A relaxed, easy vocal stylist who clowned with the Rat Pack, developing into an extremely popular ballad singer and light comedian.
The great bluesman B.B. King, who died in 2015, was one of the few artists whose every note was of interest. This 25-track CD of mostly previously unissued recordings are drawn from his sessions for Modern Records between 1954 and 1962. Be Careful Baby is a rare thing a B.B. King song that has never been released before in any version, while two tracks appeared on Ace's 2014 RPM compilation Speak Easy. The version of Catfish Blues is from a completely different session to the familiar issued version and from B.B.'s commentary appears to be the version he played on the road. There are many comments from B.B. and the band which provide an insight into the recording process and B.B.'s relaxed and informal manner in the studio. The CD ends with a previous unheard interview, recorded backstage at the Fillmore Ballroom in San Francisco with radio station KSAY at the 10/10 spot on your dial. All tracks are from the original master tapes.
Oliver Nelson was one of the more distinctive arrangers to be active in jazz, the studios, and popular music of the '60s. While most Nelson reissues focus on his always-excellent saxophone playing (whether on tenor or alto), this six-CD set, Argo, Verve and Impulse Big Band Studio Sessions, focuses on Oliver Nelson the arranger-composer-bandleader. He does take solos on some of these dates on tenor, alto,and soprano (his only recorded solos on that instrument), but it his writing that takes center stage.
The Capitol Years is a 1998 box set by the American singer Frank Sinatra. This set was originally assembled by EMI, Capitol's sister company in the United Kingdom. The set contains 21 CDs featuring every album that Sinatra authorized for release between 1953 and 1961 (save for Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color and A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra), remastered in state-of-the-art 20-bit digital audio. Each CD contains an individual Sinatra Capitol LP (including singles compilations), but the bonus tracks from the American versions appear on a separate CD here as The Rare Sinatra. The sound quality on this box is arguably superior to American remasters, also produced in 1998 for eight of Sinatra's key albums in the United States.