Charlie Poole wasn't a particularly brilliant banjo player (although his later three-finger-style picking would set the table for the advent of bluegrass banjo a couple of decades after his death), and he wasn't the world's greatest vocalist either, but he had a certain devil-may-care charisma that made him a superstar in the string band era of the 1920s. Poole's greatest talent – aside from an ability to go on long drinking sprees and to manage to be at the center of things even in his absence – was in his song adaptations, which drew from sources outside the standard Appalachian fiddle tunes and reels, including pop, ragtime, and blues. This extensive 96-track, four-disc box set from Britain's JSP Records collects the lion's share of his recordings on Columbia, Poole's label from 1925 until his death in 1931 at the age of 39. Also included are a handful of cuts Poole made under the table for Paramount (where his North Carolina Ramblers were called the Highlanders) and Brunswick (which saw the band disguised as the Allegheny Highlanders).
"Streisand Superman" is an album released in 1977 by American singer Barbra Streisand. The single "My Heart Belongs To Me" became a hit in 1977, peaking at #4 on the US pop chart. The album peaked at #3 on the Top 200 LP Billboard album chart and on the UK Albums Chart at #32. It has sold 2 million copies in United States and was certified 2x Platinum.
This disc reissues Dianne Reeves' entire 1982 LP Welcome to My Love, plus three tracks from 1985's For Every Heart and one selection from her days as a vocalist with the band Caldera. It contains the first recorded version of her classic "Better Days" and one of the best renditions of the overworked standard "My Funny Valentine" as you're likely to hear. On Welcome, Reeves was exploring the jazz/R&B territory she would claim as her own a decade later. "For Every Heart" was much more commercial, but the three cuts chosen here are worthwhile, especially a duet with Jon Lucien, "Separate Vacations."
Guitar giant Robben Ford’s new album Bringing It Back Home is a stunning study in soul, style and virtuosity that cuts to the heart with its exceptional, emotion-laden musicianship. The disc also brings the five-time Grammy nominated stage and studio legend back to his earliest roots as a performer, playing blues.
Listeners expecting a sequel to to her best-selling 1982 album Straight From the Heart were in for quite a shock. In the two years between the efforts, Rushen became a proponent of the technology-or-bust ethos of many jazz artists in the early to mid-'80s. Given that thinking, Now is both minimal and innovative – with all of its sonic virtues probably not fully appreciated at the time of its release. The album's biggest dance tracks, "Feels So Real (Won't Let Go)" and "Get Off (You Fascinate Me)," are relentlessly polyrhythmic and fulfilling. Rushen, unlike countless other acts, knew how to give synthesizers a sense of panache without the sound seeming artificial. Despite its dancefloor skills, Now also takes time out for affairs of the heart. On "Gotta Find It," the buoyant rhythms belie the desperate lyrics and Rushen's meditative vocals.
is an album by American singer-songwriter , released in 1973. At the time of its release, it only reached #6 on the Billboard album chart, but has remained highly regarded by her fans over the ensuing decades. Presented as a sort of song cycle, the album opens and closes with two versions of the title song and the songs on each side segue directly into one another. The Spanish language track (the Spanish word for "heart," also used as a term of endearment, as in this song's lyrics) was a moderate hit single from the album, as was The flip side of the latter single, (not the hit), charted separately from its A-side.
Satin Doll is the fourth studio album by American jazz flautist Bobbi Humphrey recorded in 1974 and released on the Blue Note label.
"Pleasures of the Night", a collaboration between vocalist Will Downing and sax/flute wizard Gerald Albright, crosses so many genre lines that its appeal must be unprecedentedly broad...