Tafsir Al Qurthubi 1

Naked Songs represents the other end of Al Kooper's early career from I Stand Alone. Where that first album was recorded very gradually at the outset of his solo career, soon after exiting Blood, Sweat & Tears, Naked Songs was a much more cohesive work (cut in New York and Georgia) from the end of his stay at Columbia Records. Ironically, it was a contractually obligated album, but never one to throw away an opportunity, Kooper embraced soul, gospel, blues, pop, and even country music in the course of filling its two sides. Playing his usual array of instruments, including loud, note-bending blues guitar and gospel-tinged organ on "As the Years Go Passing By," he effortlessly switches gears to the smoother pop-soul sound of "Jolie," then straight country with a blues tinge on "Blind Baby." John Prine's grim and uncompromising "Sam Stone" gets an extraordinary performance, but the real surprise is the presence of Sam Cooke's Soul Stirrers-era gospel classic "Touch the Hem of His Garment".

From December 1954 to December 1955, jazz producer Jack Lewis recorded a series of outstanding albums at RCA Victor’s famous Webster Hall Studios in New York City with Al Cohn and Joe Newman, each leading several small swinging bands, and as sidemen on Freddie Green’s only album as a leader.

Trust In God (1984). Released in 1984, Trust in God finds Green distracted throughout. Around the same time of this, a brilliant documentary, The Gospel According to Al Green, was being worked on. The film's subtext of Green shunning yet still loving R&B worked its way into the studio, too. This is gospel all right, but often of the perfunctory, barely awake variant. As pure gospel was causing Green's mind to wander, he attempted to solve the problem by covering early-'70s pop songs. Joe South's "Don't It Make You Wanta Go Home" gets a great and involved vocal from Green. The best song, the Jean Terrell-era Supremes "Up the Ladder to the Roof," turns into a prime Al Green song, with its sly drums and all of Green's attention…

The Lord Will Make A Way (1980). This 1980 album was released after Green received a wake-up call by way of tumble off a stage in Cincinnati. No doubt Green planned a straight-laced, devotional work with The Lord Will Make a Way, but his charisma and sex appeal was also part of the package. The title track is powerful, reverent, and sensual, with Green's voice possessing the intensity and tone of his earlier secular tracks. Like many of his best albums, this one has an immediacy that makes it a joy to listen to. Although Green's clear switch in his lyrical manner – changing she/her for love of the Lord, Jesus, and God - should be striking, the transition is seamless. The gospel standard "Pass Me Not" gets the Al Green treatment with his acoustic-guitar strums and strong call-and-response vocals…

This is a two-album-on-one-CD release from the U.K.'s branch of Hi Records. Out of the two albums here, Precious Lord is the more staid and religious. Recorded in Nashville and engineered by country producer Billy Sherrill, it's Green's most traditional gospel statement. Standards are abound, with the title track, "How Great Thou Art," "Rock of Ages," and a warm "In the Garden." Although the performances are felt, the country-style production and lack of veering from the script made the effort come off not as moving as one might think. The contemporary original "Morningstar" displayed more of what Green is capable of doing. The blend of Al Green's style and his inherent charm seemed to inform the majority of I'll Rise Again…

Veteran trombonist Al Grey leads an unusual quintet on this set from 1988 that, in addition to drummer Bobby Durham, features the sons of Al Cohn (guitarist Joe Cohn), Gerald Wiggins (bassist J.J. Wiggins), and his own Mike Grey on second trombone. The two trombonists have similar sounds, with the elder Grey getting the bulk of the solos. The repertoire mixes together swing standards with lesser-known jazz tunes by Thad Jones, Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley, Al Cohn, Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, and Al Grey himself. The relaxed straight-ahead music flows nicely and all of the musicians (other than Durham) have their opportunities to be featured. Worth searching for.

2014 five CD box set containing a quintet of albums from the Scottish singer/songwriter. Each album is housed in a mini LP sleeve. Includes the albums Bedsitter Images, Love Chronicles, Zero She Flies, Year Of The Cat, Time Passages. A pair of hits – "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages," arriving two years apart during the late 1970s – defined Al Stewart as a louche soft rock troubadour for millions of listeners. While that description is not inaccurate – Stewart had a fondness for lush studio production – it doesn't encompass everything the Scottish singer/songwriter accomplished during his lengthy career. Initially part of the British folk underground of the '60s, Stewart didn't shy away from controversy in his early years, becoming notorious for singing "f***ing" on his 1969 album Love Chronicles.

For Al Stewart fans who can't afford the five-CD set Just Yesterday, this 30-song double-disc collection is a fair – but only a fair – alternative. It is lacking a few items, however, that would make it more satisfying. For starters, the studio renditions of "Roads to Moscow" and "Nostradamus" are nowhere to be found, and then there's the absence of Stewart's debut single, "The Elf."…

Eleven songs from Al Stewart's albums Past, Present and Future (1974) through Live Indian Summer (1981), remastered in 1992, which gives it more than decent sound. "Roads to Moscow" is drawn from Past, Present and Future (the inlay card erroneously lists Live Indian Summer), and "Year of the Cat" is the hit studio version, but the producers have chosen live versions of "Nostradamus" (which emphasizes its Tommy-like central riff) and "On the Border," rather than their superior originals, probably to retain the value of the original albums…