Deep Purple have never quite been placed in the revered 1960s canon that includes the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or any of the other British rock bands who continue to reunite in various configurations to tour and even periodically release new albums, but given that the group has always been a riveting and brilliant live act, part prog, part heavy metal, part funky R&B, and imminently theatrical, that second-tier designation seems like both an oversight and a shame…
BGO's 2013 double-disc set gathers three late-'70s albums from Tom Scott: 1977's Blow It Out, 1978's Intimate Strangers, and 1979's Street Beat. This is the moment when Scott entered the mainstream, leaving behind his backing band the L.A. Express, and getting progressively pop.
Jarringly highfalutin name aside, Chameleons Of The White Shadow deserves better than the reception it will inevitably receive. The latest album by Egyptian-Australian musician Joseph Tawadros, Chameleons… will almost certainly be embraced by jazz and world music listeners alike as a masterful piece of work. Unfortunately, it will almost as certainly be ignored by everyone not immediately concerned with those genres. Which is unfortunate. Not because jazz and world music are deserving of a broader audience, either. Simply because Chameleons Of The White Shadow is a truly excellent album, regardless of genre.
According to the liner notes included in the 25th volume of John Zorn's FilmWorks series, City of Slaughter/Schmatta/Beyond the Infinite may be the last. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is that the composer used to write scores for the pleasure of working on certain kinds of music "on someone else's dime."
An excellent collection of rare unreleased tracks/jams by this outstanding, prolific blues/rock axeslinger from Cedar Rapids, Iowa featuring 14 tracks of awesome, dynamic, blues-based, retro-70s, heavy guitar rock mojo that is highly recommended to fans of all his other previous outstanding discs. On "Rare Tracks" (Volume Two), Craig Erickson picks up where he left off on the first "Rare Tracks" disc and takes us on a deep, intimate, six string musical journey with his guitar.
This two-disc set from ex-Procol Harum member and pioneering English guitar player Robin Trower features a collection of highlights from his post-Chrysalis Records period. Boasting 35 tracks culled from the albums Passion (1987), Take What You Need (1988), In the Line of Fire (1990), 20th Century Blues (1994), Go My Way (2000), Living Out of Time (2003), Another Day's Blues (2005), Seven Moons (2008), What Lies Beneath (2009), The Playful Heart (2011), and Roots and Branches (2013), Compendium 1987-2013 offers up a solid overview of Trower's later works, and would pair nicely with 2012's Farther On Up the Road: The Chrysalis Years (1977-1983).