Sarah Waters Little

5CD Box set. American Popular Song: Six Decades Of Songwriters And Singers, a Various Artists Compilation. Released in 1984 on Smithsonian Collection.

Two sixties albums, both recorded in London for the Decca and Deram labels by Muddy Waters' pianist Otis Spann. Features a range of top British Blues players including Muddy himself on Cracked Spanner Head.

We got to know music composer Vic Van De Reijt on his previous compilations (with his hundred favorite French, German and 'Suri-Vlame' hits) as a man with an omnivorous taste in music, who managed to forge well-known and obscure hits together into a beautiful whole. The fifties are central to this compilation album. An exciting job, because there are quite a few fifties collectors in circulation. In the accompanying booklet, Van de Reijt defends his choices, especially to opt for the original versions and why he did not choose a Dutch repertoire ('they simply couldn't compete with other countries'). The five CDs are divided into one with instrumental songs, one with male and one with female soloists, one rock and roll CD and, the best, a CD with novelty hits.

Inspired by Haydn’s trips to England, where he first heard Handel’s oratorios, The Creation is widely considered Haydn’s crowning masterpiece. Set for three vocal soloists, four-part chorus, and a large Classical orchestra, there seems little doubt that Haydn wanted a big sound (by the standard of his day) for this work. Based on both the biblical Book of Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost, the oratorio was premiered in the US by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1819.

"Tasty" is the 2nd solo album released by recording artist Patti LaBelle, her second solo album with Epic Records. Compared to the success of her debut album, released the previous year, the album performed only modestly well but featured the popular tunes "Eyes in the Back of My Head", which became a club hit, the Latin soul flavored "Teach Me Tonight (Me Gusta Tu Baile)", the David Lasley composition "I See Home" (covered a year later by Tina Turner) and the ballad "Little Girls". "Eyes in the Back of My Head" became an international hit reaching the top five of the Italian singles chart. The album also featured covers of songs by Boz Scaggs, The Drifters and Roy Hamilton in addition to a couple songs co-written by LaBelle herself, including "Teach Me Tonight" and "Quiet Time".

Latin rhythms have infiltrated every branch of popular music, but none has had such a wide ranging influence as the rumba. It is this rhythm, combined with the New Orleans second line beat that formed the basis of the Stax and Motown sound and the more complex rhythms of funk in the 1960s. This compilation shows how Latin music first took hold of the blues, adding its irresistible rhythms to jazz and swing during the war years and getting teenagers black and white on to the dance floor. Rumba is everywhere in post-war popular music, from the Clash's Rock The Casbah, Little Richard's Slippin' and Slidin' to the Beatles' Ballad Of John And Yoko. Its 3-3-2 rhythm became an integral part of American music and continues to cast its spell over popular music. Rumba or Rhumba? The 'h' was added after it was introduced to America as a dance in the 1930s; rumba is the music, rhumba is the dance.

The compilers of this five-CD/cassette box set anthology, which contains 104 tracks and runs over six hours, have taken an inclusive, open-ended approach to both their selections and their sequencing. Unconventionally, the album is organized not chronologically, but thematically, in eight categories – "Steeped in the Blues," Straight out of Church," "Let's Have a Party," "Swinging the Songbook," "After Hours: Slow-Dancing and Torching the Songbook," "Jazz Compositions," and "Novelties and Take-Offs" (in other words, blues, gospel, dance, standards, slow standards, scatting and vocalese, and other). Annotator Robert G. O'Meally is quick to acknowledge that the categories are slippery, however, and to invite the listener to re-arrange the sequencing as he sees fit, a suggestion some may not appreciate.

There are no less than 20 CD compilations on the market with the words "Jazz Divas" in the title, and another eight that use the phrase "Divas of Jazz." Those two nouns, so carelessly bandied about, describe improvising female vocalists whose works are an extension of a tradition established by Bessie Smith, Adelaide Hall, Ethel Waters, Mildred Bailey, Ivie Anderson, Valaida Snow, Una Mae Carlisle, and Lee Wiley, none of whom appear on Verve's 2007 double-disc anthology titled Jazz Divas: Gold. Although a collection this diverse is vulnerable to criticism, particularly in regards to the song choices that were made, the temporal range – May 1938 through June 1997 – allows for a healthy overview of stylistic evolution. Thirty singers are represented here, with Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Nina Simone checking in twice (each of the five has her own volume in Verve's Gold series). This is a mainstream selection; while the omission of Ada Moore, Jeanne Lee, and June Tyson is therefore not surprising, the absence of Pearl Bailey, Betty Roché, and Etta Jones is most unfortunate. On the positive side, it's an entertaining survey of mostly great recordings made over a span of six decades by a variegated assortment of female jazz vocalists.