Samson, Jim

At ten CDs and 200 tracks, this survey of 1970s pop features 20 songs from each year between 1970 and 1979.

Billed as the 50th album by this 50-year-old singer, Nancy Wilson's "Forbidden Lover" is an attempt to contemporize her sound, with arrangements that recall Luther Vandross and the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section. The title track, a duet with Carl Anderson, seems intended to heat up the R&B charts and, if it did, there would be other tracks to follow. It's reasonable that Columbia Records, which signed Wilson up after her long tenure at Capitol, should try to get a return on its investment. But Wilson the jazz-R&B song stylist gets lost on most of these recordings. "I Was Telling Him About You" is a ballad that lets her get across her personality, and the string-filled closer, Leon Russell's "A Song About You," really gives her room to shine and probably will turn out to be the only keeper on this collection. Pop music performers almost always want to sound contemporary, but this is one singer who would be better off acting her age.

Many of my old folk LPs (and LPs in general) have been displaced, or scratched beyond recognition. Alternatively, if you sold most of your vinyl during the onset of the late 80s, Compact Disc craze then this 3-CD set should signify a welcome event. This offering features a comprehensive overview to coincide with “Vanguard Records” capitalization of folk music’s increasing popularity commencing back in 1950. Naturally, these selections are culled from the now historical “Vanguard Records” archives. The three CDs are divided into distinct folk based genres: Roots of Folks (CD-1), Singers & Songwriters (CD-2), and Folk Blues (CD-3). You will hear Cisco Houston’s patriotic classic, “This Land Is Your Land,” and Doc Watson’s “Tom Dooley.” Vietnam protest singers such as Phil Ochs and the inimitable Northern California band, “Country Joe & The Fish are featured as well. Essentially, this three-pack is awash with one masterwork after another. The producers also include an informative timeline style glimpse of the progression and outgrowths of folk.
This wonderfully appealing product conjures up memories of both the good and bad while also serving as a testament to America’s beauty and wherewithal. More importantly – we are treated to a series of topical statements from many of this genre’s most prolific raconteurs. Highly recommended.

Frédéric Chopin was the most famous composer of Polish origin in the history of Western concert music. He was a progressive who revolutionized the harmonic content, the texture, and the emotional quality of the small piano piece, turning light dance forms, nocturnes, and study genres into profound works that were both daring and deeply inward. Born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin to a French father and a Polish mother, probably on March 1, 1810, he was a native of Zelazowa Wola village west of Warsaw.

For a century and a half Chopin's music has been played incessantly, yet the spell remains, and the 'Chopin recital', whoever the pianist, still fills the concert halls. This Companion is designed to provide the enquiring music-lover with helpful insights into a musical style that recognises no contradiction between the accessible and the sophisticated, between the popular and the significant.