"Dr. Funk" may seems like an odd nickname for Vince Guaraldi, most known for composing the music for the Peanuts specials, yet this is how he was known by his peers. While there are certainly others more deserving of the moniker, this new reissue will shed some light as to how he got it. For in the latter part of his career Guaraldi spent time fronting a jazz-rock band in addition to his recurring gig writing music for cartoons. Largely giving up the piano for the Hammond B-3 and the Fender Rhodes, he gathered together a group more interested in sustaining a funky groove than developing any novel improvisation; Oaxaca could be called In A Silent Way, Charlie Brown. These recordings are previously unreleased and were recorded in 1971.

If you’re looking for an instant collection of virtually all the Moody Blues essential work (together with an excellent book insert), “Time traveller” will meet the need perfectly.

German TV Various tracks broadcast on German television from 1969 to 2005.

Because Vince Guaraldi with the San Francisco Boys Chorus is the last of the jazz pianist's original LPs to make the transition to CD, this re-issue is a landmark event for jazz fans in general, and followers of "Dr. Funk" in particular.

“

Amazon.com wrote: Mantovani has become synonymous with "elevator music." Aside from the fact that about as many elevators still carry music as they do operators, this is cruel injustice. Arguably more than anyone else, Mantovani perfected a particular kind of "light classicism" in the 1950s and early 60s. The arrangements he commissioned were at once lush yet restrained. At the podium he was an exacting taskmaster, and his talented musicians rose to the maestro's challenge. The result, in this CD, is a dozen of his best-known covers--and this is Mantovani, not simply the eponymous orchestra that would later travel under his name. Duke Ellington said that there is, finally, only two kinds of music: good and bad. Of its kind, this is very, very good. If this is "lounge music," then show me the way. I could lounge here for a very long time.

”

Pete Seeger At 89 is a great album of music by a great hearted performer. In the forty odd years since I first heard him singing he's still the tall guy with the banjo. His voice might not be able to crack the sky anymore, but his heart and soul are as mighty as ever and that banjo still surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.

I first discovered Colm Wilkinson when he was doing "Les Miserables" in 1987. The CD "Stage heroes" is Wilkinson at his best!

“

ExpressionRecords.com wrote: The cd of the 801 Listen Now gig at Hull University contains a guest appearance by Eddie Jobson from Roxy Music, Frank Zappa and UK, (who turns in a mighty performance on ‘Out of The Blue”). The performance contains the whole set. Rough, ready and raucous fun.

”

Often the 'forgotten band' of the British art-rock scene of the early to mid-1970s, Bill Nelson's Bebop Deluxe was technically and artistically light years ahead of more successful but tame contemporaries such as Roxy Music. From blistering Hendrix-inspired rock (Stage whispers) to jazz-tinged ballad noir (Jean Cocteau) to exquisite pop (Maid in Heaven), this is an album of wonderful songs (there's no filler) brought to life by a level of musicianship way beyond the capability of other bands working in the pop/rock genres (listen especially to drummer Simon Fox). Recorded when the band was still a threepiece, Futurama is mysteriously ignored by many observers in favour of the more orthodox (and successful) Sunburst Finish. But you won't hear a more powerful mixture of poetry and fire than this one: it bewitched me when I first heard it around 30 years ago, and it bewitches me still.

On the King Biscuit Live cd, Big Country is energetic, young, full of fire and verve, and rocking their homeland. If you only know their few stateside hits, this is a great intro to the bands early sound, and a real representative of their first few records. If you already know the band, it is a great moment in time, caught before a frenzied hometown crowd on a celebratory New Year's Eve, complete with a (?!?) live pipe band helping to stir the crowd up even more. Rocking hard start to finish, with mid-tempo numbers mixed in, the band literally tears through the early songbook, pumping "Wonderland" and "Fields of Fire" with life and injecting emotion and feeling into my personal favorites, "Chance" and "Harvest Home". Also for the fans, old and new, the fairly interesting if not so necessary interview with songwriter/ singer/ leader/ activist Stuart Adamson is a nice little bonus.

I was going through some things in storage and found my old The Crossing tape. Popped the tape in my tapedeck and it's been there ever since for the last three months playing it to and from work. It's a solid album thoughout and still stands up to the test of time. Thet have a unique sound early U2 but with a unique bagpipe guitar sound on this album, which was unusual at the time because new wave was the rage at the time.

Londonbeat is an R&B and Dance band who scored a number of pop and dance hits in the early 1990s. They are best known for their song "I've Been Thinking About You", which hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts in 1991, and for their close harmonies.

This album has a reputation of being Bryan Ferry's darkest and least esoteric of all his work. This is partly true, but only partly. True that the cover design is thematically very dark and some of the lyrics are darker than usual for him especially on "Sign of the times" and "This Island Earth", but the album still has all of Ferry's trademarks: meticulous production, unique arrangements, excellent musicianship and a prevalent sense of romantic longing. What sets this album apart from all of his other work is how eclectic and more raw than usual it is.

Bruce Hornsby's ninth studio album, a collaboration with bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs titled Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, marks the debut release for the duo's new musical project. The album features reworkings of Hornsby originals as bluegrass tunes, as well as a number of traditional songs and a Skaggs original composition. Worthy of note is the cover of "Super Freak" (the Rick James song), here turned into a bluegrass version.

Bruce Hornsby, a 13-time Grammy nominee and three-time Grammy winner, will add to his accomplished body of work with Levitate, his much-anticipated new album, set for release September 15 on Verve. The release is Hornsby’s first studio album co-credited to his longstanding touring band The Noisemakers. While Levitate evokes Hornsby’s distinctive musical approach, the album marks a creative departure for the artist. For the first time, Hornsby opted to record an album with no piano solos, choosing instead to emphasize the songwriting behind each track.