The Decemberists are devoted anachronists. So with the pop album completing its evolution into iPod shuffle–mix fodder, it's the right time for the Portland, Oregon, band to release an old–fashioned prog concept record. True to form, The Hazards of Love brings the glorious excess: There's strummy British folk rock and heavy–metal thunder, orchestral strings and a children's choir. Guitarist Chris Funk, like Yes' Steve Howe, deploys every stringed instrument in the showroom, from mandolin and autoharp to pedal steel.
The Hazards of Love
Most of the groups operated at the extreme edges of improv, noise, experimental funk and mind-bending volume, but the Leeds-based trioVD - guitarist Chris Sharkey, saxophonist Christophe de Bezenac and drummer Chris Bussey - offered some of the most focused and intricate yet thrilling music. They specialise in a fast, tight and awesomely expert conjunction of staccato and spiky high-energy compositions, uninhibited sax and guitar improv and machine-gun drumming. Sharkey (who also plays with Acoustic Ladyland saxophonist Pete Wareham in the Final Terror) is at the cutting-edge of contemporary improv-fusion guitar technique, colliding headlong free-jazz phrasing with roaring thrash metal riffs and ghostly electronics.
Ceu is one of the new wave of Brasilian female vocal talents and two years after her 2007 debut comes another collection of well-crafted, lazy, occasionally edgy, soulful grooves. The album title actually translates as `slow, easygoing and leisurely' so you get the idea, it's more sofa than party time.
The album kicks off in mellow acoustic style with Ceu extolling the joy of the invisible chemistry of love accompanied only by the distinctive Brasilian sound of the cavaquinho before the mood darkens slightly with `Cangote', her sweet vocals sitting on a jazzy dub reggae rhythm as turntable scratches, melodica and organ snippets swirl around the song's extremities to great effect giving us our first hint of Ceu's adventurous musicality.
Vagarosa
This album is dedicated to 82-year-old pianist Stan Tracey's wife, Jackie, who died in August. She helped guide his career and anchor his sometimes unstable life, so it's fitting that this album both revisits past compositional landmarks and presents his family-celebrating Grandad Suite for the first time.
Their vision was to release this album as medication. Packaged as a giant pill in its own foil bubble-pack, with accompanying instructions about how to take the medication, the packaging - all too often missing these days, but still seen in Spiritualized's records - immediately told us what to expect: here was an album about swamping the harsh realities of life, about escaping from the day-to-day humdrum, about getting out of it to escape the pain.
Given the fact that Motown had not been conducting Live sessions with the vocalists and instrumentalists recording at the same time since at least 1963, this session was clearly staged for the CBS News cameras that were doing a brief piece called The Motown Sound. Pictured in the studio are songwriters Lamont Dozier (Standing on the steps at the back of the studio), Brian Holland (The guy who cuts in on the band), Ivy Jo Hunter (Does the countdown), Russ Terrana (The engineer standing up), James Jamerson on Bass, Earl Van Dyke on piano, Bobbye Hall on congas, and from left to right on guitars Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis. The arranger, wearing headphones and conducting the band, is William Witherspoon. To the best of my knowledge this incredibly rare piece of film is the only one of two pieces of footage ever shot at a session inside the studio known as the Snakepit.
Thanks to their fine-tuned choreography — and even finer harmonies — the Temptations became the definitive male vocal group of the 1960s; one of Motown's most elastic acts, they tackled both lush pop and politically charged funk with equal flair, and weathered a steady stream of changes in personnel and consumer tastes with rare dignity and grace. The Temptations' initial five-man lineup formed in Detroit in 1961 as a merger of two local vocal groups, the Primes and the Distants. Baritone Otis Williams, Elbridge (aka El, or Al) Bryant, and bass vocalist Melvin Franklin were longtime veterans of the Detroit music scene when they joined together in the Distants, who in 1959 recorded the single "Come On" for the local Northern label. Around the same time, the Primes, a trio comprised of tenor Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams (no relation to Otis), and Kell Osborne, relocated to the Motor City from their native Alabama; they quickly found success locally, and their manager even put together a girl group counterpart dubbed the Primettes. (Later, three of the Primettes — Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard — formed the Supremes).
I just purchased and listened to Christmas from the Heart by David Archuleta and I am overwhelmed with the emotion I feel. David brings out the true meaning of these classic Christmas Carols and makes you feel every note of every song. I had tears in my eyes listening.This is sure to be a classic Christmas album and a standard in my house for sure! From Joy to the world to I'll be home for Christmas to Pat-a-Pan and the spanish Riu Riu Chiu to the beautiful Ave Maria and to the Original New classic Melodies of Christmas penned by David every single song on this album is pure joy to listen to. this is the perfect Christmas Eve album to share with family and friends, but do your self a favor and take time to just sit and listen alone with not TV ,no computer no distractons just you and David and the miracle of Christmas!
energy: a healthy capacity for vigorous activity; "jogging works off my excess energy"; "he seemed full of vim and vigor"My Daily Newspaper has created a wonderful and varied playlist including
Michael McDonald's latest holiday CD has nothing but great music; but it becomes a mixed bag because so much of this has been released before. This CD has quite a few of its twelve tracks from Michael's past holiday releases "In the Spirit" and "Through the Many Winters." If you have these two CDs and you don't want the extra numbers on this album, then this is not for you. This album is really best geared at diehard Michael McDonald fans who want everything by him and/or people who are rather casual fans and who don't have the previous two CD releases.
My first impression? So warm, so comforting, so nostalgic. And not just in a "it's getting to be late Fall, so let's get in the mood for Christmas" way. No, in a pure Americana kind of way. This is a Rockwell painting come to life, it is not some kind of ironic commentary on the past... it is a memorial to the past. Dylan does this perfectly. It baffles me, but I really think this will turn out to be one of his most memorable records.
The liner notes are really good. Sting explains that winter is his favorite season and he deliberately stayed away from holly-jolly merry Christmas songs. The photos are also awesome, particularly a scene of all the musicians gathered around a bank of candles playing their instruments. That sets the mood of the piece - rather quiet, introspective and kinda gloomy. Also on many of the numbers Sting does this really weird thing with his voice, like he stayed up all night smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey.
Andrea Bocelli's first-ever Christmas album was worth the wait! These songs stun me with their beauty and natural charm. Bocelli is in excellent form here and the duets are equally beautiful. The songs on this album are all nothing short of perfect; and Bocelli's ability to perform a wide variety of holiday music impresses me even more. The quality of the sound is excellent and the artwork is very nicely done.
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC (born November 16, 1964) is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian jazz pianist and singer. She is known for her contralto vocals.
Tenitra Michelle Williams (born July 23, 1980), commonly known as Michelle Williams, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She is better known for being one-third of the successful R&B girl group Destiny's Child, the best-selling female group of all time according to the World Music Awards and Sony BMG.
Kurt Rosenwinkel is a jazz guitarist who was initially influenced by guitarists such as Pat Metheny and John Scofield, but has emerged as an individual stylist recalling Lennie Tristano in the 1940s and 50s. His chordal language is amongst the more advanced for a guitarist, touching on ideas from George Van Eps and Ben Monder. ..... one of the leading jazz guitarists of his generation by performing with the Human Feel, Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band, Joe Henderson Group, and the Brian Blade Fellowship.
Here's The Tender Coming
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