2007 four CD Proper box featuring 108 tracks recorded by the famed duo. Les Paul pioneered electric guitar design and multi-track recording and along the way invented the synthesizer. He was also a very fine guitarist himself and with vocalist Mary Ford had considerable chart success with songs of varying styles, all included here. Les Paul's influence as a guitarist is acknowledged by musicians ranging from B.B. King, Jerry Garcia and Eric Clapton to James Burton, Frank Zappa, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck.
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 release of this edition was held October 8, 1998. All data cover releases were made by Dutch Artidee Creatieve Communicatie, and photo materials were prepared ANP Foto Dutch branch of the German conglomerate.
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.
This is classic material. 4 CD's loaded with one song after another of magic guitar playing. The sound is terrific and Mary Ford adds great vocals to many of the cuts although there are also many instrumentals. The years covered here are from 1948 - 1957 and includes some portions of the Les Paul Radio Show with songs and dialogue between Les and Mary. In addition to being a guitar genius, Les Paul was also an inventor who developed a variety of techniques still used today (such as multi-tracking) and they are on display in this set of music. Wonderful music, great sound, terrific vocals. This is music made in a different era before rock took over the airwaves. There is nothing in your face about it and there is a 40's feel to the pop tunes but great music stands the test of time and this certainly qualifies. Highly recommended.
Up until he suffered a stroke at age 70 in 1996, singer Mel Tormé continued to improve with age and seemed to have inexhaustible energy. This four-CD set from Rhino does a fine job of covering Tormé's pre-Concord output, although the omission of his Concord work of 1986-1995 is unfortunate for that catalog contains many of Tormé's most exciting recordings. In general, the earlier selections (some of which were with his vocal group the Mel-Tones) feature Tormé on hip (for the period) swing tunes and ballads. Things greatly improve once the singer reaches the year 1975 and there are enough high points throughout the set to justify its purchase by Tormé's many fans. Three previously unreleased selections (best is "Walkin' Shoes" with Shorty Rogers in 1962) are a plus and the colorful 84-page booklet is quite definitive.