Harry Miller in Conference

Harry Nilsson worked at a bank and wrote songs on the side, mostly jingles and pop tunes in the mid-1960s. Under contract with RCA, his first record was a flop, but it yielded hits for The Monkees and Three Dog Night. In the late 1960s Nilsson was everywhere: pal to the Beatles (especially John and Ringo); singer of "Everybody's Talkin'," the theme to the movie Midnight Cowboy (1969); singer of the theme to the TV show The Courtship of Eddie's Father; composer of the soundtrack to the animated movie The Point (with its hit single "Me and My Arrow"); and singer of the number one hit, "Without You." …

A trawl through the wonderful career of the hugely underrated Harry Nilsson takes a chronological look at his back catalogue. Pretty much every classic you would ever need is here - Everybody's Talkin', Me and My Arrow, Without Her, Without You, One… the list goes on. Naturally there is a concentration on Harry's most successful work Nilsson Schmilsson with all but one track of the entire album included. There are some delightful hidden classics too with hard to find tracks included, but perhaps too little concentration on his later career. Nevertheless, this is a superb retrospective.

Album released in Spain as a reissue of the English original in 1968. The musician, trumpeter and American director James Henry Haag (Georgia, 1916-1983), alias 'Harry James' conducts his band and plays his trumpet. The distinctive performance style of H. James and his technique as trumpeter was the main factor in his success. In late 1941 the band was considered the best in the USA, surpassed only by the one of Glenn Miller in 1942. Harry discovered in 1939 the beginner Frank Sinatra and was the first to present him as a singer for almost a year.

Obscurus is an exploration of the obscured, in a programme which showcases some of the most incredible trumpet writing of the 20th and 21st century, as well as several reimaginings of older, more mainstream works for other instruments, arranged for trumpet by Lucy Humphris.

Dudu Pukwana - In The Townships (1973) {Earthworks CDEWV 5 rel 1987}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 223 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 84 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 12 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 1987 Earthworks / Virgin | CDEWV 5
Jazz / African Jazz / World Fusion / African Traditions / Southern African / Saxophone

This glorious, ferocious recording is one of the pinnacles of the music created by the South African expatriates who settled in England in the '60s and melded with the free jazz community therein. Leader and alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana and trumpeter Mongezi Feza were twin fountainheads of this movement and are in rare form here, both instrumentally and as composers. The pieces here are largely riff-based, but what incredibly infectious and funky riffs these are. South African music emphasized the importance of various thematic materials by how often it was repeated in a song, and these guys iterate the melodies with a vengeance.

Steve Miller has dug deep into his archives and found an unreleased, full-length concert recording, Steve Miller Band Live! Breaking Ground: August 3, 1977. The album captures Miller’s legendary 1977 lineup at the beginning of the band’s turn from playing ballrooms and theatres to arenas and football stadiums. Recorded at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD on multi-track tape and newly mixed and mastered by Miller and his veteran audio engineer Kent Hertz.