Now 119

Charlie Parker - Now's The Time (1985) {Verve 825 671-2 rec 1952-1953}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 175 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 92 Mb
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© 1952-53, 1985 Verve Records | 825 671-2
Jazz / Bebop / Saxophone

First, this album is filled with gems. There is no fluff or B-side material as far as I am concerned. Second, the tracks represent some of the best musicians of this genre from that era, not to mention that the bebop genre had matured and settled into a familiar structure by the time these recordings were made. And Bird is flying high on his own powers (not to mention the others who are on these tracks.) More importantly, they are the anthems of the bebop movement - seminal works - that deserve critical listening and study (and enjoyment for their own sake.)

2015 collection of spook-tacular hits including cuts from Rob Zombie, The Specials, Oingo Boingo, Rockwell, John Carpenter, INXS and many others. Now That's What I Call Music is the most successful compilation album series in the history of recorded music. With over 96 million units of the series scanned to date in the US, the #1 Billboard charting album NOW 53 sold 100,000 units during the first week of release. Many of NOW's brand extension collections of recent Pop Chart-topping hits such as NOW Party Anthems and NOW #1's continue to scan over 100K units per title.

Deep Purple have never quite been placed in the revered 1960s canon that includes the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or any of the other British rock bands who continue to reunite in various configurations to tour and even periodically release new albums, but given that the group has always been a riveting and brilliant live act, part prog, part heavy metal, part funky R&B, and imminently theatrical, that second-tier designation seems like both an oversight and a shame. Returning with this set, the band's first since 2005's Rapture of the Deep, and featuring a near-classic lineup of vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist Don Airey (Jon Lord, whose distorted organ parts were so much a part of the classic Deep Purple sound, left the band in 2002 and died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer), one can only marvel at how timeless it sounds, as if it were actually recorded in the early '70s and not tracked a little more than a decade into the 21st century.