l a 4 Just Friends

For their third recording, the L.A. Four had drummer Jeff Hamilton permanently taking Shelly Manne's place but otherwise utilized their original players (altoist-flutist Bud Shank, guitarist Laurindo Almeida, and bassist Ray Brown). Most unusual in their repertoire on this set is Chuck Mangione's "Land of Make Believe," which was a current pop hit. Otherwise, the tunes are the usual mixtures of bossas, classical numbers, and standards, including "Summertime," "Mona Lisa," and "Nuages." Tasteful and lightly swinging music.

On this rewarding set, the L.A. Four (altoist Bud Shank, acoustic guitarist Laurindo Almeida, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Jeff Hamilton) perform a Bach melody, "Carinhoso" (originally recorded by Shank and Almeida back in 1954), "Just Friends," a "Love" medley ("Love for Sale" and "Love Walked In"), and Chick Corea's "Spain." Shank sticks exclusively to alto for the date, leaving his flute in its case, and the result is a more high-powered program than usual.

Import 25 CD boxset containing 25 of the finest Jazz albums ever released. Each album is packaged in a card wallet, and the box set includes a 40 page booklet in both English and French. Classic albums included are Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin, Nina Simone's Sings the Blues, Erroll Garner's Concert By the Sea, Charlie Parker's Bird and many more!

Henry Kaiser has the gift. Whether it's the gift of empathy, of friendship, or simply a more pragmatic gift for creative collaboration isn't clear, but I think it's one of the first two. These guitar duos go all the way back to 1977, and "Wheels Right and Left" with the saintly Davey Williams, coming right up to date with "Infinitum Ad-Infinitum" with the currently omnipresent Ian Brighton. The set starts, properly enough, with "Chrysanthemums", a 1993 meeting with Derek Bailey, just a minute and a half in length, but it ends, even more appropriately with a much longer piece with John Russell called "Split the Difference". In between, you'll find warm, sometimes hilarious selfies with Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Jim O'Rourke, Elliott Sharp, Eugene Chadbourne, Bill Frisell, but also a few less familiar names like Debashish Bhattacharya, Sandy Ewen, Chris Muir and Roberto Zorzi; all this just laboured enough to suggest the range and warmth of Kaiser's creative relationships. These are, as he explains in a minimal sleevenote, friends who became heroes who became friends.

By the time Larry Carlton recorded Friends, his status as a guitar legend had already been established. In addition to being admired by musicians, he was also loved by Muzak programmers. His blend of happy pop-jazz was the perfect background music for dentist offices. For those who care to listen closer, there is some excellent guitar work being performed. A good example of this would be his creative improvisation on the introduction to "South Town." His duet with B.B. King on "Blues for TJ" is wonderful. It is refreshing to hear two players who are more interested in sharing ideas than showing off. The scat version of "Tequila," courtesy of Al Jarreau, was also interesting. As with most Carlton recordings, there is something here for just about everyone; there's just not enough of it.

On January 12, 1970, 'Time' magazine placed The Band on its cover with the headline, 'The New Sound of Country Rock.' In the taxonomy of popular music, Country Rock was now a thing, a categoryby 1970. There were Country Rock browser bins in some stores, and trade magazines like 'Billboard'routinely classified records as country-rock or country/rock, expecting readers to know what they meant.

The ultimate compendium of a half century of the best music, now revised and updated. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through today. Carefully selected by a team of international critics and some of the best-known music reviewers and commentators, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of music from the 1950s to the present. Included with each entry are production details and credits as well as reproductions of original album cover art. Perhaps most important of all, each album featured comes with an authoritative description of its importance and influence.