Harry Nterview

I have already reviewed several albums by Harry Edison, so perhaps there is not much more to say. I've pointed out his liking for certain clich‚s which recur frequently in his solos. These include the repetition of pairs of notes, downward glissandi, and a long-held note which eventually rises then falls. These phrases are well in evidence on this double CD consisting of three original LPs plus seven tracks from the album Sweets. Despite the clich‚s, Harry Edison can charm the birds out of the trees with his unique style, possibly perfected during his long years with the Count Basie Orchestra. His methods are relaxed and seldom assertive. He has a gorgeous tone which is subdued when he adds a mute to the trumpet and he always swings easily, knowing that swing is achieved by the subtle use of syncopation and leaving spaces in the music.

Harry Chapin's career as a popular singer/songwriter was cut short by an auto accident in 1981, yet he left behind a series of recordings that his fans continue to treasure decades after his death. Chapin was never a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter. Critics accused him of over-sentimentalizing his subjects and attaching heavy-handed morals to his socially aware story-songs; the heavily orchestrated arrangements that accompanied many of his songs didn't help his case with the critics, either. Nevertheless, Chapin earned a devoted audience during the '70s, through his music and his charity work as a social activist. Chapin began performing while he was in high school, singing in the Brooklyn Heights Boys' Choir and forming a band with his brothers Tom and Stephen.

Knockout '90s action score gets expanded premiere! One of the higher request expansions we have received over the years has finally made it across the finish line! Michael Bay directs, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer produce for Hollywood Pictures. Sean Connery heads the cast, with Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, William Forsythe supporting. 1996 action classic was a smash box-office hit and dynamic, powerhouse scoring by Nick Glennie-Smith and Hans Zimmer with Harry Gregson-Williams getting in some musical licks was a major ingredient in the film’s success. Trend-setting score features pulsating rhythms to drive action forward, with chopping melodic motifs above that became musical staples in numerous subsequent action movie trailers for years. There is melancholy as well in select moments, but action is keynote. Elements of military heroism and terrorism meld as armed take-over of Alcatraz prison complex known as “The Rock” by rogue group of Marines. San Francisco is the target of deadly VX rockets unless financial demands are met.

The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, great conflict between the old ways and brand new systems, and huge fortunes made and lost. From Oscar® and Emmy® winner Julian Fellowes, The Gilded Age follows a young woman who moves in with her old-money aunts and quickly gets entangled in the social war between them and their new-money neighbors. In a world on the brink of the modern age, will she follow the rules of society or forge her own path?
In Season 2 of The Gilded Age, Bertha inches toward a leading role in society, Marian starts teaching, Ada begins a new courtship, and Peggy taps into her activist spirit.

One of the most prolific popular songwriters of the 20th century, Harry Warren had a long life and a productive career. Warren published over 900 songs covering almost every popular music style. Between 1935 and 1950 twenty-one of his songs made it to #1 on the radio show Your Hit Parade. He won eleven Academy Award Best Song nominations and three Oscars. His piece "Chattanooga Choo Choo" sold over a million copies, making it the first gold record in history.1932 saw Warren's career rise to new heights. He was asked to score the movie musical 42nd Street with lyricist Al Dubin. The phenomenal success of this movie led to a decades-long career scoring movie musicals in partnership with Dubin. The Warren and Dubin legacy produced the popular Gold Diggers series, Dames and many others. Together they created enduring songs like the Gold Diggers theme "We're in the Money " and "I Only Have Eyes for You."

This Rhino-issued box set features five of the late great singer/songwriter's best albums in their entireties, including Heads and Tales (1972), Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972), Short Stories (1973), Verities & Balderdash (1974), and On the Road to Kingdom Come (1976).

King Charles II liked to project a strong, stable, divinely legitimated image. Whilst that image had no basis in reality, the scale of his deception and financial skulduggery did not emerge until 19th-century historians discovered secret treaty documents between Charles and King Louis XIV of France. Purcell had no idea of course, and so all of the music on this album celebrates the political triumphs that he and his colleagues thought they had witnessed. It includes the quite brilliant Welcome Songs 'Welcome to all the pleasures' (with its superb six-part fanfares to St Cecilia in the final chorus) and 'From hardy climes'.

Life Line: The Songs of Nilsson 1967-1971 Review by Steve Leggett
Harry Nilsson was always a maverick artist, following his own sense of style in the world of pop, turning out carefully crafted – even baffling – songs that shared no direct affinity with any other artist of his day, although in some ways he resembled Randy Newman (even recording a marvelous album of Newman covers). Both men drew on American Tin Pan Alley traditions, but while Newman used them to craft his own ironic view of the little cruelties and occasional kindnesses of the human condition, there was a part of Nilsson that always wanted to actually be that tradition, making him, in some ways, an extremely crafty, artful and very postmodern vaudeville act stuck just slightly out of time. This collection has plenty of Harry Nilsson gems, including his own version of "One" (a huge hit for Three Dog Night), the fascinatingly realized "1941," the infectious and cartoon-like "Me and My Arrow," and the delightful "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City," but it lacks some obvious tracks like his two dance singles "Coconut" and "Jump into the Fire," so it doesn't make the ideal introduction to this unique artist, but there's more than enough here to convince anyone that Nilsson was a one of a kind pop treasure.

The Martian Deluxe Soundtrack is compiled of both 'Songs From The Martian' and 'The Martian: Original Motion Picture Score'. 'Songs From The Martian' is the companion Soundtrack to the film The Martian, the action adventure directed by Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon in the lead role as Astronaut Mark Watney. The '70s-laden album is comprised of some of the greatest classics from disco's golden era (tracklist below) including "Turn The Beat Around" (Vickie Sue Robinson), "Hot Stuff" (Donna Summer), "Rock The Boat" (Hues Corporation), "Waterloo" (ABBA), and "I Will Survive"(Gloria Gaynor), and others. 'The Martian: Original Motion Picture Score' is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams (The Shrek Franchise, X- Men Origins, Man On Fire, The Chronicles Of Narnia). Gregson-Williams also previously scored director Ridley Scott's 2005 movie 'Kingdom Of Heaven.'