Machine Gun Mccain (1969) Giuliano Montaldo, John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland, Peter Falk

Rudy Rotta is an Italian blues guitarist who lives near Verona. Rotta achieved success in Italy before touring in other European countries. His reputation spread to the United States where he gained great popularity. His music combines a modern style with blues roots and a rocky funk soul character. Some consider him one of the best blues musicians in the world. His current double CD "Me, My Music And My Life" shows his impressive work in celebration of his 40 years in show business. In addition to his best works he also recorded some Italian songs as a bonus.

Ballads have a way of comforting us. When imbued with real emotive powers, they have the capacity to elevate and transport. We become lost in romance or reverie. This second orchestral collaboration between iconic Swiss trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti and two-time, Grammy-winning arranger Alan Broadbent takes us there. The album title is an apt description of Franco's approach to each golden note he plays on flugelhorn. Backed by an all-star group of pianist Broadbent, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Peter Erskine, along with a 29-piece orchestra arranged and conducted by Broadbent, Ambrosetti pulls heartstrings on a program of four originals and four well-chosen covers.

Well, this is something serious Hendrix collectors have been waiting for. Band of Gypsys famously played a total of four shows 12/31/69 and 1/1/70 at the Fillmore East (two shows each night). This is the complete first set from the first night; their debut live show. Although the original Band of Gypsys album was compiled from the second night, it wasn't because there weren't amazing performances to choose from on the first night. The first couple songs are a bit rough around the edges, but when Jimi goes deep blues with "Hear My Train a Comin'," he really starts feeling it and turns in an absolutely amazing version (that's why it was previously released on Band of Gypsys 2 and Live at the Fillmore East). "Machine Gun" is another stunner…

The first Soft Machine LP usually got the attention, with its movable parts sleeve, as well as the presence of ultra-talented songwriter Kevin Ayers. But musically, Volume Two better conveys the Dada-ist whimsy and powerful avant rock leanings of the band. Hugh Hopper took over for Ayers on bass, and his fuzz tones and experimental leanings supplanted Ayers' pop emphasis. The creative nucleus behind this most progressive of progressive rock albums, however, is Robert Wyatt. He provides the musical arrangements to Hopper's quirky ideas on the stream-of-consciousness collection of tunes ("Rivmic Melodies") on side one.

Following up the U.K. Top Ten success achieved by 1968 smash single "Race with the Devil" was never going to be an easy feat for Gun (when is it easy for any band?), but the sophomore slump experienced by the power trio's second LP, Gunsight, in 1969, still felt almost too predictable. Not unlike its preceding long-player, Gunsight invested in a broad variety of musical styles, easily dismissing any posthumous attempt to confine Gun to a psych-infused, proto-metal box, but as well as lacking that all important mega-hit to quell all troubles, the album's aggressive sonic experimentation arguably crossed the line from "daring" to just plain "unfocused." Not that you can blame them for trying. Lest one forget, even "Race with the Devil"'s hard rock heart had come wrapped in gusts of mariachi horns, and though the same applied to many of its fellow album tracks too…

In 1969, Soft Machine were commissioned to provide music for a multimedia show at the Roundhouse in London. As Hugh Hopper writes in the liner notes, "they wanted a backing tape of suitably deranged and doomy sounds," and the group (augmented in parts by saxophonist Brian Hopper) delivered suitably abstract music that was high on improvisational challenge and low on melody. This 67-minute CD was compiled from music used in the show. It varies from off-kilter planetarium-type sounds (especially evident in Mike Ratledge's astral electric keyboards) to background-type instrumental jazz-rock to bordering-on-clamorous noisy improv (especially on the 32-minute "Spaced Four"). The sound quality is good, but this is, after all, work that was recorded as a supplement to a performance art event, with a different purpose in mind than home listening…