The executives at Prestige must have been felt ecstatic when they heard Gene Ammons first play after his release from a very severe seven-year jail sentence. The great tenor proved to still be in his prime, his huge sound was unchanged and he was hungry to make new music. This CD, which completely reissues the first two LPs Ammons cut after his return (The Boss Is Back! and Brother Jug!) rewards repeated listenings. The first date (in an acoustic quintet with pianist Junior Mance) hints at his earlier bop-based music while the numbers from the following day (with organist Sonny Phillips) find Ammons playing over a couple of boogaloo vamps very much of the period. Actually it is his ballad statements (particularly "Here's That Rainy Day," "Feeling Good" and even "Didn't We") that really make this CD memorable, although on "He's a Real Gone Guy" Ammons shows that he had not forgotten how to jam the blues either.

The Beatles always stood apart from their peers, a self-evident statement that sadly extended to the treatment of their catalog in the digital age. Where all their peers from the Byrds to the Who have had their catalogs remastered and reissued in deluxe editions, sometimes several times, the Beatles remained stuck in the early days of digital, their 14 albums plus Past Masters singles collection remaining untouched since 1987. Anniversaries came and went, but no remasters arrived until the release of the video game The Beatles Rockband pushed a long-overdue revamping of the band's entire catalog into the stores on 9-9-09. This reissue campaign corrects almost all the problems of the original 1987 CDs: the sound and artwork are improved, and all the original mono and stereo mixes finally see the light of day. Naturally, it's possible to quibble about some details of the presentation, particularly the decision to split the reissue into two separate box sets, one covering the stereo mixes and one the mono mixes…

A Lone Star Kind of Day is a 1990 compilation album by the legendary Texas blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter. Released by Relix Records, the record primarily serves as a collection of archival early recordings from 1962 to 1967, compiled by Texas record executive Roy C. Ames, alongside a few newer additions.

This set combines five of John Coltrane's mid-period LPs for Atlantic Records, 1960's Giant Steps, Coltrane Plays the Blues, and Coltrane's Sound and 1961's Coltrane Jazz and My Favorite Things, in a single collector's package.

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of "Living On The Hill: A Danish Underground Trip 1967-1974", a 3CD clamshell boxed set celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music scene that emerged from Denmark at the tail end of the 1960s. It was an era that saw huge changes, both musical and social and was a pivotal period for creativity in rock music throughout Europe.
The influence of ground-breaking artists from Britain and the USA such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane et al spread far and wide. In Denmark, as in many other European countries, the cries of change were made by students, radicals and hippies to a backdrop of emerging “underground” bands who were fusing the musical influences of psychedelia, jazz, blues, folk…

SoulMusic Records is proud to present a first-of-its-kind compilation of recordings by renowned singer/songwriter Barbara Lewis spanning her six years with Atlantic Records (1962-1968) and her brief one-year tenure with Reprise Records (1972). Known the world over in particular for her timeless classics, "Hello Stranger" and "Baby, I'm Yours", the Michigan-born chanteuse's distinctive brand of sweet soul brought her much acclaim in the mid-60s, resulting in a total of five Atlantic albums. This beautifully-packaged collection, sequenced in chronological order of recording session, includes the first CD release of a number of tracks from both the 1964 LP "Snap Your Fingers (Barbara Lewis Sings The Great Soul Tunes)" and the 1966 album, "It’s Magic".
With a total of (68) tracks, including seven non-album singles/B-sides, one previously unreleased cut from 1968…

Blues with a Feeling is a two-CD, 40-track compilation which makes the perfect audio bookend to The Essential Little Walter (or the single disc The Best of Little Walter for those on a budget) by systematically combing the Chess vaults and rounding up the best stuff. No bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings here; this compilation effectively renders all '70s Euro vinyl bootlegs null and void, both from a sound and selection standpoint. While not as exhaustive as the European nine-CD retrospective (in and out of print as of this writing), there are still things on this compilation that are left off the box set on Charly. The rarities (including the low down "Tonight with a Fool," possibly the rarest Walter Checker single of all and one whose title never shows up in the lyrics) are all noteworthy by their inclusion…

Originally released in March 1969, From Genesis To Revelation was the debut album by Genesis. This new edition, approved by Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford, features revealing new stereo mixes by Stephen W Tayler that bring the band’s playing further into focus.

1968 was the year when rock music went back to its roots. Many cite Dylan and the Band and their search for a mythical America, but for others it was a return to the jazz, soul and R&B they had grown up with and had first got them into music. “Horn Rock & Funky Guitar Grooves” explores these escapes from psychedelia in a 17-track compilation that stretches geographically from New Jersey to San Francisco, and on down to Memphis and New Orleans as rock once again became danceable.

Off White Vol. 2 is a 1993 unofficial Beatles release issued by the Red Phantom label. The album belongs to the extensive world of Beatles archival and underground releases, collecting material outside the group’s regular official catalogue. Released as part of the Off White series, it is aimed primarily at collectors and enthusiasts interested in alternate, rare, and previously unavailable Beatles recordings.

The Action are one of the great "lost" bands of mid-'60s England. Though they filled mod clubs with happy patrons and managed to score George Martin as a benefactor, they only released a handful of unsuccessful singles during their brief existence. Most of their music remained in the vaults for years, only to be discovered later and celebrated. After years of reissues that only told part of the band's story, Grapefruit's 2018 Shadows and Reflections: The Complete Recordings 1964-1968 collects everything: their five officially released singles, BBC sessions, their legendary demos from 1967, backing tracks, alternate takes, different mixes, and songs they recorded just before the band broke up in 1968. It's an impressive haul made even better by the excellent liner notes, session information, and crisp sound…

Capitol Records initially planned to release a live album from the Beatles in 1964, recording the band's August 23 concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Nobody at the label found the results satisfactory so they attempted it again almost exactly a year later, taping the August 29 and 30, 1965 shows at the Hollywood Bowl but, once again, it proved hard to hear the Fab Four from underneath the roar of the crowd, so those tapes were also shelved. They remained in the vaults until 1977, when Capitol president Bhaskar Menon asked George Martin to assemble a listenable live album from the two sets of Hollywood Bowl tapes, all with the idea of combating the rise of bootlegs and quasi-legit Beatles live albums. It was a difficult task, yet Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick managed to assemble a 13-track LP of highlights that was quite well received upon its 1977 release yet managed to earn a reputation as something of a disappointment in part due to the screams that overwhelmed the band…

One minute The Action were the ultimate mod cult band, belting out exuberant Anglicised approximations of Tamla/soul material in clubs across the country, the next they’d shed singer Reggie King and mutated into questing countercultural adventurers Mighty Baby.
Under the leadership of guitarist Martin Stone, they would become increasingly insular as four of the five band members converted to Islam and they moved slowly towards a more improvised sound. By the end of 1971, fasting for Ramadan had left them almost too weak to perform onstage, at which juncture they came to the reluctant conclusion that rock’n’roll and the Muslim faith were incompatible.
Over the previous three years, however, they made some magical, mystical music that is now collected under one roof for the first time…

Three CD set featuring all of the recordings by progressive rock band High Tide. Featuring the albums 'sea shanties', 'high tide' and an additional cd of demos and studio out-takes recorded in 1969 and 1970. Formed in London in 1969, High Tide featured the intense guitar playing of Tony Hill (formerly with The Misunderstood), the violin and keyboard skills of Simon House, bassist Peter Pavli and drummer Roger Hadden. The band was managed by Clearwater, also home to Hawkwind, Skin Alley and Cochise and were signed to Liberty Records soon after their formation. Their debut album, the stunning 'Sea Shanties' was recorded at Olympic studios and some of the heaviest gothic psychedelic rock record ever recorded. Issued in a striking sleeve designed by artist Paul Whitehead, the album is now regarded as a true classic of the era. Their second album, 'High Tide', was recorded in 1970 and was another wonderful work.