Blue 34

Blue Öyster Cult marks time with a second live album on which they turn out good, if redundant, concert versions of recent favorites like "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Godzilla" and add to their repertoire of live covers such oldies as the MC5's "Kick out the Jams" and the Animals' "We Gotta Get out of This Place." A perfectly acceptable, completely unnecessary souvenir record from a hard-touring band of the '70s. (It should perhaps be noted that the mid- to late '70s was a period when more live albums than usual were being released, especially in the wake of Peter Frampton's massively successful 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive!.)

True Blue is led in title under the auspices of Dexter Gordon as a welcome home party conducted by Don Schlitten for the expatriate tenor saxophonist in 1976. Essentially a jam session, this very talented septet features a two tenor-two trumpet front line, utilized to emphasize the soloing strength of the horns, not necessarily in joyous shouts or big-band like unison outbursts. The real star here is Barry Harris, and if you listen closely to his comping behind the soloist or his many colorful chords and single-line runs, you realize how brilliant he continued to be in his prime during this beyond-bebop time frame. The distinctly different, legato flavored sound of Al Cohn contrasts nicely to the broader range and richer tones of Gordon, while Blue Mitchell's warm West Coast trumpet phrasings also run aside but a little behind the animated and clipped brassy sounds of Sam Noto, a player deserving much wider recognition, and playing to the hilt on this recording. The session kicks off with the classic superimposed melodies of "Lady Bird" and "Half Nelson," with melodies split between the trumpet and tenor tandems.

This is useful, and confounding. This is truly a Blue Öyster Cult singles comp, but not in the usual sense. Over 20 tracks, it rounds up BÖC singles released all over the world, which keeps it from being just another best-of. For instance, take the final cut: "Astronomy." This is not the original released on Secret Treaties but the redone version issued on Imaginos issued in 1988 and a single distributed only in the U.K. and Holland. And so it goes with this thing. Many of these cuts were issued as singles in the United Kingdom, or in Japan ("Moon Crazy," "Flaming Telepaths") or Europe, marked by the inclusion of tracks like the live read of "We Gotta Get Outta This Place," released in Germany as a single, or "Fallen Angel," released in Spain.

One of the great jazz trumpeters of all time, Freddie Hubbard formed his sound out of the Clifford Brown/Lee Morgan tradition, and by the early '70s was immediately distinctive and the pacesetter in jazz.

Blue is the sixth studio album by Simply Red, released on East West Records on 19 May 1998. The album includes five cover versions: "Mellow My Mind" from the 1975 Neil Young album Tonight's the Night; two versions of the frequently covered "The Air That I Breathe", written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood; the Gregory Isaacs hit "Night Nurse"; and "Ghetto Girl" by Dennis Brown, from whom the band would cover another song in 2003. New versions of previously recorded Simply Red songs also appear here: "Come Get Me Angel" is a rewritten version of the 1996 single "Angel", and "Broken Man" was first released as a B-side in 1987. Mick Hucknall and the production team of Andy Wright and Gota Yashiki are the only musicians featured in the Blue CD booklet's photography; this is a first for a Simply Red album, as all prior albums featured photos of the various band members credited. "The Air That I Breathe Reprise" samples "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp.

Following the dissolution of his successful dance-pop duo Modern Talking, composer and producer Dieter Bohlen turned his attention to a new solo project which he dubbed Blue System; also assuming vocal chores, he debuted in 1987 with the single "Sorry Little Sarah," soon followed by the full-length Walking on a Rainbow. While early Blue System efforts like 1989's Body Heat, 1990's Obsession, 1991's Seeds of Heaven and 1992's Deja Vu were all produced with the aid of longtime collaborator Luis Rodriguez, beginning with 1994's X-Ten Bohlen took total creative control, heralding a shift away from the Eurodisco of past records to move into techno and house. Forever Blue followed a year later, but after 1996's Body to Body Bohlen officially reunited with former partner Thomas Anders to reform Modern Talking, with the duo issuing Back for Good two years later.

The music for Blue Night was inspired by the lively, colorful, elegant world of fashion designers, models, photographers and beautiful locations, like Miami Beach, where today's photos are being shot…The music thrives on rhythms and a very jazz-influenced groove piano. Arrangements, programming and keyboards are the work of the composers Jay Heye and Curtis McLaw. They've added guitar and saxophone to produce some rich sounds and some very tight arranging. Sensual jazz, light house grooves and some fine piano playing turn this into a first-rate CD debut.

Weighing in at a hefty 34 tracks, this is the most exhaustive Swinging Blue Jeans anthology available…