Inspiration 9

2002 Rhino / Warner artist compilation featuring Paul Simon, B.B. King, Nina Simone & a host of other top notch players.

The latest installment in the popular NOW series. Country music fans can hear the most moving hits from some of their favorite artists, including Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Lady Antebellum, Alison Krauss, Tim McGraw and more.

Like Stevie Wonder and Allen Toussaint before him–and Prince and D'Angelo afterward–Shuggie Otis was a musical visionary whose early 1970s recordings showed he could do it all, writing, arranging, performing, and producing some of the decade's most satisfying, innovative, and, unfortunately, overlooked music. This reissue of his 1974 Inspiration Information album–a soulful song cycle that took three years to create and was worth every minute–ranges from early drum machine-driven experiments like "Xl-30" and "Aht Uh Mi Hed" (note the Sly Stone spelling influence) to Otis's most stunning pop confection ever, "Strawberry Letter 23." (The latter song, which ended up being a big hit for the Brothers Johnson, is one of four bonus tracks taken from Otis's 1971 Freedom Flight album). Otis, who once turned down an offer to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, continues to perform around the Bay Area on his own and with his father, bandleader Johnny Otis. Hopefully, the long-awaited resurrection of this material will help bring him the attention he deserves.

For the past few years, Cherry Red imprint Morello Records has been reissuing the Epic Records catalog of county legend Tammy Wynette on a series of twofers (or more). With its latest release, out now, Morello is taking a look at the late 1960s and early 1970s with a 2-CD set featuring the four albums The Ways To Love a Man, Tammy's Touch, My Elusive Dreams and Inspiration.

Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) {Strut STRUT040CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 400 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 148 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 31 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Strut | STRUT040CD
Jazz / Ethio Jazz / Post Bop / World Fusion / Afro Beat / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Vibes / Piano

The third in Strut’s Inspiration Information studio collaboration series brings together an intriguing pairing between one of Africa’s great bandleaders, Mulatu Astatke, with the next level musicianship of The Heliocentrics collective from the mighty roster of Stones Throw / Now Again. Known primarily through the successful ‘Ethiopiques’ album series and the film soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Broken Flowers’, Mulatu Astatke is one of Ethiopia’s foremost musical ambassadors. Informed by spells living and studying in the UK and the USA, his self-styled Ethio-jazz sound flourished during the “Swinging Addis” era of the late ‘60s as he successfully fused Western jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies, five tone scale arrangements and elements from music of the ancient Coptic church.

Kate Ceberano releases “Sweet Inspiration,” the 28th album of her extraordinary music career!