At San Quentin (The Complete 1969 Concert)
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (04 July, 2000)
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Editorial Review

While Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the 1968 album that made Cash a household word, spent only two weeks at No. 1, this 1969 follow-up topped the charts for 20 weeks. As with Folsom, the San Quentin LP had to be edited due to space limitations. Now, 31 years after the fact, the show can at last be heard in true perspective. All the original performances hold up, including the album's hit single: Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue," presented unbleeped for the first time. Equally impressive are the eight restored tracks and unexpurgated between-song patter. Cash's opening renditions of "Big River" and "I Still Miss Someone" are bracing. So are four closing songs teaming Cash with his complete performing troupe (the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers). Their gospel performances ("He Turned the Water into Wine," "The Old Account," and an early version of "Daddy Sang Bass") are electrifying, as is a concluding medley featuring everyone. Cash is presented here at his roaring, primal best. --Rich Kienzle ... Read more

Features

• Live
• Original recording remastered

Reviews (50)

An American classic
Asking "Which Cash prison album is best: San Quentin or Folsom Prison?" is like saying "Which of your lungs is your favourite?". They're both essential to ANY music collection. (If pressed by a particularly menacing and armed inmate, I'd lean towards the more atmospheric FOLSOM.) Which one you like best will probably depend on whether you want a more comprehensive take on Cash's music (the love songs and gospel on this one) or one aimed square at his audience (the prison song laden "Folsom").

Read the glowing praise from Merle Haggard (or Marty Stuart if you want someone of more recent vintage) and look at any critic's list of "Essential" country music and this will be on it. Look at the better pop critics' lists and even they will recognize this as the epochal moment in music that it is.

HIGHLIGHTS:
Choosing the best tunes here is hard, but I'll try. As on Folsom, Johnny performs an actual prisoner's song (T. Cuttie's "I Don't Know Where I'm Bound"). Cuttie's lyric is a classic tale about "rambling" and the search for identity. The reaction to the title song's line "San Quentin, may you rot and burn in He*l" is a "goosebump" moment for me. The audience loved it so much they demanded he sing it again...immediately. (Afterwards Cash remarks "I'm starting to like it myself" with a grin...) "Wanted Man" is surprisingly "commercial" for a collaboration with Bob Dylan. The "funny" songs on this one are also better than "Folsom": "Starkville City Jail" and alltime classic "Boy Named Sue" (which the liners note was being performed for the first time at this show..Cash actually had to read the lyrics off a sheet). "Daddy Sang Bass" is a great number,too...no doubt because the lyric (from Carl Perkins) reflected Cash's own upbringing. It's abetted by June Carter Cash, Perkins himself, and the Statler Brothers' harmony.

LOWS:
No clunkers at all this time. There's nothing here I'd remove...and that includes the bonus songs. This is as perfect as it gets on a song by song basis.

BOTTOM LINE:
I hope you're looking at this for 1 of 2 reasons:
1) You came here to vote on reviews
2) You're updating the copy you have to the newer remastered version.

If it's because you don't actually own this, click "Buy this" and hope that no one sees you do it. If someone does, lie and say you HAD a copy but it was stolen and you're replacing it.ESSENTIAL to every music collection.

One of the three best live albums ever(JC had 2/3)
This album is Amazing, This and Cash's Folsom prison album rank up there as 2/3 of the best live albums ever, the other slot belonging to James Browns original Live at the Apollo.

Geez, where to start, the original of this was great, just the energy put into the banter alone was great, but this new expanded, uncut edition, w/ ALL the songs is fantastic. Frantic energy, slower, calm down tracks, and jabs at the powers that be. Johnny was amazing. The greats like (a very energetic) Folsom prison Blues, Ring of Fire, and I walk the line, mixed with the not so common to obscure tracks.

Some of the tracks I am most fond of are the two takes on the San Quentin song( took gusto to do this song or at least attempt it twice), the Starkville City Jail, Wanted Man(Co-penned w/ Bob Dylan), Boy named Sue( written by Shel Silverstein, yea, The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, childrens author) and Daddy Sang Bass( w/ the vocal help of the Statler brothers).

Check this out for the great live performance. Johnny at one of his heights.I especially like how The Live at Folsom Prison album, which was not released that much earlier than this has an almost completely track list with it's one unique batch of songs.Check out Live at San Quentin and Live at Folsom prison for two of the best Live albums you'll ever hear. Buy them seperate, dont buy that disc w/ both original recordings, buy the new ones that are uncut for the full effect.

Don't like Country you say?
Guess what, I don't either, but these are truly some of the best albums ever produced and recorded live.

on the record the bad words are bleeped.
i really like to listen to this (and also folsom prison, probably more so actually) while packing a suitcase to get ready to go on a trip.it is really so good that i don't know what to do. ... Read more

Asin: B00004U2GH
Subjects:  1. Country    2. Country-Pop    3. Guitar    4. Pop    5. Progressive Country    6. Rock & Roll    7. Rockabilly    8. Spirituals    9. Traditional Country    10. United States of America    11. Vocals   

The more Starbucks plays jazz, the better this set will get
It's hard to give a rating or a review to this set for a number of reasons.One is that with Coltrane you are always dealing, for some reason, with babbling, nonsensical cultists writing reams of gibberish (*"The greatest live music ever recorded?"* asks reviewer Guy Berger with a straight face.)Second is the fact that Coltrane never really methodically or thoroughly explored any one of his "phases"; he was always so eager to get to the next one.His relatively early death left a lot of ground untilled, and his successors really didn't get the job done, least of all his wife.But by then we were caught in what was more a political and ideological movement rather than a musical one, and by the time the dust from all that settled Coltrane was sainted and beyond reproach.It all makes hearing his music with fresh, unbiased ears very hard.Nonetheless I have tried.Third is something that I don't think is often considered, which has come about only recently: namely that Coltrane's music probably sounds even better today, a decade and a half after jazz has been numbed by the sterile pyrotechnics of the Marsalis Corporation, than it did back then.After listening to one of Wynton and Branford's tidy statements on the bandstand, and remembering their Armani suits more than anything they played, Coltrane's and Dolphy's explorations--pushing their instruments to their very limits--chill the spine and make the heart race.And when we are impressed by the energy and drive of Jeff "Tain" Watts as he drums with the various Marsalis ensembles, we only have to listen to Elvin here to remember where it all comes from.

SO WHAT ARE MY RESERVATIONS?One of them is that many fascinating ideas remain just sketches; they are not worked out.In some ways Coltrane was--sacreligious, I know, but I stand by it--undisciplined.For every good idea there are dozens more sketches and fragments that just float away, never to be dealt with again.Perhaps partly for that reason, solos go on for ten minutes, when five minutes of better-pruned creation would sometimes do.And ten minutes is often times simply too much--not just for the audience's concentration but for that of the players as well; attention sometimes lags, solos go nowhere, ideas remain in embryo.I guess when you're playing the same tunes in sets every night, not thinking much of posterity, you don't care so much.Still, a little more focused concentration might have kept some of the solos here from veering off into simple key-flapping.I know there are many who will be offended by this view, and they will want to send me hateful email; don't bother.I worked at a major jazz radio station for years and met many of your kind.All I can say is they were disciplies of the Cult of Coltrane, while I am an attendee of the Church of Music.

ON THE OTHER HAND, time for the contradictory view: when the solos stay focused, and often even when they don't, they can be stunningly powerful and singularly brilliant, and so they were undisciplined.Maybe today's jazz musicians are *too* disciplined.I think Coltrane's star has only risen when one sees where the music has gone since his passing.There are times here where he and his men transcend the earthly, transcend notes and sounds, and accomplish something that cannot be described in musical notation, as Beethoven did in his best quartet and sonata writing, as Mozart did in his Masses, or as Mahler did in his symphonies.Call it what you like, "touching God," or whatever; it's something that ensures that these recordings will continue to have breathtaking power the more they keep playing "Jazz over a Caramel Latte" in shopping mall Starbucks.These recordings pulse--no, burst--with life, energy, spontaneity, irreverence, a joyous disregard for "the rules," and that's what makes them so extraordinarily fresh after 35 years.Can you imagine a Marsalis or a Roy Hargrove sitting in with these cats?Do you really think 35 years from now we'll be listening to Wynton's insipid tributes to Duke?I mean, I laugh just thinking about it.This was jazz before A&R people, before lawyers, before marketers got "hip," which of course they never really have.Sometimes music develops best when most people just leave it alone.Nobody ever bothered to tell Billie Holiday and Lester Young how to make records--thank God!And for those who are adventurous and like dissonance and jagged paths to their adventures, and who don't require that jazz = "Blackness," whatever that is, I strongly recommend Liz Gorrill; she's very different than the music here, but in her different way she's pushing envelopes, testing limits, going on her own stream of consciousness journey.It's some of the freshest jazz being made *today,* and maybe I could imagine her sitting in with Coltrane, at least in conceptual if not necessarily stylistic terms.

The recordings in this set were made while Trane played a stint at the VV, and almost every night's set was the same tunes--Spiritual, Chasin' The Trane, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Brasilia, India, Greensleeves.I don't think you'll get much from outrageously funky outing. This is the only live CD available with Bootsy Collins and the original JB's posse, and Brown leads the incendiary ensemble through an airtight set. Only "Georgia on My Mind" reaches for the dimmer switch, but the point by then is immaterial coming after the ridiculous onslaught of "Brother Rapp" and "Ain't It Funky Now"--try to find the impossible seam between those two tracks. A hazardous slipstream of soul! --John Corbett ... Read more

Asin: B000003NA3
Subjects:  1. Box Sets (Audio Only)    2. Jazz    3. Pop    4. Post-Bop   

Released shortly after his death in 1993, The Yellow Shark represents one of the only accurate performances of Frank Zappa's "serious" orchestral music--at least as far as the composer was concerned. Assembled from a series of sold-out performances in Germany by the Ensemble Moderne, the set includes re-workings of old favorites like "The Dog Breath Variations" and "Uncle Meat," live arrangements of some of his hairiest computer music like "The Girl in the Magnesium Dress" and "G-Spot Tornado" and new works by Zappa composed specifically for the event. The performances are astonishing and the music? Pure Zappa. --Andrew Boscardin ... Read more

Features

• Original recording remastered

Asin: B0000009VU
Subjects:  1. Avant-Garde    2. Classical    3. Experimental    4. Experimental Rock    5. Miscellaneous    6. Modern Composition    7. Orchestral    8. Pop    9. Rock   

Ella & Duke at the Cote D'azur
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (28 October, 1997)
list price: $22.98 -- our price: $22.98
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Editorial Review

This two-CD collection differs considerably from both the stunning eight-CD complete Côte d'Azur set and the single-CD all-Ellington Soul Call, taken from the same set of concerts at the 1966 Antibes jazz festival. Ella Fitzgerald's all over these tunes, making this a full-on collaborative set. She sounds mightily driven, sometimes almost boundary-breaking in her execution. Vocally, she's both tight and loose, brimming with turns of phrase and belting lyrics with popping exactness. The dates caught here aren't regarded as the greatest for either of the marquee artists (for the greatest of each, see the Fitzgerald Essentials or Ellington Essentials), but in terms of the sheer quality of music and the fullness of artistic vision, Fitzgerald's tunes vie with anything else she did in her career. Sure, many of the tunes are fast and jumping, but their propulsion is largely thanks to Fitzgerald's heightened sense of play. And the Ellington band was always up for play. --Andrew Bartlett ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (6)

the cd of duke ansd elle at the cote d'azur 1966
this cd is great ! i love this version of mack the knife, for me that's th best one. Lullaby of birdland is the song that moves me the most and if thers is a video tape of this concert please let me know !

Ella's great, Duke's just okay
I, a Duke Ellington Fan, was not so impressed with his band's work here, although some of the tracks are good.""The Old Circus Train Turnaround Blues" swings along nicely, "Dimenuendo in Blue"is great, and Cat Anderson's Latinesque squealing on "El Viti/TheMatador" is first-rate fantastic, a very engaging tune.Ellafitzgerald, despite having suffered the loss of her sister just before therecordings, is in great voice. She does a splendid job with "JazzSamba," singing in Portugese and English, then lapsing into a greatscat chorus. When she begins scatting, it's so very musical that withoutmuch work, you can very easily imagine a saxophone playing the notes. Ialso enjoyed this version of "Lullaby of Birdland," a song I lovedone in a different arrangement than Ella normally used. Love the scat atthe beginning and end! She sings "Misty" beautifully as well, butit is "Mack the Knife" that is the reall winner here.Hard-driving and brassy, Ella wails along with the band, and all seem to behaving a fun time. The same is true for "It Don't Mean a Thing,"one I really like. The Ellington Orchestra really pulls its weight here,making up for laggin other times.Here is one of the best examples of Ellabecoming another instrument in the band through her great cohesiveness withher musicians. Duke sits in on piano, and Ray Nance duets with Ella at onepoint. This CD is worth buying if only for these tracks!

Professionalism Never Sounded So Good As This Ella/Duke CD
Friends more than 30 years and occassional collaborators for half that time, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington had by 1966 belonged to the world, not simply the jazz world. That meant they exchanged the jazzman'sinnovative cool for the warm professionalism of devoted crowds and a setlist to send them home happy. "You made us sentimental, the way youreceived our show," Ella actually sings. "We want to squeeze you,don't want to tease you." (This little more than a month and a countryaway from Bob Dylan's "Royal Albert Hall" concerts, where heteased, enraged, then energized the folk-rock audience).

None of the live2CD "Cote D'Azur" compilation stands with either artist's bestwork, but this set has highlights to spare. Ella loved balladry, andbreathes and sips the melodies of Teddy Randazzo's "Goin' Out of MyHead," "How Long Has This Been Goin' On?"and especially"The More I See You" like fine chardonnay. Ella pleases the crowdalso, with skittering skats on "Lullaby of Birdland" and thetrademark "Mack The Knife."

Duke does due diligence also with"It Don't Mean A Thing," but he and his band deliver a loose,rollicking performance highlighted by funky hornplay on "The OldCircus Train Turn-Around Blues," and some fine Johnny Hodges sax workon "Jive Jam."

Duke also gives a hipness lesson (learn fromthe best) in son Mercer's "Things Ain't What They Used To Be,"closing with "You are very beautiful, very sweet, very gracious, andwe love you madly." Despite the liner notes' tales of backstageturmoil (Ella's half-sister passing, arguments between Duke and Verve labelhead Norman Granz) you know Ellington meant it. The show must go on; itdid, and well, and remains a recommended supplemental purchase on eitherartist. ... Read more

Asin: B0000047FT
Subjects:  1. Jazz    2. Pop    3. Standards    4. Swing    5. Traditional Pop    6. Vocal Jazz   

Olympia 20 Mars 1960, Pt. 1
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (1999)
list price: $20.49
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Features

• Live

Reviews (1)

My favorite!
This run is the best "live" Miles I have ever heard! Here's theline up; Miles Davis (tpt), John Coltrane (ts), Wynton Kelly (p), PaulChambers (b), Jimmy Cobb (d). The quintet cruises through the standards,playing them up to their fullest potential. If you like older (pre-darkfunk, or Avant-Guard) Miles Davis, I highly recommend you get these discs. Also, the date for these shows (by all other Miles Davis archivests) isMarch 21, 1960. ... Read more

Asin: B00004RJJR
Sales Rank: 222817
Subjects:  1. Cool    2. Jazz    3. Modal Music   

The Best of John Denver Live
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (29 July, 1997)
list price: $17.98 -- our price: $17.98
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Features

• Enhanced
• Live

Reviews (9)

Great live show, and fine songs.
John Denver has never been one of my favourite singers/songwriters but this is really pretty special.I bought it because it was an SACD and I've read good things about this SACD. Well the concert seems to have been one of those events that happens by chance to get all the right things going for it at once. His voice,atmosphere and recording are all of the highest scale. The songs are catchy and inofensive. This event was lucky to happen when it did as he died in 1997 and this is the next best thing to a live concert. For music I give it 90% and recording 90%.

Stereo SACD: No Multichannel
This is a great performance.My review is mostly based on the fact that this is a stereo SACD, not multichannel.I am learning more about SACD every day, but was very disappointed that it is only presented in stereo.

Great Live reccccording Of John's Hits!
This is a wonderful compilation of live versions of John Denver's greatest hits even as he was continuing to make them. . Here we see the monster hits that propelled him into amazing popularity and superstardom in the early 1970s. In his heyday no one was outselling his albums or out-booking John for concert appearances, and considering the incredible talents on the scene at the time, that is a pretty good indication of just how popular he was, and just how universal John Denver's appeal was. No one else sang of the wide-open possibilities and seemingly limitless prospects for a good life awaiting those who would free themselves from the bonds that confined them and just dare to soar along with him in the wild open spaces.

All the tracks here are terrific, from "Take Me Home, Country Roads", the breakthrough country-pop hit that launched him onto the public stage, to "Rocky Mountain High, his paean to appreciating the beauties of nature and the natural life. He, more than any of his contemporaries, actively caught the public's imagination regarding the wonders of the natural environment, and in a time when environmental concerns were splashed all over the headlines and the evening news, John's vision of popular concern for and stewardship of the natural world was immensely important. I love all the songs here, including "Starwood In Aspen", "Rhymes And Reasons ", "Sunshine On My Shoulders", " The Eagle And The Hawk", and my own special favorite, "Poems, Prayers, And Promises". This album represents a wonderful overview of the early work of John as he thrilled a whole generation with his own perspective of a meaningful life lived in the natural splendor of nature. I know you will enjoy this live performance of many of his hits as well as all the other three of his greatest hits albums. Far out! ... Read more

Asin: B000002AHQ
Sales Rank: 110416
Subjects:  1. Folk-Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Singer/Songwriter    5. Soft Rock   

Canta Vinicus
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (18 July, 2000)
list price: $17.99 -- our price: $17.99
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Editorial Review

This CD, recorded live at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro in 1990, captures the creator of the bossa nova, composer-pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994), in tribute to his beloved collaborator, poet-lyricist Vinicius de Moraes. He's backed by three-fourths of the Quarteto Jobim-Morelenbaum (Jobim's son and guitarist Paulo Jobim and husband and wife Paula and Jacques Morelenbaum on vocals and cello) with flutist Danilo Caymmi, son of the Bahian legend Dori Caymmi. In this drumless chamber setting, Jobim's French impressionist influences shine through, from well-known hits "Ela e Carioca," "Insensatez," and "Garota de Ipanema" to the elegant "Valse de Eurydice" from the film Black Orpheus. Rare de Moraes standards like "Voce e Eu" and "Samba do Carioca"--both cowritten by Carlos Lyra--are rendered with a touch of jazz and the feeling of longing referred to as saudade in Portuguese. Add Jobim's recitation of Vinicius de Moraes's poetry and you have an evening of musical genius. --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Features

• Import
• Live

Reviews (1)

Tom Jobim Canta Vinicius Ao Vivo
The recent release by the Jobim family of this Tom Jobim live concert recorded some 10 years ago in the honour of the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moreas is a true "must have" for all those who have come to admire the work of Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moreas. For those who are only vaguely familiar with this work, I would argue that this is the occassion to get acquainted better (be prepared though...it'll also get under your skin !) Tom Jobim, together with members of the Banda Nova, at his best ! The album contains the very highlights of the so productive partnership between the former diplomat turned poet Vinicius de Moreas and the giant of Brazilian music. Performed are -obviously- the famous Garota de Ipanema, but also the Carta ao Tom (including the amusing reply message indicating that no more view from the window of the appartment at Rua nascimento Silva 107 in Rio -where most of the songwriting took place- at the Corcovado exists), the Sonata de Adeus and many more comparable jewels. The recording quality is outstanding and the emotional atmosphere of the concert (recorded at the Canecao in Rio de Janeiro) comes across very well. I can only hope that the Jobim family will release more of this kind of material in the near future. ... Read more

Asin: B00004WH4H
Subjects:  1. World Music   

Live at Future Primitive Sound Session
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (07 April, 1998)
list price: $22.99
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Editorial Review

In a year in which DJs asserted that, yes, they too are musicians, it was the duo of Cut Chemist (a turntablist in Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli) and Shortkut (a member, along with DJ Qbert and Mix Master Mike, of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz), spinning live at a San Francisco party that put the proof in the pudding. Mixing albums from across the decades, some familiar and some obscure, the duo create something entirely--and undeniably--their own. --Randy Silver ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (16)

Yup, I was fooled.
This set sounded so perfect that I figured it HAD to be rehearsed.The transitions are too smooth, the mixes too perfect, the skratchin' too ill.But according to another reviewer, these two had never worked together, or even MET, prior to this encounter.That makes it all the sweeter.It's one of the best examples out there of just what DJs can do.Seventy minutes of nonstop scratching, ingenious samples, and unbeatable party beats-- this is the album I always reach for when I'm trying to convince unbelievers of the power of the DJ.And more often than not, they're sold on the idea.

With a little more lift and a little more thrust on the marketing side, this series could have taken off in a big way.As it is, we've got two incredible albums of hip-hop goodnessthat're going to age incredibly well, no question about it.If you don't have them already, what the hell are you waiting for?

Speechless... after witnessing the birth of a new art form!
Okay, everybody, I was skeptical when this CD was put in my hand.I grew up listening to old school rap (Run-DMC,the Beasties, LL,) and thought that DJ-ing was just a beat for the MCs.Then, of course, I was disgusted by Puffy and all that "sampling" of the 90s. I thought to myself before I put this CD on: "Well, this can't possibly be art, or even innovative or interesting.I mean, all the guys are doing is mixing other people's music, just like Puffy... and that stuff was so WEAK."

Let me just say: I was never more wrong.

This CD is a work of genius.I can't believe I am saying that, but truth is truth.

True, these guys are taking music other people made, but they are putting it together in totally new ways.As one reviewer said before-- and he was right on the money-- this is a new form of art much like Jazz.They are using other music as their paint, but making totally new canvasses with it.And, it is listenable, not just academic!This CD is both humbling and inspiring.

Words fail me.

Why?

Because my jaw is still dragging on the floor!!

strictly for scratch addicts
I was at the 'Bronx To Brixton' event at the Brixton Academy sometime in 98, when some little American dude who had a stall set up pressed this CD on me. [...]. I somehow managed not to lose it that night, took it home, fired up a zoobie and slapped it on. And?...let me first say this is the probably the most innovative mix CD I've ever heard. Chemist and Shortkut throw together such an amazingly diverse mixture of obscure samples, bizzare skits and classic tracks that it's impossible not to be blown away initially. Featuring instrumentals from the likes of Group Home, J5, Beatnuts, KRS, and some cool stuff I've never heard before, this would be the ultimate mix album were it not for one glaring downside...THERE'S TOO MUCH [...] SCRATCHING!.It does not let up ONCE during the entire 70 mins. It gets to the point where you wish they'd give it a rest just so you can enjoy the fantastic tracks they're scratching over. Don't get me wrong, I love scratching, but when you hear it continously for 70 mins you just want to scream and kick your stereo. If Chemist and Shortkut can somehow curb their scratch tendencies, I'd definately buy something else by them, but this is strictly for scratch addicts. ... Read more

Asin: B000006EQ2
Subjects:  1. Dance    2. Hip-Hop    3. Turntablism    4. Underground Rap   

Live at the Fillmore East
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (23 February, 1999)
list price: $19.98 -- our price: $16.99
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Editorial Review

Though it was made largely to help disentangle Hendrix from a thorny contractual dispute, 1970's live Band of Gypsys LP--six tracks pulled from four concerts recorded over New Year's Eve and Day in 1969-70--stands as one of Hendrix's most remarkable guitar statements, and an integral part of his recorded legacy. This two-CD set accounts for a large portion of the remainder of those concerts, and though uneven and ragged in spots, it offers some minor revelations. Highlights include a stunning jam in a revamped "Stone Free," "Auld Lang Syne" as only Hendrix could have played it, a playful "Who Knows" with an improvised New Year's lyric, alternate versions of the guitar showcases "Machine Gun" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," and a downright weird "Earth Blues." Drummer Buddy Miles (with bassist Billy Cox, the Band of Gypsys in full) takes the spotlight on the funky--if very out-of-tune--"Stop." Clearly, Hendrix did well to select the cream of these gigs for the far more consistent original Gypsys album. Still, as his legend deepens, thirsty Hendrix devotees will find plenty of refreshment here. --James Rotondi ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (70)

its o.k but,......
I have to agree with "Josh Turnpike" a previous reviewer, this collection of live performance's is nothing on "Band Of Gypsys", there just doesnt seem to be the energy or the cohesion within the band.
I love jimi, I have all his studio albums and quite a few live one's, and I was really looking forward to hearing this, but on it's 3rd listen I just had to admit to myself that this cd was sub standard.
If I had heard it in the store, and could take my time listening to longer than 30 second samples I wouldnt have bought it.
By "BAND OF GYPSYS" instead.

I stll want more...
The music on these 2 CDs is incredible, especially considering the BOGs didn't have much time to write and/or rehearse new and old material. Being that the music is so great, the CD layout itself is a dissapointment.
The 4 shows at the Fillmore were all recorded in their entirety, and should have been released that way. The chopped-up order and deleted songs are an insult to the band and listeners. Bootleggers have done a better job on this material.
This CD is the left-overs from the shows that were recorded to get out of a contract Jimi signed with Capitol before the Experience. Wanting to legally fulfill his obligation, he recorded his 4 shows at the Fillmore in NYC and picked a few songs to make up the Band of Gypsies album.
With that said, it's still worth buying. The alternate versions of "Machine Gun" alone are worth the price. When Jimi kicked the Fuzz Face and Uni-Vibe on, his guitar took off even farther than before.
I think a special mention should go to Jimi as a person. There he was, a super-star with unparalleled abilites, and he still shared the mike and songwriting with Buddy Miles. Very honorable.
Jimi's playing on all 4 sets was excellent, and the technical difficulties that usually plagued him were kept at bay. Buddy Miles' drum kit was solid, and his presence lended a smooth vibe to Jimi's music. Although I've seen criticism on Billy Cox's bass playing, I feel it was perfect for Jimi. With Jimi's playing style of doing both lead and rhythem work, Billy was an excellent anchor for the music. You can't have everyone flying all over the fretboards and come out with anything that sounds like solid music.
Buy this along with the Band of Gypsies album and you'll have a nice archive of a short-lived but important piece of Hendrix (and musical) history.

The complete picture
I like this cd because it gives you a complete picture of the Type of Groundbreaking music the Band of Gypies were creating;even more so than the first album.Don't get me wrong;the first original Band of Gypies is a classic;but this Double Cd fills in the gaps.Some of my favorite new material was "Earth Blues"the jazzy"Burning Desire" and "Stepping Stone" .Plus two alternate versions of "Machine Gun" that are quite different from the Masterpiece on the original album. ... Read more

Asin: B00000I5JT
Subjects:  1. Acid Rock    2. Album Rock    3. Blues-Rock    4. Hard Rock    5. Pop    6. Psychedelic    7. R&B    8. Rock    9. Rock & Roll   

Live at the Circle Room
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (21 September, 1999)
list price: $15.98
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Editorial Review

We all know that in addition to Nat "King" Cole being one of the most important American vocalists, he was also one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time, as this unearthed air check from a live 1944 Milwaukee club date so brilliantly demonstrates. With his drumless trio consisting of the fleet-fingered guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Johnny Miller's supple support, Cole's Alabama-inflected, vibrant vocals on standards like the danceable uptempo "Oh, But I Do," "It's Only a Paper Moon," and the ballads "Sweet Lorraine" and "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" ring with an intimacy that was eclipsed in the more elaborate recordings of the '50s and '60s. Instrumentally, Cole's Earl Hines-derived, hornlike pianisms; Moore's elegant, twangy chords; and Miller's sturdy, walking bass lines swing Duke Ellington's "C-Jam Blues," Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump," and the immortal "Sweet Georgia Brown" with a svelte simplicity that dances as well as trances, and reveals the vocal and instrumental roots of many jazz artists, including Diana Krall, Ahmad Jamal, and Monty Alexander. --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (2)

A great CD to own!
I just got this CD and I have been playing it non-stop ever since. You feel as if you are right there with the Trio. You can even hear glasses clinking and the cash register ringing!I especially love their renditionof Count Basie's "One O' Clock Jump". Other tunes included hereare "If You Can't Smile And Say Yes" (in which Nat updates someof the lyrics), "Oh But I Do", "Everyone Is Sayin' HelloAgain" and two takes of "My Sugar Is So Refined", (could hehave been singing about Maria, his soon to be wife?) on which Nataccidently mixes up one of the lyrics, but you don't care because the musicis so good. The sound quality is excellent. A big complaint by people whogo to concerts and say the music sounded different than on record will nothave this problem here! What you heard in the studio is what you'll hear onthis live CD. Just convinces me more than ever that the King Cole Trio wasthe best group to come out of the 1940s. Get it!

Cole Trio-- LIVE!
This recording, released just this year, is a MUST HAVE if you love Nathanial Cole!Recorded from tapes of a '46 radio program, it gives you the TRUE feeling of "being there", has GREAT remastering, andincredible music!"My Sugar is so Refined" is a killer, as wellas "Paper Moon." On this recording, you will also notice just howcomplicated Nat's piano arrangements were. Most singers play chords whilethey are singing, and at the break, get fancy. NOT NAT!He plays the MOSTcomplicated minor chord accompaniment, WHILE he is singing as well. I feelhe is truly ignored as a GREAT jazz pianist. This CD is a step back intime, which we ALL could use now. After just one listening, you feel thatthere was NO song these three fellas couldn't do. Perfection. ... Read more

Asin: B00001IVKS
Subjects:  1. Jazz    2. Pop    3. Swing    4. Traditional Pop   

Love Power Peace
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (23 June, 1992)
list price: $11.98 -- our price: $10.99
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Editorial Review

James Brown's status as one of the hottest live performers translated into a string of absolutely massive in-concert albums, but none are better than this outrageously funky outing. This is the only live CD available with Bootsy Collins and the original JB's posse, and Brown leads the incendiary ensemble through an airtight set. Only "Georgia on My Mind" reaches for the dimmer switch, but the point by then is immaterial coming after the ridiculous onslaught of "Brother Rapp" and "Ain't It Funky Now"--try to find the impossible seam between those two tracks. A hazardous slipstream of soul! --John Corbett ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (26)

tighta than a mother
This album has got to be one of James' best live recordings. The band is soooo tight, it's phenomenal. If you buy one James album, gotta be this one!

Holy Crap!
This is the funkiest album ever made.It's impossible to play like this, but these cats went and did it.

Ain't it funky now
BUY THIS ALBUM !!!You will not be dissapointed.Love Power Peace gives you a small taste of how a live show is supposed to sound.Hope you enjoy this cd as much as I do heck even my 2 dogs get down when I'm spinning this disc ... Read more

Asin: B000001DWX
Subjects:  1. Funk    2. Pop    3. R&B    4. Soul   

The Yellow Shark
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (30 May, 1995)
list price: $17.98 -- our price: $14.99
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Editorial Review

Released shortly after his death in 1993, The Yellow Shark represents one of the only accurate performances of Frank Zappa's "serious" orchestral music--at least as far as the composer was concerned. Assembled from a series of sold-out performances in Germany by the Ensemble Moderne, the set includes re-workings of old favorites like "The Dog Breath Variations" and "Uncle Meat," live arrangements of some of his hairiest computer music like "The Girl in the Magnesium Dress" and "G-Spot Tornado" and new works by Zappa composed specifically for the event. The performances are astonishing and the music? Pure Zappa. --Andrew Boscardin ... Read more

Features

• Original recording remastered

Reviews (24)

Great musicians push the envelope
Most successful musicians are good at their particular style; what sets the great ones apart is that they can cross over to different styles successfully. It is really admirable for anyone of Zappa's stature to even want to work outside the box. But FZ pretty much lived outside the box, and this CD is proof. If you have an interest in Zappa's chamber or orchestral compositions (and be advised, this isn't "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" with violin accompaniment; these are real chamber music compositions), this is the one to buy. The London Symphony Orchestra sessions worked fine as compositions, but the recordings are rendered unlistenable by FZ's unfortunate choice of using 40-50 PZM's (pressure zone microphones) on the orchestra. I'm a recording engineer so take it from me: other than for a few very esoteric uses, PZM's take "suck" to a whole new level. The Yellow Shark, in addition to featuring performances by fantastic musicians, is very well recorded indeed. I personally would have been a little happier had they cut out at least some of the generous applause between tracks, which becomes tedious after awhile, but hey, it's a small matter. These are very good musical works by one of America's most gifted composers. The tragedy, of course, is that we can only imagine what he would be writing now if he were still with us.

20th Century, aka Frank Zappa.
When I bought this album, I saw in the cover an old Zappa, with tired eyes and sad hair. At the same time, I saw a man with wise sight and big music in his mind. Ten minuts after, when I heard the album, my words were: this man is God.

Will bring tears
The music found here is simply the best there is. Even people who don't appreciate classical music will enjoy this album. ... Read more

Asin: B0000009VU
Subjects:  1. Avant-Garde    2. Classical    3. Experimental    4. Experimental Rock    5. Miscellaneous    6. Modern Composition    7. Orchestral    8. Pop    9. Rock   

Ella & Duke at the Cote D'azur
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (28 October, 1997)
list price: $22.98 -- our price: $22.98
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Editorial Review

This two-CD collection differs considerably from both the stunning eight-CD complete Côte d'Azur set and the single-CD all-Ellington Soul Call, taken from the same set of concerts at the 1966 Antibes jazz festival. Ella Fitzgerald's all over these tunes, making this a full-on collaborative set. She sounds mightily driven, sometimes almost boundary-breaking in her execution. Vocally, she's both tight and loose, brimming with turns of phrase and belting lyrics with popping exactness. The dates caught here aren't regarded as the greatest for either of the marquee artists (for the greatest of each, see the Fitzgerald Essentials or Ellington Essentials), but in terms of the sheer quality of music and the fullness of artistic vision, Fitzgerald's tunes vie with anything else she did in her career. Sure, many of the tunes are fast and jumping, but their propulsion is largely thanks to Fitzgerald's heightened sense of play. And the Ellington band was always up for play. --Andrew Bartlett ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (6)

the cd of duke ansd elle at the cote d'azur 1966
this cd is great ! i love this version of mack the knife, for me that's th best one. Lullaby of birdland is the song that moves me the most and if thers is a video tape of this concert please let me know !

Ella's great, Duke's just okay
I, a Duke Ellington Fan, was not so impressed with his band's work here, although some of the tracks are good.""The Old Circus Train Turnaround Blues" swings along nicely, "Dimenuendo in Blue"is great, and Cat Anderson's Latinesque squealing on "El Viti/TheMatador" is first-rate fantastic, a very engaging tune.Ellafitzgerald, despite having suffered the loss of her sister just before therecordings, is in great voice. She does a splendid job with "JazzSamba," singing in Portugese and English, then lapsing into a greatscat chorus. When she begins scatting, it's so very musical that withoutmuch work, you can very easily imagine a saxophone playing the notes. Ialso enjoyed this version of "Lullaby of Birdland," a song I lovedone in a different arrangement than Ella normally used. Love the scat atthe beginning and end! She sings "Misty" beautifully as well, butit is "Mack the Knife" that is the reall winner here.Hard-driving and brassy, Ella wails along with the band, and all seem to behaving a fun time. The same is true for "It Don't Mean a Thing,"one I really like. The Ellington Orchestra really pulls its weight here,making up for laggin other times.Here is one of the best examples of Ellabecoming another instrument in the band through her great cohesiveness withher musicians. Duke sits in on piano, and Ray Nance duets with Ella at onepoint. This CD is worth buying if only for these tracks!

Professionalism Never Sounded So Good As This Ella/Duke CD
Friends more than 30 years and occassional collaborators for half that time, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington had by 1966 belonged to the world, not simply the jazz world. That meant they exchanged the jazzman'sinnovative cool for the warm professionalism of devoted crowds and a setlist to send them home happy. "You made us sentimental, the way youreceived our show," Ella actually sings. "We want to squeeze you,don't want to tease you." (This little more than a month and a countryaway from Bob Dylan's "Royal Albert Hall" concerts, where heteased, enraged, then energized the folk-rock audience).

None of the live2CD "Cote D'Azur" compilation stands with either artist's bestwork, but this set has highlights to spare. Ella loved balladry, andbreathes and sips the melodies of Teddy Randazzo's "Goin' Out of MyHead," "How Long Has This Been Goin' On?"and especially"The More I See You" like fine chardonnay. Ella pleases the crowdalso, with skittering skats on "Lullaby of Birdland" and thetrademark "Mack The Knife."

Duke does due diligence also with"It Don't Mean A Thing," but he and his band deliver a loose,rollicking performance highlighted by funky hornplay on "The OldCircus Train Turn-Around Blues," and some fine Johnny Hodges sax workon "Jive Jam."

Duke also gives a hipness lesson (learn fromthe best) in son Mercer's "Things Ain't What They Used To Be,"closing with "You are very beautiful, very sweet, very gracious, andwe love you madly." Despite the liner notes' tales of backstageturmoil (Ella's half-sister passing, arguments between Duke and Verve labelhead Norman Granz) you know Ellington meant it. The show must go on; itdid, and well, and remains a recommended supplemental purchase on eitherartist. ... Read more

Asin: B0000047FT
Subjects:  1. Jazz    2. Pop    3. Standards    4. Swing    5. Traditional Pop    6. Vocal Jazz   

Olympia 20 Mars 1960, Pt. 1
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (1999)
list price: $20.49
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Features

• Live

Reviews (1)

My favorite!
This run is the best "live" Miles I have ever heard! Here's theline up; Miles Davis (tpt), John Coltrane (ts), Wynton Kelly (p), PaulChambers (b), Jimmy Cobb (d). The quintet cruises through the standards,playing them up to their fullest potential. If you like older (pre-darkfunk, or Avant-Guard) Miles Davis, I highly recommend you get these discs. Also, the date for these shows (by all other Miles Davis archivests) isMarch 21, 1960. ... Read more

Asin: B00004RJJR
Sales Rank: 222817
Subjects:  1. Cool    2. Jazz    3. Modal Music   

The Best of John Denver Live
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (29 July, 1997)
list price: $17.98 -- our price: $17.98
(price subject to change: see help)
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Features

• Enhanced
• Live

Reviews (9)

Great live show, and fine songs.
John Denver has never been one of my favourite singers/songwriters but this is really pretty special.I bought it because it was an SACD and I've read good things about this SACD. Well the concert seems to have been one of those events that happens by chance to get all the right things going for it at once. His voice,atmosphere and recording are all of the highest scale. The songs are catchy and inofensive. This event was lucky to happen when it did as he died in 1997 and this is the next best thing to a live concert. For music I give it 90% and recording 90%.

Stereo SACD: No Multichannel
This is a great performance.My review is mostly based on the fact that this is a stereo SACD, not multichannel.I am learning more about SACD every day, but was very disappointed that it is only presented in stereo.

Great Live reccccording Of John's Hits!
This is a wonderful compilation of live versions of John Denver's greatest hits even as he was continuing to make them. . Here we see the monster hits that propelled him into amazing popularity and superstardom in the early 1970s. In his heyday no one was outselling his albums or out-booking John for concert appearances, and considering the incredible talents on the scene at the time, that is a pretty good indication of just how popular he was, and just how universal John Denver's appeal was. No one else sang of the wide-open possibilities and seemingly limitless prospects for a good life awaiting those who would free themselves from the bonds that confined them and just dare to soar along with him in the wild open spaces.

All the tracks here are terrific, from "Take Me Home, Country Roads", the breakthrough country-pop hit that launched him onto the public stage, to "Rocky Mountain High, his paean to appreciating the beauties of nature and the natural life. He, more than any of his contemporaries, actively caught the public's imagination regarding the wonders of the natural environment, and in a time when environmental concerns were splashed all over the headlines and the evening news, John's vision of popular concern for and stewardship of the natural world was immensely important. I love all the songs here, including "Starwood In Aspen", "Rhymes And Reasons ", "Sunshine On My Shoulders", " The Eagle And The Hawk", and my own special favorite, "Poems, Prayers, And Promises". This album represents a wonderful overview of the early work of John as he thrilled a whole generation with his own perspective of a meaningful life lived in the natural splendor of nature. I know you will enjoy this live performance of many of his hits as well as all the other three of his greatest hits albums. Far out! ... Read more

Asin: B000002AHQ
Sales Rank: 110416
Subjects:  1. Folk-Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Singer/Songwriter    5. Soft Rock   

Canta Vinicus
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (18 July, 2000)
list price: $17.99 -- our price: $17.99
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Editorial Review

This CD, recorded live at the Bank of Brazil Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro in 1990, captures the creator of the bossa nova, composer-pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994), in tribute to his beloved collaborator, poet-lyricist Vinicius de Moraes. He's backed by three-fourths of the Quarteto Jobim-Morelenbaum (Jobim's son and guitarist Paulo Jobim and husband and wife Paula and Jacques Morelenbaum on vocals and cello) with flutist Danilo Caymmi, son of the Bahian legend Dori Caymmi. In this drumless chamber setting, Jobim's French impressionist influences shine through, from well-known hits "Ela e Carioca," "Insensatez," and "Garota de Ipanema" to the elegant "Valse de Eurydice" from the film Black Orpheus. Rare de Moraes standards like "Voce e Eu" and "Samba do Carioca"--both cowritten by Carlos Lyra--are rendered with a touch of jazz and the feeling of longing referred to as saudade in Portuguese. Add Jobim's recitation of Vinicius de Moraes's poetry and you have an evening of musical genius. --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Features

• Import
• Live

Reviews (1)

Tom Jobim Canta Vinicius Ao Vivo
The recent release by the Jobim family of this Tom Jobim live concert recorded some 10 years ago in the honour of the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moreas is a true "must have" for all those who have come to admire the work of Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moreas. For those who are only vaguely familiar with this work, I would argue that this is the occassion to get acquainted better (be prepared though...it'll also get under your skin !) Tom Jobim, together with members of the Banda Nova, at his best ! The album contains the very highlights of the so productive partnership between the former diplomat turned poet Vinicius de Moreas and the giant of Brazilian music. Performed are -obviously- the famous Garota de Ipanema, but also the Carta ao Tom (including the amusing reply message indicating that no more view from the window of the appartment at Rua nascimento Silva 107 in Rio -where most of the songwriting took place- at the Corcovado exists), the Sonata de Adeus and many more comparable jewels. The recording quality is outstanding and the emotional atmosphere of the concert (recorded at the Canecao in Rio de Janeiro) comes across very well. I can only hope that the Jobim family will release more of this kind of material in the near future. ... Read more

Asin: B00004WH4H
Subjects:  1. World Music   

Live at Future Primitive Sound Session
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (07 April, 1998)
list price: $22.99
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Editorial Review

In a year in which DJs asserted that, yes, they too are musicians, it was the duo of Cut Chemist (a turntablist in Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli) and Shortkut (a member, along with DJ Qbert and Mix Master Mike, of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz), spinning live at a San Francisco party that put the proof in the pudding. Mixing albums from across the decades, some familiar and some obscure, the duo create something entirely--and undeniably--their own. --Randy Silver ... Read more

Features

• Live

Reviews (16)

Yup, I was fooled.
This set sounded so perfect that I figured it HAD to be rehearsed.The transitions are too smooth, the mixes too perfect, the skratchin' too ill.But according to another reviewer, these two had never worked together, or even MET, prior to this encounter.That makes it all the sweeter.It's one of the best examples out there of just what DJs can do.Seventy minutes of nonstop scratching, ingenious samples, and unbeatable party beats-- this is the album I always reach for when I'm trying to convince unbelievers of the power of the DJ.And more often than not, they're sold on the idea.

With a little more lift and a little more thrust on the marketing side, this series could have taken off in a big way.As it is, we've got two incredible albums of hip-hop goodnessthat're going to age incredibly well, no question about it.If you don't have them already, what the hell are you waiting for?

Speechless... after witnessing the birth of a new art form!
Okay, everybody, I was skeptical when this CD was put in my hand.I grew up listening to old school rap (Run-DMC,the Beasties, LL,) and thought that DJ-ing was just a beat for the MCs.Then, of course, I was disgusted by Puffy and all that "sampling" of the 90s. I thought to myself before I put this CD on: "Well, this can't possibly be art, or even innovative or interesting.I mean, all the guys are doing is mixing other people's music, just like Puffy... and that stuff was so WEAK."

Let me just say: I was never more wrong.

This CD is a work of genius.I can't believe I am saying that, but truth is truth.

True, these guys are taking music other people made, but they are putting it together in totally new ways.As one reviewer said before-- and he was right on the money-- this is a new form of art much like Jazz.They are using other music as their paint, but making totally new canvasses with it.And, it is listenable, not just academic!This CD is both humbling and inspiring.

Words fail me.

Why?

Because my jaw is still dragging on the floor!!

strictly for scratch addicts
I was at the 'Bronx To Brixton' event at the Brixton Academy sometime in 98, when some little American dude who had a stall set up pressed this CD on me. [...]. I somehow managed not to lose it that night, took it home, fired up a zoobie and slapped it on. And?...let me first say this is the probably the most innovative mix CD I've ever heard. Chemist and Shortkut throw together such an amazingly diverse mixture of obscure samples, bizzare skits and classic tracks that it's impossible not to be blown away initially. Featuring instrumentals from the likes of Group Home, J5, Beatnuts, KRS, and some cool stuff I've never heard before, this would be the ultimate mix album were it not for one glaring downside...THERE'S TOO MUCH [...] SCRATCHING!.It does not let up ONCE during the entire 70 mins. It gets to the point where you wish they'd give it a rest just so you can enjoy the fantastic tracks they're scratching over. Don't get me wrong, I love scratching, but when you hear it continously for 70 mins you just want to scream and kick your stereo. If Chemist and Shortkut can somehow curb their scratch tendencies, I'd definately buy something else by them, but this is strictly for scratch addicts. ... Read more

Asin: B000006EQ2
Subjects:  1. Dance    2. Hip-Hop    3. Turntablism    4. Underground Rap