Chicago From June 2015

Delmark recording artist Rockin' Johnny Burgin is the new modern king of Chicago West Side blues. He recorded "Greetings from Greaseland" with the cream of the crop of the San Francisco Bay blues scene at California's funkiest studio, Greaseland. This CD, his sixth, features Aki Kumar on harp, Kid Andersen on gtr, Vance Ehlers on bass and June Core on drums. It also features the first recordings of Johnny on harp. There's some great chemistry and blues feeling on display on his first ever California recording with these great Bay area blues players.

A belated sequel to Rhino's 2012 box set The Studio Albums 1969-1978, 2015's The Studio Albums: 1979-2008 rounds up the expanded remasters of Chicago's next ten studio albums, beginning with 1979's Chicago 13 and ending with 2008's Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus (which was actually recorded in 1994 but shelved for 14 years)…

Itzhak Perlman must surely be considered one of the most popular violinists currently performing and recording, perhaps even one of the most beloved. His triumph over polio, which he contracted at age four, his warmth and engaging personality, his constant emphasis on teaching, have all contributed to his popularity. In honor of his approaching 70th birthday (August 31, 1945), DGG is releasing this limited edition 25 CD box set: Itzhak Perlman Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon. Between 1968 and 2001, Perlman recorded 25 albums for DGG and Decca - many of them now considered to be classics.

Vladimir Horowitz - Return to Chicago (2015) {2CD Deutsche Grammophon 00289 479 4649 rec 1986}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 431 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 283 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 128 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1986, 2015 Deutsche Grammophon | 00289 479 4649
Classical / Romantic / Piano

This double album presents, for the first time on recording, a Chicago concert and broadcast recorded in 1986, when Horowitz was 83. The music that exists from the last few years of Horowitz's life has a marvelous rarefied quality, and this live recording – marred by heavy early-season coughing about which Horowitz complains in one of the two included radio interviews, but enhanced by the immediacy of the live situation – is no exception. Horowitz was never the most purely muscular pianist out there (although he could make octaves ring when he had to), and not the most intellectual. But he was perhaps the most perfectionistic of the great pianists, taking stretches of several years off to rebuild his technique and his musical understanding when he felt his playing was not up to snuff.

Paul Butterfield was the first white harmonica player to develop a style original and powerful enough to place him among the true blues greats. His initial recordings from the mid-60s featuring the legendary ‘Paul Butterfield Blues Band’ were eclectic, ground breaking tracks fusing electric blues with rock & roll, psychedelia, jazz and even Indian classical music…

Rhino's 2012 box set The Studio Albums 1969-1978 rounds up their remasters of what many consider Chicago's golden period: the band's first ten albums. Every one of the albums from 1969's Chicago Transit Authority to 1978's Hot Streets is here, packaged as paper-sleeve mini-LPs. For hardcore fans, this is a handsome way to get the remasters, and for more casual fans, it's a convenient and relatively affordable way to get the best albums of Chicago in one place.

Robert Schumann - Symphonies Nos. 1 'Spring' & 4 - Chicago SO, Daniel Barenboim (2015) {Deutsche Grammophon 4788917 rec 1977}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 299 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 148 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1977, 2015 Deutsche Grammophon | 478 8917 | Virtuoso Series
Classical / Romantic / Symphony

Barenboim has many of the attributes of a major Schumann conductor. [He] gives ample reign to the tremendous high spirits of this Spring symphony. This is outstanding Schumann playing by any standards. -Gramophone

Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead is a live album consisting of audio and video recordings from the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead concerts performed by surviving members of the Grateful Dead Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, with Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti…

In the fall of 1978, John Prine returned home to Chicago for a concert performance at the city's famed, Park West. This show, captured on the originally limited edition album September '78, features another side of John Prine - backed by an electric band.