The Invitations

The final evening of their 2003 summer tour found the Allman Brothers planning a special night on the friendly turf of Raleigh, NC, wrapping up yet another road trip with invitations to Susan Tedeschi, Karl Denson, and truly serious jazzbo Branford Marsalis to join the group on-stage. It was all captured by the state-of-the-digital-arts folks at Instant Live, who burn CDs of the shows and make them available to concertgoers who still have a few extra green ones in their pockets by evening's end. On the sprawling three-CD set documenting these particular proceedings, there is indeed some fine music, although in his Allmans premiere appearance Marsalis doesn't fare as well as jam band-friendly Denson; the sax-blowing Marsalis brother (heard on "Dreams" and "Whipping Post") seems shoehorned between the guitars and strains a bit over the loud rock groove.

The singular record production “Ex tempore” is proposed to us by the instrumental ensemble “The Italian Consort”, with the collaboration of Andrea Inghisciano, an exceptional guest and international star of the Renaissance cornetto. The ancestral sounds of the consort of dulciane, accompanied by the lute of Gian Giacomo Pinardi and the organ of Cinzia Guarino, guide us to listen to a repertoire of both early music - represented by composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries - and contemporary, thanks to the compositional contribution of Marco Betta and Giovanni Sollima. The particular timbres of the ancient instruments are the expressive key to intricate labyrinths of contrapuntal alchemies, intense relationships with sacred or poetic texts and implied invitations to dance, in a continuous search for imitation of the human voice that in the Renaissance was considered as the absolute reference for any musical instrument.

This collection features some of Shakatak’s best known work, including a number of remixes from 1991’s Remix Best Album. Enjoy the radical reworking of Easier Said Than Done, original club edit of Down On The Street as well as the originals of some of the groups earliest (and many would argue purest) work such as the classics: Brazilian Dawn, Living In The UK and Feels Like The Right Time.

On this double CD release we find Shakatak's Bill Sharpe teaming up with Don Grusin, Alex Acuna and Paulinho da Costa et al for a Latin Jazz album from 1999, which also features Jeffrey Osborne on vocals on Light On My Life. Coupled with a solo piano album from 2006 of Bill’s favourite Shakatak tracks from the band’s first 25 years.