This should not be confused with the Voodoo Lounge Uncut concert released in November 2018, since that concert was filmed in Florida on November 25th, 1994. This is a different concert from the same tour, but filmed in Japan at the Tokyo Dome on March 12th, 1995.
By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late '60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the bouncy Merseybeat of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock…

Filled with multi-layered harmonies and complex arrangements, this unfortunately underlooked album of beautiful, flowing, and wonderfully recorded British folk-rock (originally released in 1972) has been a favorite of record collectors for years. Luckily, the strength of the music holds up beyond its scarcity. Not merely electric updates of lost traditional numbers, the album works because it establishes a voice and a sound that is truly compelling. The arrangements range from the zigzagging light progressive bent of the opener, "Heaven Heath," to the more storming tempo changes of "Dan the Wing." Strewn across the record is some truly remarkable guitar work, with the blanks filled in with lush violin and piano fills…

A few decades ago, when the release of a George Benson album was an event for either jazz guitar or R&B vocal enthusiasts, his projects indeed lived up to the album title he employs here. While this collection probably won't be an essential part of the Benson enthusiast's library, it's fun to see him trying to stay in the post-millennial urban groove hip with some of the younger generation's top songwriter/producers like Joshua Thompson (who's produced for O-Town, Aretha Franklin, and Babyface) and Joe. Those who wish he'd remember his prowess as a jazz guitarist have to content themselves with its general background capacity behind pleasant romantic vocal textures and easy grooving hip-hop shuffle grooves. Fortunately, Benson's in particularly fine voice, and most of the hooks are catchy from the get go…

J.J. Malone is a soulful vocalist, adept on both piano and guitar and equally convincing whether turning his hand to straight blues, rocking R&B, or funk-influenced material.
The backing on this CD is from a select group of musicians who have played with and know J.J. personally. Bobby Logan plays the tenor saxophone on five of the tunes adds a deep ambiance to his section work, as well as to his solos. Clarence Walker plays guitar, both rhythm and lead, and is real talent. Just listen to his solo on "Old Fashioned Blues," among other cuts, for an example of subtlety combined with power. Jeff Levine on piano and organ is from Brooklyn, New York, and is in demand for his fine touch on Blues and Rock styles alike. Jeff Henry is the bassist, and is considered one of the best on the West Coast Blues scene.

In his first album for Warner Bros., Vince Guaraldi serves up another delightful, though pitifully short (27 minutes) helping of his themes for the Peanuts TV specials. By this time, like several other pianists, Guaraldi was actively exploring the new sonic horizons offered by electronic keyboards, and so he superimposes layers of electric harpsichord on most of these tracks. Some of the old sardonic spontaneity goes over the side, replaced by an overloaded gee-whiz atmosphere that sometimes gets in the way of the quartet's willingness to swing. But the tunes are marvelous, and since so little of Guaraldi's vast Peanuts output was ever made available, every millisecond of these jazz waltzes, bossa novas and soulful ruminations on Charlie Brown's world becomes cherishable.

Pianist/composer Conrad Tao's third Warner Classics album, entitled American Rage, traces the roots of rebellion from the 1930s Harlan County labor disputes, through the trauma of 9/11, to the deep divisions of the present day. Bookended by two expansive works by Frederic Rzewski - Which Side Are You On?, based on Florence Reece’s 1931 protest song, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, an industrial folk song that reflects the unjust factory working conditions - the album centres on Julia Wolfe's Compassion, written in the wake of 9/11, and Aaron Copland's elegiac Piano Sonata.

Andreas Romberg is now more than an insiders tip; he is a recognized composer situated on the interface between Classicism and Romanticism. Romberg was regarded as a celebrated violin virtuoso, concertmaster, and composer, and his stays in Paris, Vienna, Prague, and Italy spread his fame internationally. He met Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, and many other musical personalities of his times. A great deal of his oeuvre covering all sorts of different genres was forgotten, but this is slowly changing, primarily owing to the Arbeitsstelle Andreas Romberg at the University of Vechta, a research center that since 1993 has engaged in the systematic investigation of this composers works.

This program of Franz Xaver Richter (1709-89) is another in Matthias Bamert’s series of Mozart Contemporaries. These little-known late-18th Century musicians deserve more recognition. The London Mozart Players are a crack ensemble who readily follow Bamert’s outstanding leadership. The Chandos sound is among the best, and the notes are superb. Three of these five works are premiere recordings, which makes this all the more attractive.