Red Dawn Poledouris

The second of five CDs put out by the European Classics label that document trumpeter Red Allen's 1929-41 recordings has three titles from a session co-led with tenor-saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, eight songs from 1934 and a dozen from the following year. Allen takes vocals on most of the tracks and, even if not all of the songs are gems, there are many highlights including "Pardon My Southern Accent," "Rug Cutter Swing," "Believe It, Beloved," "Rosetta" and "Truckin'." The strong supporting cast includes trombonists Dickie Wells and J.C. Higginbotham, clarinetists Buster Bailey and Cecil Scott and, on one date, tenorman Chu Berry.

Picture Book is the debut album by British pop group Simply Red, released in October 1985. It contains the #1 single "Holding Back the Years", the band's most successful single, and a cover of The Valentine Brothers' "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)". Three other singles were released from the album: "Come to My Aid", "Jericho", and "Open Up the Red Box". The album includes 'lively' and 'energetic' groove beats and ballad orientated keyboard undertones that help songs such as "Holding Back the Years" to be so effective. Members Tim Kellett and Fritz McIntyre are acclaimed by Hucknall to be the most influential in the album based on the distinctive sound of their playing.

This October, Simply Red will release Remixed Vol. 1 (1985-2000) a two-CD collection of their hit singles in remixed form from the band’s first 15 years.

Recorded in New York with Tommy Tucker, Lowdown Back Porch Blues is Louisiana Red's first album and, in many ways, it's his best. Supported by a bare-bones rhythm section, Red plays a number or traditional tunes and originals. His guitar is nearly as powerful and overwhelming as his vocals, making this a truly compelling listen.

If you love Vivaldi's FOUR SEASONS, you will eat this up. The new tempos (which may be more like the original) take this piece from its previous iterations as a formal, Baroquesque piece to a wild, rowdy interpretation of nature's four seasons I mean, the actual four seasons. Spring has never sounded more like spring (the speeded up tempo reveals myriad birdsongs), etc.

Picture Book is the debut album by British pop group Simply Red, released in October 1985. It contains the #1 single "Holding Back the Years", the band's most successful single, and a cover of The Valentine Brothers' "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)". Three other singles were released from the album: "Come to My Aid", "Jericho", and "Open Up the Red Box". The album includes 'lively' and 'energetic' groove beats and ballad orientated keyboard undertones that help songs such as "Holding Back the Years" to be so effective. Members Tim Kellett and Fritz McIntyre are acclaimed by Hucknall to be the most influential in the album based on the distinctive sound of their playing.

A fantastic album as a leader from Sonny Red - a saxophonist who never got much chance to record under his own name, but always gave us something special when he did! Sonny recorded famously with Donald Byrd and Curtis Fuller in the 60s - but here, he's in an even hipper 70s mode of his own - a bit modal, a bit spiritual - in ways that make the whole album feel like some of the best 70s efforts on the Black Jazz label, with a righteous quality we might never have expected in Red a decade before! Sonny blows tenor, alto, and flute - all of them with a sharp, soulful edge - and he works here in a fantastic quartet that includes Cedar Walton on piano, whose own shadings give the record a lot of depth - plus the great Billy Higgins on drums, and Herbie Lewis on bass.

Limited Card Wallet CD Edition featuring 6 extra live tracks. 62 years of music, loves, losses, long summer days and longer, darker nights are vividly recalled by ‘our greatest living songwriter’, Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band as he plays out flickering scenes from his life on new album, Loophole, set for release on 17th May 2024 on Modern Sky. 12 evocative and autobiographical songs to be accompanied by the written word as Michael Head prepares his memoirs for release with an autobiography with Nine Eight Books. UK Tour dates announced for May and December, ending the year with a career-spanning, home city set at Liverpool Philharmonic.