Four CD solo anthology from the American singer/songwriter and former Fat Chance member. This set contains 70 remastered tracks tracing the respected solo career of LaBounty, covering virtually the entirety of his solo albums. Includes 18 unreleased demos and five songs from the debut album Promised Love, which has never been released on CD. Features musical assistance from James Taylor, Larry Carlton, Jeff Porcaro, Willie Weeks, Steve Lukather, Lenny Castro, Robbie Dupree, Patti Austin, Jennifer Warnes, Steve Gadd and many others.

A somewhat surprising pairing at the time, the former firebrand of the tenor sax and the wonderful South African pianist found a pleasant and relaxed meeting point. By 1978, Shepp had largely abandoned the ferocious attack that gained him renown in the '60s, settling on a rich, Ben Webster-ish tone and playing a repertoire consisting of modern standards and bluesy originals.

Anyone who has heard anything from Stick men will know what to expect here. This is quite experimental music that has ties to King Crimson and also tends towards atmospheric sounds. These guys always deliver quality and always manage to thrill, while keeping a sound that’s true to their roots and identity. You really can’t go wrong with Stick Men and this is a classic example of that fact.

Hank Mobley - Soul Station (1960) {2009 Audio Wave XRCD24 Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 269 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 89 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 242 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster | XRCD24
© 2009 Audio Wave / Blue Note | AWMXR-0001
Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone

Leonard Feather once famously described Hank Mobley as 'the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone.' Middleweights never get much respect. But before drugs and general dissipation got him, Mobley recorded some albums for Blue Note in the 1960s that make time stand still. Soul Station exemplifies the suave, flowing melodicism and erotic rhythmic subtlety that made Mobley unique. With a rhythm section for the ages behind him, Mobley delivers profundities of soul and swing now gone from planet Earth. This Audio Wave reissue uses JVC's XRCD24 mastering and manufacturing technologies and gets you closest to Blue Note's master tapes.

John Philip Sousa (Washington DC, 1854-1932), American composer and bandleader, of Austro-Portuguese descent, was recognized mainly for their enormous and prestigious building of military and patriotic marches, which he composed 136. It was called the 'King of the March'. This album is the third of a 5 part series on the Naxos label dedicated to his music. It is interpreted by the 'Royal Artillery Band' directed by Keith Brion, a musician expert in the music of Sousa.

'Los Machucambos' were one of the groups most famous of Latin American music of the '60s and '70s, composed of Costa Rican singer Julia Cortes, the Spanish Rafael Gayoso and Italian Romano Zanotti. The group was created in Paris in 1959 and had its golden age until 1972, being especially known in Europe, where they released a large number of albums winning two gold and four platinum records. The repertoire of this album brings together many well-known titles of Brazilian and South American music.

Mark Nauseef, Ikue Mori, Evan Parker, Bill Laswell - Near Nadir (2011) {Tzadik}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 251 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 25 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 Tzadik | TZ 7636
Jazz / Free Improvisation / Experimental / Electronica

Tzadik is proud to present this historic meeting of four major figures in the new music pantheon, each a master improviser and groundbreaking instrumentalist in their own right. Their work together is symbiotic, telepathic—the music powerful and sensitive, sustaining a hypnotic mood with great attention to detail and subtle nuance. Mixed to perfection by Bill Laswell, this is a landmark recording of electro-acoustic improvisation featuring four pioneers of the genre. Mindblowing!

… Klucevsek … commissioned a plethora of contemporary composers, ranging across the musical spectrum, to write him some polkas. The superb results are chronicled on the present disc and its companion, ?Who Stole the Polka?. Sometimes (well, oftentimes) the relationship between the polka fans know and love (or hate) and the pieces herein is tangential, but one can usually locate that two-beat rhythm in one guise or another. Klucevsek's own "The Grass, It Is Blue" polkas with passion, as do Steve Elson's "From Here to Paternity Polka" and William Duckworth's "Polking Around." Pieces by Anthony Coleman and the late Tom Cora use more oblique strategies, commenting on the form while melding it to others. …

Saul is one of Handel's largest oratorios; its rich orchestration includes trumpets, trombones, timpani, harp, and carillon. René Jacobs certainly wrests every drop of color from this luxurious array of instruments, particularly in the choruses, which are gloriously grand but also extremely exciting. In Nos. 20-24, where the populace (with maddening relentlessness) praises David above Saul to the incessant jangling of the carillon, it's easy to understand why the king objects to the unseemly revelry. Handel's music wonderfully suggests both the joyous celebration and seeds of jealousy being planted in Saul's mind. Similarly, Jacobs' careful choice of colors for the continuo part makes the famous "Dead March" far more solemn than it often sounds, an appropriate introduction to Handel's "Elegy on the death of Saul and Jonathan".