The B 52s Live at The Roxy

LEVERKUSEN 2010, the fifth and latest release in the continuing series of classic live recordings by Allan Holdsworth, is due November 5 from Manifesto Records.

The Black Crowes were dogged with comparisons to the Rolling Stones and the Faces throughout the first decade of their career, so it came as a mild surprise that they teamed with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in late 1999 for a couple of concerts. Zeppelin had a mystique and majesty about them that the Crowes never attempted to emulate. They were an earthy, bluesy rock band and while they found a number of different ways to rework their influences, they never tried the stately grandeur that was Zeppelin's second nature. So, some observers were curious to see how these two approaches worked. Well, it worked very, very well indeed. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that it was a good, comfortable fit since Page always demonstrated a true love of blues and early rock & roll, even on Led Zep's heaviest moments. What may be a surprise, at least to listeners that always dismissed the Black Crowes as revivalist hacks, is how supple and muscular the band sounds on Live at the Greek and how powerful vocalist Chris Robinson is. The double-disc album essentially replicates an entire concert from Page and the Crowes, one of the first before they set out on a full-length American tour in the summer of 2000. They stick to Led Zeppelin classics and old blues and R&B standards like "Woke up This Morning," "Sloppy Drunk," "Mellow Down Easy," and "Shake Your Money Maker," plus the Yardbirds' "Shape of Things to Come" and Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well." No Crowes songs are here due to contractual reasons - the band left American/Columbia in 1999, and they were not allowed to recut any song they released on the label in the years immediately following their departure; but in a way, that only strengthens the album. By pounding out hard-driving blues-rock and classic Zeppelin tunes, the band is able to stretch out and reveal just what a capable, versatile band they are. The true sign of their abilities is that Page sounds looser and happier here than he has in years; he sounds like he's truly enjoying himself, a quality that is debatable on the Page & Plant records, no matter what their virtues are. Live at the Greek isn't a landmark release, and only hardcore Page, Black Crowes, and Zeppelin fans are likely to want this, no matter how vibrant and lucent these faithful interpretations are. But for those fans, they'll be quite pleased with how good, how strong Live at the Greek is.

Like the Mona Lisa for the Louvre, Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert is a showcase for ECM. With 4 million copies sold, it is not only the biggest success in the label's history but also the best-selling piano solo album! And many of those who bought this live recording, recorded on January 24, 1975 in the Cologne Opera House, did not yet own a jazz album in their record collection.

Fourteen of the 18 tracks on this disc were recorded live in San Francisco in 1966, in fidelity that was good even by the standards of 1997. As such, it's a godsend for psychedelia fans, as the band released only two official tracks, which were themselves hard to find on reissue. That said, the music doesn't quite live up to the legend, though one can see that it was sufficiently exciting for live audiences of the era. It's split fairly evenly between British Invasion covers of groups like the Yardbirds, Them and the Animals, and group originals in a similar style.

James Booker - Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah: Live at the Maple Leaf Bar (1977-82) {Rounder Records CD 2118 rel 1993}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 369 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 169 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1977-82, 1993 Rounder Records | CD 2118
Blues / Jazz / Piano Blues / Acoustic New Orleans Blues / R&B

For a man of such talent and influence, New Orleans piano legend James Booker is amazingly under-recorded. This disc and its partner (Spiders on the Keys) offer up some measure of what the folks of the Big Easy might have heard if they caught Booker on one of his "on" nights (he was a known drug user and inconsistent in his playing). He is at his best here (recorded at the Maple Leaf between 1972-1982), focused and intense in his playing, wildly passionate on both keyboards and vocals.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection
Do you know "Dixie Dregs" with Steve Morse? Still not?!? Well, I'll share some of their discography. Great, great band!

The most comprehensive collection of the Pretty Things’ BBC ‘live’ recordings on the market, with several previously unreleased tracks, now all together for the first time on this newly remastered 4CD set, assembled with the assistance of the BBC. Sourced from the BBC archives, this newly updated 60-track set covers numerous songs from the 1960s & 1970s period - including smash hits such as ‘Rosalyn’, Don’t Bring Me Down’, ‘Midnight To Six Man’, R&B standards ‘Road Runner’ and ‘Route 66’, and later classic album tracks ‘Defecting Grey’, ‘S.F. Sorrow Is Born’, ‘Singapore Silk Torpedo’ and ‘Dream / Joey’. These sessions were recorded by the world renowned broadcasting organisation for radio and TV. Our CDs explore all the Pretty Things’ BBC Radio One output, including 1960s ‘Top Gear’, ‘Saturday Club’, the later ‘Peel Sessions’ and ‘Sounds Of The 70s’…