Artist: Nicole Henry
     Album: The Nearness of You
     Label: Banister Records, Inc.
     Original Year: June 1, 2004
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 98mb+18mb

     Artist: Syd Barrett
     Album: Madcap Laughs
     Label: Capitol/EMI
     Original Year: 1970
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 78 mb
     Total time: 37:48

     Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesn't even try to sound like a consistent record. Half the album was recorded by Barrett's former bandmates Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, and the other half by Harvest Records head Malcolm Jones. Surprisingly, Jones' tracks are song for song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. The opening "Terrapin" seems to go on three times as long as its five-minute length, creating a hypnotic effect through Barrett's simple, repetitive guitar figure and stream of consciousness lyrics. The much bouncier "Love You" sounds like a sunny little Carnaby Street pop song along the lines of an early Move single, complete with music hall piano, until the listener tries to parse the lyrics and realizes that they make no sense at all. The downright Kinksy"Here I Go" is in the same style, although it's both more lyrically direct and musically freaky, speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random. Like many of the "band" tracks, "Here I Go" is a Barrett solo performance with overdubs by Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt of the Soft Machine; the combination doesn't always particularly work, as the Softs' jazzy, improvisational style is hemmed in by having to follow Barrett's predetermined lead, so on several tracks, like "No Good Trying," they content themselves with simply making weird noises in the background. The solo tracks are what made the album's reputation, though, particularly the horrifying "Dark Globe," a first-person portrait of schizophrenia that's seemingly the most self-aware song this normally whimsical songwriter ever created. Honestly, however, the other solo tracks are the album's weakest tracks, with the exception of the plain gorgeous "Golden Hair," a musical setting of a James Joyce poem that's simply spellbinding. The album falls apart with the appalling "Feel." Frankly, the inclusion of false starts and studio chatter, not to mention some simply horrible off-key singing by Barrett, makes this already marginal track feel disgustingly exploitative. But for that misstep, however, The Madcap Laughs is a surprisingly effective record that holds up better than its "ooh, lookit the scary crazy person" reputation suggests. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

     Artist: Jaco Pastorius
     Album: Invitation (Live)
     Year: 1983
     Label: Warner Bros UK
     Genre: Jazz
     Format: MP3/320kbps
     Size: 98 mb + 1,6 mb
     AMG Rating:

     Jaco's Word of Mouth big band recorded live in concert in Japan in 1982. Invitation was the U.S. release through Warner Bros., which included 9 tracks. A Japanese 2-LP release (Twins I & II) contained 13 tracks. Both are available as re-issues today.

     Artist: The Velvet Underground
     Album: Peel Slowly and See (5 discs)
     Label: Polydor / Umgd
     Original Year: September 26, 1995
     Recording Time: 381 minutes
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: CD1 100+53mb/CD2 100+62mb/CD3 100+51mb/CD4 100+56mb/CD5 100+55mb

PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE includes complete and digitally remastered versions of all four of the band's studio albums, 25 previously unreleased tracks and an 88-page booklet.

Recorded between July 1965 and August 23, 1970. Includes liner notes by David Fricke.

Released some thirty years after the band first emerged from the streets of New York City, PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE is the definitive documentary of the Velvet Underground, undeniably one of the most influential bands of the 1960s. Its five discs weave in and out of studio material, live nuggets and some unreleased songs that place the band's innovations and evolution within a career-long context, and are sure to make even the surliest VU completist smile.

     Artist: Jazz Pistols
     Album: Three on the moon
     Label: CdBaby
     Original Year: 1999
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 100 mb + 27 mb

     For ten years the Jazz Pistols have been working on their Energy-Jazz. They are however, still able to discover new elements and levels of performance a fact that not only surprises themselves, but also their audiences.This versatility is one of the strengths of the Jazz Pistols. Even formed like a classic jazz trio the Jazz Pistols have developped a sensational variety of sound which they can easily translate live without the need for loops and overdubs.
     It is rare that Jazz-Rock – notoriously known as the music for musicians –is able to create this fascination on listeners – even when they normally don´t like fusion music. The extraordinary density of sound, the catchy melodies of the complex pieces, and culture of the musicianship – the Jazz Pistols are quite different from similar bands.

Artist: Calexico
Album: Scraping
Label: Our Soil, Our Strength
Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Americana,
Alternative Country-Rock
Original Year: 2002
Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
Size: 100mb+45mb
Total time: 68:53

Calexico has come a long way from those tentative but promising early duo dates that Joey Burns and John Convertino cobbled together during the Spoke years, when the Tucson-based band was still more of a quiet side project from the pair's regular gig as Giant Sand's rhythm section. But beginning with the full-band shows for The Black Light tours, Calexico's eclectic mix of minor-key, mariachi-surf-spaghetti-twang-rock was custom-honed to replicate, and expand upon, the band's one-of-a-kind studio sound. The trumpet blasts, eerie vibraphone, plains-sweeping pedal steel, reverb-happy riffs, and thunderous press-rolls offered something for a broad range of music lovers -- particularly in Europe, where fans caught on earlier and in greater numbers. An Internet/tour-only CD (www.casadecalexico.com), Scraping features the same band Calexico has fielded for several years now -- Burns (guitar, vocals), Convertino (drums), Martin Wenk (vibes, trumpet), Volker Zander (bass), Jacob Valenzuela (trumpet, vibes), and Lambchop member Paul Niehaus (pedal steel, guitar) -- and documents them at a time when they've obviously gelled. Ten of the 13 pristine-sounding cuts are from a January 2002 show at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. (Two other cuts, "Sanchez" and "Paper Re-Route," were recorded in Tucson in May of 2001, while a third, "Stray," is from the July 2000 Roskilde Festival in Denmark.) Scraping was recorded during a period when Calexico stretched out at least once or twice per show into extended, jaw-dropping jazz- or psychedelic-inflected soundscapes. Valenzuela proves inestimable, particularly on "Fade" (a 12-minute Miles Davis-meets-Morricone rave-up) and "Sonic Wind," his muted and clarion-like horn blowing powering some memorably climatic crescendos. The infectious single "Crystal Frontier" (from the EP Even My Sure Things Fall Through) was a regular show-closer at the time, its mariachi horn blasts, flamenco-like strumming, and extended bridge revving up crowds to a fever pitch before sending them on their way. That song was eventually supplanted by the equally rambunctious "Guero Canelo" to close the Feast of Wire tours that followed -- that this band has become even tighter on subsequent tours almost stretches credulity. One does wish there was at least one more cut on the 69-minute Scraping -- since they were cherry-picking, a version of another popular show opener and quintessential Calexico song, "Glowing Heart of the World" (from the Road Map EP), would have been a good candidate. There may be even better versions of some of these songs on the many live bootlegs generated by Calexico, but it's unlikely they'll sound this crisp. Scraping offers irrefutable evidence that Calexico is one of the most entertaining live bands -- and, sadly, still somewhat neglected -- America has to offer. ~ John Schacht, All Music Guide

     Artist: Ottmar Liebert
     Album: The Hours Between Night & Day
     Label: Sony
     Original Year: 1993
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 100mb+49mb
     Total time - 71:49

     Artist: Craig Pilo
     Album: Just Play
     Label: Rue De La Harpe
     Original Year: 2007
     Genre: Jazz Fusion
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 100mb+39mb

"Drummer Craig Pilo is kept busy via his concert tours with pop and rock icons Frankie Valli and Edgar Winter. Yet this jazz-fusion studio date signifies an insightful glimpse into his enviable chops and overall musicality. With an attractive blend of originals, jazz standards, and pieces by Trane and Freddie Hubbard, the drummer generates pop, zip and fluid movement throughout. Featuring veteran session artists such as keyboardist Mitchel Forman, bassist Tom Kennedy and others, the various lineups convey a tightly-organized and thoroughly, in-the-pocket chemistry. Constructed upon largely, melodic pieces and groove-oriented rhythmic maneuvers, Forman s Fender Rhodes piano work serves as the axis on several tracks. They execute a mid-tempo, Latin-jazz spin on Autumn Leaves, while projecting a contempo jazz outlook with saxophonist Roman Dudok s appearance on various works. On Hubbard s modern jazz classic Red Clay, the saxophonist judiciously improvises within the primary melody, firmed-up by Pilo s solid and throttling backbeats. Kennedy renders a literal reading of Jaco Pastorius Teen Town, as the trio s interpretation of Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, surfaces as a dreamy ballad, spiced-up with a distinct edge. No frills or revelations here! It s more about a consortium of top-caliber musicians infusing their broad music vernaculars into a potpourri of jazz-tinged works that intimate a jubilant state-of-affairs. Everything seems to click rather naturally here." ~ Glenn Astarita, EJazz News

     Artist: Wycliffe Gordon
     Album: The Joyride
     Label: Nagel Heyer
     Original Year: 2003
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320 kbit/s
     Size: 100 mb + 42 mb
     AMG Rating:

     This is one of the overlooked greats in the jazz canon.
     In eleven spectacularly varied tracks, Wycliffe Gordon (the trombonist for many Wynton Marsalis bands over the years) shows you everything that a trombone can do in the hands of a skilled musician.
     Gordon is backed by an impressive line-up of modern-day greats, including Victor Goines on sax and clarinet.
     The band rocks, croons, improvises and shows more originality and pure energy that you're likely to find in any recent recording.
     The "joy" in The Joyride truly lives up to its name. Try it and see.

     Artist: Buddy Guy
     Album: Damn Right, I've Got the Blues
     Label: Jive
     Original Year: 1991
     Genre: Blues
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 100 mb + 12 mb

     This guest-studded CD relaunched Buddy Guy's career and set him toward the pinnacle of contemporary blues. Despite turns from Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and others, it's Guy who burns brightest--and loudest. He delivers roaring, exuberant performances of classic R&B ("Mustang Sally"), old-time blues ("Black Night"), and house rockers ("Where Is the Next One Coming From"). Most poignant, though, is his seven-minute instrumental "Rememberin' Stevie," which not only rekindles the fiery spirit of his own youth, but pays sensitive tribute to his late friend and admirer Stevie Ray Vaughan. This is the blueprint for Guy's current performing style. ~ Ted Drozdowski

Artist: Weather Report
Album: Black Market
Label: Legacy
Original Year: 1976
Genre: Fusion
Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
Size: 89mb

Weather Report's Black Market, issued in 1976 and here offered in 24-bit digitally remastered form, was notable for the arrival of young bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius, the addition of the Oberheim Prophet polyphonic synthesizer to Joe Zawinul's bank of keyboards and the title track which, with its sweetly voiced melody, intensifying rhythms and doubled basses achieves the kind of unity you wouldn't expect from a band in constant flux. The album, which preceded the 1977 breakthrough, Heavy Weather, does not showcase Wayne Shorter to best effect--his pretty but banal composition "Elegant People", on which he plays the electronic Lyricon as well as tenor and soprano, is TV theme music crossed with smooth jazz. But with "Cannon Ball", Zawinul's heartfelt tribute to his former boss Cannonball Adderley and "Barbary Coast", on which Pastorius steps out with his fretless funkified axe, Black Market stands up as one of the more rewarding Weather Report efforts of the period. --Lloyd Sachs

     Artist: Sierra Maestra
     Album: Tibiri Tabara
     Label: Nonesuch
     Original Year: 1998
     Genre: Latin
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320 kbit/s
     Size: 85 mb

     One of Cuba's hippest musical exports, Sierra Maestra excels in the realm between rootsy son music and the more urbane brassiness of salsa. Tibiri Tabara presents the band's forest of percussion behind bright, catchy horn lines that leap brashly from the complex rhythms. In addition, the group's vocals converse similarly, taking the antiphonal lead and chorus structure to new places through touches of humor and a pure, obvious sense of musical thrill. For the dancers, the plucked bass and harmonic guitar envelope the interlocked percussion instruments as they persist in laying down strong, sashaying claves for the horns and voices to riff off of. This is indeed music for dancers, or at least for very physical listeners who don't mind relentless toe-tapping. There are rhythmic joys aplenty in Tibiri Tabara, including the muted counterpoint created from the bongos and guira, and the great punctuations laid down by the brass blasts. This is the past, present and future of Cuba's signature sound. -- Andrew Bartlett

Artist: Bessie Smith
Album: Empress of the Blues
Label: Charlie R&B
Released Year: 1993
Genre: Blues
Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
Size: 84mb




This cd contains a lot of curiosities, and several pieces of required listening as well: "Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl," "Do Your Duty," and "Gimme a Pigfoot" are all here. For curiosities, there's the St. Louis Blues soundtrack, from a film short that contains the only footage of Smith.

   Artist: Frank Zappa
   Album: Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar
   Label: Rykodisc
   Original Year: 1981
   Genre: Rock
   Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
   Size: Disk1(100+13,6mb) / Disk2(100+14,4mb)

   Guitar solos and nothing but. Meticulously culled and assembled by Zappa from live recordings made between 1979 and 1980, this three part set features some of the most dynamic and musical guitar work recorded anywhere by anyone. From the rhythmically dazzling "five-five-FIVE" to the unique lyricism of the three title tracks, Zappa proves beyond doubt that he belongs among the most elite of rock's guitar virtuosos. The remarkable interplay between Zappa and Vinnie Colaiuta--some consider this to be the drummer's best work--provides this album with some of its most memorable moments. --Andrew Boscardin

     Artist: Gotan Project
     Album: La Revancha del Tango
     Label: XL Recordings
     Original Year: 2003
     Genre: Tango, Electronica
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 100 mb + 22 mb

     Gotan Project give new meaning to the term French Dance Music with their debut La Revancha Del Tango. A collaboration between soundtrack composers Philippe Cohen Solal and Christophe Mueller and Argentinean guitarist Eduardo Makaroff, the Gotan project project are more about Tangos and accordions than chic disco-house and vocoders. And while the Parisian trio's debut is unlikely to set any superclub dance floors alight, it's unique, bewitching and incredibly French. Part ingenious dance hybrid, part spine-tingling soundtrack, the success of their peculiar mix of strident break-beats, eerie violins and those all-important accordions owes no small debut to Solal & Mueller's cinematic expertise. Exuding enchanting-chilling atmosphere, tracks play out like a sensual score to the nocturnal life of Paris' Latin Quarter. The longing melody of "Queremos Paz" and the jazzy "Last Tango in Paris" are pure romance, and the frantic Latin rhythms of the only real club contender, "Triptico", conjure the hectic cafй society, but most affecting are the backstreet sleazy of Epoca and swagger of "Chunga's Revenge"; both as hypnotic as they are sinister. Strange amalgams of dub bass and unhinged cabaret vocals add to Gotan Project's allure, but it's the passion and drama that mesmerise, and no dance music has more of both than a Tango. --Dan Gennoe

     Artist: Calexico
     Album: The Black Light
     Label: EMI
     Original Year: 1998
     Genre: Rock
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 100 mb + 12,5 mb

     The perfect soundtrack for a summer roadtrip in an old car across Death Valley. Calexico's musical textures are woven out of a dazzling array of instruments and styles, including mariachi trumpets, countrified pedal steel, Latin jazz percussion, and carnival organ, just to name a few. The songs move at siesta speed, casually looping and loping along, never getting overheated. Bandmates Joey Burns and John Convertino have their hands in so many musical pies--including projects with OP8, Giant Sand, Victoria Williams, Giant Sand, and Richard Buckner--one wonders how they find the time to create the sun-soaked music of Calexico. But thank God they have. ~Tod Nelson

     Artist: Lhasa
     Album: La Llorona
     Label: Atlantic
     Original Year: 1998
     Genre: Rock/World
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
     Size: 90 mb

     Who is this woman, Lhasa de Sela? This wonderful set has no liner notes re: her past, but, since the music's what matters ,let's go with that. She writes & sings--with delicacy, passion and insolence--in Spanish. The music absorbs a truly dizzying range of styles & influences: tango, klezmer, flamenco, film music, Gypsy/Rom, Tex-Mex, ECM Records-style soundscapes and Tom Waits. Waits seems to be a big influence: check out the fractured tango/waltz "De Cara A La Pared." Mournful clarinets wail, percussion sounds like thunder in the distance and Lhasa's voice--versatile, tartly seductive in a bittersweet way--draws ...

   Artist: Aynsley Dunbar
   Album: To Mum, from Aynsley and the Boys
   Label: MCA
   Original Year: 1969
   Genre: Rock
   Format/Bitrate: MP3/320
   Size: 85 MB

   Although a fourth Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation album (Remains to Be Heard) would be cobbled together from outtakes and recordings done without Dunbar, their third LP, To Mum, From Aynsley and the Boys, was truly the final proper fulllength release by the original group. Dunbar had expressed some interest in moving further afield from the bluesrock format around the time the record was done, and the addition of keyboardist Tommy Eyre (from the Grease Band) to the lineup was one step in that direction.

     Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
     Album: Stone Flower
     Label: Sony / CTI
     Original Year: March 16-May 22, 1970
     Release Date: March 5, 2002
     Genre: Bossa Nova
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320 kbit/s
     Size: 100 mb

     Jobim has been described as the Gershwin of Brazilian music, which is an apt title for a man who contributed so many original songs to the jazz repertoire, adding a few standards along the way. Those who were inspired to follow his work after “The Girl From Ipanema” may have picked up Wave, his most well-known solo record, but may have overlooked Stone Flower, a markedly better effort. The drippy strings on the former record brought out the quiet romanticism of the melodies, but makes the album sound dated today. Stone Flower marks a fresher approach, using musicians from the CTI stable, but don’t be misled by the personnel into thinking that Jobim has wandered into soul jazz. The quietly sensual melodies and beguiling bossa nova rhythms are as bewitching as ever, with Laws, Carter, and Green added sensual textures in the background. The title track says it all: Jobim on electric piano, heavily reverbed as if it was recorded underwater, with violin and trombone providing a warm tropical breeze overhead. No one could write bossa nova tunes as well as Jobim, and the songs on Stone Flower easily rank with his best work. Stone Flower is a fantastic record of quiet intensity. (David Rickert)

     Artist: Bob James
     Album: Touchdown
     Label: Tappan Zee / Koch
     Original Year: 1978, Release Date: Aug, 2005
     Recording Time: 34 min
     Format/Bitrate: MP3/320 kbit/s
     Size: 80 mb

     ...That's the best way to describe this recording. TOUCHDOWN is one of those musical occurences which happen only once or twice in a lifetime (such as Chick Corea's RETURN TO FOREVER, or Dave Grusin's MOUNTAIN DANCE). There are so many reasons why. For one, there is the incredible assembleage of talent. The CD boasts such names as David Sanborn, Earl Klugh, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Eric Gale, and Mongo Santamaria. Then, there is the material itself. "Angela" (a.k.a. the theme from TAXI) is laid back (and check out that heartbreaking solo from Eric Gale). "Touchdown" features Bob at the keys and Sanborn's hard-driving sax. "I Want To Thank You", "Sun Runner", and "Caribbean Nights" are as smooth as they come. This is, bar none, the best CD that Bob ever put out.