VA - The Many Faces Of Jimi Hendrix (3 CD, 2017/FLAC)

 2017 triple CD collection celebrating the music of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. We start Disc One with Hendrix playing with Curtis Knight, a little-known Harlem artist, who had his own band, The Squires, in which Jimi played for a while. Next, we find Jimi playing with rock and roll pioneer Little Richard on the track 'I Do Not Know What You've Got But It's Got Me'. Then, we meet Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, bass player and drummer of Experience, the trio with whom Hendrix became a superstar, guided by the hand of producer and manager Chas Chandler. We can hear Mitch Mitchell playing with Bruce Cameron, a fantastic guitarist with a style very reminiscent of Hendrix. We also include in The Many Faces the band Cork, that Noel Redding created along Corky Laing (from Mountain) and with guitarist Eric Schenkman from the Spin Doctors. Before joining Band Of Gypsys as it's drummer (the brief group that Jimi set up after the dissolution of Experience) Buddy Miles had a solid career as member of Electric Flag. As a fun trivia fact we decided to include two songs performed by Betty Davis, who used to be a very close friend of Jimi (many say she was his lover). The second CD of The Many Faces consists of recording sessions prior to Jimi's rise to stardom, some alongside saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood, others with the very same Experience (a brilliant version of the song 'Red House') and also with Little Richard's band. Finally, on CD 3 we immerse ourselves in Jimi's repertoire, his fantastic songs, songs that sometimes have ended up being eclipsed by the fact that he was a guitar God. These recordings are performed by artists who in many cases have Hendrix's music as a starting point for their own career. Needless to say the versions are amazing. Now, let's just get comfortable and enjoy The Many Faces Of Jimi Hendrix.

 

Leadbelly - The Remaining Library Of Congress Recordings (5 CD, 1997/FLAC)

 

The recordings on this Leadbelly CD were originally made for the Library of Congress from July 1934 to March 1935, under the supervision of John and Alan Lomax. These sessions took place at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola while Leadbelly was still a prisoner, and also at Little Rock, Pine Bluff State Farm, Gould, Shreveport, Bellwood Prison Camp, Wilton and New York City.

The tracks that Leadbelly recorded in these sessions include many songs that he would play throughout his career. They include 2 versions of Irene and the cocaine peddler song Take A Whiff On Me. The track Boll Weavil documents the story of the insect which ravaged cotton crops in the southern states at the start of the 1900’s. Although it affected the black sharecroppers, it had an even greater impact on the prosperity of the white plantation owners. As Paul Oliver points out in “Songsters and Saints” (pp 250-251), it’s subversive nature (small, brown and inconspicuous, attacking the crop from within and virtually indestructible) gave it symbolic significance with Southern blacks (a compilation CD of including several recordings of Boll Weavil songs can be found on Document Records DOCD-5675). This Leadbelly CD also includes the track Matchbox Blues a song that Blind Lemon Jefferson, who Leadbelly dueted with on the streets of Dallas earlier on in his career, recorded for both Paramount and Okeh Records in 1927 (Documents DOCD-5017, DOCD-5018, DOCD-5019,  DOCD-5020).

The sound reproduction is, by today’s high fidelity-stereophonic standards, rather dim. A great many of these recordings were made in field settings on early, primitive portable disc-cutting equipment. This equipment along with various aluminium and acetate discs, though not of the highest quality in so far as sound is concerned, has served to preserve the many brilliant performances of Leadbelly. It is felt that Leadbelly never sounded as well anywhere else as he did when he was recording for the Library. He appears relaxed, strong, crisp and creative.

 

Paul Weller discography [1992-2021]

  

John William "Paul" Weller, Jr. (born 25 May 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/new wave/mod revival band The Jam. He had further success with the blue-eyed soul music of The Style Council (1983–89), before establishing himself as a solo artist in 1991.

Despite widespread critical recognition as a singer, lyricist, and guitarist, Weller has remained a national, rather than international, star and much of his songwriting is rooted in British culture. He is also the principal figure of the 1970s and 1980s mod revival, and is often referred to as The Modfather.

studio

Paul Weller.1992 - Paul Weller (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.1993 - Wild Wood (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.1995 - Stanley Road (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.1997 - Heavy Soul

Paul Weller.2000 - Heliocentric

Paul Weller.2001 - Days of Speed

Paul Weller.2002 - Illumination (Bonus Tracks)

Paul Weller.2004 - Studio 150 (2004 Reissue, Bonus CD)

Paul Weller.2005 - As Is Now

Paul Weller.2008 - 22 Dreams (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.2010 - Wake Up the Nation (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.2012 - Sonik Kicks (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.2015 - Saturns Pattern (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.2017-  A Kind Revolution (Deluxe)

Paul Weller.2018 - True Meanings (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.2020 - On Sunset (Deluxe Edition)

Paul Weller.2021 - Fat Pop (Volume 1)

live

Paul Weller.1994 - Live Wood

Paul Weller.1998 - Modern Classics - The Greatest Hits [2 CD]

Paul Weller.2001 - Days of Speed

Paul Weller.2003 - Fly on the Wall, B Sides & Rarities [3 CD]

Paul Weller.2006 - Catch-Flame! [2 CD]

Paul Weller.2006 - Hit Parade [4 CD]

Paul Weller.2008 - Weller at the BBC [4 CD]

Paul Weller.2012 - When Your Garden's Overgrown (Single)

Paul Weller.2014 - More Modern Classics (The Best Of 1999-2014)

Paul Weller.2017 - Jawbone

Paul Weller.2019 - Other Aspects- Live At The Royal Festival Hall [2 CD]

Humble Pie - Performance : Rockin' The Fillmore - The Complete Recordings [4 CD, 2013/FLAC]

 

In 1971, the concept of a hard-rock band achieving its big commercial breakthrough with a double live album was nothing new. But the experience had to be a particularly satisfying one for Humble Pie.

In a way, they were one of the era’s supergroups. Three of the band’s four members — guitarist Peter Frampton, singer-guitarist Steve Marriott and bassist Greg Ridley — had already tasted success with the Herd, Small Faces and Spooky Tooth, respectively. At a mere 17, Jerry Shirley was less well known but was gaining a reputation as a formidable power drummer in the John Bonham mold.

Still, in spite of their lineup and reputation for explosive live shows, Humble Pie weren’t able to duplicate their onstage energy in the studio. Their four studio albums aren’t bad, but they sold only moderately well.

On 1971′s ‘Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore,’ Humble Pie finally captured lightning in a bottle. Recorded over a four-show, two-night stand at the legendary Fillmore East — home to some of the most storied concert recordings ever made, from Aretha to the Allmans — the live double album showcased the band blowing the roof off the grand old joint. Marriott is a pint-sized powerhouse of a blues-rock singer, and his thunderous riffs perfectly complemented Frampton’s more fluid, precise approach. The rhythm section of Ridley and Shirley held the foundation up from the bottom, driving it home with all the nuance of a Molotov cocktail.

 

The Eddie Cochran Box Set: A Complete History In Words And Music (4 CD, 1988/FLAC)

 Eddie Cochran was one of the first great stars of rock & roll and an artist whose influence would far outstrip his brief career, which was cut short when he died in an auto accident in 1960. Cochran would often be cited as one of the pioneers of rockabilly, but his style was more muscular and less twangy than those of his peers, adding a bluesy accent to the music that meshed comfortably with his country-influenced melodies. Cochran was also an impressive guitar player and a songwriter young enough to understand the teenage mindset and its fascination with cars, girls, and good times, but he was also talented enough to bring his stories to life and marry them to energetic, catchy melodies. Songs like "Summertime Blues," "C'mon Everybody," "Somethin' Else," "Nervous Breakdown," and "Weekend" would live on in covers decades after Cochran passed, and his influence would be felt in artists as diverse as Bobby Fuller and the Sex Pistols. Cochran was also one of the first American rockers to tour the United Kingdom, where he would prove especially influential; when Paul McCartney first met John Lennon, the latter was impressed that the former could not only play Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock," but knew the lyrics by heart.