Music from two different occasions are combined on this CD reissue. The four songs from 1960 match the great tenor Gene Ammons with Frank Wess (doubling on flute and tenor), organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith, bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Art Taylor. Wess, one of jazz's great flutists, battles Ammons on tenor to a draw on "Water Jug," while the leader takes "Angel Eyes" as his memorable feature. In addition, Ammons is heard in 1962 with pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Ed Thigpen playing with great warmth on the ballads "You Go to My Head" and "It's the Talk of the Town." The latter set was one of Ammons' final ones before serving a long prison sentence (drug-related), yet his interpretations are full of optimism.

Nara Leão, the Musa da Bossa Nova (Bossa Nova's Muse, as she is affectionately known), was a prominent figure in bossa nova. She didn't restrict herself as a bossa nova singer, though, and was one of the first artists to engage in the movement later known as "canção de protesto" (protest song), an artistic movement which denounced military dictatorship in Brazil. She launched the careers of such composers/interpreters as Chico Buarque, Zé Keti, Martinho da Vila, Edu Lobo, Paulinho da Viola, and Fagner. An international performer in spite of her short, uneducated voice, she left an expressive discography even though death caught her by surprise at such a precocious age…

Willie Bobo's 1965 LP, Spanish Grease, has been combined with his Uno Dos Tres 1-2-3 LP from 1966 on one CD reissue. One pass through the title cut of Spanish Grease and you know that Carlos Santana was listening. The easy R&B/Latin jazz shuffle on this Bobo original, with its mix of Spanish and English vocals, is an obvious touchstone to cuts like "Evil Ways" on Santana's first two albums. What a shame, then, that the rest of the record is primarily comprised of covers of pop hits of the day like "It's Not Unusual" (a vocal and an instrumental version!) and "Our Day Will Come." The timbales player and his band lay down respectable grooves, but "Spanish Grease" is the only original on the album, and by far the most rewarding number. Similarly, the toughest and most memorable track on Uno Dos Tres 1-2-3 is the one Bobo original, "Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries." Its creeping Latin soul groove was, like "Spanish Grease," an obvious inspiration for Carlos Santana. But on most of the rest of the recording, Bobo coasts through interpretations of period hits like "Michelle," "Goin' Out of My Head," and Jay & the Americans' (!) "Come a Little Bit Closer," with some jazz and pop standards as well.

Collectables combines two very different back-to-back recordings made by guitarist Charlie Byrd for Columbia in the mid-'60s. Travellin' Man (issued in 1965) is a live gig at the Showboat in Washington D.C., a club he was playing in - and owned - 36 weeks out of the year. He is featured with his bass playing brother Joe, and the rather astonishing drummer Bill Reichenbach. The program consists of everything from originals like the title cut and the country and bluegrass tinged opener "Mama I'll Be Home Someday" to Michel Legrand's "I Will Wait for You." With tunes like the Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim standard "Do I Hear a Waltz," Billy Strayhorn's "U.M.M.G.," and Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" sandwiched in between. It' is a hard swinging date where Byrd, a great melodic improviser, turns original arrangements inside out and pours his love for bossa and blues into everything he plays…

The Rolling Stones Charlie is my Darling – Ireland 1965 Super Deluxe Box Set includes both DVD and Blu-ray discs that incorporate the new, official 2012 version of the film as well as the director’s cut and producer’s cut, plus significant unseen additional performance and other footage shot in Dublin and Belfast in September of 1965, bonus content, two audio CDs, one of which is the film’s soundtrack album and the other a compilation of 13 live recordings the band made over the course of their 1965 UK tour. A 10” vinyl record of the live material is also part of the package, as well as a replica poster heralding the September 4, 1965 date they played in Belfast. The Super Deluxe box is housed in an ingeniously designed luxurious “soft touch” package, each featuring one of over 200 Limited Edition numbered and enlarged cells randomly inserted from the film. There is also a stunning 42 page Collector’s Edition hardcover book that includes 14 never before seen, and painstakingly restored exclusive, photographs, including the key art, of the band from the Irish Photo Archive/Lensmen Photo Archive as well as colour photos taken by Marc Sharatt, the Stones’ tour photographer.

Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard–a.k.a. The Supremes–ushered in 1965 with the electrifying, era-defining "Stop! In the Name of Love," their fourth of five consecutive, record-breaking, chart-topping singles. In that year alone, the undisputed queens of Motown released five sizzling LPs, including their only holiday album: the instant classic Merry Christmas. Produced by Detroit legend Harvey Fuqua with arrangements by the great Gene Page, H.B. Barnum, and Ernie Freeman, Merry Christmas was filled with joyful delights. In addition to The Supremes' inimitable versions of yuletide favorites, it introduced Jimmy Webb's first-ever recorded song ("My Christmas Tree") and yielded a pair of charting singles (the Motown originals "Children's Christmas Song" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me") plus a yearly Christmas radio staple ("My Favorite Things"). This salute to the season quickly became a chart mainstay and all-time perennial.

The Beatles' final European tour encompassed 15 concerts, starting off in Paris on the 20th June 1965. They played two shows in the capital that day, at 3pm and 9pm, each watched by 6,000 people. They stuck to the set they had played throughout the tour, comprising 12 songs, several of which were new: Twist And Shout, She's A Woman, I'm A Loser, Can't Buy Me Love, Baby's In Black, I Wanna Be Your Man, A Hard Day's Night, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Rock And Roll Music, I Feel Fine, Ticket To Ride and Long Tall Sally.

In 1965, the Stones finally proved themselves capable of writing classic rock singles that mined their R&B/blues roots, but updated them into a more guitar-based, thoroughly contemporary context. The first enduring Jagger-Richards classics are here – "The Last Time," its menacing, folky B-side "Play With Fire," and the riff-driven "Satisfaction," which made them superstars in the States and defined their sound and rebellious attitude better than any other single song. On the rest of the album, they largely opted for mid-'60s soul covers, Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike," Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me," and Sam Cooke's "Good Times" being particular standouts. "I'm All Right" (based on a Bo Diddley sound) showed their 1965 sound at its rawest, and there are a couple of fun, though derivative, bluesy originals in "The Spider and the Fly" and "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man."

The usual assumption is that the British-issued Rolling Stones albums of the mid-'60s are, like the Beatles' British LPs of the same era, more accurate representations of the group and its work than their American equivalents; the latter were tailored to the U.S. market and usually had singles that had been recorded and released separately added to their programming. The reality, however, is that the group's British LPs were almost as much of a hodgepodge, but just devised differently. The U.K. version of Out of Our Heads actually came out later than its American counterpart by about a month and opens with the roaring, frenetic "She Said Yeah" rather than the soulful slowie "Mercy Mercy" (which follows it here).

Of the first run of British bands who rose to fame in the wake of the Beatles breaking through in America, none were tougher and more forbidding than the Animals. They were also one of the first English acts to break internationally while aligning themselves with the blues. While the Rolling Stones were steeped in that genre, it would take them years to summon the sort of menace that the Animals delivered on their second single, 1964's "House of the Rising Sun." The band moved into a more pop-oriented direction over the next two years without stripping songs like "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," and "It's My Life" of their passion and intensity. Vocalist Eric Burdon would take the Animals into a more adventurous, psychedelic-infused direction after the dissolution of the original lineup in 1966, while the songs would remain proudly uncompromised to the end of their run.

Nice, more light than emphatic Afro-Latin and jazz mixture by flutist Herbie Mann and composer/vocalist Joao Gilberto from 1965. The two make an effective team, with Gilberto's sometimes sentimental, sometimes impressionistic works effectively supported by Mann's lithe flute solos.

This languid, seductive gem may well be Grant Green's greatest moment on record. Right from the opening bars of the classic title cut, Idle Moments is immediately ingratiating and accessible, featuring some of Green's most stylish straight jazz playing. Whether he's running warm (pianist Duke Pearson's "Idle Moments"), cool (the Modern Jazz Quartet's "Django"), or a bit more up-tempo (Pearson's "Nomad," his own "Jean de Fleur"), Green treats the material with the graceful elegance that was the hallmark of his best hard bop sessions, and that quality achieves its fullest expression here. He's helped by an ensemble that, as a sextet, is slightly larger and fuller-sounding than usual, and there's plenty of room for solo explorations on the four extended pieces…

A remarkable 1964 session produced by Horst Lippmann behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany that found Sumlin trying for the first time on record to sing. He played both electric and acoustic axe on the historic date, sharing the singing with more experienced hands Willie Dixon and Sunnyland Slim (Clifton James is on drums). All three Chicago legends acquit themselves well.

The definitive Roulettes collection, 22 songs covering the group's entire recorded history, with more highlights than one would expect to find. "Bad Time," "I'll Remember Tonight" (which is more familiar to Americans in its cover version by the Mugwumps), "Stubborn Kind of Fellow," and "I Hope He Breaks Your Heart" are priceless, and most of the rest isn't far behind. The sound is excellent, and the notes are entertaining and wonderfully detailed.

Coventry band The Sorrows leapt into the UK charts in 1965 with their hard-edged R&B/Freakbeat hit ‘Take A Heart’. This package contains their PYE album plus A and B sides and Italian and German material. Though the band’s follow-ups gained extensive airplay, particularly on the off-shore pirate stations, they couldn’t repeat their initial chart success. Vocalist Don Fardon left the band, going on to score a UK Top 3 single with ‘Indian Reservation’. Digitally remastered and slipcased.