7 hours popular hits! 160 More Greatest Hits of the 50's! Every fan of rock 'n' roll should have some '50s music in their collection.
Dubbed the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune nearly 30 years ago, Erich Kunzel – one of the most successful classical crossover artists of all time – has recorded over 70 albums for Telarc; one of the most popular of those is 1990s Christmas with the Pops. The warm and wonderful Christmastime Is Here, named for the Vince Guaraldi classic from A Charlie Brown Christmas that's given a spirited reworking here, is something of a sequel to that collection. With the exception of a punchy Dixieland arrangement of "Jingle Bell Rock," Kunzel and the orchestra – working with the Indiana University School of Music Singing Hoosiers, under the direction of Dr. Michael Schwartzkopf – play most of the classics here very straightforwardly. That is to say, charming, elegant and engaging, just not overly innovative. Telarc's true stroke of genius is having some of its top jazz vocalists perform on lush but smartly restrained arrangements of various classics – like Tierney Sutton on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and John Pizzarelli on "Silver Bells." The disc also showcases two of the label's newest artists, Ann Hampton Callaway (a haunting "I Wonder as I Wander") and Tony DeSare (doing Mel Tormé proud on a dreamy version of "The Christmas Song"). This is 2006's premier holiday disc for lovers of jazz, pop and classical music.
Modern electric blues guitar can be traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer, who began amplifying his sumptuous lead lines for public consumption circa 1940 and thus initiated a revolution so total that its tremors are still being felt today. Few major postwar blues guitarists come to mind that don't owe T-Bone Walker an unpayable debt of gratitude. B.B. King has long cited him as a primary influence, marveling at Walker's penchant for holding the body of his guitar outward while he played it. Gatemouth Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Pete Mayes, and a wealth of other prominent Texas-bred axemen came stylistically right out of Walker during the late '40s and early '50s.
AVID Jazz here presents three classic Joe Bushkin albums plus, including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. 'After Hours'; 'Piano Moods'; 'Brad Gowans and his New York Nine' plus radio transcriptions, plus three tracks from 'The Jazz Keyboards' plus several tracks from the 78 era. Joe Bushkin plays jazz from the old school having come up in the late thirties where he began playing at the Famous Door on 52nd Street, New York before going on to play with the likes of Bunny Berigan, Muggsy Spanier, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Armstrong to name but a few greats! Across our selections Joe can be heard playing with the likes of Barney Kessel, Harry Babasin, Buck Clayton, Jo Jones, Sid Weiss and Morey Feld. All three albums plus have been digitally re-mastered.