Red Wirez

Amongst one of the true obscurities in the world of progressive rock has to be from this UK band simply titled Red that went against the grain in the early 80s. Instead of riding the new wave of neo-prog that was emerging with bands like Twelfth Night, IQ or Marillion, Red was defiantly into the jazz-fusion sounds of the 70s however they were equally intrigued with a heavy rock bombast rarely heard in this style of music. The band seems to have formed in the early 80s and spent the year 1982 recording this one and only self-titled album but had an understandably difficult time finding a record contract due to the changing times and the band's anachronistic stylistic approach that was a good six to seven years too late…

This October, Simply Red will release Remixed Vol. 1 (1985-2000) a two-CD collection of their hit singles in remixed form from the band’s first 15 years.

Volume Eight of Mercury's partial transfer onto CDs of its mighty Complete Keynote Collection LP set contains some wonderful Red Norvo small combo swing sessions. "Subtle Sextology," "Blues a la Red," "The Man I Love," and "Seven Come Eleven" come from some sextet sessions that sound very much like the sextet 78s that Benny Goodman was putting out around then. That figures, because Norvo participated on many of the BG sides - and so did pianist Teddy Wilson and bassist Slam Stewart; the latter gets plenty of humorous hum-scat time on these sides, too. For "Russian Lullaby," "I Got Rhythm," and "Sing Something Simple," the personnel shuffles (Wilson and Stewart remain) and expands to a septet for which Johnny Thompson writes some creative charts. Norvo plays xylophone on "Lullaby" and delivers unquenchably swinging vibraphone solos at all times…

If you love Vivaldi's FOUR SEASONS, you will eat this up. The new tempos (which may be more like the original) take this piece from its previous iterations as a formal, Baroquesque piece to a wild, rowdy interpretation of nature's four seasons I mean, the actual four seasons. Spring has never sounded more like spring (the speeded up tempo reveals myriad birdsongs), etc.

The closest the Red Hot Chili Peppers ever came to straight funk, Freaky Styley is the quirkiest, loosest, and most playful album in their long and winding catalog. It's also one of the best, if least heard…

Inspired by Charlie Parker and then Jackie McLean, the widely experienced, Detroit-born altoist Sonny Red, nee Sylvester Kyner (1932-1980) was an archetypal Motor City bopper, who, like many of his confreres there, also absorbed the blues-drenched lines of pianist Bud Powell. Forthright, direct, unpretentious, a skilled soloist with a strong feeling for the blues, he played and recorded with some of the finest jazzmen around. The presence here of such luminous talents as, most notably, pianist Barry Harris, along with fellow pianist Tommy Flanagan, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, saxophonists Clifford Jordan and Yusef Lateef, and guitarist Grant Green left no doubt about his stature among them…