Ivan Hewett, Chief Classical Music and Jazz Critic 3 January 2018 • 12:06pm Beats & Pieces Big Band, Ronnie Scott’s ★★★★☆ Few sounds are as instantly recognisable as a big band. And that’s its problem. Those choirs of trumpets and horns raised in ecstatic harmony carry one irresistibly back to a different, more glamorous age. It […]
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We are told ….. During 1964 The Stones booked two sessions at the legendary Chess studios. They recorded the big hits ‘It’s All Over Now’ and ‘Time Is On My Side’. Also recorded were eight legendary outtakes which were never officially released including ‘Goodbye Girl’, a rare Bill Wyman composition. Also included are bonus tracks […]
Denis Poole writes: Much of the early buzz surrounding the release of ‘East Bay Soul 2.0’ was about how a sensational campaign to raise the $25,000 necessary to record the album hit its target. However, now it’s all about the music. Make no mistake; this is a collection of the highest order and everything […]
Led Zeppelin will continue their reissue campaign with a new edition of their celebrated live album How The West Was Won, originally released in 2003, featuring newly remastered audio, which was done under the supervision of Jimmy Page. CD – Remastered audio on three CDs HOW THE WEST WAS WON highlights the best performances from […]
On April 18, 1990, shortly after the release of their self-titled third album, the Silos performed about 75 minutes of music for the SNAP alternative music radio program. Broadcast on KCRW in Santa Monica, California near Los Angeles, it features versions of all but one song from that third album, as well as selections from […]
Terry wrote to us recently as follows and we are delighted to publish his text here. Thank you Terry. Hi there… Just registered. I searched for Gale on your site and found some great info. I’ve just restored a pair of 401a’s and your readers may be interested in how it worked out. Process documented […]
Kleanthes Koniaris writes: Reading music is really all about memorization. You painfully learn how to look at a printed note (on paper) and immediately finger the instrument in the correct way. On a piano, each note lands on exactly one of the 88 keys, and this is fantastic. On a guitar, a given note could […]
Albert King was one of three kings (B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King) who helped in defining the blues and pronouncing its grip on generations of young musicians. King was also a pioneer in merging blues with the hard-driving funk of his Stax label mates The Bar-Kays and with Isaac Hayes’ Movement. The Memphis sound […]
Audiophile Audition / Jeff Krow writes ….. Towards the end of her career, songstress Dinah Washington was panned by some critics for recording weak pop music with overly commercial string backing. Washington’s inimitable voice overcame these limitations but her reputation still suffered. Recorded a little over a year before her tragic death at age 39, […]
Singer, guitarist, songwriter and musicologist Big Joe Louis is a veteran of the UK blues scene. He plays in the UK and Europe both solo and with His Blues Kings. He also tours with many American artists, who value his style of playing. In 2007, he left his job as a blues consultant with […]
An archival box set featuring the music of Taste, the Irish rock/blues band formed in the mid sixties that featured Rory Gallagher on guitar and vocals. The four disc set will feature both studio albums (1969′s Taste and the 1970 follow-up On The Boards) expanded with many alternate versions of album tracks. The third CD is full of live audio from 1970 culled from concerts in Stockholm and […]
Seen in the hallways at California State University in Northridge, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he teaches big band arranging, jazz history and other music courses, John Daversa might be seen with his goatee, and dense, dark and curly hair, parted in the middle, and correctly sense he might be involved in one of […]
Ivan Hewitt writes: Stage fright is like madness; it comes without warning, out of a blue sky. That’s how it came to Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, one of the most intelligent and sensitive pianists around. About ten years ago, during a performance of Mozart’s 23rd Piano Concerto, he suddenly started worrying that he was about […]
First transmitted in 1985, Harley Cokliss’ classic blues documentary includes performances by Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, and shows how the tough urban music of Chicago developed out of the original rural blues MORE
It’s thanks to Haydn that the symphony became the place where a composer’s grandest, most original, and most daring thoughts were to be found. His first symphonies are more like suites, the historical form out of which the symphony developed. They were composed in Esterhazy for the court where he worked. There is a quality […]
Welcome to Tony’s (Jazz) Treasure trove; a regular series of posts on a subject he knows well. He’s on a mission to shine a light on superb performers who are often unknown and shouldn’t be! Self-confessed jazz fanatic Tony Andrews writes … A lot of CD’s pass my way and one did recently that made […]
Biography of iconic rock balladeer Roy Orbison told through his own voice, casting new light on the triumphs and tragedies that beset his career. Using previously unseen performances, home movies and interviews with many who have never spoken before, the film reveals Orbison’s remote Texas childhood, his battles to get his voice heard, and how […]
From the archives: In today’s economic climate, opera houses are in trouble. Yet at the same time, more people are watching opera than ever before. What’s going on, asks Rupert Christiansen. It seemed all too grimly appropriate last week that Opera Europa – the umbrella support group and talking-shop for European opera houses – should […]
I don’t think it matters. Play what you like, what you want to hear right at that minute. Or what people ask for…. This is what we ended up playing on the Quads at Scalford earlier this year ….. Dip in and out HERE