Roots

Island Presents Roots collects 37 of the best-loved and most sought-after Roots sides of the mid-to-late seventies, all of which first saw issue outside Jamaica on Blackwell’s famed imprint…

Arthur Blythe, Nathan Davis, Chico Freeman, Sam Rivers, Don Pullen, Santi Debriano, Idris Muhammad got together, and they called themselves "Roots". Their album Stablemates is a solid all-star, all-acoustic, no fuss, album that is bound to get overlooked in the vast world of the recording industry..

The release of this fourth album by the all-star repertory band, Roots, celebrates the group’s tenth year of existence and combines some studio recordings with selections from a concert at The 1996 Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

The Grass Roots had a series of major hits – most notably "Let's Live for Today," "Midnight Confessions," "Temptation Eyes," and "Two Divided by Love" – that help define the essence of the era's best AM radio. Although the group's members weren't even close to being recognizable, and their in-house songwriting was next to irrelevant, the Grass Roots managed to chart 14 Top 40 hits, including seven gold singles and one platinum single, and two had hits collections that effortlessly went gold…

Vaya Con Dios (Spanish for "Godspeed!") was a Belgian music act, that stood out for its mixing of styles, as well as the distinctive voice of its lead singer Dani Klein. It was one of the most successful Belgian music acts ever, having sold more than 7 million albums and more than 3 million singles…

Forget Metallica, forget Megadeth, Anthrax, and even Slayer! The most formidable on-stage thrash metal powerhouse of 2011 was arguably the (mostly) reconstituted classic lineup of Testament: singer Chuck Billy, guitarists Alex Skolnick, and Eric Peterson, plus returning bass badass Greg Christian and occasional drummer Gene Hoglan, who probably tops most predecessors on the stool, most would agree…

Since debuting in 2009 with the self-released Before the Fire, Long Beach, California's Rival Sons have been on a tear, delivering a refreshingly unfussy blast of blues-blasted hard rock on an almost yearly basis. Working once again with producer Dave Cobb, Feral Roots, the band's sixth full-length effort, comes out of the gate swinging with the 40-grit "Do Your Worst," a radio-ready banger that evokes both Led Zeppelin and the Black Keys…