Grainger’s mastery of choral textures shines out of this wide-ranging collection of folk-song arrangements, each highly individual and memorable. Plus his friend Grieg’s finely scored religious settings. Superior performances by Stephen Layton and Polyphony.
It's My Time may be Percy Strother's best record yet, capturing his explosive soul-blues in all of its raging intensity. Truth be told, Strother hasn't really ever given a bad performance on record, but the key to the album's success is that he has a set of terrific original songs which effectively showcase his raging, soulful roar and his blistering guitar. This is raw soul, with little of the slickness that distinguishes latter-day retro-soul – and that's why it's worth hearing.
Three CD set from Soul supremo Percy Sledge. An artist whose most famous record 'When A Man Loves A Woman' was the first he ever recorded in 1966. Percy helped shape Southern Soul and establish the great Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama.
The Swing Low in Hi Fi/A Look at Monaco two-fer from Collectables features a pair of out of print LPs by Percy Faith, both originally issued on Columbia in 1956 and 1963, respectively. Highlights include orchestral versions of traditional spirituals, including "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Deep River," and "Go Down Moses," followed by an audio documentary on Monaco featuring narration by Princess Grace and, with the exception of "National Anthem," original music composed by Percy Faith and performed with Orchestre National de l'Opera de Monte Carlo.
This two-fer set combines the Percy Faith albums Country Bouquet and Disco Party on one compact disc. Both albums offer up what Faith's fans have come to expect: the Percy Faith Orchestra dishing out heady arrangements of popular songs of the time, with this set focusing on songs from the mid-'70s. It cannot be argued that Faith was less than a talented arranger; his subtlety and attention to detail are remarkable and rampant over the course of both of these recordings as he runs through hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry," and while Country Bouquet is about as safe as any Percy Faith recording, on Disco Party Faith embraced a slightly more experimental edge by employing distorted electric guitars and analog synthesizers…
Through his soft, lush instrumentals of the 1950s and '60s, he essentially created what became known as easy listening.
Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the '50s and '60s. Not only did he have a number of hit albums and singles under his own name, but Faith was responsible for arranging hits by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, and Burl Ives, among others, as the musical director for Columbia Records in the '50s.