Mills Brothers - Tiger Rag: The Singles Collection Vol. 1 1931-47 - It's a representative overview of the first era of their career and is a fine showcase for their highly distinctive style of vocal harmonies. - The Mills Brothers were a pioneering vocal quartet, who performed in a jazz-flavoured barbershop style and were forerunners of the doowop groups of later years- they broke new ground as the first African-American group to have their own network radio show in the USA. In the course of their long career they made more than 2,000 recordings and had around 60 US chart entries. So prolific were that we have chosen to present their releases on 78s and 45s in two 4-CD sets, of which this is the first (Vol. 2 is ACQCD7186). This 104-track 4-CD collection comprises selected A & B sides from their releases on the Brunswick and Decca labels from their debut in 1931 through to 1947, with just about every release represented by at least one side. It features 38 of their hits, including the No. 1s "Tiger Rag", "Dinah", "Paper Doll" and "You Always Hurt The One You Love", and the Top 5 entries "You Rascal You", "I Heard", "Good-Bye Blues", "Rockin' Chair", "St. Louis Blues", "Swing It Sister" and "Sleepy Head". It features duet recording with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. It's a representative overview of the first era of their career and is a fine showcase for their highly distinctive style of vocal harmonies.
The 20th Anniversary Edition of the DIRTY DANCING soundtrack features all of the music from the film sequenced as it appears in the film plus the previously unreleased track "Gazebo Waltz". The package also includes a 16-page color book stuffed with photos from the movie.
28 examples of the scorching guitar work of Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown ' one of the most influential guitarists from the Texas school, influenced himself by T-Bone Walker. These, his earliest recordings spanning 1947 through 1953 were equally influential of the next generation of guitarists. Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan were all influenced by these seminal recordings.
Robert Nighthawk recorded for United on it's first day of sessions and two of United's first five releases were by "Robert Nighthawk and his Nighthawks Band". He had a national hit in late '49 on Aristocrat and perhaps United had envisioned Nighthawk as it's blues-singing slide guitar rival to Chess' Muddy Waters. Sales didn't pan out but to many he was the ultimate slide guitarist of the amplified blues era, one who influenced the likes of Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Earl Hooker. B.B. King cited Nighthawk as one of his "Ten Favorite Guitarists" in "Guitar Player" magazine. Today, more than 30 years after his death, Nighthawk is ranked among the greats in blues history.
The classic 1967 Chess album Muddy, Brass & The Blues, adds horns and prominent organ to Muddy Waters' basic band format. Waters' earlier work had been built around his returning to sounds and influences from his past. Here, the label tried to give him a new sound. Stripped of his guitar, Waters proves what a great R&B singer he was. Featuring Otis Spann on piano, and Sammy Lawhorn and Pee Wee Madison on guitar. This is the first official American LP re-issue in more than 30 years.
Folk Singer (Chess Acoustic Sounds Series) [180g LP] Presented here in it's highly sought-after mono mix, Folk Singer has never sounded better. Recorded at the crest of the early '60s folk revival, Folk Singer, despite it's title, is the blues in it's purest form. Returning to the all-acoustic approach of his earliest recordings, Waters is joined by Buddy Guy on guitar and Willie Dixon on bass, with subtle drum accompaniment from Clifton James on select tracks including "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "Feel Like Going Home."
Tennessee blues poet Sleepy John Estes made his recorded debut in 1929 with the song "Broken Hearted, Ragged and Dirty Too". In '35 John teamed up with Hammie Nixon and they went on to record many classic sides together until WWII. After a twenty-year absence Delmark's Bob Koester rediscovered John and presented him to the new blues audience in '62. This led to a series of LPs and a reinvigorated career. This album was recorded in November of 1974 at concerts in Japan, one of the very first tours of that country by a blues artist - preceded only by a B.B. King State Department appearance. The Estes tour was a great success and even resulted in an Estes track appearing on the Japanese Top 100 chart! 73 minutes.
Experience Louis Armstrong at the height of his powers with this definitive 1959 Copenhagen concert, captured just months before his life changing heart attack. Drawn from newly restored Danish radio tapes, SCCD 36513 showcases Armstrong’s All Stars in explosive form—fiery “Tiger Rag,” soulful “Basin Street Blues,” a powerful “Black and Blue/Do You Know What It Means” medley, and joyous favorites like “Mack the Knife” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Featuring Velma Middleton, Trummy Young, Peanuts Hucko, Billy Kyle, Mort Herbert, and Danny Barcelona, this release reveals Armstrong’s unmatched stamina and emotional depth. Liner notes are by Ricky Riccardi, the Grammy winning Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum and one of the world’s leading Armstrong scholars. A major archival addition to the Armstrong discography, presented with SteepleChase’s renowned audio restoration.
Bolcom: Sonatas For Violin & Piano / Lewin-muresanu Duo
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Nov 01, 2007
I touched on the wide stylistic gamut and nearly half-century of compositional activity of William Bolcom's four violin sonatas in my review of the cycle's first integral recording (type Q9749 in Search Reviews). Although Bolcom himself annotated and rightfully endorsed the Soroka/Greene duo's excellent performances, violinist Irina Muresanu and pianist Michael Lewin offer formidable, and at times superior competition to the Naxos edition.
Compared to the latter's richly detailed, close-up sonic perspective, producer Joseph Patrych achieves a mellower, less "in your face" ambience that suggests an intimate chamber music venue. Perhaps this factors into the more texturally transparent and finely nuanced impression conveyed by the generally faster tempos that Muresanu and Lewin favor. For example, the hushed imitative writing in the middle of the First sonata's central Nocturne movement alluringly shimmers here, while Muresanu's more consistently even tone and uniform phrasing in the third movement's lyrical episodes address Bolcom's "semplice" request more effortlessly than does Solomia Soroka's heavier touch.
Muresanu's portamentos and accents also prove more idiomatic in the Second sonata's finale (dedicated to the memory of jazz violin great Joe Venuti), if not quite with Maria Bachmann's flair or Sergiu Luca's unbridled joy with the composer digging into the keyboard (when will this Nonesuch recording make it to CD?).
There's something to be said for the Naxos team's starker, weightier drama in the Third sonata's outer movements, yet the Centaur duo's brisker, quieter execution best conveys the third movement's "shivering" directive. Because Muresanu and Lewin take trouble to distinguish the Andante's carefully varied articulations and phrase groupings, you really notice how the violin and piano parts intertwine.
Both Fourth sonata performances are excellent, and are different enough in detail to make a clear-cut preference difficult. Soroka and Greene boast the incisive edge in the first movement, make more of the second movement's volatile tempo changes and dynamic contrasts, and truly observe the third movement's melody/"drumbeat" call-and-response narrative to Bolcom's "inexorable" specification (Lewin falls into an "espressivo" bag once or twice when making decrescendos). At the same time, Muresanu and Lewin achieve amazingly flexible unanimity in the second movement's Grazioso section. A bonus track in the form of Bolcom's 1983 concert variation on his piano rag Graceful Ghost brings this program to a sensitive and memorable close.
