Till Sunset (2011)

Bennett, whose recorded legacy has been gathered in a 76-disc boxed set titled The Compete Collection, has been doing that for over 60 years: saving our souls with the greatest songs ever written. The Complete box is an absolute necessity, first because it contains several previously unreleased albums, like On the Glory Road and From This Moment On, a live concert taped in Las Vegas that collectors have been salivating over since 1964.

29th January 2012 sees the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Frederick Delius. To celebrate this occasion, Decca will release, on 24th January 2012, a special 8CD Commemorative Special Edition Box Set, containing many of the greatest Delius recordings on Decca, featuring a great cast of artists and performers, including Thomas Hampson, Julian Lloyd Webber, the Fitzwilliam Quartet, London Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner & Sir Charles Mackerras.

In memoriam Maestro Maazel, Sony Classical re-releases the “Maazel Great Recordings” 30-CD Box to honour his great work. During his career, he conducted more than 150 orchestras in some 5,000 opera and concert performances. He served as general manager and artistic director at the Vienna State Opera and conducted the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, the first American to do so in both cases. He also served at the Radio Symphony of Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.

Thelonious Monk - Solo Monk (1965) {2013 Columbia-Sony Music Japan Blu-Spec CD2 SICP-30247}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 369 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 163 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 119 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1964-65, 2013 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SICP-30247
Jazz / Bop / Post Bebop / Modal Music / Piano

Reissue. The latest remastering. Features the high-fidelity Blu-spec CD2 format. Bonus tracks. Monk was a perfectionist not always well-understood by the public or even the musicians of his day. All his other recordings involve other musicians with whom he must interact with varying results. This sometimes makes it difficult to hear Monk as himself rather than as an ensemble player. But this recording gives us a great window into Monk's musical soul unencumbered with any exogenous distractions. One gets the feeling that Monk is playing for himself with no one else in the room. Production values are nil: just Monk and a piano in a bare studio. It is a privelege to be able to eavesdrop on his private explorations of themes of, presumably, his own choosing. Having bonus tracks with 'duplicate' songs is a genuine positive; it allows you to hear Monk's differing approaches to the same material.

Although they generally aren't thought of as being as innovative as their contemporaries the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or the Who, the Kinks, thanks to Ray Davies' ever evolving songwriting and brother Dave Davies' power chording, fuzzed-out guitar sound, may well have influenced the actual sound of later bands more than any of those groups. This fine single disc collection brings together the Kinks' Pye Records singles from the 1960s, and includes the power chord shot heard around the world, "You Really Got Me," as well as its close siblings "All Day and All of the Night," "Tired of Waiting for You" and "Til the End of the Day," and later and relatively more sophisticated hits like "Waterloo Sunset" and "Lola." The end result is a solid chronological survey of the Kinks' most commercial and influential period.

Jonathan Besser describes his work as a personal geography of the imagination. The first suite was composed after reading Australian author Roger McDonald's novel Mr. Darwin's Shooter. The prelude, as you would expect, sets the tone for the piece, well-ordered and very musical. Up the Creek has some very fine Clarinet playing from Bridget Miles, she has an excellent tone on the instrument and a very even sound over all of the registers. The music is very descriptive, Church has a calm about it and Fiddle a slightly Greek feel in both melody and rhythm. Sail till the seas has a vocal from Warwick Broadhead, obviously selected more for his ability to create a 'sea shanty' atmosphere than for the quality of his voice, but it is effective for all that!

Face to Face was a remarkable record, but its follow-up, Something Else, expands its accomplishments, offering 13 classic British pop songs. As Ray Davies' songwriting becomes more refined, he becomes more nostalgic and sentimental, retreating from the psychedelic and mod posturings that had dominated the rock world…

The Ultimate Collection spans the group's career in two discs, including the hits, B-sides, and key album tracks.
Although generally not as highly regarded by the critics as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or the Who, the Kinks may well have influenced far more musicians. The three-chord sledgehammer proto-metal burst of teenage lust called "You Really Got Me," the Kinks' third single and first hit, touched off a garage band explosion, which in turn influenced the rise of punk a decade later. Blessed with an astute songwriter in Ray Davies, the Kinks followed the template of "You Really Got Me" for a couple years, racking up hits with "All Day and All of the Night," "Tired of Waiting for You," and "Till the End of the Day." But Davies had more than one card in his pocket, and he blossomed into a sharp social satirist ("Dedicated Follower of Fashion")…