Read Thomas

"Nimbus is delighted to release a stunning debut album of violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua performing a complete collection of mainstay composer Augusta Read Thomas’s works for solo violin, as well as the world premier recording of her Violin Concerto No. 3 'Juggler in Paradise' in conjunction with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Vimayi Kaziboni. Each and every piece has a different character and tells its own story, and these seemingly unrelated, abstract pieces of a puzzle come together during the course of the album to create a dream-like journey.

"Nimbus is delighted to release a stunning debut album of violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua performing a complete collection of mainstay composer Augusta Read Thomas’s works for solo violin, as well as the world premier recording of her Violin Concerto No. 3 'Juggler in Paradise' in conjunction with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Vimayi Kaziboni. Each and every piece has a different character and tells its own story, and these seemingly unrelated, abstract pieces of a puzzle come together during the course of the album to create a dream-like journey.

A superlative program of piano music by American composers is offered by pianist Heidi Williams. The oldest work on the program dates from 1988 (William Bolcom) and the most recent was written in 2009 (Daniel Crozier), giving us a snapshot of what American composers have been writing for piano in the past 25 years. Praised by New York critic Harris Goldsmith for her ¨dazzling performances¨ and ¨impeccable solistic authority,¨ American pianist Heidi Louise Williams has appeared in performances across the United States and internationally. Her concert schedule has included solo and chamber music recitals at the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Brevard Summer Music Festival, the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a debut recital in St. Louis as winner of its 2000 Artist Presentation Society Auditions, as well as concerto appearances with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, and others. Williams is on the piano faculty at the Florida State University College of Music. She completed her BM, MM, and DMA degrees at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland.

Previous instalments in this long-running survey of Augusta Read Thomas's oeuvre have ranged far and wide within a catalogue that spans some 30 years to date. In contrast, we here explore a variety of works of more immediately recent vintage (the earliest work here dates from 2018), and between them fill out a vividly coloured snapshot of Thomas' irrepressible compositional persona as it stands at present.

B.J. Thomas was one of the most consistent - and consistently good! - purveyors of American pop for more than a decade. A major chart star for most of the second half of the 1960s and through to the mid '70s, B.J.seemed to always be able to anticipate the needs of the US Top 40 at every career twist and turn, and his great records like Hooked On A Feeling and Mighty Clouds Of Joy were ever a positive enhancement to the AM radio waves of their time (as they are to oldies FM radio stations across the USA in the 21st Century). For around eight of those years, B.J. recorded exclusively for the go-ahead, New York-based independent Scepter Records, and its his best recordings for Scepter that are the subject of Ace's first-ever UK anthology to seriously appraise, and afford historical significance to, Billy Joe Thomas.

Having documented B.J.'s early sides with our 2-CD Set The Complete Scepter Singles, and followed his late '70s/early '80s foray into inspirational music with a pair of album twofers from the Myrrh label, it was only a matter of time till we at Real Gone Music tackled the next big phase in the career of this all-time great American singer, namely the classic country-pop sides he cut for Columbia in the '80s. This is a stage in B.J.'s career that has seen little attention in the CD era, which is strange because he was just killing it on the Country charts with #1 hits like "Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love" and "New Looks from an Old Lover" and the #3 hit "Two Car Garage." In fact, out of the 21 songs on this collection–which includes the A and B-side of every Columbia single plus sides from the Cleveland International and Priority labels –eight were chart hits, among them the Top 20 duet "Rock and Roll Shoes" with Ray Charles plus "The Whole World's in Love When You're Lonely" and "The Girl Most Likely To." We've also added a pair of bonus tracks including his rare original solo version of "As Long as We've Got Each Other," the theme to the TV show Growing Pains, and his early version of "Wind Beneath My Wings," which ended up being a hit for Gary Morris and Bette Midler among others. Remastered by Sean Brennan at Battery Studios, peppered with rare photos, and annotated by Joe Marchese based on a fresh interview with the artist himself, The Complete Columbia Singles is a must for any B.J. fan and anybody who wants to hear some of the best country-pop the '80s had to offer.

Born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas, and beloved the world over, B.J. Thomas enjoyed a career that spanned six decades and over 70 million records sold. It began with the Houston-based band The Triumphs, when as lead singer he covered his father's favorite Hank Williams classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," which led to Scepter Records to buy out his contract and take the song to the national top 10. Hit after hit then followed for B.J. as he mixed genres effortlessly, joining legendary Memphis producer Chips Moman for a series of smashes (“Hooked on a Feeling,” “The Eyes of a New York Woman,” “I Just Can't Help Believing”) and he hit paydirt with the #1 Bacharach-David hit “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head” from the Oscar-winning score for Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. B.J.'s cross-over to country was cemented with his 1975 pop/country/adult contemporary million-seller “(Hey, Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” Simultaneously, B.J. became the first platinum-selling Contemporary Christian recording artist with a string of hugely popular albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s which also won him five Grammys and numerous other awards.

La-La Land Records, Warner Bros. and Sony Music Entertainment presents the remastered and expanded 2-CD reissue of renowned composer Thomas Newman’s (LESS THAN ZERO, AMERICAN BEAUTY, SKYFALL, BRIDGE OF SPIES) acclaimed original motion picture score from the beloved 1994 feature film THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, and directed by Frank Darabont. Thomas Newman’s iconic score is pitch-perfect, expertly balancing sadness, despair, humor and exaltation as it nurtures and enrichens a film that is now considered to be an all-time dramatic masterpiece.