Generally acclaimed as fusion's greatest drummer, Billy Cobham's explosive technique powered some of the genre's most important early recordings – including groundbreaking efforts by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra – before he became an accomplished bandleader in his own right. At his best, Cobham harnessed his amazing dexterity into thundering, high-octane hybrids of jazz complexity and rock & roll aggression.
During his lifetime, Karl Böhm was a widely appreciated conductor of Bruckner with a thoroughly personal tone of his own to put up for discussion. The present recording of the Seventh Symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was made in 1977 and is therefore the latest made by Böhm of this work. One can see especially clearly how Böhm performs Bruckner in the Seventh Symphony, the work which opens the trio of “Adagio Symphonies” but deviates from strictly symphonic writing in its lyrically wandering character. He avoids all semblance of enraptured, otherworldly monumentality with cantabile, long-breathed phrasing, loving attention to sonic and melodic detail and with a well thought-out dramaturgy of tempi. Böhm’s Bruckner shines in luminous colours and is infused with the warmth of an ever-present singing quality. This is no high-priest’s celebration of cool, distant symphonic architecture, but a down-to-earth, accessible Bruckner interpretation.
Like Mick Jagger before him, Steven Tyler itched to launch a solo career, but where Mick struck while the iron was relatively hot – 20 years after "Satisfaction," true, yet the Rolling Stones still packed arenas – the Aerosmith singer took the better part of a decade to figure out what he wanted to do on his own. Stumbling through a starring gig on American Idol and an accompanying flop single that led to an awkward 2012 reunion with Aerosmith, Tyler finally resurfaced as a country singer – a surprise, because the closest he ever came to country was the Desmond Child co-write "What It Takes," a power ballad that provides a good touchstone for 2016's We're All Somebody from Somewhere.