The Pearl Sessions

Not to state the obvious, but the reality is that The Pearl Sessions by Janis Joplin is primarily for completists and musical historians. That's fine; given its design and contents it appears it was meant to be. The two-disc package includes the original album and mono 45 masters of six of its tracks - including "Me & Bobby McGee," "Move Over," and "Get It While You Can." These are interesting, but they don't hold a candle to the stereo album mixes. It's the second disc that holds the fan treasures. The studio banter by Joplin, producer Paul A Rothchild, and the Full-Tilt Boogie Band is priceless. It offers proof of Joplin's exacting standards when it came to getting across the maximum emotional impact of a song, as well as her vulnerability - asking for guidance from Rothchild as to how to approach a particular take (he hands control right back to her)…

Pearl was Janis Joplin's valedictory. It was also her masterpiece. Originally released posthumously in 1971, Pearl encapsulates Janis’s greatness. The first female superstar of the modern rock era, Janis was not only a powerhouse performer of rock and blues but also showed an innate affinity for soul, country-inflected folk and even the Great American Songbook.
This new, two-disc edition of Pearl includes nine previously unreleased selections. Disc One’s bonus tracks include the touching tribute "Pearl" composed by Full Tilt Boogie, while Disc Two chronicles Janis’s 1970 trans-Canada Festival Express tour, and is sequenced to recreate one of the spellbinding shows from that summer…

Lee Morgan & Wayne Shorter - The Complete Vee Jay Lee Morgan-Wayne Shorter Sessions (2000) {6CD Set, Mosaic MD6-202 rec 1959-1961}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.70 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 0.99 Gb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1959-61, 2000 Vee Jay / Mosaic / Rhino | MD6-202 / R2 7532
Jazz / Hard Bop / Trumpet / Saxophone

Mosaic Records continues to repackage and remaster previously released and unreleased material by jazz legends past and present. Here, the ongoing saga continues with this sharply produced set featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan and saxophonist Wayne Shorter's recordings for the now defunct, Chicago, IL-based Vee-Jay recording label. With this six-CD compilation, the listener will find meticulously detailed annotations of the story behind Vee-Jay, chronological accounts of the musicians' backgrounds and basically what was transpiring during 1959 and 1961, which denotes the time frame of these sessions.

Manifold Records presents Maretimo Sessions: Edition Ibiza (Pure Sunset Feeling). 20 excellent Chillout tracks from Pascal Dubois, Cafe Americaine, Cinematic, Chillwalker, DJ Maretimo and others.

Though they emerged alongside grunge acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. Headed by principal songwriter and frontman Billy Corgan, they fashioned an amalgam of progressive rock, heavy metal, goth, psychedelia, and dream pop, creating a layered, powerful sound driven by swirling, distorted guitars that churned beneath Corgan's angst-ridden lyrics. One of the most visible alternative rock bands of the early '90s, they achieved mainstream success over the decade with classic releases Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness before entering an uneven and often tumultuous chapter that carried them into the 2000s.

Judee Sill - Abracadabra: The Asylum Years (2006) {2CD Set Rhino 8122 79534 2 rec 1971-1973}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 846 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 366 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1971-73, 2006 Asylum Records / Rhino | 8122 79534 2
Folk Rock / Singer-Songwriter

Now compiled into a single handy package, Judee Sill's first two albums here resurface with extensive bonus tracks included. Sill's place in history is assured by the fact that she was the very first artist to sign to David Geffen's Asylum label at the beginning of the '70s, recording the two now legendary albums (her eponymous 1971 debut and 1972's Heartfood) found on this release. Sill's lyrical concerns tended to converge upon particularly eccentric Christian themes, never more successfully than on her debut single 'Jesus Was A Crossmaker', produced by Graham Nash.