John Surman's debut as a leader for ECM is an atmospheric solo set that utilizes overdubbing (although leaving space for unaccompanied solo sections). Surman performs eight of his moody and often-introspective originals, playing soprano, baritone, bass clarinet and synthesizers. Fortunately there is enough variety in this generally quiet music to hold one's interest.

When Made In Germany published their eponymous album on Metronome in 1971, this was the reward for their committed practising in grumpy rehearsal rooms for many years. All this began at Beethoven Gymnasium (College) in West Berlin. The West Berliners had started as a schoolboy band in order to play the hits of their protagonists. Under the name of "Cosmics" they still considered the "making of music" a hobby. In 1968 they won the first prize in an international beat festival together with the Chechen band "Atlantis". The bands became friends and saw each others. When the musicians of "Atlantis" split up, their guitarist (Stan Regal) stayed in Berlin, married and started to work in Audio recording studio. This was a favourable combination for the band to fulfil their dream to record their music material in a proper recording studio and to get a recording contract as they were technically well-experienced and sufficiently self-confident, too…

Formed in 1969 in the lace city of Nottingham, England - Paper Lace were just one of hundreds of bands looking for the big time. Their big break came in 1974, when after winning the nationwide talent show "Opportunity Knocks", they were spotted by the songwriting team of Mitch Murray & Peter Callander. The first single "Billy - Don't Be A Hero" topped the U.K. charts for 3 weeks in March 1974. The follow up single,"The Night Chicago Died" hit the number one slot on both the U.S.& Canadian charts [#3 in the U.K]. An album - " Paper Lace and Other Bits of Material" followed. The 3rd. single release "The Black Eyed Boys" narrowly missed the U.K. top 10 [#11]. In 1978 Paper Lace had a top 20 version of "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands" in conjunction with local football team Nottingham Forest F.C.

Ice Pickin' is the album that brought Albert Collins directly back into the limelight, and for good reason, too. The record captures the wild, unrestrained side of his playing that had never quite been documented before. Though his singing doesn't quite have the fire or power of his playing, the album doesn't suffer at all because of that - he simply burns throughout the album. Ice Pickin' was his first release for Alligator Records and it set the pace for all the albums that followed. No matter how much he tried, Collins never completely regained the pure energy that made Ice Pickin' such a revelation.

The son of Bad Company is what this debut by the band Sharks resembles, lead vocalist Snips sounding like he gargled with Kim Carnes and Paul Rodgers' mouthwash, that gravel voice Rod Stewart made the most of accompanied here by guitar great Chris Spedding, drummer Marty Simon, and bassist Andy Fraser from the group Free. This self-titled debut doesn't have the groove of their 1974 release, Jab It in Yore Eye, despite four of the nine songs written by Fraser (replaced by Busta Cherry Jones on the follow-up), including "Doctor Love," a song Leslie West covered for his The Great Fatsby album, generating some early validation for this work.

This CD, in places, just cranks it up and spits out a wall of undiluted rock and roll. Straight ahead full speed ahead and tell everything to get out of our way. "Gypsy Blood," and "Dancin' on Top of the World," are two cuts that really stand out in this vein. A couple of the tracks just seem to be languishing in a daze as if they've suffered a concussion, and can't decide which way to go. This CD is produced by Dave Edmunds, and I like a lot of his work because when it hits, it hits hard. However, when it misses it leaves you scratching your head wondering. The band is tight, just sometimes lacking that guiding hand. The hard-charging "Courage" alone makes this a worthwhile disc, and there is more than just that track to pick the listener up. (Bob Gottlieb, AMG)

Child Is Father to the Man is keyboard player/singer/arranger Al Kooper's finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures, taking in classical and jazz elements (including strings and horns), all without losing the pop essence that makes the hybrid work. This is one of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late '60s, a time when you could borrow styles from Greenwich Village contemporary folk to San Francisco acid rock and mix them into what seemed to have the potential to become a new American musical form. It's Kooper's bluesy songs, such as "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" and "I Can't Quit Her," and his singing that are the primary focus, but the album is an aural delight; listen to the way the bass guitar interacts with the horns on "My Days Are Numbered" or the charming arrangement and Steve Katz's vocal on Tim Buckley's "Morning Glory." Then Kooper sings Harry Nilsson's "Without Her" over a delicate, jazzy backing with flügelhorn/alto saxophone interplay by Randy Brecker and Fred Lipsius.

Sometimes, a greatest-hits set is timed perfectly to gather together a group's most successful and familiar performances just at the point when that group has passed the point of their maximum exposure to the public, but before the public memory has had a chance to fade. That was the case when Columbia Records assembled this compilation for release in early 1972. At that point, Blood, Sweat & Tears had released four albums and scored six Top 40 hits, each of which is heard here. But lead singer David Clayton-Thomas had just quit the group, so that the unit that recorded songs like "You've Made Me So Very Happy" was not working together anymore. And even when Clayton-Thomas returned, the band would continue to decline commercially. As such, BS&T's Greatest Hits captures the band's peak in 11 selections–seven singles chart entries, plus two album tracks from the celebrated debut album when Al Kooper helmed the group, and two more from the Grammy-winning multi-platinum second album.