George Gershwin: The Ultimate Collection is a nice double-disc set that collects definitive performances of Gershwin standards from Rhapsody in Blue to Funny Face. It's a wildly eclectic collection, containing cuts from Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Audrey Hepburn, Sarah Vaughan, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, and the Boston Pops ...
The 40th anniversary of the Charlie Brown comic strip is celebrated on this 1987 CD by performances of songs used on the cartoon series (most of which were originally composed by Vince Guaraldi). A variety of artists participated in the project including David Benoit, B.B. King (singing "Joe Cool"), Dave Grusin, Chick Corea ("The Great Pumpkin ...
A hoppin' visit from Saint Nick via some of his happier elves, Yule B Swingin' Too is the second release in a series of vocal jazz holiday albums from Hip-O Records. Having released some real classics on the first volume, this edition suffers a little, but several tracks really shine: Ann Margaret and Al Hirt's take on "Baby It's Cold Outside" is ...
Joe Williams had enlivened the Count Basie band for so long that it was natural for Basie and company to return the favor on his 1959 solo LP for Roulette. And with a trio of Basie arrangers -- Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins, Thad Jones -- providing charts for a rather small group here, the results are excellent. Williams focuses in by opening with ...
In effect, this double-disc set, released in anticipation of Joe Williams' 75th birthday, is two compilation albums in one. The first CD, containing material recorded between 1955 and 1957, presents the artist singing with Count Basie and His Orchestra at the start of Williams' national career, when he and Basie scored a major R&B hit with the ...
This CD serves as a perfect introduction to pre-war blues for the novice since it contains fine examples of the music of 20 blues artists: Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, Bo Carter, Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson, Charley Patton, Leroy Carr, Josh White, Leadbelly, Peetie Wheatstraw, Robert ...
A fantastic compilation that really does span the length of Mississippi Delta blues, from the early days of the Mississippi Sheiks and Charley Patton (with the classic "High Water Everywhere Part One") through to the modern but equally rooted sounds of Asie Payton, R.L. Burnside, and the late Junior Kimbrough. And it's every bit as thorough in ...
The Harry Smith-compiled three-volume Anthology of American Folk Music set, originally released in the 1950s and reissued to much brouhaha in 1997, was one of the most important records in launching the folk revival. It was not well known, though, that Smith compiled a fourth volume that was unissued. Revenant finally put it out in 2000, and like ...
The classic songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are rendered on this outstanding three-disc set, which features vocalists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Shirley Horn, Tony Bennett and Cassandra Wilson. Among the spotlighted instrumentalists are Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Stan Getz, Bill ...
Combine a great ear for music with a firm commitment to recording only what you personally like and you've got the formula that has fueled Arhoolie Records for 40 years. Founder Chris Strachwitz -- a German immigrant and former schoolteacher -- may have seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of the great compilers of regional American popular ...
As Marshall Wyatt's thorough liner notes explain in the accompanying 32-page booklet, the violin had a more prominent role in early blues than has often been supposed. Violins were far more apt to be played than guitars in the 19th century, and even when the blues began to be recorded in the 1920s, violins were still often used, although they ...
This fascinating three-CD set has 28 performances (all but the Billie Holiday number were previously unreleased) taken from the Monterey Jazz Festival and programmed in chronological order. Starting with Dizzy Gillespie playing an unaccompanied version of "The Star Spangled Banner" that opened the very first festival and progressing up until the ...
For this session, Joe Williams is backed by such master jazzmen as trumpeter Thad Jones, the contrasting tenors of Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Benny Golson and guitarist John Collins. The material varies from the dated humor of "It's Not Easy Being White" to classic versions of "Until I Met You" and "I Got It Bad." Joe Williams is in prime form, and ...
Roots n' Blues: the Retrospective presents five hours of music over four discs, covering the traditional recordings made by Columbia Records and its associated labels from 1925 to 1950. As an all-inclusive survey of American roots music, this set is an invaluable library piece and a good reference, but where this collection really stands out is in ...
It's hard to believe from the vantage point of a period when blues songs are used for network television commercials, but it wasn't so long ago that the blues was, though hardly in danger of extinction, certainly limited to a pretty specialized audience. The blues revival of the early '60s brought the music back into the spotlight through its ...
With the unlikely sound of a kazoo, the Allen Brothers kick off this fine volume of hard-time blues collected from the '20s and '30s. More tongue-in-cheek than its predecessor, this volume is not all moaning and weeping. Uncle Dave Macon & Sam McGhee create a joyful sound with dueling banjos on "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravey Train" and Earl ...
All-Star Merry Christmas features a variety of early- to mid-20th century vocalists performing holiday favorites. Featured artists include Joe Williams ("Jingle Bells"), Diahann Carroll ("Deck the Halls"), Vic Damone ("Winter Wonderland"), and Patti Page ("Frosty the Snowman"), in addition to a few others. Those who appreciate early to mid-20th ...
Joe Williams had been wanting to record an album of spirituals since 1957 and this is it. The veteran singer gives a blues feeling and swing to the traditional pieces which range from the rollicking title cut to "Go Down Moses," "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" and "The Lord's Prayer." He is assisted by Marlena Shaw (a particularly effective partner ...
Many of the major jazz labels have come out with a Christmas jazz collection that shows off their top artists. Telarc is no exception, and this fine CD has good performances from the Ray Brown Trio (with pianist Benny Green), Mel Torme, George Shearing, Jimmy McGriff with Hank Crawford, Joe Williams, Jeanie Bryson, the duo of Dave Brubeck and ...
Love Ballads: Late Night Jazz collects warm, romantic ballad material from a pretty strong array of artists, including Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, Mel Tormé, Lionel Hampton, Joe Williams, Gerry Mulligan, and more. Although it's better to hear most of these artists' work in its original context, this sampler does an excellent job ...
This assemblage of blues, bluegrass, mountain ballads, topical songs, and jazz shows the wide range of American vernacular music, and Smithsonian Folkways' commitment to it. Among the many highlights here are Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson's ragged and yet sleek version of "The Coo Coo Bird," Doug Wallin's creaky and breathless a cappella version ...
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