Be. Do. Live

Tom Petty straddled the divide separating classic rock and new wave, revitalizing and reinvigorating the big jangle of the Byrds and the garage rock roar of the Rolling Stones with his earliest records with the Heartbreakers in the late 1970s. Over the next decades, Petty expanded and refined this blend, almost always with guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench – the musicians who had played with him since the early '70s, when they all were in the rambling country-rock outfit Mudcrutch – by his side. The consistency in personnel and Petty's allegiance to the sounds of the '60s did mean his music veered toward classic rock, a perception that tended to obscure the variety within his body of work and how he seemed like a bit of a punk when he released his first album with the Heartbreakers in 1976.

This live album spans the entire career of the North Mississippi Allstars to date, from 1996 to 2008. Guitar star Luther Dickinson and his drumming brother Cody (sons of famed producer/keyboardist Jim Dickinson), together with bass buddy Chris Chew, redefine the concept of blues rock over the course of these two discs, rescuing it from the lazy, third-hand vibe of so many '70s bands, and investing it with the deep feeling and trenchant attack they learned from both the elder Dickinson and North Mississippi blues king R.L. Burnside himself. They tear up the house on songs associated with everyone from Burnside to Muddy Waters here, not to mention their original tunes.

A visual spectacle loosely based around Greek mythology, staged by the team behind Disneyland Resort World of Color, and with a budget reported to be around $25 million, it's unavoidable that the audio version of Kylie Minogue's 2011 Aphrodite les Folies tour will come a very distant second to its DVD counterpart. Nevertheless, despite the inability to see the production's array of flying angels, golden chariots, and audience-soaking water features, there's still plenty to enjoy on this 28-track live collection, recorded over two nights at London's 02 Arena.

In the wake of Brian Setzer's success as a retro-swing act, his former Stray Cats partners Lee Rocker (bass) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums) formed their own swing/rockabilly/jump blues combo, the Swing Cats, with another rockabilly revivalist veteran, ex-Polecats guitarist Danny B. Harvey. The Swing Cats released their eponymous debut early in 1999, featuring guest vocal spots from Tim Polecat, Jamie James, and Claudia Cummings, among others. A Special Tribute to Elvis followed a year later. That same year Swing Cat Stomp was released.

Duke Ellington was the most important composer in the history of jazz as well as being a bandleader who held his large group together continuously for almost 50 years. The two aspects of his career were related; Ellington used his band as a musical laboratory for his new compositions and shaped his writing specifically to showcase the talents of his bandmembers, many of whom remained with him for long periods. Ellington also wrote film scores and stage musicals, and several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. In addition to touring year in and year out, he recorded extensively, resulting in a gigantic body of work that was still being assessed a quarter century after his death.

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Live set from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gospel Hall of Fame, and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners • Featuring hits “Let’s Do It Again,” Respect Yourself,” “Touch A Hand, Make A Friend,” and more • Packaging features new liner notes from Tim Dillinger-Curenton The Staple Singers emerged into the public conscious in the early 1950s and over the course of their influential career, transformed how listeners experienced Gospel music. During the Civil Rights movement, Roebuck “Pops” Staples discovered that their music could both enlighten and inspire a new generation. Signing with Stax Records, they began to rule not only the Gospel charts, but the Pop and R&B ones as well, with hits like “I’ll Take You There” (which topped both the Pop & R&B charts), “Respect Yourself,” “Touch A Hand, Make A Friend,” and more.

In the early days of British rock & roll, there were dozens of contenders for stardom: Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, and Marty Wilde were among the players who rose to the challenge for at least a few years. Billy Fury, by contrast, was the real article from day one, and never really surrendered the title. He was also the most prodigiously talented of his generation of British rock & roll singers, a songwriter of considerable ability, and a decent actor as well. He was born Ronald Wycherley in Liverpool in 1940.

In the Baroque period, the size of an orchestra was not standardised. There were large differences in size, instrumentation and playing styles—and therefore in orchestral soundscapes and palettes—between the various European regions. The 'Baroque orchestra' ranged from smaller orchestras (or ensembles) with one player per part, to larger scale orchestras with many players per part. Examples of the smaller variety were Bach's orchestras, for example in Koethen where he had access to an ensemble of up to 18 players. Examples of large scale Baroque orchestras would include Corelli's orchestra in Rome which ranged between 35 and 80 players for day-to-day performances, being enlarged to 150 players for special occasions.