Tafsir Al Qurthubi 1

A gift from heaven is the only adequate way of describing this superb double-CD set, which comes in a slip-case with a neat little booklet. It is the definitive Al Kooper solo project, and a career reconsideration and retrospective, but it's also damn close to definitive as a document of the Blues Project and the original Blood, Sweat & Tears as well.

Al Manfredi, born to a musical family of Italian immigrants in the small SoCal beach town of San Clemente, found regional success with his garage rock band Lost & Found while he was still a teenager. The tragic deaths of two of the band’s members in the late 60s shook Manfredi to his core, and he gave up on the band scene completely, retreating to his family’s music store, and working on music in private, multi-tracking demos of growing prowess on primitive recording equipment.

Jazz guitarist Al DiMeola gives new meaning to the phrase world music by working with Ukrainian bandura player Roman Hrynkiv. Here DiMeola explores a special collection of instrumental seasonal works, underscoring them with layered percussion. A number of captivating originals and intricately arranged standards surface here, including "Carol of the Bells, "Ave Maria," and "The First Noel." DiMeola certainly titled the album right: these seasonal songs readily capture the penetrating chill and peacefulness of a star-laden winter sky. Recommended.

Martin Keller, Amazon.com

The Sudan is a place in which singers and instrumentalists are known for their very organic mixture of Middle Eastern and African elements. This is true of a contemporary Sudanese pop singer like the jazz-influenced Rasha, and it is also true of a Sudanese traditionalist such as Mustafa al Sunni. Although al Sunni wasn't born until 1964 and was only in his early 30s when Songs of the Sudan was recorded in 1997, this CD contains none of the electric pop sounds of his generation. Very traditional in its outlook, Songs of the Sudan finds the charismatic singer/oud player forming a duo with percussionist Abd al Hafiz Karar and sticking to an acoustic setting. Lovers of Middle Eastern music will instantly recognize the string instrument that al Sunni plays as the oud, an Arabic lute…

Al Caiola - High Strung + Cleopatra And All That Jazz (2016) {Blue Moon BMCD 875 rec 1957-1963}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 382 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 143 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 104 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1957-63, 2016 RCA Victor / United Artists / Blue Moon | BMCD 875
Jazz / Cool / Guitar

Al Caiola’s mastery of the guitar was always abundantly clear, both in his recordings as a studio musician and in his stage performances, and it is just as self-evident in these two albums and in his relationship with the two solid jazz groups that accompany him on them. "High Strung" was recorded in 1959, and without climbing way out on a limb, Al and his supporting cast of guitars—George Barnes, Al Cassamenti, Don Arnone, John Pizzarelli, and Billy Bauer—set new ideas to a solid swinging beat in “electrifying” up-tempo evergreens and a couple of his own compositions, backed by an excellent rhythm section.

Gioachino Rossini - Armida - Daniele Gatti, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2009) {3CD Set, Sony Music 88697579072}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 803 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 417 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 195 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993, 2009 Sony Classical | 88697579072
Classical / Opera / Romantic

This is a truly thrilling performance of a rare Rossini opera. I listened to it twice through upon receiving it. I can understand why it is rarely performed, although this is a live performance. One needs to marshall a tremendous cast to pull this opera off satisfactorily. Renee Fleming is the only female voice in the cast and shines in her role as the sorceress. The various tenors, and in particular Carlo Bosi, all perform with total commitment and are endowed with the skill to execute Rossini's twists and turns with apparent ease. To be quite honest, I don't even care about the story line; many of them are silly anyway. However, if you want to listen to glorious voices performing difficult music with seeming ease and agility, this recording will thrill you as it did me.

Linn's Vivaldi: L'Amore per Elvira, featuring the English group La Serenissima under the direction of Adrian Chandler, has quite a bit to offer the Vivaldi fancier. First are Chandler's excellent reconstructions of two of the fragmentary "Graz" violin sonatas that have not come down with their continuo parts intact. Chandler has filled in the missing music with entirely satisfactory replacements that appear to be seamlessly Vivaldian, rendering these works into a listenable form for the first time.