Tortoise have always emphasized their connection to Chicago, and never more so than on The Catastrophist. Arriving six years after Beacons of Ancestorship, its roots date back to 2010, when Tortoise were commissioned to write music inspired by their hometown's jazz and improvised music scenes. Though they fleshed out those compositions for the album, the original project's sense of adventure remains. Fittingly, the title track has some of the closest ties to the album's beginnings, holding together shifts between knotty, busy electro-funk and the kind of brooding post-rock Tortoise helped define in the '90s with nimble drumming indebted to jazz. "Shake Hands with Danger" is even more audacious, nodding to the Windy City's free jazz and noise rock legacies with jabbing riffs and rhythms and chromatic percussion that sounds metallic in both senses of the word.
Ever since leaving the Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman has been keeping a low profile – which isn't quite the same thing as keeping quiet. About a decade after quitting the world's greatest rock & roll band, he formed the Rhythm Kings, a loose collective of friends, pros, and all-stars, all gathered to play the blues, soul, R&B, and old-time rock & roll that his old group no longer played. While the concept for the Rhythm Kings was similar to Ringo Starr's ever-changing All-Starr Band, Wyman's group was more of a studio creation than Ringo's ready-for-the-road carnival, which hauled out the old hits for an appreciative audience nearly every summer in the late '80s and '90s…
Melody Gardot's 2006 debut, Worrisome Heart, was greeted with warmly enthusiastic reviews that never failed to mention Gardot's musical similarities to Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux, or her sadly compelling story of surviving a severe hit-and-run accident at the age of 19. The tragedy gave critics an irresistible hook, and the musical similarities – which also include her vocal resemblance to Fiona Apple's smoky tones – gave new listeners a familiar touchstone, but both merely provided an entry into a fine, accomplished debut. Released three years later, Gardot's second album, My One and Only Thrill, proves that the first was no fluke; it doesn't build upon the debut so much as it sustains its quality.
The Thrill of It All is the fourth studio album by British hard rock band Thunder.It was released in February 1997 on the independent B Lucky label following their departure from EMI.Luke Morley had to play bass as well as lead guitar on this album as regular bassist Mikael Höglund was unavailable for personal reasons - Höglund would subsequently leave the band in the summer of 1996, with former Then Jericho bassist Chris Childs joining as his replacement prior to the tour that followed the album's release.The album was moderately successful, reaching number 14 on the UK Album Chart with the single "Don't Wait Up For Me" reaching number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.
Album-rock artists like Roxy Music always make a difficult subject for comprehensive, multi-disc box sets. Frequently, their albums were designed as a cohesive whole and the idea of individual singles never really entered the picture at all. Roxy Music was slightly different than the average art/prog-rock band – not only did they make albums, they also made singles. And that is one of the reasons why the four-disc set The Thrill of It All is successful. Roxy's songs stand as individual works, and they make sense outside of their original context, even if they make more sense within their original context.
Jazz singer Annie Sellick has it all-sensational voice, commanding stage presence, striking appearance and infectious enthusiasm. She has won a large, devoted following and earned rave reviews, winning numerous "Best Jazz Artist" awards in the Nashville media. And Sellick's latest album, No Greater Thrill, is sure to bring her national acclaim. Featuring the organ work of world-renowned jazz artist Joey DeFrancesco, No Greater Thrill is irrefutable evidence that Sellick has entered the big leagues. "I felt a connection with the jazz B-3 organ," says Sellick, "after playing around Nashville with Moe Denham." She met DeFrancesco in Anaheim, Calif., at the January 2002 NAMM show, and a friendship began. They had a common friend in Denham, whose CD, Little Blue Volkswagen, DeFrancesco produced…