With 25 years of reign and seven acclaimed albums under their belt, Grammy-nominated metalcore pioneers As I Lay Dying are back with an unmissable new album that will define their legacy for years to come. Poised to be one of the most highly-anticipated metal comebacks in years, the band’s eighth full-length studio album, Through Storms Ahead, will drop on November 15, 2024 via Napalm Records. Following their 2019 album, Shaped By Fire, which Loudwire named one of the best albums of that year, the new album is an evolution of newly explored elements that further bolster the proven line-up of vocalist Tim Lambesis and guitarist Phil Sgrosso alongside recent newcomers Ryan Neff (bass, clean vocals), Nick Pierce (drums) and Ken Susi (guitar).
In 1957, drummer Walter Perkins formed a quintet, the MJT + 3, that recorded four albums before breaking up in 1962. Walter Perkins was a longtime fixture in the Chicago jazz scene. He gained some recognition for playing with the Ahmad Jamal Trio during 1956-1957 (right before Jamal really caught on). A 1957 set for Argo led by Perkins (and also featuring trumpeter Paul Serrano, tenor saxophonist Nicky Hill, the young pianist Richard Abrams, and bassist Bob Cranshaw) used the name of MJT Plus 3. The better-known version of the band (with trumpeter Willie Thomas, altoist Frank Strozier, pianist Harold Mabern, and bassist Bob Cranshaw) recorded three albums for Vee-Jay during 1959-1960 and was popular for a time locally before breaking up in 1962.
For several decades beginning in the 1950's I Musici was the leading ensemble specializing in Italian Baroque music, and their performances were standard-setting in their time. Their recordings still hold up exceptionally well even though approaches to early music, driven by the period instrument revolution, have changed somewhat since then.
The plot concerns the feisty eponymous heroine Isabella. She has been sailing in the Mediterranean, accompanied by an elderly admirer Taddeo, in search of her lover Lindoro. After her ship is wrecked Mustafa, the Bey of Algiers, believes her the ideal replacement for his neglected wife who he intends to marry off to a captured slave, who happens to be Lindoro. Complicated situations ensue involving Taddeo being awarded the honour of Kaimakan and Mustafa in turn becoming a Pappataci, a spoof award invented by Isabella to keep him obeying her strict instructions. All ends well in a rousing finale with the Italians escaping from the clutches of the Bey.