The Beatles- The Beatles (White Album) [6 CD Super Deluxe 2018/FLAC]

  

In The Beatles’ long and winding history, their self-titled 1968 album is considered by many to be the beginning of the end. Not musically, of course—raw and sprawling, “The White Album” contains some of their richest and most enduring songs—but insofar as the LP showed they were starting to work and develop distinct styles apart from one another. But to hear Giles Martin, son of the late longtime Beatles producer George Martin, tell it, the truth may be more complicated. His evidence: This new 107-track collection he has overseen, featuring a fresh mix of the original album, freewheeling studio outtakes, and the 27 holy-grail acoustic “Esher demos” largely recorded at George Harrison’s house following the band’s consciousness-expanding off-site in India. To Martin, these loose, candid recordings show a band playing off one another’s chemistry in the studio, working together with humor and camaraderie to spare. “You can’t make a record like ‘The White Album’ if you’re arguing,” he says. Martin tells Apple Music which tracks best prove his theory, and how this set offers insight for completists and casual fans alike.

Jay McShann - Chronogical Classics 1941 - 1946 (2 CD/FLAC)

The great veteran pianist Jay McShann (also known as Hootie) enjoyed a long career and it is unfair to primarily think of him as merely the leader of an orchestra that featured a young Charlie Parker. He was mostly self-taught as a pianist, worked with Don Byas as early as 1931 and played throughout the Midwest before settling in Kansas City in 1936. McShann formed his own sextet the following year and by 1939 had his own big band. In 1940 at a radio station in Wichita, KS, McShann and an octet out of his orchestra recorded eight songs that were not released commercially until the 1970s; those rank among the earliest of all Charlie Parker records (he is brilliant on "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Lady Be Good") and also feature the strong rhythm section team McShann had with bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Gus Johnson. The full orchestra recorded for Decca on two occasions during 1941-1942 but they were typecast as a blues band and did not get to record many of their more challenging charts (although very rare broadcasts have since surfaced and been released on CD by Vintage Jazz Classics). In addition to Bird (who had a few short solos), the main stars were trumpeter Bernard Anderson, the rhythm section, and singer Walter Brown. McShann and his band arrived in New York in February 1942 and made a strong impression, but World War II made it difficult for any new orchestras to catch on. There was a final session in December 1943 without Parker, but McShann was soon drafted and the band broke up. After being discharged later in 1944, McShann briefly re-formed his group but soon moved to Los Angeles, where he led combos for the next few years; his main attraction was the young singer Jimmy Witherspoon.

Grateful Dead: The Making of "Built to Last" 1989 [DVD 5]

The Making of "Built to Last" documents a rare behind the scenes look at the Grateful Dead's thirteenth and final studio album, Built to Last. The behind the scenes footage contains members of the band working on three songs for the album: Picasso Moon, Blow Away, & Just a Little Light. The footage was filmed at Club Front Studio in San Rafael, CA on March 1st 1989.

 

Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman (Super Deluxe, 5 CD, 2020) [FLAC]

 Tea for the Tillerman is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, released in November 1970.

On 28 May 2020, Yusuf announced his new album, Tea for the Tillerman2, which was released on 18 September 2020. Tea for the Tillerman2 is a reimagining of "the same eleven songs for a new age with dramatic results", celebrating the 50th anniversary of Tea for the Tillerman. 

• Disc 1: Original Album (2020 Remaster)
• Disc 2: Original Album (2020 Mix)
• Disc 3: Tea For The Tillerman²
• Disc 4: Demos / Outtakes / Alternate Versions
• Disc 5: Live

•     Cat Stevens – classical guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, lead vocals
•     Alun Davies – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
•     Harvey Burns – drums, congas, tambourine
•     John Ryan – double bass
•     Del Newman – string arrangements
•     Jack Rothstein (as John Rostein) – solo violin

 

Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders - Keystone Companions (The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings) [4 CD, 2012/FLAC]

  

The recordings that made up the original Live at Keystone albums by Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, John Kahn, and Bill Vitt took place over two nights in July of 1973. The band had been playing a regular gig at the famed San Francisco venue for some time, but it was here that it gelled. Their program was a wide range of covers from Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" to Motown numbers, Bob Dylan songs, jazz standards, and even a wholly improvised jam. Recorded by the Grateful Dead's sound engineers Betty Cantor and Rex Jackson, the first release was issued in late 1973, compiled from the "best" of both nights. In 1988, two volumes called Keystone Encores were released on three discs. This deluxe four-disc package contains remastered versions of all the material from both those concerts presented in original running order.