British jazzfunk band, active in the early 1980s. The group's line-up: John Andrews (lead vocals), Simon Baisley (guitars) John Girvan (keyboards), Vince Kluckers (bass), Greg Wilby (drums), Patrick Charles "Charlie" (percussion, vocals) | Brass section (All Night Horns): Neil Cover (tenor sax), Cliff Matthew (alto sax) and Simon Hughes (trumpet, flügel & valve trombone).

Savage Rockin' Girls Review by Mark Deming [-]
While folks who turn out semi-authorized compilations of rare rock & roll must spend months on end digging through stacks of dusty vinyl in search of rare gems, the people at Collector Records in Germany have blazed a new trail with the disc, Savage Rockin' Girls, by unearthing an unusually hip beer commercial, "That Regal Feeling," a radio spot for Regal, a brand of suds brewed in New Orleans that boasts some hot guitar picking and cool vocals from an unknown female singer who sure knows how to make the product sound tasty. While that isn't quite the highlight of Savage Rockin' Girls, the tune does suit this disc, which collects 35 ultra-obscure rockin' sides from the '50s, all featuring high-attitude female vocalists.

Review: As a lifelong Shadows fan, I have tended in recent years to buy up their compilation albums as well as original recordings to enjoy them all in different formats. In this collection Disc 1 profiles Shadows' recordings, whilst Disc 2 showcases Hank Marvin's solo tracks. The way this disc is presented nicely contrasts the different approaches of the group and solo recordings and gives an insight into the historical recordings the group has made over the years. The only down side to this collection is that the versions of the Shadows' hits are the Polydor re-recordings and not the original EMI ones which, in my opinion, were better. This should not detract from the disc as a whole which is an extremely enjoyable collection, showcasing certainly one of the most influential, yet underrated groups this country has ever produced. Hank's guitar playing is as impeccable and brilliant as ever. Favourite tracks are: The Deer Hunter (Cavatina), Wonderful Land, Theme for Young Lovers and the brilliant live version of Sacha.

When Philippe Jaroussky - whose angelic voice seems almost timeless - sings works by Telemann and Bach, it becomes abundantly clear that the sheer emotional force and the purifying power of their music have not diminished one bit over the centuries.

Four CDs. Demon are proud to release Eddie Piller Presents British Mod Sounds Of the 1960s, the follow up the The Mod Revival. Featuring 100 original tracks, it's a deep dive into the Mod scene in '60s Britain. Including a selection of classic and rare tracks, tracing the scene from it's R&B roots to a soulful finale. Curated by Acid Jazz Records and Modcast founder Eddie Piller, and featuring new sleeve notes from respected author and broadcaster Paul 'Smiler' Anderson. As Eddie Piller points out in the forward to the extensive sleeve notes that accompany this collection, he chose the word 'Sounds' carefully, reflecting the variety of talent contained here, from uncool session musicians without an ounce of style in them, acts who saw an opportunity to jump on the Mod bandwagon and bands who whole heartedly embraced Mod way of life. And so this new collection mixes the Mod mainstays (Small Faces, The High Numbers, The Action, The Fleur de Lys), with a generous selection of future superstars (David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Marc Bolan, Jeff Beck and Graham Gouldman of 10cc are all represented here), and a few artists so obscure, so rare, that they never got to release a record in the '60s, but Eddie has tracked down the tapes nonetheless. "Be in with the In Crowd once more."

Recorded from 2000 to 2001 but finally released a year later as the band's first studio effort (after three live discs), Mondo Garaj captures Garaj Mahal in its relative infancy. Keyboardist Eric Levy had recently joined, and although he's prominent on these songs, his contributions have grown considerably since. In fact, only two songs from this album appeared on any of the subsequent live discs. But with musicians of the caliber and experience of bassist Kai Eckhardt, drummer Alan Hertz, and Fareed Haque on guitars, there is nothing tentative about this recording. Sounding like a combination of Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra in their '70s heyday, Garaj's jazz-rock fusion requires chops and innovation to stay interesting and avoid aimless noodling.

»Es wird eine Königin zum Tode verurteilt, die der Scharfrichter enthauptet, nach abgeschlagenem Haupte kommt eine kleine Prinzessin hervor, welche anfangs wider den Scharfrichter sich erzürnet, bald darauf aber in denselbigen sich verliebet und eine italienische Arie singt.« Was sich hier wie ein Ausschnitt aus einem der surrealen Schauspiele Eugène Ionescos anhört, ist 1776 in Salzburg entstanden und von einem Pater verfasst worden. Im Universitätstheater wurden nach alter Tradition im Fasching und zu Ende des Schuljahres von Schülern und Studenten lateinische Tragödien, die mit komischen Einlagestücken versehen waren, zum Besten gegeben.

Accompagné par l'orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, le pianiste français renouvelle l'approche de ces deux concertos. Bon nombre d'interprètes en avaient en effet donné une interprétation de plus en plus épaisse et romantique, ce qui est en contradiction avec l'écriture de ces oeuvres, davantage inspirées par la légèreté et le modernisme de "l'esprit français" des années 20-30. Le jazz, si présent dans le Concerto pour la main gauche, par exemple, est révélateur de la pensée de Ravel. Le piano de Duchâble est plus que brillant : il est incendiaire, volatile, merveilleusement aérien. La qualité de la tenue rythmique, le sens des contrastes, l'humour, si souvent présent chez Ravel, sont magnifiquement restitués.

As longtime fans of Gary Moore can attest, the guitarist's career – during the '80s in particular – is comprised of many peaks and valleys, which is quite apparent when listening to the 14-track collection Walkways. This is certainly not a career-encompassing retrospective of this underrated guitarist, as it only focuses on Moore's early-'80s solo material. Keeping pace with such shredders as Eddie Van Halen and Michael Schenker, Moore certainly let his fingers fly during this period, and his metal-based six-string skills are on prominent display throughout, especially on the unaccompanied solo "Dirty Fingers." But unlike most rock guitarists from this era who let an appointed lead singer deal with crowd control, Moore proved to be quite a fine rock singer himself, as evidenced by his bluesy vocals on a cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."

These previously unreleased live recordings by Rory Gallagher were made for the German TV series Beat Club. Recorded over three different appearances in the early seventies they capture Rory Gallagher in his element as a superb live performer. The tracklisting focuses on his first two solo albums and contains many classic songs that would carry on playing throughout his career.

Valentin Silvestrov is not just the Ukraine’s most prominent composer but also a major voice in the music of our time: a quiet voice, to be sure, and one that some will pigeon-hole at the soft-core end of the New Spirituality. But even a first encounter should suggest the presence of deeper perspectives, and encounters with the full range of his music only serve to confirm that impression. Russian commentators have long since ranged Silvestrov alongside Schnittke, Gubaidulina and Denisov as one of the most important figures that came to maturity in the 1970s. It was then that he produced music such as the two Cantatas – the earlier one for soprano and chamber orchestra, setting words by Tyuchev and Blok, the later one for a cappella choir to verses by Ukraine’s national poet, Taras Chevchenko. Both works blend Webernian angularity with an ecstatic lyricism.

Tropea (1975). By the time guitarist John Tropea had recorded his solo debut on the tiny Marlin imprint in 1975, he had been a session guitarist for nearly a decade. His understated, decidedly non-show-off playing graced records by everyone from Laura Nyro to Deodato (including Prelude and Deodato 2), from Ashford & Simpson to Bo Diddley, from Billy Cobham to Peter Allen, from Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway to Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Luiz Bonfá, and Ray Bryant. After this he played with everyone from Alice Cooper to Lalo Schifrin and Kurtis Blow and way, way beyond. Tropea's cast of studio players is a who's who of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. The core band on this funky, squeaky clean, keyboard, horn, and guitar driven set are bassist Will Lee, keyboardist Don Grolnick, percussionist Rubens Bassini, and drummers Steve Gadd and Rick Marotta - one in each channel…

MelodicRock Classics is thrilled to partner with LITTLE AMERICA, one of the label's favourite American rock acts of the late 80s, to deliver a career spanning release simply titled 'Anthology'. Featuring all the songs from their two acclaimed studio albums, the set also includes a whole range of previously unreleased tracks - several live tracks from the band's first tour; 3 Alt-Versions of tracks from the debut and a handful of unreleased tracks from the band's second album recording sessions. The complete Little America recording sessions in one place for the first time. Little America, a four-piece group from Los Angeles, cranked out two of the best AOR albums of the eighties: The self-titled “Little America”, which had the top-ten hit “Walk On Fire”, and their second album, “Fairgrounds”, which also yielded a top-ten track “Where Were You”.

Featuring 45 minutes of material that’s previously completely unreleased, this box set contains everything Finnforest recorded in the studio. It has the three rare studio albums originally released on Love Records in 1975, 1976 and 1979, plus all non-album tracks from singles and compilations. But we didn’t stop there: we dug through the band’s archives of tape reels and found some completely unreleased music. These sessions are compiled on the fifth album: first is the band’s debut studio session from 1973 and the flipside has four songs the band managed to finish during studio sessions for a planned fourth album in 1980 before splitting up…

Eindringliche, außerordentlich dynamische Differenzierungskunst.​ Die beiden Chöre, die Solisten und das Orchester bilden jeweils eine glückliche Einheit.​ Ein wichtiges Vermächtnis.​ (FonoForum)