John Defrancis

Besides hardcore Led Zeppelin fans, it's a little known fact that Jimmy Page produced and played on a 1970 album by theatrical rocker Screaming Lord Sutch, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends. In addition to Page's appearance (he also co-penned a few tracks), the other 'friends' included John Bonham, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, and Noel Redding. Since the album is quite difficult to find nowadays, select tracks have popped up over the years on compilations, such as the 2000 set Rock and Roll Highway.

In a neatly symmetrical fashion, Gramavision chose two tracks from each of Scofield's half-dozen albums for the label, sequenced them chronologically, cross-faded or ran many of them together, and ended up with an exciting hourlong summary of his mid-'80s output (would that more best-of albums be assembled with such consistency). After the jagged electric jazz-rock of the first two albums, Electric Outlet and Still Warm, "Make Me" and "The Nag" from Blue Matter inject a funk element into the Scofield bag, which becomes even nastier on "Wabash" (from Loud Jazz) before resolving into the potently jazzier direction of Flat Out ("The Boss's Car" is a gas). Amidst all of the electric bluster and energy, there is a dignified, quietly bluesy Scofield solo take on "Georgia on My Mind" (from Pick Hits Live) at the dead center of the CD…

SOMM Recordings continues its widely acclaimed championing of the music of Charles Villiers Stanford with a captivating collection of his Children’s Songs by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and baritone Gareth Brynmor John, accompanied by pianist Susie Allan.

Christine, based on Stephen King's novel about an unusual kind of car repossession, was taken by John Carpenter from book to screen in a blazingly short time. Rather than bypassing his usual methods, as he did with The Thing, Carpenter once again chose to do the score. The original soundtrack released from the movie was a brief affair indeed, offering up a small selection of rock & roll tunes used in the movie, plus a short selection ("Christine Attacks," here with the subtitle "Plymouth Fury") from Carpenter's score. As it is, this Tangerine Dream-influenced, mechanically pounding number is probably the best thing in the score, highly visual, threatening, and relentless. As with the best of Carpenter's work, it's enough to haunt your dreams for a few days – a property shared by the scores for Halloween and The Fog (both on Varese Sarabande).

This album is marked by the interaction between John Lee Hooker and his guitar-playing cousin Earl. Earl, who succumbed to illness in 1970, was a fine bluesman in his own right, possessing a formidable slide technique. Many are unaware that the two often performed together, and the band that accompanies John Lee here also backed Earl frequently. The opening cut, then, a slow 12-bar number called "The Hookers" is not about ladies of the evening, but rather about the gentlemen in question.
Heard here less than a year before his death, Earl still sounds frisky and versatile, often utilizing a funky wah-wah style without ever descending into the psychedelic excesses that plagued so many late-'60s electric blues albums…