D+a From Issue 90_ 2016

Van Morrison - It's Too Late To Stop Now - Volumes II-III-IV & DVD (2016) {3CD+DVD5 NTSC Legacy-Exile 88875134742}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.34 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 506 Mb
DVD5 -> 3.51 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 4:3 | LPCM, 2 ch | ~ 51 min | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 159 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1974, 2016 Legacy / Exile Prod. / Sony Music | 88875134742
Rock / Blues / Blues Rock / Soul / Rhythm & Blues

When Van Morrison's double-length It's Too Late to Stop Now was released in 1974, it was an anomaly. Compiled from eight nights on his 1973 tour with his 11-piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra, it appeared months prior to Hard Nose the Highway. Contrary to standard industry practice of the time, its contents weren't doctored in the studio afterwards: There were no added overdubs or masked flubs. Some critics took issue with its sound – claiming the band, particularly the horns, were too thin – but there was no debate about the performances. It remains revered as one of the greatest concert recordings ever.

As one of the world's foremost interpreters of Baroque keyboard music on the modern piano, Angela Hewitt has established a fine reputation for impeccable playing and fresh musical insights. Listeners who cherish her award-winning recordings on Hyperion of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach have already experienced her exquisite playing, and they will be delighted to hear this selection of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, Bach's contemporary and an innovator whose compositions influenced the development of the Classical sonata. Some of these selections are well known, particularly the Sonata in C major, Kk159, the Sonata in D major, Kk96, and the Sonata in E major, Kk380, which are often anthologized, though Hewitt hasn't packed this disc with greatest hits (with 555 sonatas to choose from, there are many less familiar that deserve attention). Hewitt's performances are thoughtfully phrased, polished in tone, and rhythmically precise with a modicum of rubato, and she is alert to the subtleties that make this music so beguiling. Hewitt recorded these 16 sonatas in the Beethovensaal in Hannover, where she made her first Bach recordings for Hyperion 20 years previously, and the acoustics are nearly ideal for her style.

Clarence Carter - This Is Clarence Carter & The Dynamic Clarence Carter (2016) {Kent Records CDKEND 444 rec 1968-69}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 461 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 177 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 63 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967-69, 2016 Atlantic / Fame Records / Kent Records / Ace Records | CDKEND 444
Rhythm & Blues / Soul / Southern Soul / Deep Soul

In early 1967 Rick Hall’s Fame set-up was missing a vital ingredient. Despite all the success he had achieved as a producer, studio-owner, publisher and record label boss, he had yet to sign an enduring artist. That was about to change. The previous year a duo who recorded as Clarence & Calvin hired the studio to cut a self-financed single. They had been working together for five years and had just left a deal with Houston-based Duke Records. As he watched them, Hall thought he had found his stars and urged them to come back and sign with him. When the day came, only Clarence Carter appeared. At first, Hall was dismissive of the singer’s pleas to be signed as a solo act but eventually relented and gave him a go.

During the 1990s, Collegium Musicum 90 and Simon Standage released several volumes of Albinoni concertos, which proved popular with critics and public alike. The concertos were released as discs of single oboe concertos, double oboe concertos, and string concertos. In this re-issue on the Chaconne label, the concertos are presented in opus number order, showing the contrasting colours and tonalities of the concertos as they originally appeared.

Various Artists - Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection (2016) {2CD Alligator Records ALCD 127/28}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.10 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 376 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 47 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Alligator Records | ALCD 127/28
Blues

It’s been 45 years since Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers entered a Chicago recording studio to cut the album that would change the face of American music forever. That self-titled release came out in August 1971 and launched an American institution, Alligator Records. Label boss Bruce Iglauer ran the operation from an efficiency apartment in the Windy City. In the subsequent decades, his imprint would issue roughly 300 titles, including releases from Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Luther Allison, and Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials, among many, many others. When quality blues records were hard to come by and majors turned their attention to the latest fashions, Iglauer stuck it out, giving a loyal fan base music they didn’t know they were missing. To see the Alligator logo on an album’s spine meant you were getting something handpicked from a friend who loved that music as much as you did. Maybe even more.