First Things 2024

Few female singers matched the hard-swinging Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and skill in all areas of jazz vocals: her splendid improvising, wide range, dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her one of the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and, later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother and entered her first marathon-dance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later moving from dancing to singing at the contests. After bad experiences amid brief tenures with Benny Goodman and even Raymond Scott, O'Day earned a place in Gene Krupa's band in 1941.

Leopold Stokowski’s eminence as one of the truly great conductors of the 20th century over a career spanning more than six decades is exemplified in this set, which features live performances in stereo of symphonies and other works he conducted in concert during his final years and which, in many cases, he had premiered on record as well. In one of the many outstanding reviews of these live concerts, the distinguished Times critic William Mann wrote of the 1963 ‘Proms’ premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No.2: “A performance which was superb by any standards, meticulously loyal, noble and deeply felt out of long and thoughtful experience”. The set has been newly remastered to reflect Stokowski’s instructions on how he wanted his recordings to sound.

Leopold Stokowski’s eminence as one of the truly great conductors of the 20th century over a career spanning more than six decades is exemplified in this set, which features live performances in stereo of symphonies and other works he conducted in concert during his final years and which, in many cases, he had premiered on record as well. In one of the many outstanding reviews of these live concerts, the distinguished Times critic William Mann wrote of the 1963 ‘Proms’ premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No.2: “A performance which was superb by any standards, meticulously loyal, noble and deeply felt out of long and thoughtful experience”. The set has been newly remastered to reflect Stokowski’s instructions on how he wanted his recordings to sound.

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (* December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey; † May 14, 1998 in Los Angeles, California) was an American singer, actor and entertainer.

Sol Sol release Almost All Things Considered on LP/CD/DL on Sail Cabin Records on the 10th of May.

ROCKPALAST is a legendary live music TV show hosted in Germany by the WDR channel. It was first broadcast in 1974 and has become a pan-European television institution. It has its own fan club and online forum, and in four decades, it has become a trademark of quality viewing and listening.

Incredible art blossoms when the stresses of time and funds do not weigh on its creator. It was with a generous grant and time provided by the pandemic that vocalist/composer Luciana Souza was able to sit down and compose a new longform piece without distraction. Along with her trio of guitarist Chico Pinheiro and bassist Scott Colley, Souza debuts her wonderful new composition, Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes (with first lines from poems by Emily Dickinson).