Al Martino's voice is smooth and soothing, / a perfect blend of classic and contemporary styles, / the album is filled with emotional ballads, / a must-listen for fans of traditional pop music

Al Martino's vocal style is instantly recognizable / His smooth tone and phrasing have captivated audiences / The Very Best Of Al Martino is a collection of his most beloved songs / This album showcases his incredible talent and enduring legacy

Having made several changes in their business and musical efforts in 1972, Grand Funk Railroad made even more extensive ones in 1973, beginning with their name, which was officially truncated to "Grand Funk." And keyboardist Craig Frost, credited as a sideman on Phoenix, the previous album, was now a full-fledged bandmember, filling out the musical arrangements. The most notable change, however, came with the hiring of Todd Rundgren to produce the band's eighth album. Rundgren, a pop/rock artist in his own right, was also known for his producing abilities, and he gave Grand Funk exactly what they were looking for: We're an American Band sounded nothing like its muddy, plodding predecessors. Sonically, the record was sharp and detailed and the band's playing was far tighter and more accomplished.

Meeting Of The Spirits is a spectacularly expressive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized jazz fusion and progressive big band studio-live masterpiece co-engineered by the absolute ultimate drum vanguard monarch Billy Cobham, British master orchestrator Colin Towns, and the formidable hr-Bigband (Frankfurt Radio Big Band), digitally preserved and released on compact disc in 2006 under the prestigious independent European jazz preservation imprint In+Out Records. Spanning over 74 minutes of breathtakingly intense, conceptually profound instrumental interactions across 12 sprawling, high-octane tracking alignments, this high-fidelity document serves as an absolute pinnacle monument in mid-2000s grand-scale orchestral fusion archaeology. The record executes a fierce, forward-thinking sonic blueprint that daringly deconstructs and reimagines the historic, monumental catalog of John McLaughlin’s legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra—recasting those explosive, odd-meter electric rock milestones into massive, multi-tiered acoustic-electric big band architectures.

Exploration is a spectacularly expressive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized contemporary jazz and modern creative studio masterpiece led by the legendary French arranger, composer, and woodwind vanguard pioneer Christophe Dal Sasso, digitally preserved and released on compact disc in 2006 under the specialized independent European imprint Nocturne Records. Spanning over 63 minutes of breathtakingly intense, conceptually unbound instrumental interactions across 8 sprawling, episodic tracking alignments, this high-fidelity document serves as an absolute pinnacle monument in mid-2000s continental big-ensemble archaeology. Renowned for his expansive structural vision and complex polyphonic orchestrations, Dal Sasso utilizes this ambitious studio laboratory to execute a fierce, forward-thinking sonic blueprint that stretches the boundaries of post-bop harmonic dynamics and large-scale modern orchestral jazz composition.

Eric Truffaz has covered a lot of ground - both literally and metaphorically - since releasing his first album on the Blue Note label in 1996. Recorded in several locations but cut to sound like a single concert, Face-a-Face reveals the success of this artist who, with consistency and determination, has travelled a long road to success that has been filled with detours, long stretches in the fast lane and occasional pit stops, but which has never veered away from the source of his originality and the happiness of his waking dream. For Truffaz, each concert is a chance to meet his public "face à face".

After her tough blues and R&B records in the early years of the 21st century – 2003's Let's Roll and 2004's Blues to the Bone – Etta James throws a quiet storm changeup. All the Way's 11 tracks are pop songs – indeed, a few are standards – written between the 1930s and the 1990s. James song choices are curious. The Great American Songbook tunes include the title track (written by Samuel Kahn and Jimmy Van Heusen), Leonard Bernstein's and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere" from West Side Story, and even Bob Telson's "Calling You" from the score to the 1987 film Baghdad Cafe – it's been recorded by everyone from Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion to Jeff Buckley and Gal Costa.

Charanga Changó is a spectacularly explosive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz studio masterpiece led by the legendary Bronx-born master percussionist and directional vanguard pioneer Bobby Matos, digitally preserved and released on compact disc in 2006 under the independent preservation imprint Lifeforce Jazz Records. Spanning nearly 47 minutes of breathtakingly intense, heavily syncopated organic-acoustic interactions across 11 definitive tracking alignments, this high-fidelity document serves as an absolute peak monument in mid-2006 West Coast Afro-Latin groove archaeology. Rooted deeply in the raw Nuyorican street-rhythm traditions of the 1960s and 1970s, Matos utilizes this expansive studio laboratory to execute a fierce, forward-thinking sonic blueprint that celebrates the traditional violin-and-flute driven charanga format, masterfully expanding it through modern hard-bop architectures, heavy songo patterns, and explosive salsa dura foundations.

Membra Jesu Nostri (The Limbs of our Lord Jesus) is the single largest and most compelling of the 110 or so sacred vocal works left us by Dutch-German master Dietrich Buxtehude. Buxtehude is better known for his organ music and is rightfully acknowledged as a formative influence on Johann Sebastian Bach. However, Buxtehude's vocal output is slightly larger than that for organ, and he was a key player in the refinement of the German sacred concerto into what we now call the sacred cantata, which he and his wife inherited from its creator and his predecessor, Franz Tunder, in the town of Lübeck. In the years following Buxtehude's death in 1707, German composers of all kinds were gainfully employed writing cantatas in the thousands, Georg Philipp Telemann produced nearly 2,000 of them on his own.

E Pluribus Funk is Grand Funk Railroad's fifth studio album and was released in November 1971 by Capitol Records. Like previous Grand Funk Railroad albums, it was recorded at Cleveland Recording Company and is the final album produced by Terry Knight. The title is a play on the former motto of the US government, E pluribus unum. The original release cover (designed by Ernie Cefalu) was completely round and covered with a silver-like film to resemble a large coin. The back side of the cover of this album included a die cast picture of Shea Stadium to celebrate Grand Funk beating The Beatles' Shea Stadium attendance record by selling out in just 72 hours.

Out there on the extreme fringe of the repertoire is Karol Szymanowski – the Polish modernist composer whose opera King Roger is occasionally revived by non-Polish opera companies. Somewhere further out past Szymanowski is Mieczyslaw Karlowicz – the Polish fin de siècle composer whose three-movement tone poem The Eternal Song is very occasionally recorded by non-Polish performers.

This album shows the artist's storytelling ability. / The music blends with the strong beats on many tracks. / The guest features are well-used to create catchy combinations. / This album has some notable hits on it.

Old School: New Lessons is a spectacularly explosive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized contemporary large-ensemble masterpiece led by the legendary American multi-reed icon, arranger, and longtime Yellowjackets saxophonist Bob Mintzer, released in 2006 by the premier independent archival jazz preservation imprint MCG Jazz. Spanning over 64 minutes of staggering technical execution and breathless dynamic contrasts across 9 extensive tracks, this high-fidelity restoration serves as an absolute pinnacle monument in mid-2000s progressive big band archaeology. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of his world-class big band format, Mintzer utilizes this unique ledger to execute a fierce, forward-thinking sonic blueprint that seamlessly bridges the traditional foundations of swing-era horn architecture with the sharp, modern polyrhythmic layers and electronic synthesizer textures of modern jazz-rock fusion.

Present Tense is the first Sagittarius album, released in 1968 by Columbia Records. Though the record was basically a Gary Usher solo project, he enlisted many top LA session musicians, and heavily utilized Curt Boettcher as a songwriter, musician, vocalist, and producer (even going so far as to include two tracks that Boettcher had produced on his own as the leader of the group The Ballroom). The album also contains the recording "My World Fell Down", which had no Boettcher involvement, albeit the LP version was edited, with the musique concrète bridge from the single version being excised (though a few extra bars of music were added in between the first and second verses). The single "Hotel Indiscreet" also had a similar fate when it reached the LP. The album was reissued on CD by Sundazed Music in 1997 with 9 bonus tracks. Two of these are the original single versions of "My World Fell Down" and "Hotel Indiscreet", as well as another track from The Ballroom, a Sandy Salisbury song, and the instrumental track for a song that was recorded by Chad & Jeremy. In 2006 the album was reissued again on CD in Japan by Sony in a Mini-LP style sleeve, featuring the album but with different bonus tracks, then again in 2009 by Rev-Ola Records but with the same track listing as the Sundazed reissue.

Digitally remastered expanded edition of the final Move album that included Bev Bevan, Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, who would eventually disband the group to form Electric Light Orchestra. Amid the 9 added bonus tracks are the original single plus an alt version of "Do Ya", one of the groups last recordings that would become a hit for ELO later in the decade. This edition is released in celebration of the 35th Anniversary of the group's signing to EMI Records.