The Amsterdam based improvisers quartet performs a song cycle composed by John Dikeman reflecting on colonization, and the double edged sword of religion which can lead to transcendence or tyranny.

The compositions on this album were written for the unreleased film "Wonderwall". The first Beatle solo album – as well as the first Apple album – was a minor eruption of the pent-up energies of George Harrison, who was busy composing this offbeat score to the film Wonderwall as Magical Mystery Tour raced up the charts. With the subcontinental influence now firmly in the driver's seat, the score is mostly given over to the solemn, atmospheric drones of Indian music.

Released in December 1974, Dark Horse capped a prolific year for George, during which he had established his own Dark Horse record label, built a recording studio in his Friar Park home in England, and completed an ambitious tour of North America. Throughout the year, Harrison produced albums for several artists while also recording his own. The songs on the LP document both George’s fallibility, in “Simply Shady,” and his spirituality, in “It Is ‘He’ (Jai Sri Krishna).” Dark Horse reached the top five in America, sounding a high note at the end of Harrison’s rather frenetic year. The new release adds “I Don’t Care Anymore,” a sought after B-side making its CD debut, and a previously unreleased early, acoustic take of “Dark Horse.” The CD booklet includes newly written historical notes by Kevin Howlett.

Jacksons Thriller…Cliff had nursed the idea of recording an album chock full of hits, the ultimate Cliff Richard Collection."
It was quite an ambition. At the time, things weren't exactly going badly: a single with Sara Brightman, "All I Ask Of You", had just hit the Top 5 and Cliff was starring in the West End sci-fi musical Time…but a seriously big selling album of new solo material? That was an entirely different proposition.Cliff turned to writer, producer and former Shadows bass player, Alan Tarney. He'd helped Cliff hit the jackpot once before, penning the brilliant "We Dont Talk Anymore" in 1979. Ten tracks were recorded in the autumn of 1986 and put out a few months later under the album title Always Guaranteed. It went on to sell 1.3 million copies world wide and yielded four UK Top 40 singles, including the timeless "Some People." For Cliff, it was (another!)mission accomplished.

Along with the Village People, '70s disco artist Sylvester was one of the few artists of the era not afraid to openly acknowledge his homosexuality. Born Sylvester James in September 1944 in Los Angeles, California, Sylvester was introduced to music at an early age by his grandmother, Julia Morgan, who was a jazz singer. While still a youngster, Sylvester began singing in gospel groups, while finding further inspiration from the likes of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, among others. After relocating to San Francisco in the late '60s, Sylvester began to perform in a musical production called Women of the Blues before becoming a star attraction of the Cockettes, a gender-bending avant-garde theater troupe, in the early '70s. After leaving the Cockettes in 1973, Sylvester signed on with the Hot Band and issued such releases as Scratch My Flower and Bazaar the same year. Sylvester's dance-happy funk style eventually transformed into disco, as his flamboyant and over the top stage act created quite a following for the singer in the San Francisco area. He also issued some of his best-known recordings around the end of the decade – 1977's Sylvester and 1979's in-concert Living Proof – while racking up such popular disco hits as "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and "Dance (Disco Heat)."

Although not a free jazz musician, per se, Kuhn has been an avant-gardist; he began attempting a fusion of contemporary classical elements with jazz very early in his career.

Gatefold sleeve. Live Radio Broadcast from The Palladium, New York City, 31st October 1977

With a career spanning six decades and hundreds of recordings, Lightnin’ Hopkins was among the most prolific and admired Blues players of the 20th century, and one who spanned the rural Country Blues tradition and the electric Blues of the postwar years. He was also an accomplished guitarist whose syncopated, thumping fingerpicking style directly or indirectly influenced many subsequent Blues and Rock players.

35 tracks including 4 acoustic bonus songs.

Van Halen didn't release a live album until 1993, by which time David Lee Roth had long since left the group. Tokyo Dome in Concert arrived some 22 years later, by which time Diamond Dave had returned to the fold and Michael Anthony had left, replaced by Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang. In other words, this isn't the dream double-live set of the fans' dreams – the original lineup captured in their 1977-1984 peak – but rather a surprisingly muscular reunion. If Roth's voice isn't what it used to be, he still radiates charm – he's always happy to be there, so you're happy to be there with him – and having Van Halen tackle the group's classics underscores what a different band this incarnation actually is. Michael Anthony happily hugged the root note of a chord, anchoring the wild flourishes of Eddie and Alex, but Wolfgang follows his father and uncle into the breach, slapping and bouncing notes with maniacal energy.

Continuing an old tradition of outdoor music, Mozart raised the serenade genre to an outstanding level of accomplishment. Harmonia mundi’s first collaboration with Enrico Onofri and the Münchener Kammerorchester couples his most famous contributions to the form: Eine kleine nachtmusik, the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade (with its picturesque solo for the eponymous instrument) and the majestic ‘Haffner’ Serenade, with Isabelle Faust as guest star!

Geza Anda Since his death in 1976 at the age of 55, Géza Anda's considerable reputation has faded somewhat from view. But in his heyday he was widely regarded as a transcendent pianist, possessed of a natural technique that gave his performances an intimate quality, even when he was scaling the Himalayan heights of his signature Brahms B flat major concerto. It was with that work that he made his debut in 1939 in Budapest under Willem Mengelberg. Anda was born in 1921 in Budapest; after studying with Imre Stefaniai and Imre Keeri-Szanto, he became a piano pupil of Ernst von Dohnányi at the Royal Music Academy.

Al Di Meola assembled a thoroughly excellent group of musicians for this review of the highlights of a career spanning almost three decades!

A towering musical figure of the 20th century, saxophonist John Coltrane reset the parameters of jazz during his decade as a leader.