Amongst the hundreds of compilations of the prodigious output of the “Chairman of the Board”, this one, spanning the later part of FRANK SINATRA’s spectacular career, has to be one of the finest … the already-legendary vocal talent, great songs, top players, with charts by the best arrangers in the business. Many of the tunes are from the period when …
Best of the Big Bands
The sheer size of this series affirms the influence of Columbia as the oldest commercial record label. This digitally re-mastered collection was issued between 1990 and 1994, (on 3 different labels), and presents a broad perspective of the big band genre in its heyday – from the 1930’s into the 1950’s and beyond, as recorded by Columbia. There’s everything from …
More Than a New Discovery
There’s more than a little under-stated irony in the title of LAURA NYRO’S debut album, (originally issued in mono by the fledgling Folkways division of Verve records). Imagine the difficulty for a copy writer trying to encapsulate the free-spirit style and exhuberance of such an unconventional, precocious teenage talent. The album did not sell well and it was not until …
Capitol Sings
In the early 1990’s, more than 35 years after its purchase of Capitol Records, British conglomerate EMI, waded through the archives and eventually came up with enough material to put together a series of compilations, (recordings going back to the late 1940’s), featuring great American songwriters. Most of the vocalists were stars in their own right, too, but not always …
Ray Sings – Basie Swings
Posthumous rework and re-release of musical works is nothing new. Songs and whole albums have been produced from multiple ‘takes’, separated in time and space, for decades. However, the logistics required to pull off this project – and the quality of the finished product, are remarkable. This is an example of modern musical technology being used in one of the …