Album Reviews

Was this the greatest rock and roll concert recording ever as some suggest? Is it deserving of deluxe box set status? The producers of this ultra-sumptuous box obviously thought so!

Villa-Lobos’s folk-oddity “The Little Train of the Caipira” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 is a delightful, evocative piece of music, as colorful as the cover artwork and a sonic spectacular guaranteed to delight even the most classical music-averse audiophiles.

Some analog recordings shouldn�t be allowed be reissued on any digital format. There should be a law! You want to hear, say, Van Morrison�s rococo, acoustic/folk jazz masterpiece Astral Weeks?

(Originally posted in 2006)
With the release of the second, third and fourth Fairport Convention albums on 180g vinyl, lovers of British folk and folk/rock who weren’t around when these records were issued on vinyl by A&M in America and Island in the UK, can hear the brilliance of both the group and John Wood’s sympathetic engineering as originally intended. CD simply can’t breath life into the late Sandy Denny’s voice. On vinyl she’ll take your breath away. (Originally posted in 2006)

In his annotation, jazz critic/social commentator Nat Hentoff writes about this 1959 meeting between tenor sax legend Ben Webster and baritone sax smooth talker Gerry Mulligan: “It seems to me that even the most rash liner note writer has to pause before predicting the longevity of the session he’s assigned to introduce, but it requires neither courage nor obtuseness to underline the obvious likelihood that this one will be listened to as long as anyone cares about jazz.”

Elvis in the army meant no new albums or singles from the King so RCA producers raided the vaults to put together this album and A Date With Elvis (LPM-2011).

How rare and collectible is this record? A mint original sold for $678.00 back in 2004. I doubt it sounds as good as this double 45rpm reissue but I can’t be sure since I don’t have one.