Holly

Holly Cole's eponymous album was first released in 2007 and features the singer accompanied by a variety of small bands, mostly with brass and reeds played by many of New York's top session players. Several arrangers supplied their talents for the album, including Gil Goldstein, Marty Ehrlich, and even Holly Cole herself.

February 1959. In his brief time he recorded a hugely influential body of work that inspired future stars like the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Holly himself had been inspired at the age of 18 by seeing Elvis Presley perform, and had soon won himself a contract with Decca Records. With a backing band called The Crickets, Holly wrote hits like the chart-topping "That'll Be The Day", and "Peggy Sue". Despite his death, he had recorded so prolifically that Decca were able to continue releasing new Holly material for many years. This compilation features 50 digitally remastered tracks.

Europa' is a collection of joyful and optimistic songs from one of the most unique personalities in pop: it's a celebration of love and enjoying life in the moment, while you can. The album arrives exactly thirty years since Frankie Goes To Hollywood released their debut record 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome', featuring the iconic, millions-selling 'Relax' (famously banned by the BBC), 'Two Tribes' (which spent nine weeks at number 1) and 'The Power of Love' (a cover of which reached number 1 again just last year). In 1999, after releasing his third solo album, 'Soulstream', and needing a break from the music industry, Holly did what he'd intended to do before Frankie took off: he enrolled in art school.

I have mentioned Holly Cole as one of my favourite female jazz singers, who is quite underrated in my opinion. Here is one of her projects, Temptation, a tribute album to Tom Waits, which I would like to share both with avaxhome jazz cats and Tom Waits loyals.

The 1979 six-LP collection The Complete Buddy Holly was arguably the music industry’s first ever box set. Until now, however, legal obstacles have prevented a comprehensive CD overview of the output of the Texas-born 1950s rocker who released material both under his own name and that of The Crickets.