Limited 10 CD set. Original members of Sheffield's Human League, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left after the first two albums and formed Heaven 17 in 1980. Named after a fictional band in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, they recruited Glenn Gregory on vocals (who had been the original choice for lead singer of the Human League). Signed to Virgin Records, debut single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" attracted a lot of attention in March 1981, and a BBC Radio 1 ban. Debut album Penthouse And Pavement was released in September 1981 and was certified Gold the following year…
Bennett, whose recorded legacy has been gathered in a 76-disc boxed set titled The Compete Collection, has been doing that for over 60 years: saving our souls with the greatest songs ever written. The Complete box is an absolute necessity, first because it contains several previously unreleased albums, like On the Glory Road and From This Moment On, a live concert taped in Las Vegas that collectors have been salivating over since 1964.
A real standout in the Bill Evans catalog for Riverside – and that's saying a lot, given how important all of his Riverside albums are! The session's a rare quintet outing for Evans – one that breaks the mode of the usual trio format by adding in Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Jim Hall on guitar – alongside rhythm players Percy Heath on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums – already a unique enough match for Evans' talents. In a way, the record's one of those sessions that Riverside would sometimes do – pairing a key new voice as a leader with others in an all-star group – but in another way, it's also a return to the sound that first brought Evans' to a wider audience in the 1957 and 1958 years – when he was working in non-trio groups with more famous players – adding his unique piano stylings to their (then) better-known solo modes.