Rufus

Street Player is the gold-selling sixth studio album by funk band Rufus (billed as Rufus & Chaka Khan), released on the ABC Records label in 1978. Street Player was the band's third album to top Billboard's R&B Albums chart and also reached #14 on Pop. The album includes the singles "Stay" (US R&B #3, US Pop #48) and "Blue Love" (US R&B #34).

As Khan released her first solo album, I'm Every Woman, the band released 1978's Numbers, sans Khan, and it went absolutely nowhere. Masterjam finds them back together, renamed Rufus and Chaka, with Quincy Jones producing the effort. Khan had worked with Jones on his 1978 album, Sounds…And Stuff Like That. The most striking thing about Masterjam is that is doesn't sound like a trademark Rufus effort. Jones' production style is so strong that the band's individual sound is all but lost.

The extremely retro sound of Rufus Huff's self-titled album reaches back to the heyday of blues-rock in the early '70s, particularly British acts in the bluesy hard rock/nearly metal style like Led Zeppelin, Free, and Jeff Beck's early groups…..

Rufus Wainwright - Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets (2016)
MP3 320 CBR kbps | Tracks: 16 | 00:54:24 | 136 Mb
Genre: Classical Crossover, Classical | Label: Deutsche Grammophon

It’s hard to imagine how someone whose last album was an opera could out-do themselves, but Rufus Wainwright has achieved just that with Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets, to be released via Deutsche Gramophon on April 22, 400 years after William Shakespeare’s death.

Masterjam finds them back together, renamed Rufus and Chaka, with Quincy Jones producing the effort. Khan had worked with Jones on his 1978 album, Sounds…And Stuff Like That. The most striking thing about Masterjam is that is doesn't sound like a trademark Rufus effort. Jones' production style is so strong that the band's individual sound is all but lost. It's nothing to cry about, since Jones was at his R&B/pop peak and Rufus couldn't do it any better on their own. The album's first track is "Do What You Love What You Feel," with its subtle horn riffs arranged by Jerry Hey and vocals from guitarist Tony Maiden and Khan. On a track somewhat close to a ballad, the brilliantly arranged "Heaven Bound," Jones gets a good raw vocal from Khan. A frequent Jones collaborator, Rod Temperton, offers the title track and the even better "Live in Me." The album's only low point was a cover of Jones' own "Body Heat." On this version the pace is quickened, inexplicably turned into disco which revealed the lyrics to be paper-thin. Although Masterjam was just more of a Quincy Jones album than a Rufus effort, this ended up being one of the groups' last successful full-studio endeavors.

Rufus Wainwright - Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright (2014) {Interscope 3765155 rec 1998-2014}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 488 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 181 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 155 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Interscope Records / Geffen / DGC | 3765155
Pop / Rock / Baroque Pop / Chamber Pop / Adult Alternative Pop

The 2014 compilation Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright brings together many of the singer/songwriter's best cuts, as chosen by him, from his various studio albums. Included here are songs off his 1998 self-titled debut all the way through to his 2012 album, Out of the Game. Also included are several cuts Wainwright recorded for the 2001 soundtrack to Shrek. That said, missing here are cuts off his intimate 2007 album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, as are any tracks from his several concert albums, most notably his 2007 Judy Garland-themed performance Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. Perhaps Wainwright viewed All Days Are Nights, which was recorded during his mother Kate McGarrigle's illness with cancer, as too much of a personal statement to single out any of its tracks for inclusion here.

Jazz bagpipes? The one master is Rufus Harley, who does about all that can be done with that unpromising instrument. After all, once one blows a note, the sound is sustained until the air empties out. This well-conceived sampler draws its music from Harley's Atlantic albums (Scotch & Soul, Bagpipe Blues, and Deuces Wild), plus his guest spot on a Herbie Mann album. Harley, who also is heard playing a bit of soprano, tenor, and flute, performs such numbers as "Feeling Good" and "Pipin' the Blues," the latter teaming him with altoist Sonny Stitt. This sampler is worth exploring.