Boz Scaggs Flac

One of the most subtly satisfying electric blues albums of the '70s. Fenton Robinson never did quite fit the "Genuine Houserocking Music" image of Alligator Records – his deep, rich baritone sounds more like a magic carpet than a piece of barbed wire, and he speaks in jazz-inflected tongues, full of complex surprises. The title track hits with amazing power, as do the chugging "The Getaway," a hard-swinging "You Say You're Leaving," and the minor-key "You Don't Know What Love Is." In every case, Robinson had recorded them before, but thanks to Bruce Iglauer's superb production, a terrific band, and Robinson's musicianship, these versions reign supreme.

One of the most subtly satisfying electric blues albums of the '70s. Fenton Robinson never did quite fit the "Genuine Houserocking Music" image of Alligator Records – his deep, rich baritone sounds more like a magic carpet than a piece of barbed wire, and he speaks in jazz-inflected tongues, full of complex surprises. The title track hits with amazing power, as do the chugging "The Getaway," a hard-swinging "You Say You're Leaving," and the minor-key "You Don't Know What Love Is." In every case, Robinson had recorded them before, but thanks to Bruce Iglauer's superb production, a terrific band, and Robinson's musicianship, these versions reign supreme.

Pianist, singer/songwriter, producer, author, and host Ben Sidran is a literate performer known for his engaging, jazz-influenced sound and laid-back, conversational style. Essentially a pianist/vocalist with a storytelling approach in the tradition of Mose Allison, Sidran grew from a supporting player with rocker Steve Miller to a solo performer, and to an award-winning radio and TV host. Along the way, he has produced albums for such luminaries as Allison, Van Morrison, Michael Franks, Rickie Lee Jones, and others.

Sony Corporation has developed a new type of compact disc called Blu-spec CD, which has certain advantages over conventional CDs. Blu-spec CDs are created using blue laser rather than infrared. This technique improves the quality of the formation of pits - microscopic depressions in the form of which information is recorded on optical discs. Thanks to the "thinner" design of the carrier layer, the accuracy of data reading is significantly increased, and the need for error correction is practically eliminated. This has a positive effect on the level of electrical noise generated by the servo drives of the laser drive, and therefore on the sound quality.

After her tough blues and R&B records in the early years of the 21st century – 2003's Let's Roll and 2004's Blues to the Bone – Etta James throws a quiet storm changeup. All the Way's 11 tracks are pop songs – indeed, a few are standards – written between the 1930s and the 1990s. James song choices are curious. The Great American Songbook tunes include the title track (written by Samuel Kahn and Jimmy Van Heusen), Leonard Bernstein's and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere" from West Side Story, and even Bob Telson's "Calling You" from the score to the 1987 film Baghdad Cafe – it's been recorded by everyone from Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion to Jeff Buckley and Gal Costa.

In 2019, following their joint tour of Japan, guitarist Robben Ford and saxophonist/keyboardist Bill Evans recruited jazz bassist James Genus and Steely Dan drummer Keith Carlock to cut The Sun Room in a Nashville studio. The group is back with Rolling Stones' bassist Darryl Jones in the bass chair. Recorded in the same studio, this set's focus relies heavily on a more rockist jazz-funk and blues. Common Ground was co-produced by the saxophonist and Clifford Carter, and its nine tracks clock in at just under an hour. The session gets unruly early on with "Ever Ready Sunday," a mean, funky, jazz-rocker. Kicked off with a power chord vamp by Ford, Jones rumbles behind Carlock's snare and hi-hat breaks. Evans solos on soprano and Ford follows with a meandering meld of jazzy arpeggios and blues licks.

His Japanese fans reverently dubbed Fenton Robinson "the mellow blues genius" because of his ultra-smooth vocals and jazz-inflected guitar work. But beneath the obvious subtlety resides a spark of constant regeneration – Robinson tirelessly strives to invent something fresh and vital whenever he's near a bandstand. The soft-spoken Mississippi native got his career going in Memphis, where he'd moved at age 16. First, Rosco Gordon used him on a 1956 session for Duke that produced "Keep on Doggin'." The next year, Fenton made his own debut as a leader for the Bihari Brothers' Meteor label with his first reading of "Tennessee Woman." His band, the Dukes, included mentor Charles McGowan on guitar. T-Bone Walker and B.B. King were Robinson's idols.

With the arrival of Delta Lady: The Rita Coolidge Anthology, one can only remark: what took so long? No other singer – not Maria Muldaur, Bette Midler, Bonnie Bramlett, Carly Simon, or Linda Ronstadt – more perfectly embodied the wide range of changes that popular music underwent from the late '60s through the mid-'80s, and continues to seek new means of expression today. This two-disc anthology on Hip-O offers the first complete portrait of this complex and multivalent talent on CD (though a box set would have been nice). Rita Coolidge scored her first chart hit with friend Donna Weiss' "Turn Around and Love You" in 1969. That song earned her a studio spot where she fell in with Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell, and a huge cast of musicians. Being a background vocalist on Delaney & Bonnie's classic Accept No Substitute earned her a place on Russell and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen revue and the rest is history, including a handful of chart hits and guest appearances that stagger the mind.