J D Brown

New Haven '76 represents Elvis' summer tour from 23rd July to August 5th 1976. Many Elvis fans consider this to be Elvis' worst Summer tour (apart from abysmal performances in Late August before things 'improved') The Tour coming straight after the three 'bodyguard' sackings finds Elvis on 'auto pilot' and (mostly) singing the absolute minimum of songs in a lacklustre manner…

Iona Brown, violinist and sometime conductor of the Academy of St. Martin and the fields, clearly understood how different Telemann was from other baroque composers - and what was needed to really bring out his special qualities. Unlike J.S. Bach and Handel, who were keyboard virtuosi, Telemann, who had unusual interest in and an especially keen ear for instrumental sonorities, spent his early years (secretly) learning to play all the instruments available in his time. Despite his prodigious musical gifts, his upper middle class family did not want him pursuing what was then the low occupation of musician.

The first disc of this double eponymous set is comprised of studio demos recorded in 1970 for Warner Bros. The group's blues-rock leanings and troubled topics make this music heavier than your run-of-the-mill West Coast psych rock (and at times evoking England's Savoy Brown).Pop attempts like "Since I Met Her" had no chance to make it on the radio – the song is simply too frantic and ecstatic (which is all the better). Other highlights include Sharp's "Key of Be" and Michie's "Oh, Yes, Yes!"The second disc culls 54 minutes of live material from two concerts in 1969. Both recordings have been nicely restored.The group gets bluesier, stretching "Last Saturday Night" and "Every Day & Every Night" over seven minutes – good occasions to witness Michie's impressive guitar work.The live disc is more than just an extra, because it contains almost completely different songs from those on the first CD.