This compilation is taken from the masterful and wondrous box set issued late in the year 2000. It is assembled with the kind of care only producers such as Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna could muster. Featuring nine selections, it begins with the first recorded appearance of the new Miles Davis Quintet in 1955 that featured the two principals, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones....

Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind onstage....

This live set from the original Birdland finds Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers at the peak of their powers with one of their strongest lineups. The group primarily recorded sessions for Alfred Lion's Blue Note label...

In 2008, Sony BMG Records (Europe) released a compilation 3-CD Box Set titled Ladies and Gentlemen: The Best of Vocal Jazz. It features a dazzling array of iconic singers and vocal groups who define the jazz genre...

The English passion for the oratorio is largely due to Handel, who was forced to find a new style of music with which to rekindle the interest of the public. For twenty years he had been presenting operas in London, but the last seasons had been increasingly unsuccessful as audiences took against attending staged works in Italian. The prior success of 'Esther' had launched 'oratorio' in London, and set Handel on a compositional path which was to prove his principal sphere of work for the rest of his life...

Astor Piazzolla's cerebral yet lusty take on tango was probably a direct result of his family having moved from Argentina to New York when he was only three years old. While he was growing up in Little Italy, his father presented him with a second-hand bandoneon (a type of squeezebox), which he mastered in record time...

Amadigi di Gaula (HWV 11) is an opera with music by George Frideric Handel. The identity of the librettist is not known for certain. Previous consensus had been that John Jacob Heidegger was the librettist, but more recent research has indicated that that the librettist was more likely to be Giacomo Rossi, with Nicola Francesco Haym as another candidate....

Between 1960 and 1981, the music label Deutsche Grammophon recorded the eight greatest operas (plus the Requiem) composed by Verdi at La Scala in Milan…

From the violinist and Piazzolla fanatic Gidon Kremer comes this album of works by Piazzolla, along with one song in tribute to the legend. He covers a decent range of Piazzolla's work, moving equally well between slower milongas and faster tangos.....

The Human League - Hysteria (1984) (re-up)
EAC secure FLAC (image + cue + log) + MP3 (320@ CBR) | 241.78 (FLAC) + 101.15 Mb (mp3) | 40:25 minutes | Full artwork.
pop, techno-pop, new wave | Caroline Records. Released in 1984. Cd issued on 06/09/2005

1981's worldwide smash "Dare!" was a difficult record to follow up, and the Human League waited too long. Following the excellent stopgap EP FASCINATION, the band finally reappeared in the spring of 1984 with "Hysteria"....

This release contains the complete recorded colaborations of pianist Horace Silver with trumpeter Art Farmer.....

Fauré composed his 13 Nocturnes over almost half a century: a cycle that allows us to appreciate through three different periods the extraordinary evolution of the composer's language and aesthetic sense...

With the 1985 release of Low Life, New Order put forth their most commercially accessible effort to date. While some of the dark-wave drippings of their Joy Division roots are evident, high energy progressions, which would carry them for years to come, began to emerge here...

Charles & Eddie's follow-up to their international hit Duophonic is much like its predecessor, featuring a set of polished, melodic pop/rock material with a slight hint of dance-pop, best illustrated by the single "Jealousy."

At a time when urban radio was obsessed with the hip-hop-minded new jack swing of Bell Biv DeVoe, Bobby Brown, and Guy (among others), Charles & Eddie turned to pre-1980 African-American music for inspiration. The male vocal duo's first album, Duophonic, owes a major debt to the classic Northern soul of the '60s and '70s...