Mr. Big Japanese Shm CD Collection (1989 1996) [japanese Remastered Reissue 2009] RE UP

This is the second of four volumes of the complete recorded output of Def Leppard available as a 7-CD box set. The box features the albums Adrenalize, RetroActive, Slang, Euphoria (never before on vinyl) and Rarities Vol. 2 and 3, both specially compiled by Joe Elliott…

Ten Light Claps and a Scream is the third and final LP by South African rock band Otis Waygood. It was released in 1971 by EMI-Parlophone, at the height of the Big Heavies' popularity – a sudden wave of white anti-Apartheid South African hard rock groups (the tag would be made official with the release of a 1972 compilation LP). Incidentally, Ten Light Claps and a Scream was produced by Julian Laxton, leader of Freedom's Children, another Big Heavy. By this third opus, Otis Waygood had developed an impressive group sound that built on the energy of bands like Free and Bloodwin Pig, adding to the wailing guitars and growling organ a bit of raspy, gnarly saxophone. The resulting sound is startlingly similar to H to He Who Am the Only One-era Van der Graaf Generator (although nothing could suggest that they were an influence on Otis Waygood)…

Certainly the most enigmatic Stormy Six CD release, this album consist of two different albums recorded in 1976, although one content's worth, called Pinocchio Bazaar (from track 16 until 25) did not see a release until the Fonitcentra CD reissue in the mid-90's, which uses the Cliché artwork and just adds the extra tracks and Pinocchio Bazaar name. An enjoyable album that can also be used as starting point for people who wants to approach the genre.

Nina Simone's live performances have a power and an intimacy all their own, and those qualities stand out in this recording from Vine Street. It's a stunning form of cabaret singing, dramatic without melodrama, and with roots that reach to Billie Holiday's surprising success with "Strange Fruit." Simone can add profundity to a usually carefree song like "My Baby Just Cares for Me," and the range of the performance broadens with the startling "Be My Husband," a simple pattern reduced to the naked force of a field holler, and the stark hymn "Balm in Gilead." Carefully chosen songs from Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, and Janis Ian achieve new dimensions in Simone's treatments. Her own deeply felt "Four Women" and "Mississippi Goddam" are potent and enduring protests. There's some effectively spare accompaniment from guitar, bass, and drums, but Simone's piano is the essential instrumental voice, from slow barrelhouse to Bach.

Shadoks reissues this Norwegian heavy rock album from Finjarn & Jensen, originally released in 1970 only in Norway (on the Columbia imprint via EMI Norsk A/S). Guitarist, vocalist, composer and artist Svein Finjarn can be safely called a legend in American rock. He began playing guitar and acting before he was 10 years old, and in the fall of 1961, he became the first Norwegian to play in a rock band with a fender Stratocaster. In 1969 he helped put together super-heavy rock group Jumbo with Freddy Lindquist, Leif Jensen, and Tore Syvertsen. The group released two singles, but dissolved during the work on their first LP. Finjarn and Jensen made the album complete with Lindquist, Arild Krosby, Arne Kvikstad and Grete Christoffersen, with enthusiastic liner notes written by Yngvar Holm…

A very little known group from Venice, but their only album, released in a very limited pressing, is among the rarest of the Italian 70's rock. Not really a progressive rock album, this is surely a progressive work, starting from its odd jute sack cover. It was also one of the first (or possibly the first) LP's by an Italian blues band, as the blues was considered in Italy as a music only reserved to foreign musicians during the 60's. The band's leader, guitarist Claes Cornelius, was in fact a foreigner, from Denmark, that had moved to Italy in the mid-60's and soon played an important role in the beat era and afterwards. He had founded with sound engineer Ermanno Velludo the Suono Recording Studio.
The album, Our Blues Bag, contains seven tracks, all sung in English and in the best blues tradition, based on electric lead guitar solos and high-pitched voice…

First time on CD for this 1973 album from Cross Country, formed by three members of the Tokens-Jay Siegel along with brothers Mitch and Phil Margo. The group released one self-titled album on the Atco Records label featuring a top 40 cover of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour".

Obscure but talented tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks is teamed with the young trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (on one of his earliest sessions), pianist Duke Jordan, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Art Taylor for a set dominated by Brooks' originals. None of the themes may be all that memorable ("Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You" comes the closest), but the hard bop solos are consistently excellent.

This single CD gives one a definitive look at Miles Davis' live show from his last three years. Using funky but unpredictable rhythm sections and leaving space for plenty of solos, Davis created a unique brand of fusion that has yet to be satisfactorily duplicated. Among his more notable sidemen during this era are altoist Kenny Garrett, Foley on lead bass (which he used as a lower-toned guitar), one or two keyboardists chosen from Joey DeFrancesco, Adam Holzman, Robert Irving III, Kei Akagi, and John Beasley, various bassists, drummers, and percussionists, and on "Amandla," the tenor of Rick Margitza. Davis is in consistently strong form throughout the numbers, which include "In a Silent Way," "New Blues," "Human Nature," "Tutu," and "Time After Time." Quite often the live versions of these songs are more creative and exciting than the ones previously issued.