STONE ROSES: News

  From the archives: The sign says Spike Island was the “birthplace of the British chemical industry”. Well, that’s one way of putting it. For any music fan, the Widnes wildlife haven is synonymous with a more recent event: May 27, 1990, when The Stone Roses played their near-mythical gig to 27,000 fans. A genuine […]

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MAHLER: News

ALLMUSIC: Conductor Semyon Bychkov was never particularly known as a Mahler interpreter, but that seems to have changed after he ascended the podium at the Czech Philharmonic in 2018. Perhaps, as only the orchestra’s second non-Czech conductor, he wanted to establish a repertory for himself outside the usual Czech fare. In any event, his rendition […]

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DONALD BYRD: News

ALLMUSIC: In July 1973, New York’s Blue Note Records assembled an artists showcase for Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival. The performers included Bobbi Humphrey, Bobby Hutcherson, Ronnie Foster, Marlena Shaw, and Donald Byrd. Following the gigs, the label released a series of albums from them with the same title: Live: Cookin’ with Blue Note at Montreux. […]

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ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN: News

ALL MUSIC: After years of departures, solo albums, strange alliances, and rapprochement, Echo & the Bunnymen returned with Ian McCulloch at the helm for 1997’s Evergreen. It’s clear from the first song that the re-formed band is back in all its mysterious, uplifting, and graceful glory. “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” features the best […]

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STING: He may ditch albums for apps

From our archives   Sting has said he may never release another album, preferring the “new model” of iOS apps. As the singer celebrates his 60th birthday, he has hailed the possibilities of his new Sting 25 app. “People are going to stop buying CDs,” Sting told Billboard. “People are going to stop selling and […]

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CHARLIE CHRISTIAN: News

 Here is an extract from a fine piece by Chris May: The New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden—active in the early 1900s—won his reputation as a founding father of jazz without leaving any recorded evidence of his talent. His epoch-shaping stature is based entirely on folklore, the testimony of a few contemporaries, and a handful of […]

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PAUL BUTTERFIELD: Live New York 1970 (2CD)

  In the sixties when ELEKTRA RECORDS was the go-to label for the coolest releases around (THE DOORS,LOVE, etc.), PAUL BUTTERFIELD recorded three albums including the classic ‘East West’.Featured on the album is DAVID SANBORN on auto saxophone, along with TREVOR LAWRENCE, GENEDINWIDDIE, and STEVE MADAIO, completing the brass section with RALPH WALSH on guitar.This […]

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JONI MITCHELL: News

This superb set was recorded at the legendary Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on the evening of July 19th 1969, within a week of the first moon landing and a month prior to Woodstock. Broadcast by PBS as ‘The Sounds Of Summer’ that November, it captures Mitchell on the cusp of becoming one of […]

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JUDY COLLINS: News

“Coming through storms: that’s how the singer Judy Collins describes the basic narrative of her original songs.  “Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude: isn’t it a wonderful world? she laughingly explained over tea at her spacious, homey apartment with a river view on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “That’s really how they go. I […]

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