George Washington's Surprise Attack

Released just after George left Apple for his own Dark Horse label (and appearing in stores just in time for the Christmas season of 1976), The Best of George Harrison neatly splits into a side of Harrison solo hits and a side of his Beatles tunes…

Arriving ten years after The Dark Horse Years: 1976-1992, The Apple Years: 1968-75 offers the first act of George Harrison's solo career presented in a handsomely produced, impeccably remastered box set. The outside packaging mirrors The Dark Horse Years but the discs housed inside the box show a greater attention to detail than the previous set: each of the albums is presented as a paper-sleeve mini-LP replicating the original album art (Extra Texture does indeed have extra texture on its sleeve), while the brief hardcover book contains perhaps the glossiest paper to ever grace a rock music box set. Better still, the remastering of all six albums is superb. Supervised by Harrison's son Dhani, the team mastermind by Paul Hicks, who worked on the acclaimed 2009 Beatles remasters, and featuring Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen, bring The Apple Years to the same sonic standard as the 2009 Beatles remasters and the results are rich, deep, and alluring…

George Harrison went quiet not long after the second Traveling Wilburys album, surfacing only for the Beatles' Anthology in the mid-'90s. He was recording all the while, yet he died before completing the album that would have been the follow-up to 1987's Cloud Nine. His son, Dhani, and his longtime friend/collaborator Jeff Lynne completed the recordings, released late in 2002, nearly a year after George's death, as Brainwashed. Given its baggage it's easy to be suspicious about the merits of Brainwashed prior to hearing it. Posthumous efforts often feel incomplete, Harrison's albums were frequently inconsistent, and Lynne favors ornate, cinematic productions that run contrary to George's desire for this project to be simple and low key - nothing that would suggest that Brainwashed would be a success…

The satin Shearing sound is in perfect form here - backed by added strings and woodwinds conducted by Billy May - and key proof that Billy could come up with some richly subtle arrangements when he wanted! Most prominent instrumentation comes from George's piano, and the group's trademark vibes, guitar, and wonderful percussion - but the backings also nicely compress some strings and reeds in ways that flesh out the sound, yet never take it over! It's almost as if Billy's just flavoring the Shearing combo sound just a bit - adding just a dose of magic to cuts.
In Black Satin, the George Shearing Quintet - with added orchestrations - all in a blend that's got that pillow-soft sound that Shearing did so well back in the 50s! Arrangements are by George and Billy May - the latter of whom is especially subtle here, bringing things in with the best ballad mode he'd use behind Sinatra…

Born Giacinto Figlia in Palermo, Italy in 1924 the young George Wallington was schooled in opera and the classics by his father and had moved to New York City by 1925. It was hearing Lester Young playing in the Basie band that led to him to get involved in the New York jazz scene where he soon found himself accompanying Billie Holiday at George’s club in Greenwich Village and perhaps more unlikely also playing opposite Liberace in Philadelphia! Wallington was back in New York when Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie set the place on fire with a new sound called Be Bop. Although he had arrived at his style independently he was likened to Bud Powell and he became one of the few white musicians to be invited to play what was essentially a black musical movement…

Stunning, award winning double-feature-length film tribute to one of music's greatest icons. Containing a wealth of previously unreleased material…