Marked 2.6.41

It is easier to define Dionne Warwick by what she isn't rather than what she is. Although she grew up singing in church, she is not a gospel singer. Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan are clear influences, but she is not a jazz singer. R&B is also part of her background, but she is not really a soul singer, either, at least not in the sense that Aretha Franklin is…

Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2 is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. The 14th of the Road Trips series of archival releases, it was recorded on March 31 and April 1, 1988, at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was released as a three disc CD on February 1, 2011. Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2, subtitled April Fools' '88, includes the complete April 1 concert, along with the second set, encore, and two songs from the first set of the March 31 concert. It was only the second live Dead album that was recorded in 1988; the first was Grateful Dead Download Series Volume 5.The April 1 performance of Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" had been previously released on Postcards of the Hanging.

A highly regarded sextet from Italy, Malibran is a dynamic - at times explosive - group that features two guitarists and a sax/flute player. The presence of winds over strong, symphonic arrangements allows the band to engage in the kind of complex interplay that marked such Italian masters as Locanda Delle Fate. The musicianship is strong and the music contains many instrumental passages and some nice flute playing.

Never one to relegate particular instruments to merely supporting roles, Hindemith composed his String Trio No. 1 (1924) with an eye (and ear) toward complete equality among the parts. The Trio is written in an almost constantly contrapuntal texture that makes much use of canon and fugue techniques; virtually the only instances where a homophonic texture is evident are those that mark important structural divisions of the movements. Though much of the music has an atonal feel, Hindemith provides a sense of direction by establishing tonal centers as points of momentary resolution. Typical of Hindemith's music of the early 1920s, the Trio is marked by a bracing, energetic spirit. The String Trio No. 2 strongly contrasts with its predecessor, the String Trio No. 1 (1924), which is marked by a strong feeling of atonality. When Hindemith wrote the present work nearly a decade later, his style had evolved somewhat. The Trio No. 2 is built on standard Classical forms but incorporates Hindemith's personal sense of tonality, in which any note or chord may be related to a given tonal center; the music has a refreshing, non-Romantic sound.

Shadow Gallery is a progressive metal/rock band, which formed in Pennsylvania (USA) in the 1980's. Their name is taken from the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. They have a reputation among fans for complex song structures and virtuoso musicianship and have been compared to contemporaries Dream Theater and Queensrÿche. Vocalist Mike Baker, only 45 years old, passed away on October 29, 2008 of a heart attack. Several members of Shadow Gallery have made their contribution to other projects like MullMuzzler, Ayreon, Explorers Club and Star One.
The band released their first album in 1992, with copies being sold in Europe and Japan aswell. In late 1993, the band recruited a new musician to their course - keyboardist and guitarist Gary Wehrkamp, and in 1994, added another virtuoso to their palette, drummer Kevin Soffera…