Miss January 2003

The very idea that Manfred Mann, perhaps Great Britain's longest running rock band - other than the Rolling Stones - would have "hits" in the 21st century is rather odd and inaccurate (perhaps "hits according to who?" is the question). This set nonetheless features two CDs and 36 tracks. Virtually every single from the earliest Manfred Mann band is here, including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "Mighty Quinn," "5-4-3-2-1," "Sha La La," "Hubble Bubble (Toil And Trouble)," as well as wild covers of the hits of the day - because after all, Manfred Mann were, more than anything else, a cover band - "Fox on the Run," "Handbags and Glad Rags," "Just Like a Woman," "If You Gotta Go, Go Now," and of course, the tracks that put retirement money in Bruce Springsteen's bank account: "Blinded By The Light," "For You," and "Spirits In the Night"…

The very idea that Manfred Mann, perhaps Great Britain's longest running rock band - other than the Rolling Stones - would have "hits" in the 21st century is rather odd and inaccurate (perhaps "hits according to who?" is the question). This set nonetheless features two CDs and 36 tracks. Virtually every single from the earliest Manfred Mann band is here, including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "Mighty Quinn," "5-4-3-2-1," "Sha La La," "Hubble Bubble (Toil And Trouble)," as well as wild covers of the hits of the day - because after all, Manfred Mann were, more than anything else, a cover band - "Fox on the Run," "Handbags and Glad Rags," "Just Like a Woman," "If You Gotta Go, Go Now," and of course, the tracks that put retirement money in Bruce Springsteen's bank account: "Blinded By The Light," "For You," and "Spirits In the Night"…

The very idea that Manfred Mann, perhaps Great Britain's longest running rock band - other than the Rolling Stones - would have "hits" in the 21st century is rather odd and inaccurate (perhaps "hits according to who?" is the question). This set nonetheless features two CDs and 36 tracks. Virtually every single from the earliest Manfred Mann band is here, including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "Mighty Quinn," "5-4-3-2-1," "Sha La La," "Hubble Bubble (Toil And Trouble)," as well as wild covers of the hits of the day - because after all, Manfred Mann were, more than anything else, a cover band - "Fox on the Run," "Handbags and Glad Rags," "Just Like a Woman," "If You Gotta Go, Go Now," and of course, the tracks that put retirement money in Bruce Springsteen's bank account: "Blinded By The Light," "For You," and "Spirits In the Night"…

Kenny Brown is definitely a bluesman. The man has served his apprenticeship with the best and usually hands out his guitar shingle with R.L. Burnside. But this outing finds him doing a great job of leading the band. Three songs come from Burnside ("Miss Maybelle," the frantic shuffle "Goin' Down South," and "Shake 'Em on Down"), while most of the rest are traditional, including the roaring "France Chance" and "Cocaine Bill," where the bass does a perfect imitation of a cakewalk tuba. Brown lets his trademark slide sing throughout, with a wonderfully raw tone, while his voice carries the weight of years heavily - he doesn't just sing the blues, he lives them. To hear him on the goodbye of "Fare Thee Well Blues" is to experience loneliness. With a tight band of Cedric Burnside and Takeeshi Imura, he can handle anything, put the grease on it, and take it down home. If you're looking for the real deal, look no further.

The three sonatas Stephen Hough has selected for this recital not only reveal Johann Nepomuk Hummel as a plausible "missing link" between Beethoven and Chopin, but also as a formidable, creative force in his own right. Maybe he's not so memorable a melodist as Chopin nor a protean architect on the level of Beethoven, but Hummel's piano writing still sounds idiomatic and invigorating to modern ears. It's also quite difficult. The F-sharp minor sonata's dramatic finale, for instance, allows little respite from its unrelenting broken octaves, taxing runs, and double notes, while the gnarly dotted rhythms, imitative writing, and thick chords permeating the D major sonata's Scherzo evoke the Schumann to come. No matter how difficult the music, Stephen Hough's effortless technique and eloquent, characterful musicality make everything sound easy. What's more, he never sacrifices power for speed. Listen for example to the way he gives the challenging, spiraling triplets in the F minor sonata's finale their full dynamic due, maintaining a full, tonally varied sonority with virtually no help from the sustain pedal. In sum, it will take a heap of work and tons of inspiration for future pianists to match Hough's reference standards here. This is a valuable release and a joyous listening experience all in one: don't miss it.

Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, professionally known as Dalida, was a French singer and actress, born in Egypt to Italian parents. She won the Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954 and began a 31-year singing career in 1956, selling 170 million albums and singles worldwide. Dalida earned 45 gold record awards and a pair of platinum records for her sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan, and was the first singer to receive a diamond disc.. A superstar in France and much of the rest of Europe, Dalida enjoyed hit records in three different decades.

Jimmy Witherspoon was either a blues singer who worked from a jazz perspective, or a jazz singer with blues tendencies, or most accurately, a blues singer who applied jazz rhythms to a gospel delivery, which makes him, in some ways, a less propulsive version of Ray Charles. This disc of his earliest recordings, most of them released on Modern Records, shows Witherspoon predominantly as a shouter, and he sounds like a man used to years of fronting a small jazz orchestra. In time his microphone technique would improve, and he learned how to let subtle nuances into his singing, working both ends of the hard/soft dynamic into his phrasing…