Omega Éjszakai Országút (1970) [remastered 2003]

Live in Boston is a live album by British blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac. It was recorded over three nights at the Boston Tea Party venue in Boston, between February 5 and February 7, 1970. The recordings were made for a proposed live album, which was to have been released during 1970 but the project was shelved and the tapes remained unreleased until Shanghai Records issued seven songs from the performances as Live in Boston in February 1985. The album was reissued a few months later as "Jumping at Shadows" by Varrick Records and was re-released again in 1989 as "Boston Live" by Castle Communications. In addition, a number of other compilations featuring material dating from Fleetwood Mac's February 1970 residency at the Boston Tea Party appeared during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1998, Snapper Music released a three-volume CD set, titled Live in Boston: Remastered (later reissued as Live at the Boston Tea Party), which collected virtually all of the available tracks from the Boston Tea Party concerts. These three volumes have subsequently been available individually or as a box set.

The Chicago Transit Authority recorded this double-barreled follow-up to their eponymously titled 1969 debut effort. The contents of Chicago II (1970) underscore the solid foundation of complex jazz changes with heavy electric rock & roll that the band so brazenly forged on the first set. The septet also continued its ability to blend the seemingly divergent musical styles into some of the best and most effective pop music of the era. One thing that had changed was the band's name, which was shortened to simply Chicago to avoid any potential litigious situations from the city of Chicago's transportation department – which claimed the name as proprietary property.

Pianist Oscar Peterson is frequently astounding on this solo set. After nearly 20 years of mostly performing with trios, Peterson sounds quite liberated in this setting, throwing in some hot stride, unexpected changes in tempos and keys, and surprises whenever he thinks of them. "Give Me the Simple Life," "Honeysuckle Rose," and the ironically titled "A Little Jazz Exercise" are quite remarkable, yet Peterson also leaves space for some sensitive ballads.

Working-class British hard rock group Stray put out ten records in the 1970s. Their clever progressive blues-rock epics went largely ignored due to the burgeoning London punk scene – though they count the Damned's Captain Sensible and XTC bassist Colin Moulding as fans. Transatlantic's exhaustive Time Machine: Anthology 1970-1977 chronicles the group's rise from obscurity to cultdom through a well-paced 35-song retrospective that features extensive liner notes and thoughtful musings from bandmembers and fans alike, giving new insight into one of rock & roll's most resilient underdogs. The group disbanded in the '80s, leaving behind a body of work that negates its lack of chart success. In 1997, frontman Del Bromham put together a revised version of the group that continues to tour, impressing a new generation with its trademark hard-working bar band aesthetic.

The Pulsacion set is sort of a musical orphan that has been tacked on to other compilation CDs over the years, but here it is in the logical sequence of its original issue. Those who have never heard it will find it surprisingly different from much of Piazzolla's other works. Different though it is, Pulsacion still screams Piazzolla.