M Kerry

Scraping the Barrel, 12 hours of music, compiled, cleaned and edited by dedicated Gentle Giant fan & friend Dan Bornemark between 1998 and 2004. As the title indicates, this is it, the best of the rest. The box-set contains 3 CD's and a data disc, a good solution even so my personal choice which tracks to put on the data disc (128 K/bit for the majority) would have been slightly different…

Coming off the surprise new studio album Somewhere to Elsewhere in 2000 Kansas seemed to have a bit of a resurgence in popularity, with an increased tour schedule that hasn't let up yet, and a rapid-fire series of reengineered back-catalog albums, compilations, and reissued live releases. In the summer of 2002 the band auctioned off several hundred premium tickets for this concert at Earthlink Live in Atlanta, and drummer Phil Ehart realized a long-time desire to record a full-length concert of the band in a small-venue setting. The result was the two-disc "Device - Voice - Drum", released with little fanfare by Compendium Music Group…

Jazz bagpipes? The one master is Rufus Harley, who does about all that can be done with that unpromising instrument. After all, once one blows a note, the sound is sustained until the air empties out. This well-conceived sampler draws its music from Harley's Atlantic albums (Scotch & Soul, Bagpipe Blues, and Deuces Wild), plus his guest spot on a Herbie Mann album. Harley, who also is heard playing a bit of soprano, tenor, and flute, performs such numbers as "Feeling Good" and "Pipin' the Blues," the latter teaming him with altoist Sonny Stitt. This sampler is worth exploring.