Rhythm Immortal

"The man who was Django’s prestigious partner in the first, immortal Quintette du H.C.F. has made an appearance (on wax) for Barclay with a series of recordings in which you can rediscover his pretty sound and abundant, easy ideas; in a word, his style which, though with less of a bite than before, has lost none of its grace." Those were the first lines of the review that a certain Michel Delaroche (in fact Boris Vian) wrote for the November 1955 issue of Jazz Hot; the subject was this album, the first that Stéphane Grappelli ("Grappelly" at the time) had made on violin under his own name since he'd left England.
The violinist had celebrated his definitive return to France at the Club Saint-Germain on the night of April 25th 1954; he would appear there on and off for the next seven years…

Violinist Stephane Grappelli will forever be remembered as musical partner to the immortal Django Reinhardt - certainly not a bad thing, except that it conveniently overlooks the nearly half-century's worth of music that Grappelli made without the Gypsy guitar great. When this one-hour performance was recorded in 1989, the elegant, urbane Frenchman was already in his 80s, but he had lost none of his exceptional technique and flair. He's joined here by two exceptional guitarists (Martin Taylor and Marc Fosset) and a bassist; the lineup is much like that of the original Reinhardt-Grappelli Hot Club quintet, and they even play some of that group's standard material ("Honeysuckle Rose," "Daphne"), along with more modern fare like Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and Chick Corea's "Armando's Rhumba"…

Can - The Singles (2017) {Spoon-Mute CDSPOON60}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 551 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 187 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 43 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 Spoon Records / Mute | CDSPOON60
Rock / Krautrock / Experimental / Avant-Garde / Art Rock

German art rock innovators Can were known for creating relentlessly experimental albums boiled down from endless improvisational sessions, but they possessed a keen sensibility for writing offbeat pop songs. They released a decent amount of 45s, all of which are collected in one place for the first time on The Singles. Even though some of these selections appeared in longer form on the group's seminal albums, here they're presented as three- or four-minute edits. In the case of tracks like Tago Mago's sprawling centerpiece "Halleluwah" or the lovely riverside drift of Future Days' title track, the single version distills them to their essence, concentrating on the moments with the heaviest grooves and most up-front vocals. Of course, Can's albums contained plenty of tracks that were obvious choices for singles, and tunes like the smooth, trippy "She Brings the Rain" and the immortal funk jams "Vitamin C" and "Mushroom" are among the most memorable and instantly appealing selections in the group's sprawling catalog. Two of the group's poppiest singles even managed to become genuine chart hits at the time of their release.