Afz5 520

In 1970, Elektra Records released a Doors hits collection called 13. In 1971, the Doors scored two more hits, "Love Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm," and their lead singer, Jim Morrison, died. In 1972, Elektra released a two-LP anthology containing "Love Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm," along with a lot of album tracks. But there was no single-LP compilation that contained all the Doors' hits, from "Light My Fire" to "Riders on the Storm." This 11-track 1973 album was an attempt to address that problem, and at the time of its release, containing seven of the Doors' eight Top 40 hits (the exception being "The Unknown Soldier"), it was the best Doors greatest-hits collection on the market…

Harold Ousley - Grit-Gittin' Feelin' (2000) {Delmark DE-520}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 436 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 177 Mb
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© 2000 Delmark Records | DE-520
Jazz / Neo-Bop / Saxophone

Harold Ousley was never a big name in the jazz world, but his lack of recognition as a leader doesn't erase the fact that he's a decent player. Ousley had just turned 71 when, in January 2000, he recorded Grit-Gittin' Feelin', a competent, if unremarkable, hard bop outing that employs Jodie Christian on piano, John Whitfield on bass, and Robert Shy on drums. The title Grit-Gittin' Feelin' implies that this CD contains a lot of soul-jazz, it's the sort of title you would associate with a funky, gritty, down-home organ combo date by Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, or Jimmy McGriff.

Alfred Schnittke - Kremer Plays Schnittke - Concerto grosso No. 1, Quasi una sonata (1990) {Deutsche Grammophon 445 520-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 339 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 176 Mb
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© 1990 Deutsche Grammophon | 445 520-2
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Concerto / Violin

No performer championed the work of the late Russian composer Alfred Schnittke more than violinist Gidon Kremer. Here Kremer and colleagues offer a diverse sampling of Schnittke's work that will interest both those familiar and unfamiliar with this fascinating and influential composer. In the opening Concerto Grosso No. 1 for instance three centuries of Classical and Popular musical styles collide to humorous and at times chilling effect. Schnittke's exhilarating early piece Quasi una sonata as well is equally experimental requiring the violin soloist Kremer to extract sounds from his instrument Stradivari never intended. Deutsche Grammophon's sound is remarkably good capturing all the fun beautifully.

All of a sudden, George Benson became a pop superstar with this album, thanks to its least representative track. Most of Breezin' is a softer-focused variation of Benson's R&B/jazz-flavored CTI work, his guitar as assured and fluid as ever with Claus Ogerman providing the suave orchestral backdrops and his crack then-working band (including Ronnie Foster on keyboards and sparkplug Phil Upchurch on rhythm guitar) pumping up the funk element. Yet it is the sole vocal track (his first in many years), Leon Russell's "This Masquerade" - where George unveiled his new trademark, scatting along with a single-string guitar solo - that reached number ten on the pop singles chart and drove the album all the way to number one on the pop (!) LP chart. The attractive title track also became a minor hit single, although Gabor Szabo's 1971 recording with composer Bobby Womack is even more fetching…

As the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) had done a year earlier, Super Session (1968) initially ushered in several new phases in rock & roll's concurrent transformation. In the space of months, the soundscape of rock shifted radically from short, danceable pop songs to comparatively longer works with more attention to technical and musical subtleties. Enter the unlikely all-star triumvirate of Al Kooper (piano/organ/ondioline/vocals/guitars), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), and Stephen Stills (guitar) - all of whom were concurrently "on hiatus" from their most recent engagements. Kooper had just split after masterminding the groundbreaking Child Is Father to the Man (1968) version of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Bloomfield was fresh from a stint with the likewise brass-driven Electric Flag, while Stills was late of Buffalo Springfield and still a few weeks away from a full-time commitment to David Crosby and Graham Nash…

Emboldened by the popularity of Inner Mounting Flame among rock audiences, the first Mahavishnu Orchestra set out to further define and refine its blistering jazz-rock direction in its second - and, no thanks to internal feuding, last - studio album. Although it has much of the screaming rock energy and sometimes exaggerated competitive frenzy of its predecessor, Birds of Fire is audibly more varied in texture, even more tightly organized, and thankfully more musical in content. A remarkable example of precisely choreographed, high-speed solo trading - with John McLaughlin, Jerry Goodman, and Jan Hammer all of one mind, supported by Billy Cobham's machine-gun drumming and Rick Laird's dancing bass - can be heard on the aptly named "One Word," and the title track is a defining moment of the group's nearly atonal fury…

The difference between Blood, Sweat & Tears and the group's preceding long-player, Child Is Father to the Man, is the difference between a monumental seller and a record that was "merely" a huge critical success. Arguably, the Blood, Sweat & Tears that made this self-titled second album - consisting of five of the eight original members and four newcomers, including singer David Clayton-Thomas - was really a different group from the one that made Child Is Father to the Man, which was done largely under the direction of singer/songwriter/keyboard player/arranger Al Kooper. They had certain similarities to the original: the musical mixture of classical, jazz, and rock elements was still apparent, and the interplay between the horns and the keyboards was still occurring, even if those instruments were being played by different people…

The Guess Who always seemed a bit like the Canadian predecessor/counterpart to Grand Funk Railroad, but they typically fared far better with the critics because of the versatility that they possessed. That trait is very evident on this collection of hits and great songs. From the opening "These Eyes," with its orchestral strings and Zombies-like baroque pop feel to the classic AOR crunge of "American Woman," the Guess Who played a wide variety of music. It is sometimes hard to believe that the same group that brought the world the jazzy "Undun" and the CS&N-ish hippie anthem "Share the Land" is also responsible for the rocking "No Time." This 11-track collection paints a very entertaining picture of a mutli-talented band and is a perfect introduction for the casual fan.