100 Fairy Tales

Kin Ping Meh are not your typical Krautrock band. Although they're quite frequently labelled as such, theor sound is more akin to Art Rock, or "Hard Prog," like in the case of Birth Control. Kin Ping Meh, whose name was of Chinese origin, was founded in 1970 in Mannheim as a quintet featuring Joachim Schaffer, Werner Stephan, Torsten Herzog, Kalle Weber, and Joachim Schafer. In their early years, Kin Ping Meh performed many covers by bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears, Deep Purple, The Steve Winwood Group, etc… Soon, they were discovered by Polydor records, who signed them immediately. Schaffer left before the first album was recorded, but was replaced by Willie Wagner, who wrote perhaps their most famous track, "Fairy Tales."
This box set edition presents 4 1/2 hours of only unreleased stuff, which should be interesting not only for KPM fans…

On his third solo effort, Eric Vloeimans employs a similar post-Miles Davis approach to the trumpet as Wynton Marsalis. Featuring pointillistic compositions accented by slippery diminished runs, Bitches and Fairy Tales is a nice drink of fuzzy, straight-ahead jazz with Vloeimans often adding a little avant-garde triple sec into the mix. While comparable to Marsalis in his use of operatic bent tones punctuated by the occasional growl, Vloeimans more often settles into his warm, foggy tone like another trumpeter who had an affinity for the Netherlands, Chet Baker. Backing Vloeimans on piano is the Bill Evans-influenced Brit John Taylor. Joey Baron on drums and Marc Johnson on bass round out the group.

Compiled from the finest sources available, Pizza and Fairy Tales is a detailed examination of Paul McCartney's mid-80's era of "finding himself" in the new musical world order. Working with several esteemed producers, McCartney veered from style to style looking for a direction. The result was a lot of music, much of it unheard previously, which is featured on this two-CD collection.