Citizen Drive

The Columbia label finally answers Peter Tosh fans' prayers with this seminal three-CD box set. Working backwards, disc three succinctly sums up Tosh's post-Wailers career, honing in on the Legalize It, Equal Rights, and Bush Doctor sets, tossing in a couple of numbers from Wanted Dread & Alive and the title track from the Grammy-winning No Nuclear War album as well. Nothing new for aficionados here, but a decent roundup nonetheless. Disc two is exclusively comprised of live performances, drawn from a variety of different shows. Again, it doesn't add much to what's already available; however, by leaving in Tosh's between-song patter, for the first time fans can experience or relive the true fire and fury of his stage presence. Which leaves the first disc, and the one that alone makes the set worth the price of admission.

Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann is probably the best of the entire series by conductor Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Every track is worthwhile and memorably played, especially Beneath the 12-Mile Reef and the suite from Citizen Kane, the latter highlighted by Kiri Te Kanawa's performance of the Strauss-like aria from Salammbo.

Longtime friends and collaborators David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto released their work via David's Samadhi Sound label. Sylvian and Sakamoto worked together for the first time in 1982 when they wrote the double A side "Bamboo Music/Bamboo Houses". "World Citizen" was created as part of a project called 'Chain Music' instigated by Ryuichi. "Its skewed pop recalls Bowie's Hunky Dory, and pinpoints the human cost of superpower recklessness, prompting a standing ovation for pop music's most mercurial refusenik-turned-prodigal son" - The Guardian (on a live performance of World Citizen). Sylvian and Sakamoto have not released a record together for 21 years, which makes this a very special release.

Although former New Christy Minstrels singer Barry McGuire scored a fluke novelty hit with the Bob Dylan-styled folk-rock protest anthem "Eve of Destruction" in the summer of 1965, neither he nor producer Lou Adler's startup label Dunhill Records seems to have had a long-term plan for his solo career beyond trying to score another hit single. Naturally, Dunhill quickly issued an Eve of Destruction LP, filling the tracks with McGuire covers of recent folk hits and more originals by P.F. Sloan, who'd penned the hit. Sloan also wrote the follow-up singles "Child of Our Times" and "This Precious Time," neither of which made the Top 40. By the end of the year, Dunhill had another McGuire LP, This Precious Time, again mixing Sloan songs with other people's hits like "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Yesterday." That is the first of two McGuire albums combined on this two-fer CD reissue.

Being a member and composer of Citizen Cain, Stuart Bell release his first solo album playing all the instruments and sharing the vocals duties with 4 others singers such as Simone Rossetti and Arjen Lucassen. The addition of those vocals makes this Cd a Rock Opera. The concept is dark in nature and explore the mind of a lucid dreamer facing the reality and the world of dreams…

Anyone who's been listening to modern jazz has been aware of Jeff "Tain" Watts ever since the classic Wynton Marsalis quintet of the mid-'80s. The general public was introduced to him through his stint on Jay Leno's The Tonight Show – a profitable excursion that nevertheless meant there was an eight-year gap between his debut, Megawatts, and its 1999 successor, Citizen Tain. It was worth the wait, however. Watts scored an enormous coup by reuniting Wynton and Branford Marsalis for the first time in a decade, and he surrounded them with excellent musicians – their trombonist brother Delfeayo Marsalis, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassist Reginald Veal, and pianist Kenny Kirkland, in what sadly turned out to be one of his final sessions.