It's Alright With me

Swedish vocalist Vivian Buczek has been on the Scandinavian jazz scene for over a decade, releasing her first album, Can't We Be Friends (Skandia Music) in 2003. Live At The Palladium is her fourth solo album, though she's also recorded with the Artistry Jazz Group. The Palladium in question isn't the world- renowned London theatre, it's the one in Buczek's home town of Malmö, but this concert sparkles with such energy and vivacity that it could readily have graced the venue's more famous British counterpart.

Showaddywaddy had more UK hits in the 1970s than any other act…including Abba. From their winning appearance on an edition of ‘New Faces’, the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ of the day, to become runners-up in the series’ ‘All Winners Final’, it took just a matter of months until the band released and secured their debut hit, ‘Hey Rock And Roll’, which reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart…

This double-CD set isn't a substitute for the four-CD box from Big Beat, but it does provide a slightly leaner and less-expensive way of running through the band's history. It's difficult to believe that a group whose recording history lasted just a little more than three full years could account for the 22 single A- and B-sides on disc one of this set, but that was the pace of the business in those days, and it wasn't unheard of for a band to get four or five singles out in a year…

At its best, Meet Me in the City seems like a postmortem rarities tribute to a blues great who never got his proper due. At its worst, the record is cashing in on a Kimbrough recording that just happens to be lying around. The first four songs, home recordings from 1992, are so horribly noisy and hazy sounding that it's difficult to hear Kimbrough's down-home modern offbeat Delta blues and his rough, weathered vocals. Still, the tracks present an intimate and relaxed look at the elder bluesman — they are chilling, ghost-like, and off-the-cuff. The last four songs, from 1996 and 1993, respectively, are of better sonic quality, without distracting echo and distorted microphones…….