After a long period of indifferent recordings in the 1960s and early '70s, Rosemary Clooney underwent a renaissance after she began recording regularly for Concord in 1977. Backed by swinging ensembles and encouraged to record songbooks and special projects involving superior songs, Clooney blossomed and her career regained its momentum, continuing into the late '90s. This album finds Rosie singing 11 songs that have Johnny Mercer lyrics, including "Something's Got to Give," "Laura," "I Remember You," "Skylark," and even "Hooray for Hollywood." Joined by such fine soloists as tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton, cornetist Warren Vaché, trombonist Dan Barrett, guitarist Ed Bickert, and her musical director, pianist John Oddo, Rosemary Clooney is heard in excellent form throughout the colorful program.

This is a somewhat unusual Oscar Peterson record (a CD reissue) in a number of ways. Peterson (along with flugelhornist Clark Terry, bassist Dave Young, drummer Jerry Fuller and either Peter Leitch or Ed Bickert on guitar) performs 13 songs either written or popularized by Canadians. In addition he sings the majority of the tunes in his Nat King Cole-influenced voice and contributes two new songs of his own. The repertoire includes some familiar standards ("Some of These Days," "I'll Never Smile Again," "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Sweethearts on Parade"), jazz versions of a few pop tunes (including "Spinning Wheel") and a few obscurities.

The Stylings of Silver is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1957 featuring performances by Silver with Art Farmer, Hank Mobley, Teddy Kotick, and Louis Hayes. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 3 stars and states "All of Silver's Blue Note quintet recordings are consistently superb and swinging and, although not essential, this is a very enjoyable set".

This Britten recital combines two of the composer’s major song cycles, Winter Words, from 1953, and Who are these Children? (1969). In them he explored themes of loneliness, transcience and war – difficult and harrowing material which would test any composer, but Britten is equal to the challenge. His music works its magic by bringing out poignant emotions and subtle insights, sometimes even more vividly than the texts on their own. The music’s emotional depth is grounded in compelling, quasi-naturalistic sound images, such as the whistling, rattling train in the setting of Thomas Hardy’s Midnight on the Great Western. Providing a lighter note between these gripping works are four settings of poems by Robert Burns, containing some of Britten’s most deft and delicate music. Composed on the request of Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, they originally formed part of a set of six songs for high voice and harp, and were later arranged for piano by Britten’s assistant Colin Matthews.

Best Before are Nigel Mullaney and Ray Sherwin. It's like a musical sandwich where the outer layers consist of EM oriented sequential electromixes, while the inner filling hits home with glorious modern day ambient/dance flavours with a splash of techno/industrial thrown in. Anyone who likes to listen to Asana and Orbital back-to-back simply must have a go at this.

Vanilla Fudge was one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal. While the band did record original material, they were best-known for their loud, heavy, slowed-down arrangements of contemporary pop songs, blowing them up to epic proportions and bathing them in a trippy, distorted haze…

SHINING is more than just a band. In fact each release, every concert and interview becomes a bloody battleground, on which Niklas Kvarforth struggles with his inner demons. The frontman and only remaining original member has never been shy to let the world know about his mental afflictions, which seem to complement or even spark his outstanding talent as a composer and musician. His ninth album, 'IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends' is another excellent example of Niklas' genius. Reaching back to their black metal roots, SHINING simultaneously melt eclectic influences from progressive rock, jazz, even pop and more into deeply emotional laments from the dark side of the soul. Niklas’ vocals come in an even greater variety of expressions which few would suspect in a singer coming from the extreme metal scene. Moments of pain and confusion turn into insane outbursts of anger.

This disc marks the beginning of a new series, dedicated to the engaging, albeit neglected, orchestral works of the German-Swiss composer Joachim Raff. The survey starts with Symphony No. 2 and the orchestral preludes to four plays by Shakespeare: The Tempest, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello, all idiomatically performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, conducted by its new Artistic and Music Director, Neeme Järvi.

This disc presents a highly varied programme centred on the combination of solo tuba and wind band. It covers a wide spectrum of styles, from the Concerto by Boris Diev (b. 1924) – a leading figure within the great Russian wind orchestra tradition – to Swedish composer Fredrik Högberg’s (b.1971) wisecracking and effect-laden Trolltuba, a re-telling of the folk tale Three Billy Goats Gruff. A highlight on the disc is tubaist/composer Baadsvik’s own piece, the unique Fnugg Blue, a highly enjoyable showcase for pioneering tuba techniques – including percussive effects and multiphonics.

Johann Strauss Jr. - Viennese Waltzes And Polkas
Eugene Ormandy / The Philadelphia Orchestra
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 383 MB | Full Artwork: 57 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Sony Classical "Essential Classics" SBK 48 164 | Country/Year: Europe 1992; 1959/1966/1969
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Waltz

Eugene Ormandy (November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist who became internationally famous as the music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The maestro's 44-year-long association with the Philadelphia is one of the longest enjoyed by any conductor with a single orchestra. Under his baton, the Philadelphia had three gold records and won two Grammy Awards.

Sacred Spirit is a musical project by Claus Zundel, Ralf Hamm and Markus Staab. The music is of electronic, new age, world and ambient genres. Sacred Spirit's total worldwide album sales estimated to be over 15 million copies. For each album sold, a donation was made to the Native American Rights Fund, the non-profit Native American organization devoting all its time to restoring the legal rights of the native American people.