DH Magazin From 19 Juin 2015

At the height of the famous Querelle des Bouffons (1754), the elderly Rameau yielded to insistent requests from the Académie Royale de Musique for a major revision of Castor and Pollux, 17 years after the lukewarm reception of its premiere. He deleted the Prologue and made substantial modifications to the dramatic structure, with a completely new first act! But the original has continued to overshadow the revision, unjustly so when one considers the modernity of its orchestration. The inspired direction of Raphaël Pichon shows the extent to which this music heralds the Classical orchestra.

Bandleader Simon Jeffes composed the leadoff track "Music for a Found Harmonium" on a harmonium he found abandoned on a Tokyo street, which offers an inkling of the musical inspiration that sprang from this remarkable Englishman. As usual, he gathers a loose aggregation of musicians who create stunning, free-flowing acoustic sounds that defy categorization…

Although he didn't become widely known until the 1970s, Dr. John had been active in the music industry since the late '50s, when the teenager was still known as Mac Rebennack. A formidable boogie and blues pianist with a lovable growl of a voice, his most enduring achievements fused with New Orleans R&B, rock, and Mardi Gras craziness to come up with his own brand of "voodoo" music. He's also quite accomplished and enjoyable when sticking to purely traditional forms of blues and R&B. On record, he veers between the two approaches, making for an inconsistent and frequently frustrating legacy that often makes the listener feel as if "the Night Tripper" (as he's nicknamed himself) has been underachieving.

Alasdair Roberts has been paying due diligence to the folkie lifestyle for many years now, having just released his ninth full-length under his own name with little to no fanfare. The Scot is a commanding figure of the nebulous genre s realest traditions, spanning back to a style that echoes how folk standards are played, or what you might expect from the actual folk circuit. While recent Roberts works have been ominous and twilit, his new self-titled finds himself in a contented and soothed state of mind. The record is, for all intents and purposes, a solo record with a little help from his friends – whistles, clarinets and extra-special vocalists appear to wish him well, but let him do the talking, whether its with words or a knotty guitar melody.

Jerry Lee Lewis - Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano (1972) & Sometimes A Memory Ain't Enough (1973) {2015 BGO Records Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 429 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 154 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 33 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973-73, 2015 Mercury / BGO Records | BGOCD1174
Country / Rock'n'Roll / Honky Tonk

Two Mercury label country albums dating from 1972 and 1973. Both albums reached the Top 10 US Country chart, spawning the hits 'No More Hanging On', 'Sometimes A Memory Ain't Enough', 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' and 'Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano'. With his new biography getting rave reviews, Jerry Lee's profile is as huge as ever. Digitally remastered and slipcased, and with new notes by Andrew McRae.

The songs of late Renaissance and early Baroque England have been sliced and diced in various ways in concert and recorded programming, but the configuration here seems to be unique. The tenor Nicholas Phan, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, devised the program himself: pointing out "how little human experience has changed over the centuries" and that Dowland's melancholia had much in common with the Romantics' veneration of the lovesick solitary hero (both debatable ideas, but both stimulating), he assembles what he calls a pastiche song cycle from compositions by Purcell, Dowland, John Blow, and other lesser-known lights.