Two personalities, two great musicians, two musical stories, one "Philosophia".
On the one hand, John Porter, an Englishman who chose Poland as his home in the 70s, was in the first composition of Maanam, played Cohen's ballads with Maciej Zembaty, recorded solo albums and a duet with Anita Lipnicka, and above all the founder and frontman of the legendary Porter Band. On the other hand, Wojtek Mazolewski is a man whose music is one of the best Polish export products, a tireless propagator of jazz, playing around the world with Pink Freud or Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet. Their joint album is a combination of classic with modernity, rock claw with jazz virtuosity and a blues spirit, closed in the form of well-cut songs.
As the leader of the Jam, Paul Weller fronted the most popular British band of the punk era, influencing legions of English rockers ranging from his mod revival contemporaries to the Smiths in the '80s and Oasis in the '90s. During the final days of the Jam, he developed a fascination with Motown and soul, which led him to form the sophisti-pop group the Style Council in 1983.
Avid Jazz here presents four classic Shorty Rogers albums including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered double CD. "The Big Shorty Rogers Express" (1956) - here we find the famed arranger and trumpeter Shorty Rogers moving away from the small group format and into the big band field. Shorty and his fellow musicians Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Jimmy Giuffre, Marty Paich to name but a few, bring a fresh West Coast spirit to the traditional big band swing ethic!
"Shorty Rogers & His Giants" 1953 - Shorty is once again joined by many fine players including Milt Bernhart on trombone, Hampton Hawes on piano, John Grass on French horn alongside stalwarts Art Pepper, Jimmy Giuffre, and Shelly Manne for a combination of swing and small group numbers…
The Top 100 '60s Rock Albums represent the moment when popular music came of age. In the earliest part of the decade, bands were still regularly referencing earlier sounds and themes. By the middle, something powerful and distinct was happening, which is why the latter part of the '60s weighs so heavily on our list. A number of bands evolved alongside fast-emerging trends of blues rock, folk rock, psychedelia and hard rock, adding new complexities to the music even as the songs themselves became more topical. If there's a thread running through the Top 100 '60s Rock Albums and this period of intense change, it has to do with the forward-thinking artists who managed to echo and, in some cases, advance the zeitgeist. Along the way, legends were made.