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Bach - Violin Concertos - Perlman, Zukerman, Barenboim (2001) {EMI Records 7243 5 74555 2 7 rec 1971, 1974}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 361 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 150 Mb
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© 1971-74, 2001 EMI Records | 7243 5 74555 2 7
Classical / Baroque / Violin / Orchestral

Outstanding collection of Bach violin concertos performed by beloved violinist Itzhak Perlman. Born in Israel in 1945, Perlman completed his initial training at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He came to New York and soon was propelled into the international arena with an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958.

Billy Eckstine - Once More With Feeling (1960) {Roulette Jazz-Blue Note 7243 5 81862 2 2 rel 2003}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 245 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 101 Mb
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© 1960, 2003 Roulette Jazz / Blue Note / EMI | 7243 5 81862 2 2
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Oldies / Standards / Traditional Pop / Trumpet

Billy Eckstine was looking back more than forward by 1960, and his second record for Roulette featured two remakes of familiar hits he'd enjoyed almost 20 years earlier. He also covered two average themes from forgottable movies, the first being the title song (from a Yul Brynner vehicle), the second being "Secret Love" (from a Doris Day film). It may read like a desultory date, and indeed it would have been if not for the presence of a solid jazz band and the surprisingly sympathetic arrangements of big-brass auteur Billy May.

Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and eleventh American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released 23 April 1971 on their new, and own, label Rolling Stones Records. Sticky Fingers is considered one of the Rolling Stones' best albums. It was the band's first album to reach number one on both the UK albums and US albums charts, and has since achieved triple platinum certification in the US. Songs such as "Brown Sugar," the country ballad "Dead Flowers," "Wild Horses," "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," and "Moonlight Mile" were chart-toppers. The album is inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame and included in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Released a year after Eat a Peach, Brothers and Sisters shows off a leaner brand of musicianship, which, coupled with a pair of serious crowd-pleasers, "Ramblin' Man" and "Jessica," helped drive it to the top of the charts for a month and a half and to platinum record sales. This was the first album to feature the group's new lineup, with Chuck Leavell on keyboards and Lamar Williams on bass, as well as Dickey Betts' emergence as a singer alongside Gregg Allman. The tracks appear on the album in the order in which they were recorded, and the first three, up through "Ramblin' Man," feature Berry Oakley – their sound is rock-hard and crisp.

If anything, CCR's third album Green River represents the full flower of their classic sound initially essayed on its predecessor, Bayou Country. One of the differences between the two albums is that Green River is tighter, with none of the five-minute-plus jams that filled out both their debut and Bayou Country, but the true key to its success is a peak in John Fogerty's creativity. Although CCR had at least one cover on each album, they relied on Fogerty to crank out new material every month. He was writing so frequently that the craft became second-nature and he laid his emotions and fears bare, perhaps unintentionally.

While their subsequent chart-topping albums would contain far more ambitious songwriting and musicianship, the Police's 1978 debut, Outlandos d'Amour (translation: Outlaws of Love) is by far their most direct and straightforward release. Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-'70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge.

Don Byron - You Are #6 (2001) {Blue Note 7243 5 32231 2 0}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 388 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 138 Mb
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© 2001 Blue Note / Capitol Records | 7243 5 32231 2 0
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Clarinet

Don Byron's fourth Blue Note album is a belated follow-up to 1995's Music for Six Musicians. Six musicians are once again featured here, but they're joined by a large number of guests, bringing the cumulative total to 20. As always, Byron looks to unlikely sources for inspiration, beginning with Henry Mancini's theme from the 1962 John Wayne flick Hatari. (The artist is a diligent student of Mancini's music in general.) The rest of the tracks are originals, save for "Shake 'Em Up," a calypso party song that features Don Byron, Sr. on bass and Designer on vocals.