1989 (Taylor's Version) is the fourth re-recorded album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 27, 2023, via Republic Records. It is a re-recording of Swift's fifth studio album, 1989 (2014), and follows Speak Now (Taylor's Version) as her second album in 2023. Announced on August 9, 2023, at the final Los Angeles show of the Eras Tour, the album is a part of Swift's response to her 2019 masters dispute. The 21-track 1989 (Taylor's Version) contains re-recorded versions of 16 tracks from the deluxe edition of 1989 and five previously unreleased "From the Vault" tracks. Swift, Jack Antonoff and Christopher Rowe produced the majority of the album, with original collaborators Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella, Shellback and Imogen Heap returning to contribute again.
Chicago-based guitarist Melvin Taylor is a star in Europe, but it may take some time for U.S. audiences to catch on to just how phenomenally talented a bluesman he is. Part of the problem for Taylor may be his own natural eclecticism. He's equally adept playing jazz or blues, but in the last few years, he's forged a name for himself as a blues guitarist with a slew of releases for Evidence Music. Taylor may well be the most talented new guitarist to come along since Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Ghanian composer, singer, guitarist, arranger, producer, and bandleader Ebo Taylor came to the attention of DJs in the U.K. and throughout Europe in the early part of the 21st century. His legend spread among hip-hop and dance music producers in the United States as well, resulting in a sample from his slamming track "Heaven" in Usher's hit "She Don’t Know." The seminal Strut imprint issued Taylor's first transglobal offering, Love & Death in 2010: it was a smash in club circles internationally. Strut has gone one better with Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980, compiling two discs of Taylor's solo work and that of bands he's led, taken part in, or produced. The music here leans most heavily on Taylor's solo albums. It kicks off, of course, with the infectious, groove-laden "Heaven," but this isn't the high point…
'Speak Now (Taylor's Version)' is the third re-recorded album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on July 7th 2023. It is a re-recording of Swift's third studio album, 'Speak Now' (2010), and follows her 2021 re-recorded albums, 'Fearless (Taylor's Version)' and 'Red (Taylor's Version)'. The re-recording is a part of Swift's counteraction to her 2019 masters dispute. It features collaborations with American rock acts Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams. The CD includes 22 songs, including 6 previously unreleased songs from the vault.
In the 21st century, an in an era of changing attitudes toward music creation, promotion, and distribution, singer and songwriter James Taylor has worked hard to stay in the public eye with bookstore and coffeehouse signing appearances, long tours in unlikely venues, and records of new material and cover versions of well-known tunes from all over the American music spectrum. Other Covers is a mid-length set of seven more cover tunes that follows his last full set of them by ten months. Taylor is backed by an all-star band that includes drummer Steve Gadd, bassist Jimmy Johnson, pianist and organist Larry Goldings, brass ace Walt Fowler, reedman Luis Marini, Jr., electric guitarist Michael Landau, and fiddle player and backing vocalist Andrea Zonn (among others).
Many jazz fans don't realize how long ago Billy Taylor began his career; this French anthology assembles five separate sessions that he led as a young man between 1945 and 1949, as well as one date as a sideman. In 1945 he shows the influence of both Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson in the lightly swinging take of "Night and Day," while his campy approach to "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is rather refreshing. His lyrical solo interpretation of "The Very Thought of You" from 1946 demonstrates his considerable growth as a pianist. Taylor also wrote seven of the songs, which include two versions of his easygoing "Stridin' Down the Champs-Elysees," the flashy blues "Well Taylor-Ed," and two rare vocals by Taylor on the Nat King Cole-like "I Don't Ask Questions, I Just Have Fun" and "So You Think You're Cute"…