First full-scale, cross‑school anthology of Japanese biwa music, bringing together all major styles in one collection. Originally released on 7LP(SLJM-1031~1037) by Nippon Grammophon Co., Ltd. on 20 Nov 1963. A 5‑CD box set (catalog numbers VZCG‑8439–8443) released on September 22, 2010 by the Japanese Traditional Culture Foundation (in association with Victor Entertainment) These are digital remasters from the original stereo master tapes of the 1963 LP release (seven‑LP set SLJM‑1031–37 by Nippon Grammophon), which won the 1959 LP the 18th Japan Arts Festival Record Award (Arts Encouragement Prize) in 1963. The set provides a comprehensive survey of styles of Japanese biwa music, featuring rare recordings by renowned masters across all major traditions: Gaku‑biwa, Mōsō‑biwa, Heike‑biwa, Satsuma‑biwa (both Seihā and Kinshin school), Chikuzen‑biwa, Kin biwa, Higo‑biwa, and comic Biwa (Kokkei‑biwa)

CD reissue. What makes this album work are the rhythms and virtuoso guitar playing. Three of the eight songs, "Doobie Wah", "I Wanna Go To The Sun" and "Baby (Somethin's Happening" appeared on the highly successful 1976 Frampton Comes Alive! Album. This remastered version is fresh, vibrant, and very much a live production in the studio. An interesting mix of acoustic and electric styles. The general feel is rhythmic, rocky and raw, and the album is quite experimental in character, with vocals and instruments awash with studio sound effects, including a very early guitar synthesizer. This album finds Peter Frampton returning to more of a harder rock format with the hooks and riffs which make him the unique live performer he is.

Blue Note compilation series in the 1990s for soul jazz & jazz funk releated recordings.

First anthology to chronicle the music of Uncle Walt’s Band, includes five previously unissued tracks. “Walter Hyatt, David Ball and Champ Hood have been an inspiration to me ever since the first time I heard Uncle Walt’s Band,” said Lyle Lovett, a journalism student at Texas A&M University when he first heard the band. “Musically, their finely crafted original compositions reflect diverse influences, while lyrically they demonstrate a sensitive, sophisticated understanding of the dignified South.” Uncle Walt’s Band, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, was an eclectic music trio that moved to Nashville in 1972 and shortly thereafter to Austin at the urging of Willis Alan Ramsey. ​An attempt at ​an album proved unsuccessful​, so the band headed back to Spartanburg in 1974 where they recorded their own debut LP, Blame It On The Bossa Nova. One thousand copies pressed, sold through performances and self-promotion, disappeared quickly. Heat was gaining for the band so they headed back down to Austin with a reissued album now titled, Uncle Walt’s Band. (Pressings of their original LP change hands for hundreds of dollars these days)

One of the world's most popular latin-style nylon string guitarists, Pavlo has sold over half a million albums over his career, toured the world to sold out theatres, and his "Live In Kastoria" PBS special has become one of the most viewed and highest earning pledge concerts in PBS history. "Together" is Pavlo's first "Pop" album and his first album to incorporate vocals. He has invited some of the world's best vocalists and songwriters as collaborators to make it happen. The Singers and Co-Writers on "Together" are some of the most talented in the world! Collectively, they have worked with Celine Dion, Avicii, David Foster, Gloria Estefan, Rihanna, Eminem, Zac Brown and so many more.

Kay-Gees were to Kool & The Gang what The JB’s were to James Brown – namely, a spin-off group that was able to function as an independent entity and release albums in their own right. The group’s name was derived from the initial letters of the band whose proteges they were, i.e. Kool & The Gang. Kevin Bell of the Kay-Gees is Robert (Kool) Bell’s younger brother, and later on in his career joined Kool & The Gang. Robinsongs brings you the first three Kay-Gees albums “Keep On Bumpin’ & Masterplan”, “Find A Friend” & “Kilowatt” on a double CD package, plus four bonus tracks. The package includes all their R&B singles ‘You’ve Got To Keep On Bumpin’’, ‘Master Plan’, ‘Get Down’, ‘Waiting At The Bus Stop’, ‘Cheek To Cheek’ and as a bonus track – ‘Hustle Wit Every Muscle’, which was the theme tune to the U.S. show “Party”. Also included on this package are two extended versions of the track ‘Kilowatt’ and the 12” mix of ‘Cheek To Cheek’. The Kay-Gees had many of their tracks sampled over the years, including Kanye West for his album “Late Registration” and Dr. Dre who featured ‘Who’s The Man (With The Masterplan)’ on his classic “The Chronic” album. If you love Kool & The Gang this is the package for you. This package includes sleeve notes by MOJO & Record Collector journalist Charles Waring.

If you’re talking about modern progressive rock and don’t bring up Haken, you’re doing it wrong. Since the south English sextet started jamming together in 2004, they’ve been one of their genre’s most loyal yet, simultaneously, adventurous forces. And how do you honour such an eclectic, unpredictable career? You make Fauna: Haken’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date.
Musically, Fauna represents Haken at their most diverse. Taurus commences the album with its scraping heavy metal chords, as polyrhythmic as they are jagged. However, Ross’s melodic croon and the triumphant chorus are true Haken. Eyes Of Ebony is pure math rock, delicate in its start-stop clean guitar picking and chiming cymbals, while Island In The Clouds flaunts its bouncing bassline…

Starting out briefly as The Electric Garden, Middle Earth opened its doors in 1967 and immediately became the most happening club in London. More than just a home for UK bands that were pushing the boundaries of rock music, Middle Earth also attracted some of America's finest exponents of psychedelic rock such as Captain Beefheart, The Byrds, The Fugs, Jefferson Airplane, and many more.

Probably the most perfect version ever recorded of Mozart’s concertos with the incredibly difficult Natural Horn. The use of period instruments, a movement which began in the middle of the past century, is no longer a passing fad or something novel. Rather, it represents a fundamental part of our musical culture whose importance goes far beyond the simple nostalgic or poetic recreation of a score. The “archaic” technical characteristics of period instruments often force performers to seek solutions that, while resulting in a sound closer to historical reality, often surprise the listener. Technical constraints are even more evident in wind instruments, given that the significant evolution in their construction has accentuated the differences that emerged over the course of their development.

Charlie Hunter's seventh Blue Note release is the first to feature vocalists - Theryl De'Clouet, Kurt Elling, Norah Jones, and rapper Mos Def - who appear in rotating guest spots. Five of the 13 tracks are instrumental originals. Some meander in a typical jam band way, but they're guided by an economical, live-quartet sound and driven by Hunter's highly intriguing eight-string guitar work. The short solo guitar piece "Sunday Morning" is a tease, but also a gem. De'Clouet's gravelly, soulful voice fits nicely on Earth, Wind & Fire's "Mighty, Mighty" and the Willie Dixon blues classic "Spoonful"; his control of harmonic overtones on the latter is astounding. Labelmate Norah Jones lends her breezy, laid-back vibe to Roxy Music's "More Than This" and Nick Drake's "Day Is Done." Mos Def kibbitzes on the opening "Street Sounds" and turns in a respectable singing performance on the sultry, minor-key "Creole"…

TOTO’s 4th album “TOTO IV” released in 1982 was a huge hit, ranking No. 4 on the U.S. album chart, and also spawned three smash hits. Along with the release, a world tour will begin, and the opening performance in Japan at Budokan on May 18th was recorded and broadcast as a special program on NHK.This “Alive The Live” release adds unaired songs taken from the audio master used for the broadcast, making up a total of 21 tracks, releasing it as a complete show of that night’s concert, on 2 CD.There’s great versions of now classics such as Hold The Line, Child’s Anthem, 99, Rosanna, a huge 15-min of ‘Africa’, and a killer Steve Lukather solo.

Tomorrow Held is the visionary new album by twenty-something mould-breakers and conservatoire-trained virtuosos, fiddle player Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell. Eight largely instrumental tracks that hold space, resolve into mystery, and fold in elements of jazz, post-rock and chamber music while raiding the folk music toolbox. Call it what you want: post-folk. Trad-noir. Folk nihilism. Then know that Spafford Campbell are blazing a trail that erases genre and finds gold in the embers. Forget about tomorrow, they say. Welcome to the now.

A 40th Anniversary set was released in 2016. Available in a variety of packages and formats, it offers a newly remastered edition of the original album done at Abbey Road Studios. Another disc showcases several artists covering album cuts including Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters with producer Nick Raskulinecz, Billy Talent, Steven Wilson, Alice in Chains, and others. Also included are live Rush outtakes from a 1976 Massey Hall concert, radio ads, and more.
Whereas Rush's first two releases, their self-titled debut and Fly by Night, helped create a buzz among hard rock fans worldwide, the more progressive third release, Caress of Steel, confused many of their supporters. Rush knew it was now or never with their fourth release, and they delivered just in time - 1976's 2112 proved to be their much sought-after commercial breakthrough and remains one of their most popular albums…

Billy Joel Drops Massive 155-Song ‘And So It Goes’ Companion Playlist. Seven-hour playlist features unreleased live recordings and outtakes, including the first-ever performance of "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant". Following the premiere of the second part of Billy Joel’s And So It Goes documentary, the Piano Man dropped a massive 155-song companion album on digital services featuring unreleased recordings and more.

1995: fresh from finishing and releasing his magnum opus, 'Last Train to Lhasa', Toby Marks, aka Banco de Gaia, rolled down to Glastonbury Festival to play on the Avalon Stage in the Field of Avalon. The year was one of the first times dance music had been given significant space at the festival, and Toby’s set was much anticipated, with the marquee completely full by the time he came on stage. The set featured many of his most familiar songs, often given radically new arrangements, turning some previously un-danceable tracks into driving club tunes. Ed Vulliamy described it in his review for the Guardian as “electrifying: symphonic, epic, hugely lyrical music in the best traditions of the early Floyd, underpinned by synthetic energy but aiming at an appropriately earthy message, atop which a flute sometimes danced” and credited the show as the highlight of the year…