Piccole Labbra (1978)

This 1978 Italian compilation, a double LP, has proved to be one of Julio Iglesias' most popular with Italian audiences. Sung almost entirely in Italian, its 20 tracks represent two-thirds of the three albums Iglesias recorded for the Italian market between 1976 and 1978, when he was at the peak of his international popularity…

Born in Forlì (Italy) in 1951, Riccardo Zappa is widely recognized as the greatest Italian acoustic guitarist. For five consecutive years he was voted the best in the poll promoted by the famous monthly magazine "Guitar Club". After that, he was declared to be no longer eligible for nomination. His music is in fact quite unique in the whole Italian prog scene; not can many other comparisons be found outside Italy, except perhaps Mike Oldfield, for his long, acoustic-based instrumental compositions.
His unmistakable trademark is the "Ovation" guitar, an instrument with a striking nasal sound, very suited to being handled with special effects. His first work, "Auhlela & Zappa" was recorded in 1974 as a duo, with lyrics and vocals by Klaus Auhlela and music by Riccardo Zappa himself…

Cosmic Messenger is more elegant, European-flavored jazz-rock from the French virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty, and pretty much in the same mold as his previous Atlantic albums but with gradually tightening control over every parameter of performance. Ponty's analog-delay special effects on the title track are spectacular, and the album is loaded more than ever with revolving electronic arpeggios as Ponty's own involvement with the ARP synthesizer grows. But there is still plenty of his fluid, slippery electric violin soloing to be heard within the tight structures of these pieces, and the tunes themselves are often pretty good. In addition, this fusion express finds its way into the funk on "The Art of Happiness," and there are some tricky rhythmic experiments on some tunes.

Departure from the Northern Wasteland, a classic of the progressive electronic genre, contains four pieces that are almost perfect in their realization of the sequencer as a compositional tool. Hoenig took the concept of repetitive music further than most anyone in his homeland and claimed his inspiration was drawn from American minimalist composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. The title track is a sublime 20-minute journey through ever-changing melodic and rhythmic phase relationships, creating the vivid sensation of a train ride through misty Northern European landscapes. "Hanging Garden Transfer" then speeds things up a little and is therefore less ideally suited for falling asleep (or waking you up). "Voices of Where" makes the picture of Path Finder on the desolate planet of Mars, appear before the mind’s eye, searching for any proof of life: not a single beat, just wonderful dreamscapes…

Surprisingly, no hits surfaced when The Montreux Album was released. The great "For a Few Dollars More" is here, and along with the original "The Girl Can't Help It, " they should have had much more success than they did. This is a solidly played and recorded work…

A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean (1973). While it still lies much closer to Nashville than Key West (like in the boisterous slide guitar solo that lights up "The Great Filling Station Holdup"), Jimmy Buffett's A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean does begin to delineate the blowsy, good-timin' Key West persona that would lead him to summer tour stardom and the adoration of millions of drinking buddies everywhere. "Why Don't We Get Drunk," "Railroad Lady," and "Grapefruit - Juicy Fruit" rightly became crowd pleasers. But Buffett reveals himself a storyteller with the touching sigh of "He Went to Paris," where a slide guitar appears again to lend a subtle gleam to the arrangement, or in the gorgeous, sweetly sad tale of a passed-away poet's unlikely posthumous success…