Mono 2023

Mono. Recorded at Saal III, Berlin, 14.X.1963 [October 14, 1963]. By 1963, Dexter Gordon and Donald Byrd had become two of the leading lights of the Blue Note label, a gleaming showcase and an experimental laboratory for the evolutions and revolutions taking place in the small world of Afro-American jazz stemming from hard bop. Curiously, however, it was not until the autumn of that year that the two musicians made a recording together. Dexter Gordon had been recognized since the mid-1940s as a major stylist of the tenor saxophone and for having created the perfect synthesis of Lester Young’s laid-back rhythm and Coleman Hawkins’ sensuality by way of the then-flourishing bepob style (the two were the historical fathers of the instrument). Gordon subsequently went through a long purgatory of numerous, chronic addictions, but by the autumn of 1963 he had emerged from the ordeal and was experiencing a creative renaissance. Working with a new generation of musicians, he had regained his enthusiasm, his inspiration and his charisma.

The two-disc collection Pye Anthology 1963-1967 features nearly everything recorded by one of England's favorite Liverpool outfits during the early '60s (among heavy competition). Formed a few years before the Beatles, in 1957, the Searchers were prime competitors with them for the crown of hardest-working and best band in Liverpool during the early '60s.

It was on this album that all of the Seekers' varied attributes – including Judith Durham's powerful vocals, the increasingly virtuoso-level playing (especially on the acoustic 12-string) and singing of Bruce Woodley, Athol Guy, and Keith Potger, and Woodley's burgeoning songwriting talent – kicked in at their peak at the same time.

There is no denying Buck Owens is a legend. From his presence on the radio to jukeboxes to turntables to television, the “Bakersfield Sound” has become part of American music’s fabric. For the first time, Omnivore Recordings, in conjunction with the Buck Owens Estate, is proud to present Buck Owens and The Buckaroos’ The Complete Capitol Singles: 1957-1966. Taken from the original mono, single reels, The Complete Capitol Singles: 1957-1966 collects all 56 sides from that period, including 13 #1’s, in their original and chronological form. Newly remastered, and featuring liner notes from Buck’s autobiography (written with Randy Poe), plus an introduction by Dwight Yoakam, The Complete Capitol Singles: 1957-1966 presents the golden age of Buck Owens in an entirely new way. They’re the songs you love in the way you know them. They’re history. It’s The Complete Capitol Singles: 1957-1966.

Yesterday…and Today was the last Beatles album to be created exclusively for the American market without the group's direct consent, and its tumultuous history seemed to bring the issue of those albums to a head, both for the group and Capitol Records.

Seekers Seen in Green is the sixth studio album by the Australian group The Seekers. It was released in the UK and Europe in 1967 by Columbia Records and EMI Records. It was released in Canada in 1967 and in the US in 1968 by Capitol Records. (The American release replaced "On The Other Side" with Kenny Young's "When Will the Good Apples Fall," their last big British hit.) It was also released in Germany and the Netherlands on LP on the Emidisc‡ label in 1976. It was released on CD in 1999 in the UK.‡(EMIDISC is a product of the EMI-Group Companies issued in Germany by ELECTROLA GmbH., Köln and in the Netherlands by N. V. Bovema, Heemstede).It was the group's final studio album until 1975's The Seekers which featured the vocals of Louisa Wisseling.

Rhino Handmade's There's a Riot Goin' On: The Coasters on Atco, a four-disc box set that contains all the key recordings from the group's peak (including sides by the Robins) and noteworthy tracks from the '60s, plus a disc's worth of rarities. If that title carries a threat of violence seemingly atypical for the guys who sang "Yakety Yak" and "Charlie Brown," it's not wrong, either, as the Coasters were a rock & roll band with all the excitement and danger that implies.

No American rock group ever started with as much daring or musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully – and then blew it all as quickly. From their origins as a jazz-rock experiment that wowed critics and listeners, they went on – in a somewhat more pop vein – to sell almost six million records in three years, but ended up being dropped by their record label four years after that. Blood, Sweat & Tears started as an idea conceived by Al Kooper in July of 1967. An ex-member of the Blues Project, Kooper had been toying with the notion, growing out of his admiration for jazz bandleader Maynard Ferguson, of forming an electric rock band that would include horns and use jazz as the basis for their work. He planned to pursue this in London, but a series of New York shows involving some big-name friends didn't raise enough money to get him there. He did, however, find three players who wanted to work with him: bassist Jim Fielder, Blues Project guitarist Steve Katz, and drummer Bobby Colomby. Kooper agreed, as long as he was in charge musically. The horn section featured Fred Lipsius (saxophone), with Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss on trumpets and flügelhorns, and Dick Halligan playing trombone. The new group was signed to Columbia Records, and the name "Blood, Sweat & Tears" came to Kooper after a jam at the Cafe au Go Go, where a cut on his hand left his organ keyboard covered in blood.

Face to Face was a remarkable record, but its follow-up, Something Else, expands its accomplishments, offering 13 classic British pop songs. As Ray Davies' songwriting becomes more refined, he becomes more nostalgic and sentimental, retreating from the psychedelic and mod posturings that had dominated the rock world. Indeed, Something Else sounds like nothing else from 1967. The Kinks never rock very hard on the album, preferring acoustic ballads, music hall numbers, and tempered R&B to full-out guitar attacks. Part of the album's power lies in its calm music, since it provides an elegant support for Davies' character portraits and vignettes. From the martial stomp of "David Watts" to the lovely, shimmering "Waterloo Sunset," there's not a weak song on the record, and several – such as the allegorical "Two Sisters," the Noël Coward-esque "End of the Season," the rolling "Lazy Old Sun," and the wry "Situation Vacant" – are stunners. And just as impressive is the emergence of Dave Davies as a songwriter. His Dylanesque "Death of a Clown" and bluesy rocker "Love Me Till the Sun Shines" hold their own against Ray's masterpieces, and help make Something Else the endlessly fascinating album that it is.

The Advertised divas to appear were Mable John, Chris Clark, Thelma Houston, Brenda Holloway, Scherrie Payne & Lynda Lawrence. A contingent of the Funk Brothers band was also featured. Names and sounds of the divas who were NOT appearing. This two cd package contains recordings of many of these diva type women.