Ali Landry Set One

These 12 full-length CDs document the Vandermark 5 playing at Alchemia, a major nightclub in Kraków, Poland, for a period of five evenings in March 2005. Over the course of well more than 12 hours of music, the quintet solidifies its reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting jazz groups of its time, as magic fills the air every night. It is difficult to imagine a more compelling set of modern jazz. The invigorated Polish audience welcomed the group enthusiastically, and the musicians responded with thrilling performances that summarize the state of the band, which was in peak form, and suggest the directions in which jazz is heading as a creative force. This is difficult music to categorize, if only because it relies on traditional concepts of melody and improvisation, but pushes hard to stretch and twist the limits of propriety. The box set is marvelously packaged, with a splendid booklet featuring an extensive interview with Ken Vandermark, and numerous photos in color and black-and-white.

Esoteric Recordings' Reactive label is proud to announce the release of the first volume of an official bootleg series by the legendary Tangerine Dream. Featuring recordings made at Reims Cathedral, France in December 1974 and at the Mozarthalle, Mannheim, West Germany in October 1976, this 4 CD set has been compiled with the official approval of Tangerine Dream and features two concerts that were voted as some of the finest bootlegs in existence in a recent poll of fans. The concert at Reims Cathedral has gone down in Tangerine Dream history as a legendary event. The music performed by Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Peter Baumann was exemplary, although the circumstances surrounding the staging of the concert led to a ban on further performances in Cathedrals by The Vatican…

Given that Jimi Hendrix's career as a frontman lasted only about three years, it might be hard to believe that there's still great material that hasn't been officially released even 40 years after his death (of course, unofficially released is a different matter). But here is Jimi's three-night stand at Winterland in San Francisco from October of 1968, which, despite excellent recordings by Wally Heider, sat largely unreleased until 2011. A single disc was compiled and released by Rykodisc in the late '80s (there was also a hard-to-find three-track bonus disc), but had been out of print for years when this box set arrived.
The Winterland shows were notable for a few reasons. The original Jimi Hendrix Experience had been together for two years and were probably playing at the height of their powers in October 1968 (they would break up in June of 1969)…

Given that Jimi Hendrix's career as a frontman lasted only about three years, it might be hard to believe that there's still great material that hasn't been officially released even 40 years after his death (of course, unofficially released is a different matter). But here is Jimi's three-night stand at Winterland in San Francisco from October of 1968, which, despite excellent recordings by Wally Heider, sat largely unreleased until 2011. A single disc was compiled and released by Rykodisc in the late '80s (there was also a hard-to-find three-track bonus disc), but had been out of print for years when this box set arrived…

Every man's death diminishes us all, but the death of a man so close to completing his greatest achievement and the summation of his life's work diminishes us all greatly – very, very greatly. When Emil Gilels died in 1985, he had completed recordings of most but not all of Beethoven's piano sonatas, released here in a nine-disc set. What's here is unimaginably good: superlative recordings of 27 of the 32 canonical sonatas, including the "Pathétique," "Moonlight," "Waldstein," "Appassionata," "Les Adieux," and the majestic "Hammerklavier," plus the two early "Electoral" Sonatas and the mighty Eroica Variations. What's missing is unimaginably priceless: five of the canonical sonatas, including the first and – horror vacui – the last. But still, for what there is, we must be grateful. Beyond all argument one of the great pianists of the twentieth century, Gilels the Soviet super virtuoso had slowly mellowed and ripened over his long career, and when he began recording the sonatas in 1972, his interpretations had matured and deepened while his superlative technique remained gloriously intact straight through to the last recordings of his final year.