Jerry Oland Banjo (1977 2020)

Cheap Trick has developed a singular imagery, these proponents of an energetic power pop are a bit the Good, the Brute, the Ugly and the Funny of rock. The good Robin Zander (vocals), the ugly Tom Petersson (bass), the brute Bun E. Carlos (drums) and the funny Rick Nielsen (guitar). Cheap Trick has the immense merit of having completed a career of 30 years of success, without deviating from its guideline. Cheap Trick at Budokan in 1979 is the best power pop album recorded in public, while Rockford in 2006 confirms that Cheap Trick is alive and well.

This is the definitive reissue of ‘Free Yourself,’ lacquered directly from the original master tapes by legendary Los Angeles mastering engineer Bernie Grundman. In a move that the band would find fitting, its tapes were placed next to the original Track Records mono masters for Hendrix’s ‘Axis: Bold As Love’ during their cutting session; Grundman was lacquering both concurrently. So, with this issue, Black Fire’s story burns forth into its fifth decade, its message not tempered, its sound pure. Its cycle, once again, complete.

There are relationships that always remain fruitful. Maybe it is because the discourse never lags or there is unflagging affection. Vocalist Jay Clayton and percussionist Jerry Granelli have been making music together for forty years and their musical connection continues to surprise as their affinity deepens. Their new recording, Alone Together, shows how the spark of creativity has only brightened over the duo’s long affiliation.

Harry Chapin's brother Steve and his drummer Howard Fields remember: "On April 11th 1977, Harry Chapin and his band, near the end of their first tour overseas, performed a concert broadcast over German radio at a small auditorium in the city of Bremen in front of 400 people. The performance was akin to the calm after a storm in that it followed two consecutive arena shows (in Munich and Dortmund) where Harry would open up for a roster of rock, blues and heavy metal bands that featured The Small Faces, John Mayall, The Scorpions and headliner Status Quo. A more unlikely billing for Harry and the band was unimaginable. The crowd was very drunk, very loud and very not-at-all-interested in Harry's songs and sound. So, on the following night he was delighted to be back in his element, in Bremen, in front of a small, quiet, and appreciative audience attentively listening to his words and stories. Fueled by the change of atmosphere, a now energized Harry would speak and speak and speak, as if he were in Boston or Boise, to an adoring audience regardless of how many of his words were actually understood.

Mungo Jerry are a British rock group who experienced their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing line-up that has always been fronted by Ray Dorset. The group's name was inspired by the poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer", from T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The group's biggest hit was "In the Summertime". They had nine charting singles in the UK, including two number ones, and five top 20 hits in South Africa.

A fount of harmonic ingenuity, melodic integrity, and rhythmic authority, Jerry Bergonzi has long been a standard-bearer of sorts for the jazz community. A prolific composer prone to taking deep dives that put serious theory into profound practice, his discography is filled with smart and imaginative originals that twist and turn in unexpected fashion.But a passion for standard gems of yesteryear, the lingua franca of jazz, also fires his creative impulses and figures into his work. In fact, the tried-and-true classics serve as a source of limitless potential for his horn.

There are relationships that always remain fruitful. Maybe it is because the discourse never lags or there is unflagging affection. Vocalist Jay Clayton and percussionist Jerry Granelli have been making music together for forty years and their musical connection continues to surprise as their affinity deepens. Their new recording, Alone Together, shows how the spark of creativity has only brightened over the duo’s long affiliation.

Wewantsounds present the first official release outside of Japan for The Mystery Kindaichi Band's The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke, originally released in 1977. The "imaginary" soundtrack to the cult detective book series by writer Seishi Yokomizo is on many DJ want-lists. Arranged by soundtrack master Kentaro Haneda and featuring a mysterious group of the best '70s Japanese Funk musicians, the album is pure undiluted disco funk. Writer Seishi Yokomizo is an institution in Japan. He could be compared to Agatha Christie with his series of novels based on the adventures of detective Kosuke Kindaichi.