Three formerly rare Mose Allison albums originally cut for Columbia and Epic (Transfiguration of Hiram Brown, I Love The Life I Live and V-8 Ford Blues) are reissued in full on this attractive three-CD set plus six previously unreleased numbers. During this period (which dates between his associations with the Prestige and Atlantic labels), Mose Allison was making the transition from being a pianist-vocalist to a vocalist-pianist. He sings on roughly half the selections including "Baby, Please Don't Go," "'Deed I Do," "Fool's Paradise" and "I Love The Life I Live." The instrumentals (which also feature Addison Farmer, Henry Grimes, Bill Crow or Aaron Bell on bass and Jerry Segal, Paul Motian, Gus Johnson or Osie Johnson on drums) are highlighted by the interesting eight-song "Hiram Brown Suite." Mose Allison fans will want to go out of their way to get this set.
At first glance, this looks like the perfect Christmas present for Cuban music enthusiasts: a finely packaged box set that includes three CDs, released to mark what would have been the 100th birthday last month of the great singer and guitarist who became best known for his work with the Buena Vista Social Club, and who enjoyed worldwide success until his death in 2003 at the age of 95. But it's not quite what it seems. It's described as an "exhaustive overview" of Segundo's work, but it only covers his final recordings from 1996-2003. Which is unfortunate, for this is surely the right time to release a comprehensive retrospective of his extraordinary career.
The 3rd in four volumes of the band's complete recorded output, this box set contains all of the recordings from the band in the 2000's and features the original packaging. Housed in rigid boxes, the set also contains a hard-backed book with rare photos by Ross Halfin and liner notes by Classic Rock's Paul Elliott…
The Complete Motown Singles has been a dream project of Motown and soul fanatics for many years, ever since the first decade of Stax/Volt singles was compiled in an impressive nine-disc box set in 1991. Prior to that, no soul label had its output as thoroughly documented as that set – there had been the Atlantic R&B box, which collected highlights, but it never attempted to capture the label's entire run – and while The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968 missed a B-side or two, it was an exceptional piece of music history, and pretty damn entertaining to boot.