hear the action on the guitars during the acoustic set. It won't replace Live at Fillmore East or the live portions of Eat a Peach, but it deserves a place on the shelf not very far from them.

Rather than try to capture their legendary on-stage energy in a studio, MC5 opted to record their first album during a live concert at their home base, Detroit's Grande Ballroom, and while some folks who were there have quibbled that Kick Out the Jams isn't the most accurate representation of the band's sound, it's certainly the best of the band's three original albums, and easily beats the many semiauthorized live recordings of MC5 that have emerged in recent years, if only for the clarity of Bruce Botnick's recording. From Brother J.C. Crawford's rabble-rousing introduction to the final wash on feedback on "Starship," Kick Out the Jams is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made; Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith were a lethal combination on tightly interlocked guitars, bassist Michael Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson were as strong a rhythm section as Detroit ever produced, and Rob Tyner's vocals…

Taking three years to release their follow-up to Mutter is a good idea since Reise, Reise is more of the same - the same grit, the same growl, and the same dramatic, orchestra choruses. There's a bit more ingenuity in the production and a little more focus in the songs but not enough for the nonfaithful to pick up on. Unfortunately the lead single, "Mein Teil," is no "Du Hast," but the damning "Amerika" almost equals their breakthrough track. Whether or not Rammstein's label has the guts to release the band's acerbic "Coca-Cola/Sometimes War" view of the States as a single is another question, but it's the key track to the album, an album that has a couple more, minor surprises. The loose, bluesy guitar on "Los" adds some quirk to the band's stern, Teutonic palette, while the sinister "Stein Um Stein" creeps more than stomps in parts…

My Morning Jacket A cheval entre indie-rock et country alternative, My Morning Jacket, formation américaine originaire du Kentucky, mêle sonorités rurales americana aux assauts d'une guitare et d'une batterie parfois teintés de textures héritées du mouvement Shoegazing. Avec sa voix plaintive à la Neil Young et armé d'un solide sens poétique, Jim James mène le groupe qui commence à générer un buzz dès son second effort, At Dawn avant de s'imposer à un public plus large avec It Still Moves en 2003 et de livrer l'un des disques les plus remarqués de la décennie avec Z en 2005, et son single "Off the Record".

Live at Tampa Stadium, Tampa, Florida, USA 6th May 1994.

On this four-CD set are some of Ella Fitzgerald's finest live performances during the years she was managed by Norman Granz. All of the material (which is taken from ten different performances in 1953, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1983) was previously released on various Pablo albums. Since this is a best-of collection and was lovingly put together by the knowledgeable producer Eric Miller, the music is consistently rewarding and emphasizes the interpretive skills, scatting and jazz phrasing of the First Lady of Song. Although mostly backed by her trio/quartets of the period, Ella does get to jam "Perdido" with the 1953 JATP All-Stars, is backed by the Duke Ellington and Count Basie Orchestras on some songs and revisits "Flying Home" with an all-star group in 1983…

After the heavily distorted bass and doomsday church organ of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's debut album, the exhilarating prog rock of epic proportions on Tarkus, and the violent removal of the sacred aura of classical tunes on Pictures at an Exhibition, Trilogy, ELP's fourth album, features the trio settling down in more crowd-pleasing pastures. Actually, the group was gaining in maturity what they lost in raw energy. Every track on this album has been carefully thought, arranged, and performed to perfection, a process that also included some form of sterilization. Greg Lake's acoustic ballad "From the Beginning" put the group on the charts for a second time. The adaptation of Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" also yielded a crowd-pleaser…

Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Ed Starink, Mike Oldfield, Sting, Ennio Morricone, Jan Hammer and many more. Arranged & produced by Ed Starink.

Collection includes 11 studio albums and 4 live albums by American blues-rock guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa.

Following the unforgettable 50th anniversary tour of the UK and Ireland, this chronological audio diary of the tour follows the set list through every city and concert hall on the March UK/Ire tour 2024.