The Great Book of John is led by Taylor Shaw - founding guitarist of Birmingham Alabama's Wild Sweet Orange. Shaw's music is eminently lyrical - recalling Jeff Buckley's psychedelic soul, Leonard Cohen's poetic (and lacerating) wordplay, and fiery fretwork influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughn and David Gilmour as much as it is by Radiohead. The Great Book of John is a deeply-layered production brimming with amplified crunch and a thick, somnambulant atmosphere provided by Remy Zero's Jeffery Cain and Grammy-winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, Outkast).
As the elder statesman of British blues, it is John Mayall's lot to be more renowned as a bandleader and mentor than as a performer in his own right. Throughout the '60s, his band, the Bluesbreakers, acted as a finishing school for the leading British blues-rock musicians of the era…
AVID Jazz continues with its Four Classic Albums series with a finely re-mastered 2CD release from John Coltrane with The Red Garland Trio & Quintet.
The artistic prowess of saxophonist John Coltrane was so expansive and influential - even in his own short lifetime, let alone in the decades since his death - that it's difficult to quantify or differentiate his significance as a leader, a collaborator, a sideman or any other role in the jazz idiom. What's certain, though, is that some of his most pivotal session work took place on the Prestige label in the 1950s.
A live DVD featuring the Godfather of Blues, John Mayall, here backed by fine musicians like Coco Montoya and the extraordinary Walter Trout.
As the elder statesman of British blues, it is John Mayall's lot to be more renowned as a bandleader and mentor than as a performer in his own right. Throughout the '60s, his band, the Bluesbreakers, acted as a finishing school for the leading British blues-rock musicians of the era. Guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor joined his band in a remarkable succession in the mid-'60s, honing their chops with Mayall before going on to join Cream, Fleetwood Mac, and the Rolling Stones, respectively.