One Deep River

In 2016, Austrian guitarist and composer Wolfgang Muthspiel released the widely celebrated quintet offering Rising Grace as his sophomore effort for ECM. Its meditative – and sometimes oblique – compositions were riven with smooth, percolating grooves and an intelligent, canny conversation among the players, thanks in no small part to the musicians recording live in the same room. Muthspiel returns to the same French studio with three of those sidemen – pianist Brad Mehldau, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and bassist Larry Grenadier – with Eric Harland replacing Brian Blade on drums. Just as on Rising Grace, Muthspiel penned all but one of these eight tunes, with "Blueshead" composed by Mehldau. The guitarist uses electric and acoustic instruments in tunes that reveal the conversational m.o. of this band…

To the casual fan, it's understandable to assume that the Purple lineup comprised of Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice was the original, but it was Purple's best-known one, thanks to penning quite a few all-time rock anthems. However, it was not the original. When Purple started out in the late 1960s, it featured singer Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper…

Matana Roberts is one of the most acclaimed, socio-politically conscious and aesthetically intrepid avant-jazz practitioners of the 21st century. The critical accolades for her multi-chapter Coin Coin work place her at the vanguard of stylistic innovation and radicalization, while confirming the deep substance and soul that guides her compositional agenda. Roberts has long employed the phrase "panoramic sound quilting" to describe Coin Coin, and with this third chapter in the series she implements this metaphor most overtly, creating a sound art tapestry from field recordings, loop and effects pedals, and spoken word recitations, alongside her saxophone and singing voices. Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee unfolds as an uninterrupted album-length flow, in what Roberts calls "a fever dream" of sonic material, inspired by a solitary research-based road trip Roberts took through the American South in early 2014. Fragments of traditional song are the album's main touchstones, with Roberts' singing voice riding atop waves of radiophonic texture, layered spoken word, and an often dislocated, wandering horn.

Albert Ayler - Goin' Home (1964) {Black Lion BLCD760197 rel 1994}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 246 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 109 Mb
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© 1964, 1994 Black Lion Records | BLCD760197
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Albert Ayler was confronted with a spiritual anxiety that both plagued and comforted him throughout his life. This is frighteningly clear listening to the highly intense musical yin and yang that was present February 24, 1964, when the tracks for Goin' Home and Witches and Devils were recorded. Ayler plays tenor and soprano saxophones on "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Deep River," "Goin Home," "Down by the Riverside," "When the Saints Go Marchin In," and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." These traditional compositions are treated with reverence and a lack of improvisation, played in a quietly passionate but respectful manner.

The Complete Keen Years: 1957–1960, collects Sam Cooke’s body of work as he began releasing secular albums, stepping away from the Soul Stirrers where he found great success as a gospel singer. Cooke had been releasing and dominating the gospel sales market over the six years previous to “You Send Me” and “Summertime” being released. Within this newly remastered collection are his unique versions of standards alongside performances that showcase his songwriting skills. Sam Cooke defined himself as a voice ahead of his time elevating the sound of soul at the turn of the decade.

One Last Time Live in Concert is a home video documenting one of singer Tina Turner's final Wembley Stadium concert stops on her Twenty Four Seven Tour. The DVD was released nationally in 2001, a year after the tour, which was the highest-grossing tour of 2000, ended. The DVD was certified platinum by the RIAA and in the UK.
Farewell tours are a risky enterprise – just ask the Who. They announced their retirement from the stage back in 1982. Since then, they’ve staged outings in 1989, 1996-97, 2000, and again in the summer of 2002.

Doc Watson - The Vanguard Years (1995) {4CD Set Vanguard Records 155/58-2 rec 1961-1971}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 944 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 402 Mb
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© 1963-71, 1995 Vanguard Records | 155/58-2
Folk / Country / Old-Timey / Appalachian / North American Traditions / Guitar

Four-CD, 64-song collection drawn principally from Doc's Vanguard releases of the 1960s and early 1970s (tapped his solo LPs and performances at the 1963 and 1964 Newport Folk Festival). This was Doc's best period recording-wise, and certainly you couldn't hope for a better document of his virtuosity, as the guitarist covers all manner of American folk and blues styles over the course of the set. It's too much, however, for listeners who aren't big fans; Vanguard's Essential Doc Watson is a more economical survey. If you are a big fan, though, you'll be especially interested in the 16 previously unreleased performances. Comprising the whole of disc four, these are mostly taken from live duets with Merle Travis or Doc's son, Merle Watson.