Hunted [rapt] 1952 [re Up]

Billie Holiday's first recordings for Norman Granz' Clef Records present a vocalist truly at the top of her craft, although she would begin a rapid decline soon thereafter. This 1952 recording (originally issued as a 10" LP, Billie Holiday Sings) places Holiday in front of small piano and tenor saxophone-led groups including jazz luminaries such as Oscar Peterson and Charlie Shavers, where her gentle phrasing sets the tone for the sessions, evoking lazy evenings and dreamy afternoons. The alcoholism and heroin use that would be her downfall by the end of this decade seems to be almost unfathomable during these recordings since Holiday is in as fine a voice as her work in the '30s, and the musical environment seems ideal for these slow torch songs…

Ray Charles is an American legend beyond compare. This deluxe eight-disc box set proves it by encompassing Ray's entire Atlantic Records repertoire on the first six CDs. Additionally, the set includes an entire disc (27 tracks, all but three previously unreleased) of outtakes, live recordings, and alternate versions. Plus, there's a bonus DVD that features Ray live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 and an exclusive interview with Ahmet Ertegun, conducted by Ray Director Taylor Hackford. Special packaging features a record player-style box and a linen-bound hardback book.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwängler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part of the music scene.

1952-1953 (2005). From July 26, 1952 to December 12, 1953, Count Basie continued to record for Norman Granz's Clef label, variously utilizing a quintet, sextet, nonet, and 16-piece big band. Released in 2005, this volume in the Classics Chronological Series documents all of the issued studio titles from this time period, neatly omitting no less than 15 Birdland radio broadcasts so as to focus upon the Count's protean adventures within the intimate confines of recording studios in New York and Los Angeles. Basie's excellent instrumentalists include trumpeter Joe Newman, trombonist Henry Coker, reedmen Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Paul Quinichette, Marshall Royal, Ernie Wilkins, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, and Charlie Fowlkes…

This 31 CD box set is being released to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday in December 2015. The set contains all the recital programmes of song, opera and operetta tha t she recorded for EMI between 1952 and 1974, and also included two live recitals.
All the recordings have been newly remasteredto the highest standards by various studios including Abbey Road.