Twice The Talent

Nancy Wilson's not the first name in bluesy jazz (check out Dinah Washington and Joe Williams for that), but she usually can enliven the form with her sophisticated and sultry style. That's made clear on her rendition of "Stormy Monday Blues," where she eschews blues clichés in favor of a husky airiness, at once referencing a lowdown mood and infusing it with a sense of buoyancy. This split is nicely essayed on Capitol's Blues and Jazz Sessions, as half the tracks ooze with Wilson's cocktail blues tone and the other find the jazz-pop chanteuse in a summery and swinging mood. Ranging from the big band blues of "I've Got Your Number" to the lilting bossa nova "Wave," Wilson handles all the varying dynamics and musical settings with aplomb. Featuring cuts from her '60s prime with the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Oliver Nelson, George Shearing, Gerald Wilson, and a host of top sidemen, this best-of disc offers a fine, off-the-beaten-path overview of Wilson's Capitol heyday.

Various Artists - The Golden Age Of American Popular Music - The Country Hits (2008) {Ace Records CDCHD 1185 rec 1953-63}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 391 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 169 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 38 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1953-63, 2008 Ace Records | CDCHD 1185
Country / Classic Country / Country Folk

Here at Ace Towers we usually have a pretty realistic advance idea of how many copies we’re likely to sell of any CD that we release. But once in a while we put out something that catches the public imagination in a manner that exceeds our expectations in terms of sales and acclaim. Such was the case with our “Special Country Edition” of our “Golden Age Of American Rock’n’Roll” series, which has already sold almost twice as many copies as we initially anticipated, and which is still selling strongly six years on from its initial release.

Joan Baez is a Mexican-born American citizen born in 1941 in New York. His father is a physics teacher and his mother tells a drama story at university. There were also ministers in the ascending branches of his family. She studied guitar at Boston University and gained a thorough but not virtuoso guitar knowledge. She began to take folk music more seriously around 1958. He accompanied his excellent singing voice with the playing of his acoustic guitar. Her first major performance was in 1959 at the Newport Folk Festival. Her talent was noticed by the Vanguard company and they soon found contact with each other. Shortly after the contract was signed, her first album, named after the singer, was released. On this disc is the song We Shall Overcome, which has become the anthem of left-wing youth because of what she has to say. In 1963, there was a massive demonstration in Vashington; the enthusiastic crowd sang We Shall Overcome. With her current politically charged songs, she became the number one folk protest singer in the US. In the 1960s, she worked with the country’s greatest folk musician, Bob Dylan.