Sonny Rhodes

The ideal gift for a music lover is for sure a nice compilation. Rock & Folk released this year a compilation of the best rock songs of the 50s and 60s. A person who is a fan of rock, it is very easily. A person who still listens to CDs in his car is easy to find too. A person who prefers to have a beautiful object rather than an iTunes prepaid card, there is a shovel.
Here is a gift that can please a person who mixes these three aspects. Indeed, Rock & Folk releases its traditional compilation of end of year and looks this year on the origins of rock.

This is one of George Howard's more complex and varied works. The opening cut "Within Your Eyes" is dreamy. "Still In Love" has a soft sweet side. "Smooth" is on the funkier side and cool. "Africa" is a tribute to a rich heritage. Not one version but two unique versions of this song are included. George Howard in his later works was an artist who could mix a variety of sounds and moods in one cd. He left us with many sides of his artistry and this is a fine example.

Bob Dylan & The Band - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes - Complete (2014) [6CD] {Columbia}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.11 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 944 Mb
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© 2014 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 8875016122
Rock / Folk Rock / Roots Rock / Songwriter

Preserving newly written Bob Dylan songs for copyright is the reason why the Band's Garth Hudson rolled tape at Big Pink but The Basement Tapes were something much more than songwriting demos. Greil Marcus dubbed it a celebration of the "Old, Weird America" in his 1997 book Invisible Republic, connecting these songs to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, adding an extra layer of myth to tapes that were shrouded in mystery from the moment bootlegs started to circulate. The Basement Tapes Complete strengthens portions of that legend while simultaneously puncturing it. Certainly, the six-disc box – its first five discs assembled according to Hudson's numbering system, with the sixth disc collecting sessions discovered later – feels substantially different from the LP released in 1975, where the overall picture was distorted by Robbie Robertson adding sometimes significant overdubs and including Band recordings that weren't cut during those seven months in 1967.

Paolo Fresu 5et - Songlines / Night & Blue (2010) {2CD Tuk Music 8034135080059}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 845 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 316 Mb
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© 2010 Tuk Music / My Favorite Music | 8034135080059
Jazz / Modern Jazz / Post Bop / Trumpet

Paolo Fresu's Songlines/Night & Blue is a beautiful performance by a musician who does not feel compelled to prove himself with pyrotechnics. Instead, on this two-disc set, the Italian trumpeter prefers speaking his piece with lush melodies and a rich full horn sound, supported by an exceptional quartet. Being an Italian album, it seems appropriate to use a few musical terms. The entire affair, around 140 minutes in length, is taken sostenuto (smoothly), with a pace that slides between adagio (slowly) and andante (walking), but never goes much faster than that. But this down-tempo consistency should not be confused with sloth. Everything here is tightly played, with some real intensity from the musicians; it's just not going to wake the neighbors with frenetic thunder.

Ethnic Expressions by Roy Brooks & the Artistic Truth is one of two recordings drum master Roy Brooks cut for the tiny Afrocentric New York imprint Im-Hotep. Released in 1973, it has been one of the most sought-after "Holy Grail" recordings on the collector's market, with copies selling at auction for over $1,200. The reason is not merely its rarity, but the stellar quality of its music and the focus of its vision reinventing the unity of African-American self-determination through music. Recording at Small's Paradise in Harlem on the tenth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this large collective of musicians created a positive, musically sophisticated, emotionally powerful performance that epitomized 1970s jazz as it incorporated the free, progressive, and spiritual jazz elements of the 1960s in a setting that also included soul and blues expression…