Deluxe three CD clamshell boxed collection. Dreamy Screens: Soundtracks from the Echo Observatory set features three albums, all recorded at Bill Nelson's Yorkshire home studio, the Echo Observatory, in 1981 and 1982 - Sounding the Ritual Echo (originally issued as a limited edition bonus LP with Bill's 1981 album Quit Dreaming and Get On the Beam), Das Kabinet (a soundtrack to a production of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari by The Yorkshire Actors Company issued as an LP on Bill's Cocteau label in 1981) and La Belle et La Bete (a soundtrack to a stage production of Jean Cocteau's classic 1946 film Beauty & the Beast, first issued as a limited edition bonus LP with Bill's 1982 album The Love That Whirls).
THE COMPLETE BILL EVANS ON VERVE is an 18-disc, 269-track box set featuring every track that Bill Evans recorded for Verve between 1962 and 1969, including 98 previously-unreleased tracks. It includes a 160-page, full-color book. THE COMPLETE BILL EVANS ON VERVE was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package - Boxed and for Best Historical Album. The 18 CDs in this exhaustive set provide a comprehensive picture of Bill Evans from 1962 to 1969, a period when the pianist was both consolidating his fame and sometimes taking his music into untested waters, from unaccompanied piano to symphony orchestra. His work with multitracked solo piano, originally released as Conversations with Myself and the later Further Conversations with Myself, was the most remarkable new format for his introspective music. It gave Evans a way to be all the pianists he could be at once–combining densely chordal, harmonically oblique parts with surprising, rhythmic punctuation and darting, exploratory runs.
Official reissue of Bill Nelson’s classic & long deleted six cd boxed set originally released in 2002. Eestores the original boxed set artwork & book. Esoteric Recordings’ imprint Cocteau Discs are very pleased to announce the re-release of one of the most sought after titles in BILL NELSON’s extensive solo catalogue, the boxed set "NOISE CANDY”. Originally released in 2002 on the Tone Swoon imprint, the set was available for a matter of months before the distributors ceased to exist. "NOISE CANDY” was a fascinating project that gathered together a host of recordings made by Bill at his various home studios between 1990 and 2000. Featuring 121 tracks, the set comprised 6 CDs of songs and instrumental music, each CD an album in their own right and entitled variously "Old Man Future Blows the Blues”, "Stargazing With Ranger Bill”, "Sunflower Dairy Product”, "King Frankenstein”, "Console” and "Playtime”.
For much of the '90s, Aretha Franklin acted as if she couldn't even care about appealing to a younger audience. She rarely recorded, and when she did, it was usually slick adult contemporary material. That's what makes the fresh A Rose Is Still a Rose such a surprise. Although it certainly has its share of predictably glossy ballads fit for adult radio (usually produced by Narada Michael Walden or Michael Powell), the most notable element of the album is that Franklin collaborates with fresh talent, all of whom are either prominent rap figures or at least fluent in hip-hop.
Your Daily Gift opens with an original pop/rocker, "Sunday Morning," which displays Anisette's little granny voice to great effect. This is not the hit song by Spanky & Our Gang, nor does Anisette sound anything like Spanky, but the two bands would have complemented each other nicely on a bill, and had Elaine McFarlane performed "The Waters Run Deep," the first song on side two, it might have been an American hit…
While its sheer bulk negates its interest to a general audience, The Complete Bill Evans on Verve is an essential library piece for any serious jazz fan or historian. Spanning 18 CDs, 269 tracks and 21 hours, the box set includes all of Evans' recordings for the label between 1962 and 1969, including 19 albums, two previously unreleased albums and 98 previously unreleased tracks. During these years, the pianist made some of his greatest music, including his legendary Village Vanguard sessions, and the set charts all of his changes, as he plays with his trio and as a solo artist, as well as a rare session with a rhythm quartet and strings. While the set itself could be a little more user-friendly – it's encased in a steel box, with a 160-page booklet and an 18-disc fanpack on separate shelves – the music itself is nearly flawless and nearly essential for most serious jazz fans.