Fantasy Art Genius

Bud Powell - The Complete Bud Powell on Verve (1994) {5CD Set Polygram 314521669-2 rec 1949-1956}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 847 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 634 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 599 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1949-56, 1994 Mercury / Clef / Norgran / Verve / Polygram | 314 521 669-2
Jazz / Bop / Piano

This five-CD deluxe set contains an impressive 150-page booklet and reissues every scrap of music that the innovative pianist Bud Powell recorded for Verve. The first disc has the best music, four truly outstanding sessions from 1949-51. The other performances (trio sides from 1954-56) are much more erratic, particularly the alternate takes, with gems followed by completely lost solos. Bop fans will want this set but more general collectors are advised to pick up the Blue Notes first.

In the harp world, few figures are better known than Carlos Salzedo; however, in the larger musical world, and even among classical music enthusiast, his biography and personality are not sufficiently discussed and appreciated. For this reason, this Da Vinci Classics album is a very welcome addition to the existing discography, and will enhance the fame of this great musician and pedagogue.

Thelonious Monk - The Complete Riverside Recordings (1988) {15CD Riverside Victor Japan VDJ-25010~24 rec 1955-1961}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 4.97 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.24 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 1.71 Gb | 5% repair rar
© 1955-61, 1988 Riverside / Fantasy / Victor Japan | VDJ-25010~24
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano

The studio and live recording sessions that Thelonious Monk cut during his six-year stay at the Riverside label are compiled over the 15 discs in the Complete Riverside Recordings. This middle era – between his early sides for Prestige and the final ones for Columbia – is generally considered Monk's most ingenious and creative period. The sessions are presented in chronological order, accurately charting the progression and diversions of one of the most genuinely enigmatic figures in popular music. The Complete Riverside Recordings explores Monk's genius with a certain degree of real-time analysis that simply listening to each of the individual albums from this era lacks.

For the 100th anniversary of Emil Gilels, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Melodiya presents an anthology of his pianistic legacy. “Titans of the piano like Gilels are born once in a hundred years,” wrote a Japanese correspondent in 1957; similar comments accompanied the musician’s performances throughout his performing career.
The performance of the young man from the Odessa Conservatory at the 1933 First All-Union Competition in Moscow came as a bombshell: the audience gave him a standing ovation, and unfamiliar people congratulated each other on the emergence of a genius.