Tropea John NY Cats Direct

With a career that spans over three decades, John Hammond is one of handful of white blues musicians who was on the scene at the beginning of the first blues renaissance of the mid-'60s. That revival, brought on by renewed interest in folk music around the U.S., brought about career boosts for many of the great classic blues players, including Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, and Skip James.

When the new Halloween movie hits theaters in October 2018, it will have the distinction of being the first film in the series with creator John Carpenter’s direct involvement since 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Carpenter serves on the new David Gordon Green-directed installment as an executive producer, a creative consultant, and, thrillingly, as a soundtrack composer, alongside his collaborators from his three recent solo albums, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies.

Most of Beethoven's Bagatelle output is 'late period'. The Op. 33 set - like all Beethoven - contains moments of great interest (pedal points held for long periods, unusual rhythms or key juxtapositions). The Op. 116 and Op. 123 are collections of miniatures, individually quirky, but if you step back and play or take them in as a set - they have the same characteristics as any of Beethoven's late great quartets. John Lill provides direct, flawless, well-recorded performances and does not try to impose a personality onto these works (which stand for themselves). These works for me are up there with any of the master's greatest, with their flashes of inspiration, individuality, and originality.

Although thirty-one musicians are listed, guitarist John Tropea's latest recording isn't strictly a big-band album, as the sidemen perform on assorted tracks in groups whose size varies from five to twelve. Tropea is always present, of course, as is his friend and fellow composer / arranger Chris Palmaro on the Hammond B3 organ or Fender Rhodes keyboard (Palmaro also plays bass, drums, strings and percussion). As the album's title denotes, rhythm is always present as well, much of it a soul-blues-funk-R&B-based farrago as envisioned by Tropea and Palmaro who wrote or co-wrote all save one of the session's thirteen numbers.