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This 10 CD set offers an exciting overview of some of the most important recordings made by American jazz stars in Paris in the Fifties. They are milestones of Modern Jazz, Bebop and Hard Bop recorded by some of the most important players of the time, including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Lionel Hampton, Chet Baker, Sarah Vaughan, Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young and Donald Byrd. Treated like second class citizens at home, many American jazz stars not only got more recognition and respect in the French capital, but found much better playing conditions as well. From concert-halls like "L'Olympia" to the clubs of the "Latin Quarter" they were appreciated and celebrated, and their music met with a glowing enthusiasm.

Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire De Melody Nelson (1971) [2CD+DVD] {2011 Mercury Deluxe Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 328 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 147 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 335 Mb | 5% repair rar
DVD5 -> 2.41 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 16:9 | Francais (Dolby AC3, 2 ch / 6 ch) | ~ 40m | ISO Image
© 1971, 2011 Mercury | 277 825 3
French pop / French rock / Chanson

There aren’t many artists whose personal life overshadows their musical output but Serge Gainsbourg wasn’t like most artists. His early career was spent smoking Gitanes, lurching between love affairs with various screen sirens and drinking his way through the nightclubs of Paris. Later he would become a dishevelled regular on French television, setting fire to a 500 franc note and drunkenly declaring his wish to bed Whitney Houston, before dying of a heart attack at 62. It’s little wonder that, apart from a bar of heavy breathing in ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’, history can’t handle Gainsbourg’s musical accomplishments and some of the singer’s best work remains largely forgotten.

Leaf Hound – like Killing Floor – was one of dozens of other working-class heavy rock bands who sprouted up in England during the British blues-rock boom of the late '60s. They immediately found themselves in the shadow of better bands, including Led Zeppelin and Free (to name just two), which may have led to their short life together. They recorded only one album, Growers of Mushroom, which found its first release in on the German-based Telefunken label..

William Tell is Rossini's last opera, and this Romantic heroic interpretation of Schiller's epic of Wilhelm Tell among his best works. Rossini composed this opera in Paris. The original libretto was written in French, for a French audience, chorus. Parisians by reputation had more refined musical technique and tastes than their Italian counterparts and Rossini applied the best of Italian opera technique, which he had mastered and more refined and complex French musical staging which he studied and adapted during his years in Paris.

A broad selection of 33 Overtures (Orchestral Suites) by Georg Philipp Telemann is here collected in one generous 8-CD set. Telemann, one of the most prolific and gifted composers of the 18th century, wrote many charming, graceful suites in the fashion of his time - comprised of a three-part French overture followed by shorter dance movements, chaconnes, character pieces, and more. The historically-informed performance of Collegium Instrumentale Brugense under Patrick Piere shows that these bright, varied works truly rival the suites of Handel and Bach.

The large-scale Het Sweelinck Monument project, with Harry van der Kamp as its driving force, and with individual issues on Glossa over the last 6 years in book-CD format for the Netherlands and as multiple-CD sets for the international market, embraces the complete vocal and instrumental music output of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.