Album Reviews

If you already own Sunday at The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby you have two album's worth of material from that magical afternoon and evening of June 25, 1961 that the producer Orrin Keepnews deemed worthy of releasing.

This double LP compilation pressed on "tie dyed" colored vinyl includes previously released Mardi Gras Records recordings from the seven brass bands featured on this surprisingly entertaining set.

Producer Lou Adler, best known by 1969 for co-producing The Monterrey Pop Festival and for producing The Mamas and The Papas on his Dunhill Record label (and that really doesn't begin to cover his comings and goings back then or now) had this idea to re-imagine Bob Dylan's music in a gospel setting.

Though the first studio effort by Miles Davis’ “second great quintet” may not be the group’s finest, it is nonetheless a groundbreaking and very satisfying record, especially considering the backdrop.

Around 1963 Miles’ rhythm section of Wynton Kelly on piano, Jimmy Cobb on drums and Paul Chambers on bass left Davis to form their own group.

Today we mostly think of Tony Bennett as a jazz singer but back in 1962 Tony Bennett was one of Columbia Records' pop music stars. He had his first #1 hit for the label in 1951 with "Because of You". In 1953 Bennett's "Rags to Riches" topped the Billboard charts for 8 weeks. "Stranger In Paradise" only made it to #2 that year but you couldn't avoid it on the radio and few back then wanted to.

First released in "Living Stereo" way back in 1959, Belafonte at Carnegie Hall continues to captivate listeners, both audiophile and non. The question that needs asking is: Were this not such an astonishing recording, would it still hold interest?.

Not being heavily steeped in progressive rock, I can't say in what esteem the Polish group INDUKTI is held but thanks to the persistence of one young man, who I met at last year's Newport Audio Festival and his Sunspot Record label (not to be confused by the Washington, D.C. Reggae label of the same name that shuttered in 1994), the band's debut album S.U.S.A.R. ((Suspected Unexpected Serious Adverse Reactions) has gotten a double 180g vinyl release.