Classic Playground

Glen Campbell - The Glen Campbell Collection 1962-1989 (1997) {2CD Set Razor & Tie RE 2129-2}
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© 1962-89, 1997 Razor & Tie / EMI-Capitol | RE 2129-2
Country / Country-Pop / Nashville Sound / AM Pop / Urban Cowboy

Glen Campbell not only had an enormous number of hit singles, he was also a staple of pop culture, appearing in films and hosting a TV show during the late '60s and early '70s. Before that, he was a respected studio musician and performer in search of a hit in the early '60s, cutting great singles that nobody heard. All this makes his career difficult to compile, even on a double-disc set with 40 songs, so it shouldn't be a huge surprise that Razor & Tie's 1997 compilation The Glen Campbell Collection (1962-1989), for all its attributes, is heavily flawed. Its biggest problem is its scope; by extending its reach to the end of the '80s, when Campbell was still having hits out of sheer inertia and was far past his peak, the listenability of the second disc nosedives about halfway through.

Wayne Shorter - Schizophrenia (1967) {1995 Blue Note Connoisseur CD Series}
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© 1967, 1995 Blue Note / Capitol | CDP 7243 8 32096 2 0
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Wayne Shorter was at the peak of his creative powers when he recorded Schizophrenia in the spring of 1967. Assembling a sextet that featured two of his Miles Davis bandmates (pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Ron Carter), trombonist Curtis Fuller, alto saxophonist/flautist James Spaulding and drummer Joe Chambers, Shorter found a band that was capable of conveying his musical "schizophrenia," which means that this is a band that can play straight just as well as they can stretch the limits of jazz.

This collection features a sampling of four Tony Bennett Christmas albums – Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album, Our Favorite Things, Christmas with Tony Bennett, and A Swingin’ Christmas – released between 1968 and 2008. Highlights include such traditional holiday standards as "Silver Bells," "Silent Night," and "Winter Wonderland," plus “Christmas in Herald Square” taken from the album The Playground. This is a nice addition to any Christmas collection.

John Hollenbeck - The Claudia Quintet (2001) {Blueshift–CRI CD2004}
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© 2001 Blueshift / Composers Recordings Inc. | CD2004
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / New Chamber Music / Modern Creative / Drums

Releasing three quite noteworthy CDs in as many months, drummer/composer John Hollenbeck certainly made what one might describe as an "auspicious debut" as a leader. Just consider the range of styles covered in this burst of activity. No Images, Hollenbeck's initial recording from October 2001, is the most avant-garde of the three, with drums and saxophones squaring off in free jazz territory and trombones and drums accompanying the taped voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Quartet Lucy, hitting the street in January 2002, reflects Hollenbeck's attraction to the austere and spacious music of the ECM label. And The Claudia Quintet (released on the very same day as Quartet Lucy), a recording of subtlety, beauty, and a fair measure of fire smoldering beneath its surface.

George Adams & Don Pullen - Melodic Excursions (1982) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series}
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© 1982, 2015 Timeless Records / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-6378
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano / Saxophone

Reissue with the latest remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. One of the most beautiful albums ever cut by the team of reedman George Adams and pianist Don Pullen – a spare set of duets that really lets both players open up in their most soulful styles! The set begins with a pretty freewheeling vibe – one that might almost make you doubt the "melodic" in the title – but soon settles into that gently spiritual style that both players brought to their work at the time – almost lyrical at points, but always with deeper ideas at play – and perfectly balanced out between the solo passages of Adams and Pullen!

Amid the ever-growing tide of Deep Purple box sets (this was at least their eighth in nine years), Listen Learn Read On stands alone, not only as the ultimate round-up of the band's greatest moments, but also as the answer to more collectors' dreams than most collectors were even aware they'd had. You want Deep Purple's long-legendary, but forever unavailable BBC sessions? They're here. You want the killer live encores that other albums omitted? They're here. You want a solid introduction to the band members' pre-Purple passages? They're here. And, of course, you want the hits. So they're here as well…