Johnnie Taylor set the tone for his recording career at Stax with Wanted: One Soul Singer, a consistently gritty collection of blues and raw, hard-hitting Memphis soul. In addition to his appealing medium-sized hits "Just the One I've Been Lookin' For" and "I Had a Dream," Wanted boasts pleasant surprises ranging from the addictive "Toe-Hold" to gutsy versions of Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons" and the standard "Blues in the Night." Adding lyrics to Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," Taylor removes the song's jazz elements and turns it into pure Southern R&B. When Wanted was released, Taylor (who has occasionally been confused with bluesman Little Johnny Taylor) had yet to become the soul-radio fixture that "Who's Making Love" would make him, but these solid performances show that he was definitely on the right track.

Justifiably overshadowed by the peerless Getz/Gilberto album (which featured "Girl from Ipanema") from a year before, Getz/Gilberto #2 still holds its own with an appealing selection of fine jazz and bossa nova cuts. Unlike the first album's seamless collaboration by Getz, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, here Getz and João Gilberto turn in separate sets recorded live at Carnegie Hall in October of 1964. Backed by a stellar quartet comprised of vibraphonist Gary Burton, bassist Gene Cherico, and drummer Joe Hunt, Getz turns in a sparkling performances on the seldom covered ballad "Tonight I'll Shall Sleep with a Smile on My Face," while stretching out nicely on his original blues swinger "Stan's Blues…

Israel presents a very interesting and varied progressive rock scene specially during the 70's and 80's and a remarkable classic rock and folk variety of very talented artists (including Matti Caspi, Yehudith Ravitz, Arik Einstein, etc). One of the major exponents of these musical tendencies (yes, all of them +jazz) is Shem-Tov Levi with his characteristic flute and skilled piano playing accompanied by his very competent singing. Prog-wise Levi is one of the epicenters of the Israeli branch being part of projects such as Ktzat Acheret, Tzlil Mechuvan, The Family Album (with Schlomo Gronich) and in 1976 decided to form a new group: Sheshet. For this he teamed with one of the most beautiful voices in music (specifically israeli folk and pop), Yehudith Ravitz…

Second Winter, Johnny Winter's second album for Columbia, originally had the distinction of being the only album in rock history that was a three-sided double LP. Musically, 35 years after its original release, Second Winter is still an oddity. Issued by Sony's Legacy division, the set has been painstakingly remastered, and expanded by bonus cuts and an entire disc of live material. It's too bluesed-out to be a pure rock record, and too psychedelically dimensioned to be a pure blues album. Tommy Shannon calls it "power blues." And as for whatever else passed for blues-rock at the time – Cream, Hendrix, Canned Heat, etc. – forget it. This set is a whole different animal. Cut in Nashville with all tracks begin done within one or two takes, the energy of Second Winter is undeniable. The sheer range of styles Winter assaulted in his restless quest is astonishing too.

The Violet Flame is the 16th studio album by Erasure. 3CD Deluxe Box includes a live disc and one of remixes. The three CDs present in an 8-page card package with a 16-page booklet.
Following a holiday album (2013's Snow Globe) with this "return to form" album means veteran duo Erasure are now on the cliched career revival path for aging pop stars, but maybe it's just by chance. Make that "likely," as The Violet Flame gets right down to dancey, inspired business on its opening "Dead of Night," a track that pumps with the beat of any given single off the duo's great 1989 album Wild!. Classic lyrics from Andy Bell speak to the morality play that club night can be ("Too many times you're forgiven/Now you cry like you're the victim") then the chorus is like a pair of bright red cha-cha heels (a joyful stuttering of "D-d-d-dead of night") that won't be ignored…

Talking with Strangers is an album first issued in the UK in 2009, by Judy Dyble featuring Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Julianne Regan, Simon Nicol, Tim Bowness, Jacqui McShee, Pat Mastelotto, Alistair Murphy, Celia Humphris, Laurie A'Court, Rachel Hall, Mark Fletcher, Jeremy Salmon, Paul Robinson, John Gillies, Sanchia Pattinson and Harry Fletcher.

Limited edition, quadruple LP in lidded box with download coupon and large double sided poster. Featuring two extended mixes and four bonus tracks, two of which are exclusive to this format. Initial preorders from Matador shipped with a packaged pin set.

This edition contains all of the quintet recordings from Art Pepper & Blue Mitchell's Dec. 27, 1976 studio session accompanied by the Dolo Cocker Trio, as well as the complete quintet material from the studio date of the previously day, featuring the same lineup with Harold Land instead of Pepper. Includes 8-page booklet.

A man with as much experience as he has ingenuity, Randall Bramblett has been a singer-songwriter, a session musician, and a hired gun for legends such as Gregg Allman and Steve Winwod. Bramblett’s latest release from his more than thirty years in the business, Devil Music, delivers the expected level of virtuosity, and surprises with a deep-fried, novel twist of Southern darkness. “Dead in the Water,” the album’s lead single is equally fulfilled through evocative lyrics, well-timed and managed effects, and instrumental superiority; a narrative of nowhere, the track is populated by dead-end characters and lowly living; fitting, for a track that Bramblett claims is inspired by William S. Burroughs. While immersing itself in the wonderfully weird, infinitely spiraling darkness of whimsy that exemplifies some of Tom Waits’ best work, “Dead in the Water” sees a guest appearance by storied axeman Mark Knopfler.

1972 Japan tour box set with obi. Subtitled as "とある狂人の東方見聞録"(Far east memoirs of a certain lunatic). Tracking information is based on the included song sheet.

Record Store Day 2024. Cut From The Original Analog Master Tapes. By Kevin Gray. All Analog Process (AAA). High Quality Black Vinyl Release. Limited edition of 1500 Exclusive for RSD 2024. SRC was born out of a smashing up of two of Detroit’s brightest bands, The Fugitives and The Chosen Few (which also featured future Stooge Ron Asheton). The new band gained a fanatic local following, eventually capturing the attention of Capitol Records. On this record, the band shifts effortlessly from mountaintop introspection to wild distorted crescendos creating one of the most melodically heavy LPs ever made, an over-the-top psychedelic fuzz guitar masterpiece. When it was released in the US in 1968, the LP created fan and critical excitement. Still, it was in the UK where the cultdom made its most significant impact, with John Peel playing the hell out of it on his radio show and even Genesis’ Peter Gabriel claiming that this first SRC album was one of his favorites, saying he “wore the record out” (and you can absolutely hear SRC’s melodies buried inside Gabriel’s musical DNA!). This Record Store Day 2024 release was cut from the analog master tapes by Kevin Gray, in an All Analog Process (AAA).

Bojan Gorišek is the leading Slovenian pianist in the field of contemporary music, perhaps best known for recording the complete piano opus (10 CDs) of Erik Satie for the Blaricum Music Group of the Netherlands and the English label LTM Recordings. Those recordings, rated among the best ever made, represent the most complete review of Satie’s piano compositions to date. He has recorded over 30 CDs to date, including four CDs by George Crumb, the piano sonata Concord by Charles Ives and two CDs by Philip Glass for the Blaricum Music Group (Audiophile Classics series). He has also recorded the complete piano opuses of a number of Slovenian composers. Most recently, he has received high regard for his interpretations of Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass.

Rock icon Lindsey Buckingham and popular country group Little Big Town shared the stage for the 22nd episode of CMT's Crossroads. The show was taped in front of an invitation-only audience in NASHVILLE on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2006 and premiered on CMT SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2006. In this 2006 concert, Lindsey Buckingham collaborates with the younger band Little Big Town, exploring connections between Little Big Town’s country-rock styles and the musical moods and ideas that Buckingham has been exploring throughout his long career.

Chicago Urban Blues 1923-1945 is a concentrated anthology of historic recordings by individuals with ties to communities all across the southern United States. This collection includes well chosen examples by pianists Meade "Lux" Lewis, Bob Robinson (of Hokum Boys fame), Roosevelt Sykes, Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, and Jimmy Yancey, who played on one of only two recordings known to have been made by vocalist Faber Smith. Amos Easton, also known as Bumble Bee Slim, was backed on the ivories by Myrtle Jenkins, who also made records with Priscilla Stewart, Mary Mack, and the State Street Swingers. There's enough female energy in here to settle anybody's business. You hear Ida Cox accompanied by pianist Lovie Austin; Bertha "Chippie" Hill by Richard M. Jones, and Hannah May, who might have been Victoria Spivey's sister Elton Spivey, with Georgia Tom Dorsey and Tampa Red. Lil Johnson sings "My Stove's in Good Condition" backed by pianist Black Bob and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. "Squat It" comes from a large body of works generated by the team of Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. Sippie Wallace sings the "Bedroom Blues," and her little brother Hersal Thomas performs his own "Suitcase Blues," which became a staple of the piano blues repertoire and received its best reinterpretation on a 1939 Blue Note recording by Albert Ammons.

Famous as its title has become through Carl Orff's work of the same name, the original Carmina burana—a German manuscript collection of mostly secular songs, probably compiled in the early thirteenth century—is all but unknown to modern listeners. That it should be so is hardly surprising, since many of the pieces in the manuscript pose formidable editorial problems (inasmuch as they can be deciphered at all), and since virtually nothing is known about the manner in which they would have been performed and accompanied, nor about the circumstances under which they would have been heard.