Body Art 1992

For his 1694 offering to the Queen, Come ye sons of Art, away, Purcell was on sparkling form, and produced an Ode markedly different to the majority of the twenty-two works which had preceded it. The forces utilized were greater than normal, with an orchestra replacing the more usual single strings, and there was a clearly defined role for the chorus. Recent successes on the stage had led to this more expansive style of composition, and the inspired text (probably by Nahum Tate), full of references to music and musical instruments, was one which gave Purcell’s fertile imagination plenty of source material.

Art & Aviation is not only one of Jane Ira Bloom's finest albums, it is also a remarkably successful (and fairly early) attempt to bring electronic influences to bear on acoustic jazz. Bloom's writing is strongly infused with a straight-ahead jazz aesthetic. But she veers left on many cuts, altering her soprano sax sound with live electronics and also having drummer Jerry Granelli double on electro-acoustic percussion. While most tracks still sound very much like jazz, the electronics, while never becoming obtrusive, give everything an unpredictable edge. "Most Distant Galaxy" and the title track are Bloom's most radical departures, but there are electronics aplenty, even on her subtle reworking of Thelonius Monk's "Straight No Chaser"…

Roger Waters was Pink Floyd's grand conceptualist, the driving force behind such albums as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. In the wake of Syd Barrett's departure, Waters emerged as a formidable songwriter, but it's this stretch of '70s albums – each one nearly symphonic in its reach – that established him as a distinctive, idiosyncratic voice within rock and, following his departure from Floyd in 1985, he continued to create new works in this vein (notably, 1992's Amused to Death) and capitalized on the enduring popularity of his old band by staging live revivals of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall in their entireties…

Major 70s UK (founded in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England) pop/artrock band. The original line-up of Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme and Graham Gouldman had composed together and been in the band Hotlegs (Gouldman only briefly) before forming 10cc in 1972 and signing with Jonathan King's UK Records after being turned down by Apple Records. The band's music is a blend of pop, artrock often drawing on other genres, on the debut album especially the 50s…

The Move were the best and most important British group of the late '60s that never made a significant dent in the American market. Through the band's several phases (which were sometimes dictated more by image than musical direction), their chief asset was guitarist and songwriter Roy Wood, who combined a knack for Beatlesque pop with a peculiarly British, and occasionally morbid, sense of humor. On their final albums (with considerable input from Jeff Lynne), the band became artier and more ambitious, hinting at the orchestral rock that Wood and Lynne would devise for the Electric Light Orchestra. The Move, however, always placed more emphasis on the pop than the art, and never lost sight of their hardcore rock & roll roots. The Early Years is a twenty track collection covering most of the band's singles and B-sides from 1966 to 1970. While it falls short of the superior, though out-of-print, Best of the Move on A&M, it's the next best thing.