Back in The High Life

Édith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "The Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing.

Florida death metal gods Obituary breathed new life (no pun intended) into the genre when they broke onto the scene in 1989 with their groundbreaking debut, Slowly We Rot. Donald Tardy's breakneck technical drumming and John Tardy's guttural, slithering vocals combined with brutally fast guitars for a sound not quite ever equaled in the death metal world before or since. The Complete Roadrunner Collection 1989-2005 gathers together Obituary's first six studio albums, including their stellar debut, 1992's landmark The End Complete, 1997's Back from the Dead, and more.

During the years 1994-1996 Time-Life produced a CD & Magazine called "Grooves". Veteran New York City DJ Vin Scelsa was given full control of the project, and a total of 14 wonderful issues were produced. They each highlighted Vin's selections of the best tracks from the best new albums/artists of the time. In addition, the last track on every CD was a bonus acoustic track by one of the featured artists recorded in the studio just for "Grooves". It was the next best thing to listening to Vin's radio show, "Idiot's Delight".

Mose Allison - High Jinks! The Mose Allison Trilogy (1994) {Super Rare OOP 3 CD Legacy Box Set J3K 64275 rec 1959-1961}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 796 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 321 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959-61, 1994 Columbia / Epic / Legacy / Sony Music | J3K 64275
Jazz / Hard Bop / Jazz Blues / Piano

Three formerly rare Mose Allison albums originally cut for Columbia and Epic (Transfiguration of Hiram Brown, I Love The Life I Live and V-8 Ford Blues) are reissued in full on this attractive three-CD set plus six previously unreleased numbers. During this period (which dates between his associations with the Prestige and Atlantic labels), Mose Allison was making the transition from being a pianist-vocalist to a vocalist-pianist. He sings on roughly half the selections including "Baby, Please Don't Go," "'Deed I Do," "Fool's Paradise" and "I Love The Life I Live." The instrumentals (which also feature Addison Farmer, Henry Grimes, Bill Crow or Aaron Bell on bass and Jerry Segal, Paul Motian, Gus Johnson or Osie Johnson on drums) are highlighted by the interesting eight-song "Hiram Brown Suite." Mose Allison fans will want to go out of their way to get this set.

Solomon Ilori and His Afro-Drum Ensemble - African High Life (1963) {Blue Note Connoisseur CD Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 487 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 178 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1963, 2006 Blue Note / Capitol | Connoisseur CD Series | 0946 3 59440 2 0
International / Jazz / World / African Traditions / Highlife

African High Life is the debut album by Nigerian drummer and percussionist Solomon Ilori recorded in 1963 and released on the Blue Note label. The album was reissued on CD in 2006 with three bonus tracks recorded at a later session. It seems strange that Blue Note, a label generally associated with bop, hard bop, and the early avant-garde, would have released an album like African High Life. It didn't really fit in with Blue Note's back catalog and – perhaps as a result – the label didn't tread these waters again for a number of years. Regardless, this is a very enjoyable if not essential album of traditional African highlife music set to dance tempos.