Showcase Opus 3

Sun Ra - Mayan Temples (1990) {Black Saint 120121-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 441 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 187 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1990 Black Saint | 120121-2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Progressive Jazz

One of the finest Sun Ra recordings from his final years, this effort is particularly recommended due to the many Ra keyboard solos and John Gilmore features, the latter of which include a tenor showcase on "Opus In Springtime." Trumpeters Michael Ray and Ahmed Abdullah, altoist Marshall Allen and singer June Tyson also have their spots, and the repertoire consists of ten Ra originals (including a remake of "El Is the Sound of Joy") and three standard ballads. Overall, this is a fine all-around studio set. Recommended.

Heavy symphonic icons KAMELOT raise the bar like never before, awakening the world with their highly-anticipated 13th studio album!

Johnny "Hammond" Smith - Black Coffee + Mr. Wonderful (1962-63) {2012 Riverside Remaster, Jazzplus Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 507 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 184 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 18 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Riverside / Universal | 06007 5340501
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Hard Bop / Organ

This two-fer combines two early-'60s dates for Johnny "Hammond" Smith, a gifted organist who had the chops to play more complex jazz changes while keeping the groove deep. Both of these dates were originally released on Riverside. Black Coffee, a club gig, was issued in 1962 with a lineup of saxophonist Seldon Powell, guitarist Eddie McFadden, and drummer Leo Stevens. Smith walks the line between beautifully rendered standards such as "Body and Soul" and "I Remember Clifford," as well as some hard-edged soul-jazz stompers including the title track and his own "Rufus Toofus."

The King’s Consort’s latest foray into the studio brings us a thrilling new recording of Michael Haydn’s Requiem, and reveals the little-known ‘St Ursula’ Mass to be a truly exceptional work. The Requiem was composed in response to tragedy, the death of Haydn’s patron—the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg—providing the official cloak for an outpouring of grief as much inspired by the death of the composer’s infant daughter. In itself the work is a memorable and confident example of the genre, but its deserved fame has been somewhat eclipsed by the many striking similarities between the Haydn and Mozart Requiems; when Wolfgang Amadeus composed what was to be his last—and most famous—work a full twenty years after Haydn’s memorial to the archbishop had been first performed, he doubtless intended it as the highest of praise to his friend that he borrowed melodies, rhythms, scoring, structure … Such points of musicological interest must no longer be allowed to obscure the worth of the Haydn’s original magnum opus.

This is a bargain priced box set of Lydia Mordkovitch's violin sonata recordings made for Chandos in the 1980s. I am admirer of her playing, particularly in the English repertoire, Howells, Dyson and Vaughan Williams (the Carlton disc with Julian Milford is a lost classic), none of which is unfortunately represented here. What we are given is a cross-section of continental work with the emphasis heavily on the Central-European tradition, tempered to some extent by the inclusion of Prokofiev and Fauré. T