Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Deja Vu

"Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were having a moment in the culture; everyone seemed to own a copy of Déjà vu. The critics could debate its worth relative to the work they'd done with their other bands. But something about Déjà vu -- the sense of frailty in '4 + 20' and 'Helpless,' the addled paranoia of 'Almost Cut My Hair,' the urge to escape it all in 'Our House' -- summed up post-Kent State America. The dark clouds that hovered over the album, the results of the band's own personal relationships and emotional tumult, also tapped into something larger and beyond their control. Still, no one expected quite so many people to show up to buy tickets for CSNY's six consecutive nights at the Fillmore set to begin June 2. The line grew so long, the late spring heat so stifling, that Fillmore owner Bill Graham dispatched employees with water buckets and plastic cups to cool down the masses" (David Browne, Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970).

View catalog record here!

Ray Charles at Newport

"Roger Lewis has hauled his baritone saxophone to gigs in far-flung places, from England to Japan to New Guinea. He's played so many places he's lost count of precisely where he's been. But he's never forgotten Newport. Lewis, a member of New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band, returns to Rhode Island's city-by-the-sea again this weekend for the Newport Jazz Festival, an event he calls 'one of the greatest festivals in the world. I remember listening to that Ray Charles album from when he played Newport,' Lewis told The Associated Press by phone from his home in New Orleans, where he had been practicing some numbers he expects to play in Newport. 'We've played all around the world but to have the opportunity to play Newport has been a dream.' ... Several thousand ticketholders are expected each day. Many of the dozens of performers booked for the event have personal connections to its creator, jazz impresario George Wein, who organized the first jazz festival in 1954 at the behest of a local Newport socialite" (David Klepper, "Newport Jazz Festival," Huffington Post, 7/28/13).

View catalog record here!

MIchael Jackson: Bad

"Bad is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. The album was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, which went on to become the world's best-selling album. Bad itself has sold around 30 million copies worldwide, shipped 9 million units in the United States alone, and has been cited as one of the 20 best-selling albums of all time. The album produced five Hot 100 number ones, the first album to do so. Similar to Jackson's previous music material, the album's music features elements of R&B, pop and rock. Bad was recorded during the first half of 1987. The lyrical themes on the record relate to paranoia, romance and self-improvement. Bad is widely regarded as having cemented Jackson's status as one of the most successful artists of the 1980s, as well as enhancing his solo career and being one of the best musical projects of his career. Nine of the eleven songs on Bad were released as singles; one was a promotional single and another was released outside of the United States and Canada. Five of the singles hit number one in the United States, while a sixth charted within the top-ten, and a seventh charted within the top-twenty on the Hot 100 ..." (Wikipedia).

View catalog record here!

Richard Thompson: Across a Crowded Room

"Across a Crowded Room is an album by Richard Thompson released in 1985.
In 1984 Thompson's management negotiated a contract with Polydor which gave him some financial security for the first time in over a decade. Across A Crowded Room was the first album recorded under this new contract. Thompson retained Joe Boyd as producer, but this was to be the last album that Thompson would record with Boyd behind the controls and the last studio album he would record in England. Across a Crowded Room was the first Richard Thompson album to be simultaneously released on vinyl and CD. The album is notable for some sophisticated arrangements and the variety of allusions and topics in the song lyrics - Margaret Thatcher's England, the moors murders, the Koran, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific from which the album's title is derived. Several tracks, including 'She Twists the Knife Again', are also possibly inspired by his messy breakup with his ex-wife Linda. However, the listener may also follow Thompson's own advice on what to make of his lyrics: 'I think people should take lyrics as they find them, go into them as much as they feel necessary, or ignore them and just listen to the bass line'" (Wikipedia).

View catalog record here!

Pink Floyd: Atom Heart Mother

"Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest and EMI Records 2 October 1970 in the UK, and by Harvest and Capitol on 10 October 1970 in the US. ... Ron Geesin, who had already influenced and collaborated with Roger Waters, made a notable contribution to the album and received a then rare outside songwriting credit. ... The origin of the album came about after the band had completed work on the soundtrack to the film Zabriskie Point in Rome, which had ended somewhat acrimoniously, and headed back to London in early 1970 for rehearsals. ... The title track resulted from a number of instrumental figures the band had composed during these rehearsals, including the chord progression of the main theme, which David Gilmour had called 'Theme from an Imaginary Western.' ... [T]he band were due to play an 'in concert' broadcast for BBC Radio 1 on 16 July 1970, and had needed a title for John Peel to announce it. Geesin pointed to a copy of the Evening Standard, and suggested to Waters that he would find a title in there. The headline was: 'ATOM HEART MOTHER NAMED', a story about a woman being fitted with a nuclear-powered pacemaker" (Wikipedia).

View catalog record here!

Demi Lovato: Demi

"Your new album is far better than your last. Did you realise this while you were recording it? Well, thank you. When I finished the last album I thought it was great for a while, but I got sick of the songs a lot faster than with my others so I figured maybe it wasn't my best. When I went to record this one, I knew I had to have songs that excited me. As well as just better songs. If I want to be a pop artist, I have to make catchy songs. ... He's a very private celebrity, but do you have any good gossip about Barney? Well. Barney the Dinosaur is a dinosaur that is real. I don't know if you're trying to get any gossip about that. But if Barney was fake – and I'm not confirming or denying that, and I'm not suggesting that I may have had to sign a confidentiality agreement saying I'd never say he wasn't real – I would imagine him to be very attractive. Because he'd have to be a muscular guy to carry that suit. And he'd happen to also have a really good-looking face. And he may or may not have been my crush when I was growing up working on that show. That's if Barney was fake ..." (Peter Robinson, "Demi Lovato," Guardian, 7/11/13).

View catalog record here!

John Zorn: The Gnostic Preludes

"The composer and saxophonist John Zorn was easy to spot in the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum one evening last month. As chatty patrons filed in for a performance of his work, Mr. Zorn — for decades the most prolific and polarizing figure in New York’s downtown scene — sat silently in a T-shirt and camouflage combat pants, gazing up at the otherworldly light installation by the artist James Turrell. The concert was part of Zorn@60, a worldwide festival marking his 60th birthday. ... Two days after the Guggenheim concert, Mr. Zorn met me in Washington Square Park to deliver a sackful of CD’s, including 'Interzone,' a dense genre-hopping tribute to William S. Burroughs; 'The Gnostic Preludes,' gorgeously pure meditations for guitar, harp and vibraphone; and the brooding, screaming rock of 'Templars: In Sacred Blood' — just a smattering of his recent work ..." (Ben Sisario, "Lionized, but Restless as Ever," New York Times, 7/10/13).

View catalog record here!

Speedy Ortiz: Major Arcana

"[I]n celebration of the release of its full-length debut album, 'Major Arcana' ... Speedy Ortiz, which hails from Western Massachusetts, played the album start to finish, despite 'having never practiced that or done that,' said Sadie Dupuis, the wry frontwoman, and the band’s main engine. ... Behind her, the band echoes the slurry guitars, tonal abrasion and down atmosphere of early-to-mid-1990s indie rock like Helium or Polvo. ... Like the album, which at its best is clever and cutting, the show picked up in the second half, when Ms. Dupuis began to slash through the heaviness of the room ... with a voice that could be savage, on 'MKVI,' or deceptively sweet, on 'No Below,' or tart, as on 'Gary,' which is the album’s emotional highlight. That song includes some of Ms Dupuis’s sharpest lyrics, aimed at someone who left her for someone far less interesting: 'I have seen the art of my stupid counterpart. / The proportion’s wrong. / Every line unsure, / The erased marks like a sore thumb swelling and cumbersome'" (Jon Caramanica, "In Cranking Up Heat, Nature Offers a Head Start," New York Times, 7/7/13).

View catalog record here!

Schumann: Symphony No. 2; Manfred, Genoveva Overtures

"Better late than never. Strangely for someone who loves Beethoven and Schubert, Claudio Abbado has never recorded Schumann's symphonies. But now, to celebrate his 80th birthday, Abbado gives us the Second in a sparkling account with the young forces of his Orchestra Mozart. As far as one can tell, they are not using period instruments, but the timbres are transparent and Abbado's scrupulous attention to detail bears fruit in a dancing scherzo with thrilling final bars" (Nicholas Kenyon, "Review," Guardian, 7/6/13).

View catalog record here!

Fall Out Boy: Save Rock and Roll

"Are they Fall Out Boy or are they the Avengers? Reuniting after a three-year hiatus for their first album since 2008, the punk-pop heroes set out on a mission to Save Rock and Roll. You halfway expect the Hulk to come storming through the bombastic opener, 'The Phoenix,' which commands you to 'put on your war paint' for symphonic-rock battle. It's enough to make Muse feel wimpy. They continue the pumped-up theatrics on 'My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up),' a supersize title for a supersize tune. Elsewhere FOB aims to put the 'power' back into power pop (take that, Fun!) on slower songs like 'Alone Together' and 'Just One Yesterday.' The latter is one of the nostalgic moments that, along with all their chest-thumping enthusiasm, suggest that Fall Out Boy missed being Fall Out Boy. Although the relentlessness of it all wears thin toward the end, it's still pretty rad when Rocket Man himself, Elton John, swoops in for the title-track closer. Rock on, dudes" (Chuck Arnold, "Music," People, 4/29/13, p. 45).

View catalog record here!

Chiaroscuro Quartet: Beethoven, Mozart

"Youthful in membership but now well established, having been founded in 2005, the Chiaroscuro Quartet put period instrument practice to the fore, playing on gut strings, with minimal vibrato and tuning to the lower pitch of A430 (modern concert pitch is A440 or higher). You hear this strangeness the instant the opening chords sound in Beethoven's String Quartet in F minor Op 95. It takes a moment to grow accustomed to the unfamiliar timbre but the rewards are immense. Beethoven's quartet is at once raw, unadorned and agile, the harmonies more audibly dissonant. In contrast the Mozart E flat Quartet K428 feels airborne and elegant, the epitome of the classical style" (Fiona Maddocks, "Review," Guardian, 7/13/13).

View catalog record here!

Teenage Fanclub: Songs from Northern Britain

"[Nick Hornby:] What I love more than anything about Teenage Fanclub is just tunes. I don't think there are many other bands that have a back catalogue like that. I don't like very much British music, so it's nice for me to have something British that's roughly contemporary. It tends to be Scottish groups that I like rather than English ones. People say they're a direct Byrds ripoff, but I'm not that keen on the Byrds and I'm much keener on the Fanclub. I've got that Byrds box set and it's very hard to make your way through that. I suppose what I also love about Teenage Fanclub is an optimism and a lack of cynicism. You get ground down after a while by the dark stuff. I've got a homemade Fanclub tape in the car that gets an awful bashing. And Songs from Northern Britain is a desert island album for me'" (Barney Hoskyns, "Nick Hornby's Favourite Music -- A Classic Interview from the Vaults," Guardian, 7/10/13, originally published 2002).

View catalog record here!

Buika: La Noche Mas Larga

"Spanish flamenco singer Concha Buika says the key to her music is singing with a 'beautiful idea' and 'really big desire.' Born on the Spanish island of Majorca to parents who fled their home in Equatorial Guinea, Buika performs music that transcends boundaries of language and race. Flamenco may be the root of everything she does, but she blends it with African rhythms, jazz, blues and soul. She's been compared to Nina Simone, Chavela Vargas and Cesaria Evora. Her latest and most diverse album, La Noche Más Larga (The Longest Night), features her own compositions, as well as covers of songs by jazz greats like Billie Holiday and Abbey Lincoln. Buika recently spoke with Tell Me More host Michel Martin about her heritage, strength and latest album. ... On impersonating Tina Turner in Las Vegas 'Tina helped me a lot. Every time I think [about] her, I feel strong. Because sometimes to be on stage, you know, your body hurts. Because some notes are really difficult. Because they go through a room that you don't want to open'" ("Flamenco Sensation Buika Embraces Her 'Animal' Voice," Tell Me More, 6/13/13).

View catalog record here!

Aerosmith: Music from Another Dimension

"The road to 'Another Dimension' was fraught with peril: injury, Idol, arguments, and addiction. But after the drama and threats of a breakup, last fall finally saw the release of Aerosmith’s 'Music From Another Dimension.' The album is their first full length in 8 years and first album of all original material since 2001. 'Some of us have been trying to make that happen for a long time,' said bassist Tom Hamilton ahead of the band’s stop at MGM Grand at Foxwoods on July 10. 'We were able to get a moment in time when everybody really wanted to have a record out. It was great getting the whole thing going, and getting Steven [Tyler]‘s attention away from his little TV thing and back to where the rock is,' said Hamilton, touching upon the Tyler’s two season stint as judge on American Idol. 'Once that happened, we were right on the road we need to be on.' The show turned into a launch pad for the band’s new single, 'Legendary Child,' when they played it live during the season 11 finale. Even though he’s been a guest, Hamilton admits he’s never actually watched the show" (Nick Caito, "Aerosmith Bassist Talks Idol, Side Projects, and Marathon Bombings," Sound Check, 7/9/13).

View catalog record here!

Steve Coleman and Five Elements: Functional Arrhythmias

"'Functional Arrhythmias' (Pi Recordings), the strong new album by the alto saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman, comes with a taut conceptual hook: It’s a collection of pieces inspired by the rhythms of human biological systems. More plainly, it’s a reunion with the Five Elements alumni drummer Sean Rickman and the electric bassist Anthony Tidd" (Nate Chinen, "Jazz Listings," New York Times, 6/14/13).

View catalog record here!

Muddy Waters (self-titled)

"Anyone who's followed the course of modern popular music is aware of the vast influence exerted on its development by the large numbers of blues artists who collectively shaped and defined the approach to amplified music in the late 1940s and early '50s. Chicago was the pivotal point for the development and dissemination of the modern blues and virtually everything else has flowed, in one way or another, from this rich source. The revolution began inauspiciously enough in 1948 with the release of a 78-rpm single by a singer-guitarist called Muddy Waters. Coupled on Aristocrat 1305 were a pair of traditional Mississippi Delta-styled pieces 'I Can't Be Satisfied' and 'I Feel Like Going Home,' and on them Waters' dark, majestic singing. Waters' use of amplification gave his guitar playing a new, powerful, striking edge and sonority that introduced to traditional music a sound its listeners found very exciting, comfortably familiar yet strangely compelling and, above all, immensely powerful, urgent ..." (Pete Welding, Bluesland, excerpted at http://www.muddywaters.com/bio.html). 

View catalog record here!

Jim Brickman: Picture This

"Jim Brickman (born November 20, 1961) is an American songwriter and pianist of pop music, as well as radio show host. Being named the most charted male Adult Contemporary artist to date, Brickman has earned six Gold and Platinum albums. He is known for his solo piano compositions, pop-style instrumentals, and vocal collaborations with artists such as Lady Antebellum, Michael W. Smith, Martina McBride, Donny Osmond, Delta Goodrem, Olivia Newton-John, and others. ... Brickman signed to Windham Hill Records in 1994 and released his first album, No Words, featuring the song, 'Rocket to the Moon', which became his first solo instrumental to be ranked on the Billboard charts. The songs 'Angel Eyes' and 'If You Believe' gained radio airplay from Brickman's second release, By Heart, on the Windham Hill label in 1995. The following year, the CD's title tune, 'By Heart', became his first top 20 adult contemporary (AC) hit. In 1997 Brickman released the album, Picture This, adding a vocal performance, 'Valentine', sung by Martina McBride. This song charted on both country and AC stations with the album selling platinum" (Wikipedia).

View catalog record here!

Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack

"Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 American dance film directed by John Badham and starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, an immature young man whose weekends are spent visiting a local Brooklyn discothèque; Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual friend; and Donna Pescow as Tony's former dance partner and would-be girlfriend. While in the disco, Tony is the king. His care-free youth and weekend dancing help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, racial tensions in the local community, and his associations with a gang of macho friends. A huge commercial success, the film significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta, already well known from his role on TV's Welcome Back, Kotter, a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. The film is the first example of cross-media marketing, with the tie-in soundtrack's single being used to help promote the film before its release and the film popularizing the entire soundtrack after its release" (Wikipedia).

View catalog record here!

Beethoven: Missa solemnis

"Although the composer himself never heard a complete performance and it was a long time before the Missa was performed regularly -- on account of its inordinate length and technical difficulty -- once it became known to the European public, it established itself as one of Beethoven's most admired and loved compositions. The immediate excuse for the Mass's inception was that on 24 April 1819, Beethoven's patron, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, was elevated to Cardinal and shortly thereafter, on 4 June, to the materially satisfying position of Archbishop of Olmütz. ... But the installation came and went, and Beethoven was not ready with the Mass. In fact, it had grown out of all its original proportions and was to become not only a huge, all-embracing affirmation of Beethoven's faith, written, as the autograph manuscript affirms, 'Von Herzen -- möge es wieder -- zu Herzen gehen' (From the heart -- may it go to the heart again), but also a kind of compendium of the Viennese classical Missa solemnis form ..." (CD notes by H. C. Robbins Landon).

View catalog record here!

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Exodus

"The Honourable Nesta Robert 'Bob' Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician best known for his reggae records. ... Marley remains the most widely known and the best-selling performer of reggae music, having sold more than 75 million albums worldwide. He is also credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.... On 3 December 1976, two days before 'Smile Jamaica', a free concert organised by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley's home. ... Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976, and after a month-long 'recovery and writing' sojourn at the site of Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, arrived in England, where he spent two years in self-imposed exile. Whilst there he recorded the albums Exodus and Kaya. Exodus stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: 'Exodus', 'Waiting in Vain', 'Jamming', and 'One Love' (a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's hit, 'People Get Ready')" (Wikipedia).

View catalog record here!

Johnny Winter (self-titled)

"My son is (sort of) named for a famous drummer. ... I bring this up as illustrative of my lifelong personal passion for blues music. BB King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn ... I had them all on vinyl growing up. I also had Johnny Winter's Progressive Blues Experiment (1968) and Johnny Winter (1969), passed down to me by a rocker step brother. Not surprisingly, once my Jamoe was born, between his father and me, he, too, was raised on the stuff. ... So, when I informed both James and his father that I had been contacted by Johnny Winter's people to see if The Beat would be interested in an exclusive interview with the legend himself, they were duly impressed and excited to say the least ..." (Wendy Logan, "Letter from the Editor: Talk about the Blues," The Beat, Summer 2013, p. 4).

View catalog record here!