Saint Preux Discography (1969 2009)

The first album released posthumously after jazz legend Freddie Hubbard's passing in 2008, the recordings that make up Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969 actually sat in the Blue Note archives for 40 years. Recorded while Hubbard was touring Europe with producer Sonny Lester's The Jazz Wave on Tour revue, the album features performances culled from three separate nights - two in England and one in Germany. While Hubbard had already released many of his most famous Blue Note solo albums by 1969, in truth the trumpeter had only started leading his own full-time touring band around 1966 after leaving Max Roach's ensemble. In that sense, Without a Song showcases Hubbard in his technical and creative prime as one of the premiere virtuoso jazz trumpeters of his generation…

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. The band's heavy, guitar-driven sound has led them to be cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal, though their unique style drew from a wide variety of influences, including blues, psychedelia, and folk music…

This Dutch blues band was formed in the Hague around 1967, becoming a regular outfit from 1969. The early line-up included Bjorn Toll (vocals), John Lagrand (harmonica), Ted Oberg (guitar), Ruud Fransen (bass) and Niek Dijkhuys (drums) but although the name remained wholesale changes soon took place, bringing in a new singer, Nicko Christiansen, and new bass and drums, Peter Kleinjan and Beer Klaasse, the latter pair being swiftly replaced by Gerard Strutbaum and Cesar Zuiderwijk, while keyboard player Henk Smitskamp was added…

Slade may have never truly caught on with American audiences (often narrow-mindedly deemed "too British-sounding"), but the group became a sensation in their homeland with their anthemic brand of glam rock in the early '70s, as they scored a staggering 11 Top Five hits in a four-year span from 1971 to 1974 (five of which topped the charts)…

Galliard is a sextet formed in the summer of 68, and developed a psychedelic type of brass rock, fronted by twin wind players Caswell and Smith and singer Geoff Brown. They recorded two albums on the Deram Nova label (the subsidiary prog label of Decca records) around the turn of the 70's decade, when brass rock was the rage. Their first album Strange Pleasure By Galliard, released in 69, was quite eclectic, ranging from Medieval to Flamenco/Spanish music. For their second album New Dawn, wind player John Smith was gone, but the group adjoined a mega brass section of four player, plus keyboardist Morton.

A 2CD set from organ supremo Brian Auger that includes the 1969 album Streetnoise, produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and featuring Julie Driscoll and Trinity, plus sixties compilation The Mod Years.
The final collaboration between singer Julie Driscoll (by that time dubbed as "The Face" by the British music weeklies) and Brian Auger's Trinity was 1969's Streetnoise - it was an association that had begun in 1966 with Steampacket, a band that also featured Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. As a parting of the ways, however, it was Trinity's finest moment. A double album featuring 16 tracks, more than half with vocals by Driscoll, the rest absolutely burning instrumentals by Trinity…

Following the wake of Picturesque Machstickable Messages From the Status Quo, Spare Parts tries to imitate the psychedelic sound that was so fashionable at the time. The disc is known for being one of the less-fortunate made by the British band, and they have even despised it on some occasions. In fact, 1969 was going to be the most dismal year in the story of Status Quo. Urged by Pye's request to reach the charts at any rate, the songs in the record reflect the band's frustrated attempts to please the company. The result is an irregular album that does not reach the imaginative sound of their earlier songs nor the brightness of their subsequent records.

In a world full of couplings of Schumann and Grieg's Piano Concertos in A minor, this disc offers three distinct advantages. First and most obviously, it offers an additional work, Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto in G minor, which brings the disc's total playing time up 78 minutes. Second, it offers up a soloist who's also the conductor, the multitalented Howard Shelley who directs England's Orchestra of Opera North from the keyboard.