Classic Rock is as popular as it ever was. For this listener, it never lost its appeal. Mountain was always one of those bands that were hard to forget with songs like "Mississippi Queen" and "Nantucket Sleighride." They seemed to maintain their popularity forever. Leslie West, Corky Laing and the late Felix Pappalardi, their great producer and bass player, were a trio comparable to Cream.
Featuring Vaughan Williams’ masterly and intensely personal Five Mystical Songs, this album reflects on the sources of inspiration of some of his sacred choral works, alongside gems of 19th- and early-20th-century English church music. Often setting the poetry of the King James Bible, the finely spun melodies and sensitivity to word-rhythm of composers from S. S. Wesley to Herbert Howells result in a uniquely British form of expression.
Ricky Ford, tenor sax legend, needs no introduction, but he'll get one anyway because it's important to hear his lineage before diving into his new recording. After getting his start filling the Paul Gonsalves chair in the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Mercer Ellington's leadership), Ford's gone on to play with Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, and Abdullah Ibrahim, to name but a few of his more illustrious stints. He is, quite simply, a national treasure. His latest recording, a tip of the hat to his early roots and a focused, fabulous blast of multi-hued bebop and traditional jazz, reflects tremendous taste and virtuosity, with nods to his heroes (Hawkins, Duke, Mingus, and others) and affirmation that the guy can still play with the best of them. While he may not have the same public profile as our present-day tenor heroes, he deserves every ounce of respect that they get and more. The Wailing Sounds of Ricky Ford: Paul's Scene, made with his accompanists pianist Mark Soskin, bassist Jerome Harris, and drummer Barry Altschul, is wondrous and his playing sounds as fresh today as it did decades back, when he was a true legend in the making.
Robben Ford is an American rock, blues and jazz guitarist. Ex-member of fusion pioneers Yellojackets, he is admired for his solo works but also known for his collaborations with giants of music like Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison and many others. He comes from a generation of Californian musicians who contributed to eliminate boundaries between different genres, often writing and performing timeless music that will stand the test of time.