Teedie Don Brown

Bassist Ray Brown, pianist Benny Green, and drummer Jeff Hamilton make for a perfect team on their Telarc CD. The tight yet swinging arrangements are full of subtle surprises and serve as a perfect format for the players, particularly Green. Highlights include Thad Jones' "Don't Get Sassy," Oscar Peterson's "Kelly's Blues," "Tanga," "Brown's New Blues," and a three-song Duke Ellington medley.

Zac Brown Band have announced plans for a new album due this fall. Titled The Comeback, the group’s upcoming full-length studio project will be released October 15th via Warner Music Nashville and Brown’s Home Grown Music.

An astonishing record of James and the Flames tearing the roof off the sucker at the mecca of R&B theatres, New York's Apollo. When King Records owner Syd Nathan refused to fund the recording, thinking it commercial folly, Brown single-mindedly proceeded anyway, paying for it out of his own pocket…

On June 7, 2019, hard working rock 'n roll band Hollis Brown from Queens, NY, released their new album 'Ozone Park' on Mascot Label Group/Cool Green Recordings. Formed by singer/guitarist Mike Montali and lead guitarist Jonathan Bonilla, the band has been together 10 years, during which it’s released an EP and two albums, along with a Record Store Day tribute to the Velvet Underground’s ‘LOADED’ album. Hollis Brown is a group that lives up to the blue-collar legacy of their hometown. But, as evidenced on their new album 'Ozone Park’, there’s also a great deal of sophistication in the mix with rich melodicism and advanced harmonics that allows Hollis Brown to blend a wealth of influences into their own distinctive sound.

The four chamber works by Austrian Thomas Larcher recorded here show that's he's a composer to watch out for. His compositional voice is strikingly unencumbered by adherence to any orthodoxy, and his work is direct in its emotional and intellectual communication. My Illness Is the Medicine I Need, for soprano, violin, cello, and piano, is particularly effective; its aphoristic texts come from a Benetton "Colors" magazine that included photographs of psychiatric hospitals and quotations from their patients. Larcher's understated text setting allows the voices of the patients to be heard with unaffected bleakness and it is strongly moving. Even though it uses a contemporary harmonic language, the string quartet Ixxu (1998-2004) is old-fashioned in its emotional clarity. Its last movement, "ruhig," is genuinely peaceful and brings to mind the serenity of Arvo Pärt's Fratres. His 1990 quartet Cold Farmer is similarly direct and generous in inviting the listener in, and here again the slow movement is especially deeply felt and engaging.

Throughout a chequered career Arthur Brown has never been one to play by the rules and when the chart topping The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown split nobody knew what the band’s namesake would do next. When he resurfaced several years later it was with the proto-prog, avant-garde Kingdom Come, a band so way out that time is only just catching up. Eternal Messenger: An Anthology 1970-1973 collects the band’s three albums along with a rare jam session and a disc of radio sessions to make the perfect introduction to Arthur Brown’s crazy world…

James Brown's two-CD 40th Anniversary Collection gathered 40 of the soul-funk giant's biggest hits, and in keeping with its title, The 50th Anniversary Collection is just that little bit bigger and better, with (could you guess?) 50 of his most famous tracks. From 1956's "Please, Please, Please" to 1988's "Static, Pts. 1 & 2," it has almost all of his biggies, though the absence of the 1986 Top Five hit "Living in America" is puzzling indeed. But that's a minor quibble given the dozens of classics onboard, which taken as a whole not only represent the best Brown compilation on the market, but also make a plain case for the singer as one of the major talents of 20th century American music. It's not wholly redundant on the off-chance that you're willing to replace 40th Anniversary Collection, mopping up a few hits of note ("Bewildered," "Bring It Up," "Let Yourself Go," "I Can't Stand Myself [When You Touch Me], Pt. 1," "It's a New Day, Pt. 1," "The Popcorn") that didn't make the cut the previous time around. If you're keeping score, it does lose a couple minor goodies from 40th Anniversary Collection ("Money Won't Change You," "King Heroin"). Also, the '70s funk years might be given too much emphasis and his R&B-soul beginnings shortchanged, though there are plenty of other reissues of his '50s/'60s material out there if you want to investigate further.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was 74 when he recorded American Music, Texas Style, and the Texas bluesman made it clear that he still had plenty of energy. On this CD, Brown really emphasizes his love of jazz. Young hard bop players like trumpeter Nicholas Payton and alto saxman Wes Anderson are on board, and the veteran singer/guitarist offers no less than three standards from Duke Ellington's repertoire ("I'm Beginning to See the Light," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and son Mercer Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used to Be") and two classics from Charlie Parker's years with Jay McShann ("Hootie Blues," "Jumpin' the Blues"). Meanwhile, the jazz influence is hard to miss on such fast jump blues as "Rock My Blues Away" and "Without Me Baby." Brown's voice is thinner than it used to be, but his guitar playing is as energetic as ever. While this CD isn't definitive, it's a good, solid effort that Brown can be proud of.