His Secret Past (2016)

It’s hard to take any Vulfpeck release out of its intended context. While all of their records stand up on their own, there is an inherent strategy in everything they do. Each EP or LP is a logical successor to the last one. As their popularity grows, though, they are exposed to scores of people who are not attuned to their grooves, not privy to the in-jokes and history that informs each new album…

Playing sideman to Rick Braun, Larry Carlton, Gato Barbieri, the Neville Brothers, and many others introduced guitarist/vocalist Steve Oliver to smooth jazz fans, but it was with Steve Reid's band that Oliver found a following. It was 1996 when Reid contacted Oliver at the last minute to fill in for a canceled opening act. Oliver hit the stage as a solo act and Reid was impressed with the guitarist's vocalese skills and summery sound. Oliver had come to vocalese not through King Pleasure or Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, but through Bobby McFerrin and Pat Metheny's work with Richard Bona and David Blamires, who sang along with guitar solos. Being a fan of the earthy Metheny sound, Reid hired Oliver after the gig and featured him in his touring band. Reid's Mysteries and Passion in Paradise albums featured Oliver not only as guitarist but songwriter as well. Oliver struck out on his own in 1999 with his debut, First View, released by Night Vision. The album spawned three hit singles on smooth jazz radio and earned the guitarist a Debut Artist of the Year award from Smooth Jazz News.

Various Artists - The Complete Stax & Volt Singles 1959-1968 (1991) {9CD Set Reissued 2016 Digitally Remastered}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.64 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.51 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 215 Mb | 5% repair rar
©1959-68, 1991, 2016 Atlantic / ATCO / Rhino / Warner | 081227954666
R&B / Blues / Soul / Doo Wop / Early Pop / Funk / Soul-Blues / Early R&B

9CD reconfiguration of original Atlantic box set, featuring every A-side the label released during those nine years, as well as several B-sides. The set is a definitive portrait of gritty, deep Southern soul. For any serious soul or rock collector, it's an essential set, since Stax-Volt was not only a musically revolutionary label, its roster was deep with talent, which means much of the music on this collection is first-rate. 11 of these singles charted on Billboard.

This album from Zanov, French Electronic artist since 1976, will transport you to 9 different, unknown, surprising and wonderful musical worlds. After reestablishing the link between past and future, Zanov had many musical and sound ideas for 2015. He got an Access Virus TI synthesizer, in addition to the Arturia Origin and began composing a new album. This album features shorter independent pieces, which are based on different and original ideas, and reflect the color of his music. He creates his sounds from his emotions and pays particular attention to their combination and evolution.

Federico Guglielmo whittles down his ensemble L’Arte dell’Arco to just three or four players for his latest release of Vivaldi’s music. Unlike other Vivaldi performers, Guglielmo is keen to return to the transparency of the Prete Rosso’s music, stripping away the ornate embellishments that have encumbered recent recordings, allowing the fluid lines to speak for themselves. In these Violin and Trio Sonatas, Guglielmo and his fellow musicians once again establish themselves as some of the foremost interpreters of the Italian’s music. For the most part bright and jolly, these sonatas demand to be played with charm and joie de vivre, which L’Arte dell’Arco certainly supply in abundance.

The French Baroque air has not been much recorded, even in comparison with the earlier strophic air de cour. But the veteran ensemble Les Arts Florissants, under American-French director William Christie, having brought exposure to a good deal of previously unknown French music, is not slowing down in this regard, and this delightful collection of "serious and drinking airs" might well stimulate other performers to explore the repertory.