Matt Rogers

ProDrummer Volume 2 includes approx. 40 Gigabytes of Drum Kits and MIDI drum grooves produced by Joe Chiccarelli and multi-award winning EastWest producer Doug Rogers, with drums played by Matt Chamberlain (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, etc.).

For many, the holidays are just as much about spending time with friends as they are spending time with family. After all, friends are family we choose — and that makes those relationships all the more special!

Kris Needs repositions the roots of Sonny Blount aka Sun Ra on three discs (60 tracks) spanning his earliest 1933 recordings of big band jazz and be-bop, thru the birth of Sun Ra and the "future shock" of his later visions. "CD1 (Pre-flight) features Sun Ra’s earliest recordings from the 1940s, playing piano for Wynonie Harris and Lil Green, jamming with Stuff Smith, and coaching or arranging for artists such as Andrew Tibbs, the Hambone Kids and the Dozier Boys with Red Saunders’ Orchestra. Other artists he worked with featured here include pianist Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Jo Jo Adams and LaVern Baker. There’s also an intriguing brace of tracks displaying his experiments with mid-1950s vocal groups such as Nu Sounds and Cosmic Rays, while introducing berserk space-preacher Yochanan. All along, Ra was blueprinting his sonic spaceship until the time was right to launch under his own name in mid-1956 with effervescent debut single, ‘Saturn’, on his newly-established label of the same name. Saturn is also the planet he claimed to be his birth-place. CD1 ends with the first 1956 Arkestra sessions, picked up again on CD2 (Lift-off), which runs through early Saturn singles such as ‘A Call For All Demons’, then tracks from Sun Ra’s early albums Jazz By Sun Ra, Sound of Joy, Visits Planet Earth and Super-Sonic Jazz, his sound tangibly expanding through the stunning Arkestral manoeuvres of tracks such as ‘Sunology’. CD3 ( Future Shock) mixes tracks from Sun Ra’s twin landmark albums Jazz In Silhouette and The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra, with intoxicating one-off singles such as ‘Great Balls Of Fire’, ‘Space Loneliness’ and ‘Big City Blues’, the massively weird ‘Teenager’s Letter Of Promises’ with singer Juanita Rogers, before signing off with Yochanan’s demented ’Message To Earthman’."

While Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, Adam Faith and Matt Monro were top on everybody's lips, there breathed a new lease of life for countless young women who would sing out and lay equal claim to the limelight. While Brigitte Bardot and Francoise Hardy flew the liberated flag for France, Dusty, Cilla and Sandie would hoist theirs higher. Innocence and elegance combined with a powerful pair of lungs would amply demonstrate their righteous presence in pop music, thereby creating a phenomenon that continues to endure with a captivating charm and magnetism. Back in 1965, the BBC was eager to enlist the emerging homegrown talents of female stars and fill the airwaves for eager listeners at home and abroad. Compiled here is a compelling selection of the best of British, a tribute to the endearing sound of 'femme vox', that sweetly evocative, glamorous sound with powerful lungs and some killer lipstick. Over 100 tracks, professionally remastered and packaged in a 4CD clamshell box with 16-page full colour booklet containing background liners and rare archival photos.

David Binney's seventh recording, Anacapa, is his fourth for the Criss Cross label. It is entirely comprised of original music, and is the first on which he frames his distinctive alto and tenor saxophone concept with electric instruments and a global array of beats. Propelling the flow of the 8 groove-oriented compositions is an ace rhythm section of John Escreet on piano and Fender Rhodes, Matt Brewer on electric bass and either Obed Calvaire or Dan Weiss on drums; all but one of the tracks feature the two-guitar tandem of Wayne Krantz and Adam Rogers.