Chuck Berry fanatics, your ship has come in, and it’s the Queen Mary — or maybe we should call it the Queen Maybellene. As you’d expect from the Bear Family label, which specializes in gargantuan reissues, this 16-CD, 396-song box doesn’t simply span Berry’s career, it embraces virtually every musical note the man has ever issued. You’ll find all of his released album tracks and singles, starting with an obscure 1954 recording and including everything from the Chess, Mercury and Atco labels, plus every surviving alternate take. Also here are five CDs’ worth of concert performances from 1956 to 1972.
The box set 83:13, represents an innovative and bold new commitment of White and Black, as it is not common in the sector risk publish a work of this size, with 15 CDs in one box. But the label has chosen to make an effort: this album 83:13 wants to be a tribute and reminder of the past 30 years creating, editing, distributing dance music in Spain and in the world and has a comprehensive collection of topics that monitors progress dance music published by the company.
The Flying Dutchman imprint BluesTime made it a specialty of modernizing old blues guys, bringing such stalwarts as T-Bone Walker, Otis Spann, and Big Joe Turner into the paisley-drenched, psychedelic late '60s. BluesTime also signed Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson to its label but, for a variety of reasons, the saxophonist didn't follow the label's directive on 1970's The Original Cleanhead, choosing to more or less adhere to the blend of blues, R&B, and bop that became his signature in the '40s, along with relying on a selection of familiar songs. Vinson does show some signs of settling into his role as an old pro – his voice, which surfaces often, is robust and gravelly, he prefers to ease back rather than push – and he's not adverse to giving "Juice Head Baby" space for an organ and horn section that makes it feel somewhat of its time.
The release of this four-CD set of works for solo string instruments and orchestra pays tribute, as does the recently issued box-set of ‘British Piano Concertos’, to the imagination and vision of the late Richard Itter and his pioneering Lyrita label. For many, Lyrita was the British music label and was loyally supported by various ‘in house’ conductors, among them Adrian Boult, Nicholas Braithwaite, Norman Del Mar and Vernon Handley. Many of the recordings offered here are from the old Lyrita analogue and early digital catalogue but there are a few recordings made during the label’s short revival between 1993 and 1996 which were not issued until more than a decade after they were made. The set makes for fantastic value for money, each CD containing well over 70 minutes of music, and the performances are generally of tremendous vibrancy and quality.
Kiasmos, the duo of Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and Faroese musician Janus Rasmussen, announce details of their long-awaited second album II, set for release on July 5th.