Marine Girls - Beach Party (1981)

The debut album by the Marine Girls is one of the most willfully amateurish releases of its era, which is not necessarily a bad thing. When it was first released on Daniel Treacy's Whaam! label in 1981, it undoubtedly sounded impossibly shoddy and nearly inept, filled with deliberately out-of-tune vocals, extremely minimal guitar and bass, and almost no percussion. However, its place as one of the pillars of the twee pop scene, along with the Young Marble Giants' "Colossal Youth", is now incontestable, and what once might have seemed haphazard instead sounds refreshingly artless and slyly provocative. 

Tracey Thorn, whose vocals would gain much more technical polish during her years in Everything But the Girl, sings with a sort of offhand grace, while Alice Fox' more tuneless yelp sounds like a precursor to Kathleen Hanna or Sleater-Kinney. The songs are monochromatic, though a few, particularly the opening "In Love," manage to marry memorable tunes to the group's deliberate minimalism. This is not an album for anyone who requires a lot of studio polish, but "Beach Party" is far from the grating tunelessness that some early reviewers labeled it.

"Beach Party" was named as one of Kurt Cobain's 50 favourite albums in his diaries.

Tracklist:

A1 In Love
A2 Fridays
A3 Tonight?
A4 Times We Used To Spend
A5 Flying Over Russia
A6 Tutti Lo Sanno
A7 All Dressed Up
A8 Honey
B1 Holiday Song
B2 He Got The Girl
B3 Day/Night Dreams
B4 Promises
B5 Silent Red
B6 Dishonesty
B7 20,000 Leagues
B8 Marine Girls

Marine Girls - Beach Party (1981)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Milva – Canti Della Libertà (1965)

Milva (17 July 1939 – 23 April 2021) was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as La Rossa (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic colour of her hair, and additionally as La Pantera di Goro ("The Panther of Goro"), which stemmed from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female singers of the 1960s, combining the names of animals and the singers' birth places. The colour also characterised her leftist political beliefs, claimed in numerous statements.

Popular in Italy and abroad, she performed on musical and theatrical stages the world over, and received popular acclaim in her native Italy, and particularly in Germany and Japan, where she often participated in musical events and televised musical programmes. She released numerous albums in France, Japan, Korea, Greece, Spain, and South America.

She collaborated with European composers and musicians including Ennio Morricone in 1965, Francis Lai in 1973, Mikis Theodorakis in 1978 (Was ich denke became a best selling album in Germany), Enzo Jannacci in 1980, Vangelis in 1981 and 1986, and Franco Battiato in 1982, 1986 and 2010.

Her stage productions of Bertolt Brecht's recitals and Luciano Berio's operas toured the world's theatres. She performed at La Scala in Milan, at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, at the Paris Opera, in the Royal Albert Hall in London and at the Edinburgh Festival, amongst others.

Having had success both in Italy and internationally, she remained one of the most popular Italian personalities in the fields of music and theatre.

"Canti Della Libertà" is an album with political songs from around the world, featuring "Los Cuatro Generales"and "La Cucaracha" among others. It was released in 1965 and reissued in 1976.

Tracklist:

Inno A Oberdan

Los Cuatro Generales

La Marseillaise

La Carmagnole

La Cucaracha
Addio Lugano Bella
Fischia Il Vento
Horstwessel Lied
Lungo La Strada
John Brown

Milva – Canti Della Libertà (1965)

(128 kbps, cover art included)

Paolo Conte - Same (1975)

One of the most idiosyncratic, charismatic, and internationally successful Italian singer/songwriters of the past four decades, Paolo Conte created his own unique style, combining a love for jazz and music hall together with a weary yet sympathetic and humorous understanding of human foibles. Born to a well-to-do Asti (Piedmont, Italy) family in 1937, Conte began to learn the piano at an early age, together with his younger brother Giorgio Conte -- who would also become a famous songwriter in his own right -- at the insistence of their father, a distinguished notary but also a passionate jazz amateur. Following in the family's footsteps, Conte became a lawyer and practiced the profession until well into his thirties. Contemporaneously, he played the vibraphone in several local jazz bands.

Paolo Conte's first and second album are virtually interchangeable. One released in 1974 and the other in 1975, both are unimaginatively titled Paolo Conte, include 11 songs, are built around the same instrumental core of Conte's piano, Danilo Pennone's double bass, and Nando Francia's accordion, and share the same topics, musical settings, and overall atmosphere. Fortunately for this, his sophomore effort, the second batch of songs, is every bit as memorable as his first. Some of Conte's most famous songs are here, such as "La Ricostruzione del Mocambo," the miracolo italiano postcard " "La Topolino Amaranto," or the extraordinary "Genova per Noi," a definitive portrait of a town that was once one of the busiest ports in the world, and is now a metaphor for rain, boredom, and things lost. Other standout tracks are the hilarious "Naufragio a Milano," sung in mock Neapolitan, or the oddly tender paean to extramarital affairs "Luna di Marmellata." Conte's voice and piano sound crisper than before, and several songs are augmented by horns, female vocalists, or a string quartet, elements that will become a mainstay of future Conte's productions. While neither this nor the debut album was particularly successful upon its release, both are faultless collections of originals, many of which would eventually become timeless classics of Italian pop music. Both stand among the highest achievements of Conte's recording career and are highly recommended.


Tracklist:

Avanti, Bionda
Chi Siamo Noi ?
La Ricostruzione Del Mocambo
La Topolino Amaranto
Pittori Della Domenica
Naufragio A Milan
Tango
Genova Per Noi
Per Ogni Cinquantennio
Luna Di Marmellata
Avanti, Bionda

Paolo Conte - Same (1975)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra

As a member of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's early bands, bassist Charlie Haden became known as one of free jazz's founding fathers. Haden never settled into any of jazz's many stylistic niches, however. Certainly he played his share of dissonant music -- in the '60 and '70s, as a sideman with Coleman and Keith Jarrett, and as a leader of the Liberation Music Orchestra, for instance -- but for the most part, he seemed drawn to consonance. Witness his trio with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and guitarist Egberto Gismonti, whose ECM album Silence epitomized a profoundly lyrical and harmonically simple aesthetic; or his duo with guitarist Pat Metheny, which had as much to do with American folk traditions as with jazz. There was a soulful reserve to Haden's art. Never did he play two notes when one (or none) would do. Not a flashy player along the lines of a Scott LaFaro (who also played with Coleman), Haden's facility may have been limited, but his sound and intensity of expression were as deep as any jazz bassist's. Rather than concentrate on speed and agility, Haden subtly explored his instrument's timbral possibilities with a sure hand and sensitive ear.                

This album is a fascinating reissue that comfortably straddles the lines of jazz, folk, and world music, working up a storm by way of a jazz protest album that points toward the Spanish Civil War in particular and the Vietnam War in passing. Haden leads the charge and contributes material, but the real star here may in fact be Carla Bley, who arranged numbers, wrote several, and contributed typically brilliant piano work.

Also of particular note in a particularly talented crew is guitarist Sam Brown, the standout of "El Quinto Regimiento/Los Cuatro Generales/Viva la Quince Brigada," a 21-minute marathon. Reissue producer Michael Cuscuna has done his best with the mastering here, but listeners will note a roughness to the sound -- one that is in keeping with the album's tone and attitude.         

Tracklist:

1 The Introduction 1:15
2 Song Of The United Front 1:52
3a El Quinto Regimento (The Fifth Regiment) 20:58
3b Los Cuatro Generales (The Four Generals)
3c Viva La Quince Brigada (Long Live The Fifteenth Brigade)
4 The Ending To The First Side 2:07
5 Song For Ché 9:29
6 War Orphans 6:42
7 The Interlude (Drinking Music 1:24
8 Circus '68 '69 6:10
9 We Shall Overcome 1:19


Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra
(256 kbps, cover art included)     

Milva - Auf den Flügeln bunter Träume (1977)

Maria Ilva Biolcati (born 17 July 1939), known as Milva, is an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She is also known as La Rossa (Italian for "The Redhead"), due to the characteristic colour of her hair, and additionally as La Pantera di Goro ("The Panther of Goro"), which stems from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female singers of the 1960s, combining the names of animals and the singers' birth places. Popular in Italy and abroad, she has performed on musical and theatrical stages the world over, and has received popular acclaim in her native Italy, and particularly in Germany where she has often participated in musical events and televised musical programmes. She has also released numerous albums in France, Japan, Korea, Greece, Spain and South America.

In 1977, Milva released the studio album "Auf den Flügeln bunter Träume", an album composed of popular German film and cabaret standards, including a version of Lili Marleen and Tango notturno. The album was released in America, Canada and Germany and in 1998 was reissued in Japan.

Tracklist:

Auf den Flügeln bunter Träume 2:42
Johnny, wenn du Geburtstag hast 2:59
Ich steh' im Regen 4:16
Tango Notturno 3:46
Zwischen heute und morgen 2:59
Liebe ist ein Geheimnis 3:07
Sing, Nachtigall, sing 2:26
Auch du wirst mich einmal betrügen 3:48
Tiefe Sehnsucht 3:40
Die Worte, die aus Liebe man spricht 3:44
Good Night (Reich mir zum Abschied noch einmal die Hände) 3:22
Lili Marleen 2:56

Milva - Auf den Flügeln bunter Träume (1977)
(ca. 256 kbsp, cover art included)

Lititz Mento Band - Dance Music And Working Songs From Jamaica (1993)

Though often erroneously regarded as simply a variation of Calypso, Jamaican Mento is a distinct musical style that developed independently from its similarly styled Trinidadian cousin. The genre remained Jamaica’s most popular form of indigenous music from the post war years up until the development of Shuffle Blues and its immediate successor, Ska, in the early sixties.

 

As late as the 1960s the cheerfully elated rhythms of mento would be found at every village festival. In the age of modern and Afro-American pop music, however, the most important and oldest folk tradition of Jamaica - which developed from the displaced Africans’ contact with European music - has fallen increasingly into the shadows. With violin, banjo, guitar, and rumba box this famous Jamaican group presents a piquant potpourri of mentos, folk tunes, religious songs, and American hits. The songs are not infrequently lewd, and they treat daily life with humor and satire.

The album was recorded on July 16th 1992 at the studios of Sender Freies Berlin with Gerald Myers(banjo), Clement Smalling and Sonny Borriel (guitar), Theodore Miller (violin), Cleveland Salmon (rumba box) and Jerome Williams on vocals.


Tracklist:

1 Quadrille (Instrumental) 17:00
2 Born Jamaican 4:46
3 Rivers Of Babylon / Lion Of Judah 6:02
4 Man Of Montego Bay 4:01
5 Island In The Sun 2:20
6 Day Oh! 3:52
7 Fan Me Soldier Man 2:12
8 Linstead Market 3:24
9 Shaving Cream (Instrumental) 2:23
10 Little Girl In Kingston Town 3:06
11 Grader Man 2:57
12 Revival Man 2:32
13 Tennessee Waltz 4:08
14 Weel An' Tune (Instrumental) 3:41

Lititz Mento Band - Dance Music And Working Songs From Jamaica (1993)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Paolo Conte - Same (1974)

One of the most idiosyncratic, charismatic, and internationally successful Italian singer/songwriters of the past four decades, Paolo Conte created his own unique style, combining a love for jazz and music hall together with a weary yet sympathetic and humorous understanding of human foibles. Born to a well-to-do Asti (Piedmont, Italy) family in 1937, Conte began to learn the piano at an early age, together with his younger brother Giorgio Conte -- who would also become a famous songwriter in his own right -- at the insistence of their father, a distinguished notary but also a passionate jazz amateur. Following in the family's footsteps, Conte became a lawyer and practiced the profession until well into his thirties. Contemporaneously, he played the vibraphone in several local jazz bands.                

After a decade of working as a professional songwriter for popular Italian artists such as Adriano Celentano, Patty Pravo, and Caterina Caselli, Paolo Conte released his eponymous debut album at age 37. Far from being merely an odd detail, age perfectly explains some of the best characteristics of his music, and of the persona Conte would build up throughout his discography. Indeed, part of the charm of this superb collection of songs (and of Conte's music) is the obstinate refusal to go with the times. Instead of conforming to the standard singer/songwriter mold of the 1970s, that of engaged or confessional subject matter set predominantly to acoustic guitar and string embellishments, Conte preferred the dingy ballroom entertainer persona, all tinkling piano, jazz-flavored ballads, and obsolete dance numbers. Conte presents himself as a sort of once-aspiring playboy, long fallen into hard times or obscurity, who tries to keep up the act, even if the extent of his failure is all too obvious to himself. Like Tom Waits and Serge Gainsbourg, two artists with whom Conte is often associated, his music is a portrait of decadence. Yet, unlike Waits or Gainsbourg, Conte has little interest in experimentation or provocation. Most importantly, his singular brand of misanthropy is humorous and gentle, melancholic rather than mean. Conte's main topic is the dullness and pettiness of bourgeois life and the associated obligatory pleasures that are not really much fun: the customary summer holiday at the usual second-rate sea spots or a tourist trip to Venice just to get even with a relative who would not shut up boasting about her own trip to Rome, as well as the seemingly unavoidable infidelity, divorce, and middle-age bitterness. In this, his first album, Conte's voice is thin, craggy, and surprisingly high, very different from the dark bass tones that would become his trademark in later albums (think post-'80s Leonard Cohen). Indisputably, he was already a consummate professional songwriter with a clear vision of his own music, an amalgam of jazz, polka, foxtrot, Charleston, café concert, and music hall, as performed very late by a drunk pianist who keeps on playing to a totally uninterested barroom audience made up of old prostitutes and tired men in their fifties. To top it all, he clearly had been saving these tunes for a while, for the material is uniformly superb. From the classics "Onda Su Onda" and "Una Giornata al Mare" to the less well-known "Tua Cugina Prima," "Lo Scapolo," and "Wanda," every single one of these 11 tracks is fantastic, making Paolo Conte's debut album one of the very best he would ever make.    

Tracklist:


Questa Sporca Vita
Sono Qui Con Te Sempre Più Solo
Wanda
Sindacato Miliardari
La Fisarmonica Di Stradella
Tua Cugina Prima (Tutti A Venezia)
La Ragazza Fisarmonica
Onda Su Onda
Lo Scapolo
Una Giornata Al Mare
La Giarrettiera Rosa


Paolo Conte - Same (1974)
(320 kbps, cover art included)
        

The Jazz Butcher - The Gift Of Music (1988)

The Jazz Butcher was the vehicle of prolific singer/songwriter Pat Fish, an archetypal British eccentric whose sharp observational wit and melodic gifts navigated the group through constant lineup shifts, stylistic mutations that included jangle pop, jazz, punk, cabaret, sophisti-pop, and oddball novelties, and a series of name changes.

Pat Fish died last October at the age of 64. His frequent collaborator and lead guitarist Max Eider, wrote, "Very sad to announce that my old friend Pat Fish died suddenly but peacefully on Tuesday evening. Pat rocked my world in every way and his death leaves a big hole in my life and in my memory, much of which was only stored in his outsized brain. Goodbye mate and thanks for everything. I’m going to miss you."

This album is a stellar collection of pre-1985 singles. Only one song, "Real Men," and is lifted verbatim from a prior album, though. "Southern Mark Smith" is presented in a rushed tempo, organ dominated, psychedelia influenced version markedly different from that on "A Scandal in Bohemia". "Marnie" receives a bouncy, rather rudimentary arrangement that in places suggests a punky version of Santana. "Zombie Love" here is faster and much more professional sounding than the wan version from "In Bath of Bacon". Other worthy tracks here include the R.E.M.-influenced "Rain," a folk-funk hybrid entitled "The Jazz Butcher V the Prime Minister," the Cramps-like "The Jazz Butcher Meets Count Dracula," and a lengthy, hyperactive cover of the Modern Lovers song "Roadrunner." This album holds numerous delights both for Jazz Butcher neophytes and committed fans.

This is a compilation on Glass Records of their first 4 singles, the cd version ncludes five bonus tracks (7 to 8, 12 to 14).

Tracklist:

01 - Southern Mark Smith02 - Marnie
03 - Roadrunner
04 - Real Men
05 - JB Meets Count Dracula
06 - Zombie Love
07 - Goldfish
08 - Sweet Jane
09 - Rain
10 - Jazz Butcher V Prime Minister
11 - Water
12 - Partytime
13 - Lost In France
14 - Drink


The Jazz Butcher - The Gift Of Music (1988)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Perlen der Kleinkunst - Hans Söhnker

07 November 2018, Berlin: Honorary medals for Hans Söhnker (1903-1981) and Heinz Gützlaff (1905-1961), who were recognized by the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem as "righteous among the nations", lie at the ceremony in the Berlin memorial "Silent Heroes". "Righteous among the Nations" is a title of honour for gentile people who used their lives under the Nazi regime to save Jews from murder. The title is awarded by a commission under the auspices of the Israeli Holocaust Memorial "Yad Vashem".

Hans Albert Edmund Söhnker was born in Kiel on October 11th 1903. His father was a carpenter and an active member of the Social Democratic Party. After finishing school, Hans Söhnker took up an apprenticeship in a warehouse and at the same time started taking acting lessons from Clemens Schubert and Gustaf Gründgens. In 1922, he made his stage debut at the Stadttheater Kiel, and subsequently played in theatres in Frankfurt/Oder, Danzig, Chemnitz and Bremen.

While visiting Germany, Ernst Lubitsch recommended Söhnker to Paramount in Berlin, and Söhnker applied at the company in 1933. He made screen tests for Ufa, and was finally cast as Marta Eggerth's partner in "Der Zarewitsch". After reprising the role of the young and careless lover for "Schwarzwaldmädel" and "Die Csardasfürstin", Söhnker avoided being typecast again and instead proved his ability to play more serious characters with "Arzt aus Leidenschaft". The understatement and elegance of his acting was reminiscent of American movie stars and made him an extraordinary presence in German cinema.

He excelled as the romantic rival of both Heinz Rühmann in "Der Mustergatte" and Hans Albers in "Große Freiheit Nr. 7". The latter was directed by Helmut Käutner, who frequently cast Söhnker and put his natural charm to its best use, for instance in "Frau nach Maß".

Hans Söhnker was on the Gestapo's black list in Nazi Germany because he often helped and hid Jews.

After the war, Söhnker, who had always continued to work as a stage actor, returned to the theatre. He re-emerged as a movie actor with "Film ohne Titel", which was produced by Käutner and directed by Rudolf Jugert. Jugert also cast Söhnker in the comedies "Hallo Fräulein" and "1 x 1 der Ehe". His dramatic performances in "Nur eine Nacht" and "Weiße Schatten" again proved his ability to shift effortlessly between genres, and the well aged Söhnker remained an elegant presence in the German Post-War cinema of the 1950s. From the 1960s on, he starred in several successful TV series like "Der Forellenhof", "Salto Mortale" and "Meine Schwiegersöhne und ich", which sustained Söhnker's popularity up to his old age. Hans Söhnker passed away in Berlin on April 20th 1981.

Perlen der Kleinkunst - Hans Söhnker
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Morgenrot - Geld macht glücklich (1982)

Morgenrot was a german rockband, active between 1975 and 1984 and with a short reunion in 1996/97. The singer Endrick "Enny" Gerber and bass player Lutz "Lutze" Woite were friends since the 1960s and started Morgenrot in 1975.


They did a lot of gigs in small venues and gained money as construction workes to finance their equipement. Especially in West Berlin they reached fame as a hard working live band and were managed by the famous photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker, writer and producer Jim Rakete. They got a contract with CBS in 1979 and released their first album "Morgenrot", winning the "Deutscher Schallplattenpreis". Without a commercial breakthrough, CBS fired the band and Morgenrot dissolved.

Their third album "Geld macht glücklich" was recorded in 1982 at the Audio-Tonstudio in West Berlin. It was produced by Udo Arndt, Micky Sauber and the band.



Tracklist:

1 Wenn du willst
2 Wir bleiben blass
3 Du lässt mich nicht verkommen
4 Männer sind alle Engel
5 Helden
6 Ich möchte dich wiedersehen
7 Ça va!
8 Deine kalte Schulter
9 In fremden Landen
10 Synthie geklaut! (War es Potsch?)
11 Halt mich fest
12 Wilder als Wein

Morgenrot - Geld Macht Glücklich (1982)

(224 kbps, cover art included)

Daniel Kempin - Mordecai Gebirtig - Krakow Ghetto Notebook

Mordecai Gebirtig, born in Cracow in 1877, made his living as a carpenter but was celebrated throughout the Yiddish-speaking world as a folk poet and songwriter—the “troubadour of the Jewish people.” During World War II, he continued to write and perform, using the medium of song to chronicle his experiences under the German occupation. In June 1942, Gebirtig, age 65, was shot and killed by German soldiers when he refused to comply with a deportation order.

Gebirtig wrote Our Town is Burning in response to a 1936 pogrom in the Polish town of Przytyk. In retrospect, the song seems prophetic of the Holocaust, but Gebirtig had hoped its message (“Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire!”) would be heard as an urgent call to action. He was reportedly gratified to learn, during the war, that Cracow's underground Jewish resistance had adopted Our Town is Burning as its anthem.

The song Our Town is Burning remains a popular recital piece that is performed at Holocaust commemoration ceremonies around the world.

"Arbetloze zenen mir, on a beged on a haym..." ("Unemployed are we, without clothes, without a home...") is the marching song of the poet Mordechai Gebirtig. Daniel Kempin devoted an entire album to this man: "Krakow Ghetto Notebook", recorded by the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.

Daniel Kempin was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. He´s a member of the Jewish Community in Frankfurt am Main and studied music in Darmstadt, with several semesters of Jewish Studies at the University of Frankfurt and a Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He played concerts and gave workshops with jewish music since 1983 in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Poland Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel and the USA.

Tracklist:

1. Your Kitten Is Hungry
2. Avreml the Pickpocket
3. Make Merry, Children Rejoice
4. Our Town Is Burning!
5. The Eve of Yom Kippur
6. Shifrele's Portrait
7. It Hurts
8. Moments of Despair
9. Moments of Confidence
10. My Krakow Farewell
11. It's Been So Long
12. Once I Had a Home
13. A Ray of Sunshine
14. My Dream
15. Tolling Bells
16. A Day of Revenge !
17. Our Springtime
18. In the Ghetto
19. It's Good

Daniel Kempin - Mordecai Gebirtig - Krakow Ghetto Notebook
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Jean Ritchie, Paul Clayton, Richard Chase - American Folk Tales and Songs (1956)

A key figure in the 1950s folk revival, Jean Ritchie was a one-woman treasure trove of near-forgotten American folk songs, most of which she learned as a child growing up in a rural corner of the Appalachian Mountains. Ritchie moved from Kentucky to New York City in the mid-'40s after attending college; there, she became a coffeehouse folksinger at night and a social worker by day. Along with her sporadic but deeply rewarding recording career, Jean Ritchie was best known as a tireless archivist of the Appalachian folk tradition.

Jean Ritchie was born into a large and musical family in Viper, Kentucky in 1922. The Ritchie family was very much a part of the Appalachian folk tradition, and had committed over 300 songs (including hymns, traditional love songs, ballads, children's game songs, etc.) to its collective memory, a tradition that Ritchie drew on (as well as preserved and maintained) during her performing career. She grew up in a home where singing was intertwined with nearly every task, and the beautiful, ephemeral nature of these mountain songs and fragments was not lost on her. After graduating from high school, Ritchie attended Cumberland Junior College in Williamsburg, Kentucky, moving on to the University of Kentucky, where she graduated in 1946. She accepted a position at the Henry Street Settlement in New York City and soon found her family's songs useful in reaching out to the children in her care. Her singing, although she never had a strong pop sort of voice, was perfect for the old ballads, especially when she accompanied herself on lap dulcimer, and the ancient modal melodies of her family felt fresh and airy in her hands.

Ritchie soon found herself in demand in the New York coffeehouses, and her official career in music began. After hearing some casually recorded songs by Ritchie, Jac Holzman, who was just starting up Elektra Records, signed her to the label, eventually releasing three albums, "Jean Ritchie Sings" (1952), "Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family" (1957) and "A Time for Singing" (1962) at the height of the folk revival. Although she never reached the household name status of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Judy Collins or the Kingston Trio, Ritchie maintained her Appalachian authenticity, and her subsequent albums worked to preserve the rich folk tradition of the Southern Appalachians. Among her many releases are two from Smithsonian Folkways, "Ballads From Her Appalachian Family Tradition" and "Child Ballads in America", "None but One" (which won a Rolling Stone Critics Award in 1977), "High Hills and Mountains", "Kentucky Christmas", and "The Most Dulcimer". Married to the photographer George Pickow, the couple later re-released many of her albums on their own Greenhays Recordings imprint. Hobbled by a 2009 stroke, she returned to Kentucky and died there on June 1, 2015       

Sleeve Notes:

"The dictionary says that folklore is "Traditional tales, songs, dances, customs, beliefs, sayings, preserved unreflectively among a people … " and that the folk are "A group of kindred people … bound together by ties of race, language, religion, etc., and that great proportion of its number which determines the group character and tends to preserve its civilization."

American civilization stems from Old World sources. Our American uses of the English language literature, music, and folklore come from the North of Europe. Each "group of kindred people" coming across the Atlantic brought its own lore — things of the mind and spirit — and often "unreflectively," sometimes deliberately, have kept the identity of each individual set of folk traditions. The use of the word "American" (especially "native American") can lead to confusion in the field of folklore. The only truly native American folk are the Indians, and individual tribes have to this day kept their own separate group character and civilization.

English-American lore is not confined to any one geographical location — little pockets of Elizabethan culture isolated in remote mountain hollows. Such traditions are loved and remembered wherever tale-telling grandfathers and singing grandmothers are close to their children and grandchildren. For the genuine thing, carried on through generations and acquiring lively local and individual variations, always has strength, beauty, and a sort of quietness that make it convincing. Its power often resides in understatement. It does not flare into sudden "popularity" and then die out. Our folkways are as solid, as lasting, and as adaptable as the language we use. This lore is organic, not static, and changes with each generation of singers and tale-tellers.

This record presents samples of the lore of a kindred people — those of us here in America who, whatever our origins across the Atlantic, are bound together by a common use of the English language."

RICHARD CHASE, sometimes called the American Hans Christian Andersen, was born in Alabama and now lives in Beech Creek, North Carolina. He is a writer, lecturer, entertainer, recreation leader and consultant on folk festivals, and travels through the United States, giving programs of tales, songs and dances to all kinds of groups. He is the author of many adult and juvenile books in the field of folklore, including Old Songs and Singing Games (1938), The Jack Tales (1943), Grandfather Tales (1948), and Hullabaloo and Other Singing Folk Games (1949). He is also the compiler of the Signet Key Book, AMERICAN FOLK TALES AND SONGS (1956), to which this album has been issued as a recorded companion.

PAUL CLAYTON was born in the great whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he early became interested in folksongs through those that were traditional in his family. By the time he was 15, he was presenting a series of radio programs on folkmusic. and has since appeared on radio and television programs in England, Canada and Cuba, as well as in the United States. He has made numerous recording trips through the southern mountains, as well as in other areas of the United States, and in Europe. He has made several commercial recordings of folksongs in addition to having recorded for the archives of the Flanders Ballad Collection, Middlebury College, Vermont, the BBC collection, and the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress. At present, he is editing a volume of folksongs of Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, for publication by The Folklore Press, N. Y.. in 1957. Previously he recorded an album of "Whaling and Sailing Songs from the Days of Moby Dick" (TLP 1005) for TRADITION RECORDS. Paul Clayton committed suicide on March 30, 1967, at the age of 36.

Tracklist:

A1 The Gambling Suitor
A2 That's Once
A3 The Bashful Courtship
A4 The Split Dog
A5 Locks And Bolts
A6 The Snakebit Hoehandle
A7 The Old Grey Goose Is Dead
A8 The Big Toe
A9 The Deaf Women's Courtship
B1 Wondrous Love
B2 The Devil's Questions
B3 The Man In The Kraut Tub
B4 The Swapping Song
B5 The Hickory Toothpick
B6 The Riddle Song



Jean Ritchie, Paul Clayton, Richard Chase - American Folk Tales and Songs (1956)   

(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Blues Project - Projections (1966)

One of the first album-oriented, "underground" groups in the United States, the Blues Project offered an electric brew of rock, blues, folk, pop, and even some jazz, classical, and psychedelia during their brief heyday in the mid-'60s. It's not quite accurate to categorize them as a blues-rock group, although they did plenty of that kind of material; they were more like a Jewish-American equivalent to British bands like the Yardbirds, who used a blues and R&B base to explore any music that interested them. Erratic songwriting talent and a lack of a truly outstanding vocalist prevented them from rising to the front line of '60s bands, but they recorded plenty of interesting material over the course of their first three albums, before the departure of their most creative members took its toll.

Produced by Tom Wilson (Dylan, Zappa), the Blues Project's second effort was their finest hour. In less than a year the enthusiastic live band had matured into a seasoned studio ensemble. Steve Katz's features are lightweight folk but Al Kooper reworks two gospel themes ("Wake Me, Shake Me," "I Can't Keep from Crying") into ambitious blues-rock compositions, and Danny Kalb proves he's no mere folkie on extended versions of "Two Trains Running" and "Caress Me Baby." Bassist Andy Kulberg switches to flute and Kalb gets psychedelic on the jazzy "Flute Thing," penned by Kooper.


Tracklist:
I Can't Keep From Crying 4:25
Steve's Song 4:55
You Can't Catch Me 4:14
Two Trains Running 11:20
Wake Me, Shake Me 5:15
Cheryl's Going Home 2:35
Flute Thing 5:58
Caress Me Baby 7:12
Fly Away 3:30


The Blues Project - Projections (1966)
(320 kbps, cover art included

Milton Nascimento - Courage (1968)

Milton Nascimento's first album for North American ears, recorded at Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey under the watchful eye and discerning ear of Creed Taylor, is a masterpiece, a gorgeously executed tour through his early songs. 

Backed beautifully by Eumir Deodato's lush orchestrations and a clutch of sidemen from the Taylor stable (including Herbie Hancock, Airto Moreira, and Hubert Laws), Nascimento unveils one first-class tune after another, many of which would ignite a rush of cover versions.

Among the songs North Americans heard for the first time were "Vera Cruz," "Tres Pontas," "Morro Velho," the scatted "Catavento," and the intensely moving "Bridges" ("Travessia")" -- the latter which launched Nascimento's name on the world music scene. Singing in English, Portuguese, and often with no words at all, Nascimento's odd yet masculine and expressive baritone stands out like a moaning foghorn from the smooth A&M/Taylor sonic formula, a haunting combination. 

This was Nascimento before tropicalismo, when he latched onto the tail end of the bossa nova movement and quickly became one of its most inspired performers and songwriters. To some admirers, "Courage" remains his best record, period.


"Bridges (Travessia)" (Nascimento, Fernando Brant, Gene Lees) - 3:52
"Vera Cruz" - 3:12
"Tres Pontas" - 2:45
"Outubro (October)" (Brant, Nascimento) - 4:12
"Courage" (Nascimento, Paul Williams) - 3:25
"Rio Vermelho" (Dori Caymmi, Nascimento) - 3:23
"Gira Girou (Round and Round)" - 3:26
"Morro Velho" - 4:28
"Catavento" - 2:31
"Canção do Sal" - 3:07

Milton Nascimento - Courage (1968)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Nikki Sudden - Seven Lives Later

Nikki Sudden travelled many kilometers to record his seventh solo album.
One song was written in Toulouse, one in Berlin with Hugo Race, three in Czech with the Golden Angels and two in New York. Finally, in Leamington Spa, he recorded five songs with Carl Eugene Picot and Mark Williams from the Jacobites, to end this way his long journey.No matter how strong fantasy can be, it is not enough.
It just needs something from the circumstances and experiences that Nikki sings about on "The Devil Took Me Down To Georgia" to complete it.
"Seven Lives Later" is a truly a live album, because his creator sharpens his broken voice with endless kilometers and journeys with no cause, where the only that exists is lost smiles, laughter and unfulfilled desires. Try to join him if you dare...

Tracklist:

Cellar Door 4:25
Whiskey Priest 5:43
Golden Dawn 3:51
The Devil Took Me Down To Georgia 7:57
Evangeline 4:00
French Lipstick 3:01
All My Sinking Ships 3:05
Quand Les Rivieres Finissent 1:10
Behind The Lines 6:03
Valley Of Hearts 4:57
Flowerbox 1:27
Venetian Rags 4:31
Thorns Of Gold 4:33
Butterfly 7:26

Nikki Sudden- Seven Lives Later
(192 kbps, cover art included

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

"Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop."

What can we say about Billie Holiday that has not already been said before? Coming to prominence in the 1930’s where she played with the Teddy Wilson band in 1935, went solo in 1936, joined Count Basie in 1937 and finally Artie Shaw in 1938 before finally stepping out on her own again as one of the greatest jazz singers who ever lived! There is something about her voice that sets “Lady Day” apart from any of her contempories, or indeed anyone who tried to follow in her giant footsteps. Perhaps it was her tough upbringing, playing in the small bars of Harlem (including a spell in a brothel), that gave her voice that special anguish, pain and sadness, a yearning for something or someone better in her life.
"Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the South but also in other regions of the United States. Meeropol set it to music and with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York venues, including Madison Square Garden.
The song has been covered by artists, as well as inspiring novels, other poems and other creative works. In 1978 Holiday's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Cafe Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the poignancy of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction, Holiday would stand with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.
Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. Even John Hammond, Holiday's producer, refused so she turned to friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia allowed Holiday a one-session release from her contract in order to record it and Frankie Newton's eight-piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. Because he was worried that the song was too short, Gabler asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction so that Holiday only starts singing after 70 seconds. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.
She recorded two major sessions at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded and the 1939 record sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling record.
In her autobiography, "Lady Sings the Blues", Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work, Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday - whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty - claimed, "I ain't never read that book."

The compilation "Strange Fruit" was released in 1991 and features recordings from 1933-1940.

Tracklist:

01. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues (Frankie Newton & His Orchestra)
02. Fine And Mellow (Frankie Newton & His Orchestra)
03. Yesterdays (Frankie Newton & His Orchestra)
04. Strange Fruit (Frankie Newton & His Orchestra)
05. Long Gone Blues (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
06. Swing! Brother, Swing! (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
07. St. Louis Blues (Billie Holiday With Benny Carter & His All Star Orchestra)
08. That's All I Ask Of You (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
09. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
10. Summertime (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
11. Night And Day (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
12. They Can't Take That Away From Me (Count Basie & His Orchestra)
13. Your Mother's Son-In-Law (Benny Goodman & His Orchestra)
14. I Can't Pretend (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
15. Dream Of Life (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
16. Some Other Spring (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
17. Now They Call It Swing (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
18. I Hear Music (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
19. Body And Soul (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
20. I Wished On The Moon (Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra)
21. Ghost Of Yesterdays (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
22. On The Sentimental Side (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
23. The Very Thought Of You (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)
24. You Go To My Head (Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra)

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit (1933 - 1940)
(256 kbps, front cover included)

Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth - Shame For The Angels (EP)

After the post-punk band Swell Maps dissolved in the early '80s, lead singer Nikki Sudden began a diverse and restless solo career, during which he worked with a number of different bands and side projects. Sudden released his first solo record, Waiting on Egypt, in 1982, followed closely by The Bible Belt in 1983; both records recalled the music he made with Swell Maps.

In 1984, Sudden formed the Jacobites with drummer Epic Soundtracks (his brother, who was also a member of Swell Maps) and guitarist/vocalist Dave Kusworth, who co-wrote the material with Sudden. The band developed a laid-back, wasted, romantic classic rock and pop style with acoustic guitars and a rolling rhythm section. The Jacobites released four albums and three EPs between 1984 and 1986, when Kusworth left the band.

The EP "Shame For The Angels" features Mark Lemon, Slim Cartwright and Epic Soundtracks - as brilliant today as it was in 1984.

Tracklist:

01. Shame For The Angels
02. Fortune Of Fame
03. Heart Of Hearts
04. Ratcliffe Highway

Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth - Shame For The Angels EP
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Lucio Dalla - Come E' Profondo Il Mare (1977)

As the title of one of his most famous songs states, Lucio Dalla was born on March 4, 1943, and became one of the most important, as well as most popular, figures in Italian pop music of the second half of the 20th century. Dalla's career was a fascinating musical rollercoaster through several distinct periods. More than once he managed to enrapture and then enrage fans and critics with his sudden changes of musical direction, which were, as is often the case in Italy, invariably perceived as sheer ideological betrayals. Still, at the same time that he was alienating one audience, he was attracting a new and often bigger one. Typically unfazed by controversy, Dalla never let criticism get behind his perennial sad buffoon façade, and kept doing things his way, even at the risk of self-parody. By the early 21st century, Dalla had long become an untouchable icon of Italian pop culture as everybody's favorite mischievous uncle.            

His album Come è profondo il mare was released in 1977 by RCA Italiana. It was the first work in which Dalla wrote both the music and lyrics, after three albums in which the latter had been provided by poet Roberto Roversi.

Tracklist:

1. "Come è profondo il mare" - 5:24
2. "Treno a vela" - 3:27
3. "Il cucciolo Alfredo" - 5:22
4. "Corso Buenos Aires" - 4:38
5. "Disperato erotico stomp" - 5:52
6. "Quale allegria" - 4:30
7. "...E non andar più via" - 3:25
8. "Barcarola" - 3:50

Lucio Dalla - Come E' Profondo Il Mare (1977)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth - Jacobites (1984)

Following the breakup of the seminal British post-punk outfit Swell Maps, frontman Nikki Sudden embarked on a solo career, then concurrently formed a new band called the Jacobites. Far more classicist than Swell Maps had been, the Jacobites gave Sudden a chance to exercise his penchant for straightforward, elegantly wasted rock & roll, drawing chiefly from the Stones and the Faces while adding elements of singer/songwriter rock (Neil Young, Bob Dylan) and crunchy British glam (T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, David Bowie).

Having issued his solo debut in 1982, Sudden formed the Jacobites in 1984 with his brother, ex-Swell Maps drummer Epic Soundtracks, and guitarist Dave Kusworth. Bassist Mark Lemon rounded out the charter lineup, and the group made their LP debut with a self-titled effort on the indie label Glass in 1984; they also released an EP, "Shame for the Angels", that year. A second album, "Robespierre's Velvet Basement", appeared in 1985 and was something of a critical and underground success. Originally slated to be a double LP, it spawned another album's worth of outtakes from the sessions, which were released on a German label as "Lost in a Sea of Scarves".

The Jacobites' debut - originally issued in 1984 - quickly established the band's darkly romantic formula, their sound a druggy, dingy amalgam of touchstones including Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan (the latter Nikki Sudden's most obvious vocal model). For all of the group's borrowed moves, however, there's a spark of ingenuity which sets them well apart from the average copyists - it's tough to imagine Sudden's dispirited, lived-in songs at home in any other sonic environment, and the best of his compositions (the superb "Big Store" and "Silver Street" among them) would do even his idols proud.


Tracklist:

Big Store (Orig) 8:00
Kissed You Twice 3:25
Hurt Me More 4:15
Jacobites Grave 0:40
Kings And Queens 5:10
Silver Street 4:55
Hanging Out The Banners 3:45
Need A Friend 4:35
Little Bird 2:20
Angels In My Arms 1:50
For The Roses 4:00


Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth - Jacobites (1984)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dullijöh - Dullijöh (1982)

Dullijöh was an acoustic band from Munich. Between 1978 and 1983 they playd a repertoire of "bavarian-anarchic" songs. The band was fromed in 1978 as a duo of Werner Eckl and Herbert Kapfer, later Dullijöh featured Carl-Ludwig Reichert, Ulrich Bassenge and Stefan Liedthke from the band Sparifankal.

"Gstanzl" , "Zwiefacher" , "Landler", folk, bluegrass, blues and country rock were part of the far-out  "Dullijöh" mixture. The band used a wide collection of acoustic instruments, some of them self-made and played an early pattern of "freak folk".

The influence and musical participation of the Bavarian avant-garde band Sparifankal could be heard on some of the tracks. In August 1982 the band took part at the "1. „Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival“ in Burglengenfeld.

The album "Dullijöh" was recorded at LOFT-Studio Munich, May 1982.


Tracklist:
A1 Griasenk Beinand
A2 Renn Bua Renn
A3 Schbäda
A4 Merk Da Mei Gsicht
A5 Da Dood
A6 Nackad
A7 Mog Mei Lemm Valemm
A8 Afrika
B1 Weisse Schbozn
B2 Die Allgemeine Sonndagsruah
B3 As Oafache Lemm
B4 Ampfnwampfn
B5 Es Is Scho So Lang Hea
B6 Grenzliad
B7 Gstanzl


Dullijöh - Dullijöh (1982)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

VA - I Can´t Relax In Deutschland (2005)

The compilation "I Can´t Relax In Deutschland" was released in 2005 on the "unterm durchschnitt" label as a statement against nationalism in german pop culture. They wrote about the album:

"A negativing statement to german pop culture and german society in general labeling "Deutsch" as a positive worth.

Amazingly, in these days being-German functions as a lifestyle perfectly: Music, art as well as fashion and photography labeled as "German" qualify as marketing strategies and bring together pop culture and nationalism in a modern Germany.

The following bands took part at our initiative:
Tocotronic, Kettcar, Von Spar, Stella, Superpunk, peters., Egotronic, Räuberhöhle, Monochrome, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Die Sterne, Knarf Rellöm, Lali Puna, T. Raumschmiere, Saalschutz, Lawrence, The Robocop Kraus, Rythm King And Her Friend, Mouse On Mars."

The label "unterm durchschnitt" writes the following about the idea of indie music in the capitalist system:

"unterm durchschnitt is part of the problem since 1999. we try to uplift subversively popculture beyond the borders of nations and origin. since we are subjected under capitalist conditions as everybody else we refuse to call ourselves independent or diy. it's a myth that dreams of indie-feelings lead to a emancipated society in which the capitalist system is eventually shut down, because this hallucinated freedom can only be a small free space which is in fact provided by the system itself."


More information via http://www.icantrelaxin.de/index.html


Tracklist:

1 Monochrome – Gegenstück 3:53
2 Kettcar – Einer 3:49
3 Tocotronic – Aber hier leben, nein danke 5:06
4 Räuberhöhle feat. Saalschutz – Achtung! 4:35
5 Die Goldenen Zitronen – Fin De Millinaire 4:55
6 Rhythm King And Her Friends – I'm Disco (Discontent Mix) 4:16
7 Mouse On Mars – Wipe That Sound 3:02
8 Lali Puna – The Daily Match 4:06
9 Muff Potter – Punkt9 2:55
10 Peters. feat. Egotronic – Diskretion Deluxe 2:50
11 The Robocop Kraus – Concerned Your Secular Friends 3:21
12 Kante – My Love Is Still Untold 5:32
13 Bernadette La Hengst – Warum nicht 2 3:21
14 Die Sterne – Sorglos (Studioversion) 4:00
15 Von Spar – Slow Down For A Fast Trip (2005) 2:59
16 Stella – Business Of Strangers 3:28
17 Knarf Rellöm – Arme kleine Deutsche 4:01
18 T.Raumschmiere – Noch nie/Nicht mehr 3:50
19 Superpunk – Matula (Live) 2:11
20 Lawrence – Things 4:26

VA - I Can´t Relax In Deutschland (2005)

(320 kbps, front cover included)

Maria Bethânia – Maria Bethânia (1969)

Brazil's Maria Bethânia is one of her country's most famous, gifted, and enduring singers. After releasing her self-titled debut in 1965 for RCA, she became one of the most prominent voices to emerge from the MPB/Tropicalia eras; she has mastered genres ranging from samba, bossa, and pop to jazz, indigenous folk, and even rock. Possessed of a slightly reedy alto that can bend to contralto, Bethânia's background as a theatrical actress infused her recorded and live performances with drama, yet retained a deeply personal, intimate connection to both her material and her audience. She has released more than 60 albums.

Maria Bethânia Viana Teles Veloso was born in Santo Amaro da Purificação, in the state of Bahia in 1946, the sixth of eight children. She is the sister of singer/songwriter Caetano Veloso and poet and songwriter Mabel Veloso. Her father was not musically inclined, but loved to listen to Dorival Caymmi and Noel Rosa, while her mother sang almost constantly at home, becoming her daughter's first musical influence. At 13, her family moved to Salvador and she began to frequent the "university circles," intellectual groups gathering around art exhibitions and performances. The access to theater plays strengthened her desire to become an actress. At that time, a novice Caetano Veloso had become the musical partner of the play director Álvaro Guimarães. For Guimarães's short movie Moleques de Rua, Veloso composed a soundtrack which, according to him, should have had his sister singing in it. At 16, Bethânia initially refused, as she had never sung under such pressure. But Guimarães loved her timbre, and included her in his 1963 staging of Nelson Rodrigues' musical Boca de Ouro, where she performed a samba a cappella to introduce the play. The same year, the Velosos became acquainted with Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa. Veloso was invited to organize a Brazilian popular music show at the opening of Salvador's Teatro Vila Velha. The show, Nós, Por Exemplo, included Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Gilberto Gil, and Gal Costa (still using the name Maria da Graça). The show was a success and was re-enacted two weeks later, with the addition of Tom Zé (still using his Antônio José moniker). The success was even bigger, and the group (without Zé) soon presented another show, Nova Bossa Velha, Velha Bossa Nova. That same year, Bethânia acted alone in her musical Mora na Filosofia, directed by Veloso and Gil.

In January 1965, still a school student, she was surprised by the invitation to substitute for Nara Leão (an established young singer who had had a problem with her vocal cords) in her highly successful show Opinião. Bethânia's opening on February 13, 1965, was very successful, and her dramatic performance of "Carcará" (João do Vale/José Cândido) launched her as an overnight national success, repeated during the São Paulo season. Because of the success, Guilherme Araújo, then assistant for Aluísio de Oliveira at the RCA label, invited her, through Veloso, to record for the label. In May of that year, Bethânia recorded her first single, and some months later, her self-titled debut LP. On September 26, 1965, the Vila Velha gang opened the show Arena Canta Bahia, at São Paulo's Teatro de Arena. In April 1966, Bethânia, invited by Guilherme Araújo, opened her show Recital. She also performed at the Barroco nightclub in Rio. Also in 1966, Bethânia performed in the show Pois É, together with Gilberto Gil and Vinícius de Moraes, at the Teatro Opinião. In 1967, she recorded Edu Lobo e Maria Bethânia. Through 1970, she would also be featured in the shows Yes, Nós Temos Maria Bethânia, Comigo Me Desavim, Recital Na Boite Blow Up, and Brasileiro Profissão Esperança.

In 1968, as the Tropicalia movement was exploding, Bethânia performed on the LP Veloso, Gil e Bethânia (RCA) and the solo LP Recital na Boite Barroco. In 1969 and 1970, respectively, she released the LPs Maria Bethânia and Maria Bethânia Ao Vivo. Interestingly, she has always regarded herself a "tropicalista" -- given her birth and proximity to its creators, but she also claims she was never part of the movement and her discography lends credence to this assertion.


Tracklist:

Yê-Melê 1:46
Pra Dizer Adeus 3:45
Ponto Do Guerreiro Branco 2:59
Preconceito 2:17
2 De Fevereiro 2:24
O Tempo E O Rio 3:41
Frevo Número Dois Do Recife 2:36
Duas Contas 3:12
Andança 3:09
Onde Andarás 3:10
Agora É Cinza / A Fonte Secou / Eu Agora Sou Feliz / O Nosso Amor / Cidade Maravilhosa 4:23


Maria Bethânia – Maria Bethânia (1969)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Rita Lee - Fruto Proibido (1975)

Rita Lee, a former member of the seminal rock band Os Mutantes, always had lots to say about Brazilian rock, but she spent most of her post-Mutantes career on innocuous dance grooves. 

On this album recorded in 1975, she is a truthful rock artist. Backed by the strong grip of her rock band Tutti Frutti, she delivers some of her biggest hits here: "Agora Só Falta Você," "Esse Tal de Roque Enrow" (composed with mega-selling esoteric writer Paulo Coelho, when he was an alternative rock composer [he was the main partner of the late rocker Raul Seixas]), and the eternal "Ovelha Negra," the anthem of the rebellious youngsters in Brazil. 

Lee can be a singer as competent in wild rock as in softer ballads when she acquires a girlish, tender quality. The album is a document of a time when she could be truthful about her ideals.


Tracklist:

A1 Dançar Prá Não Dançar 2:47
A2 Agora Só Falta Você 2:46
A3 Cartão Postal 2:46
A4 Fruto Proibido 2:47
A5 Esse Tal De Roque Enrow 2:47
B1 O Toque 2:47
B2 Pirataria 2:48
B3 Luz Del Fuego 2:47
B4 Ovelha Negra 2:47

Rita Lee - Fruto Proibido (1975)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Bim Sherman - African Rubber Dub Vol. 3 (1990)

Jarret Lloyd Vincent (12 February 1950 – 17 November 2000), better known by one of his stage aliases Bim Sherman (others include Jarrett Tomlinson, Jarrett Vincent, Lloyd Vincent, J. L. Vincent, Bim Shieman and Lloyd Tomlinson), was a Jamaican musician and singer-songwriter.

Rooted in reggae, his music developed in later years in many directions, combining influences from all around the world, notably India. Sherman was also hailed as "reggae's sweetest voice". In the mid 1970s, he recorded a small body of roots tunes as a young struggling singer in Jamaica. He later moved to London where, as part of the post-punk reggae infatuation, he made a name for himself recording with Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound label. He became part of various musical collectives associated with On-U Sound, such as New Age Steppers (alongside Ari Up, formerly of The Slits), Singers & Players (with Congo Ashanti Roy and the late Prince Far-I ), Dub Syndicate and Justice League of Zion.

Sherman also recorded a handful of solo reggae LPs. Towards the end of his life, Bim Sherman took a whole new musical direction. He went to India and re-recorded his classic 70s roots tunes alongside a full Indian classical orchestra in Bombay, creating his masterpiece LP, "Miracle". This opened Sherman up to an entire new audience and he seemed at last to be emerging from the reggae underworld. "It Must Be A Dream", an entire remix of "Miracle" was released with dance mixes by top UK DJs, followed by another notable Indian/reggae crossover LP "What Happened?". 

Bim Sherman was diagnosed with cancer and died in November 2000, within weeks of his diagnosis. He received an obituary in The Times, a rare accolade for an underground reggae singer


This is an reissue of the dub album "African Rubber Dub" (1987) (tracks 1 to 10) plus 5 songs from "Ghetto Dub" (1988) (tracks 11 to 15). The song names have been changed compared to the originals. The tracks were mixed by Adrian Sherwood, King Tubby and Prince Jammy. Ths album should not be confused with "Raw Raw Dub" (Century Records, 2000).

Tracklist:

1 Golden Dub 3:34
2 Melody Dub 3:43
3 Highlight Dub 2:32
4 Cry Tuff Dub 2:43
5 Zion Dub 4:03
6 Party Dub 4:20
7 Changing Dub 3:33
8 Rastaman Dub 3:15
9 Divine Dub 3:16
10 Community Dub 2:59
11 Ghetto Dub 3:48
12 Station Dub 2:24
13 Matrix Dub 3:23
14 Moving Dub 3:23
15 Magnet Dub 4:06

Bim Sherman - African Rubber Dub Vol. 3 (1990)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Gal Costa - India (1973)

Brazilian samba singer Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos’ career began in 1965 and took off as the decade went on. While she released her first single as Maria Da Graça, she soon shortened her name further to Gal Costa, and found herself working with a vibrant new generation of singer-songwriters in her country, like Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and his sister Maria Bethânia. She recorded an album of breezy bossa nova duets with Veloso in 1967, which served as both of their debut albums.

Soon after, Costa became a part of the revolutionary musical movement known as Tropicália. And by 1969, Gal was one of the most potent and popular voices in that group, scoring nationwide hits like “Divino, Maravilhoso” and “Não Identificado” while also pushing her sound to the extremes of psychedelic rock. (See the second album she released that year, Gal, for a dose of some of the era’s wildest sound.) As Caetano Veloso put it in his memoir Tropical Truth, Costa’s voice transformed from soft and dulcet to “incorporating vocal sounds that included both Janis Joplin’s grunts and the cries of James Brown.”

But by the early years of the 1970s, Tropicália as a movement was extinguished, as Costa’s key collaborators Gil and Veloso were first imprisoned and then exiled to England until 1972. Despite that, Costa’s star was ascendant—so much so that, across from her Rio home, a stretch of beach where the hippies hung out to smoke weed was deemed “Gal’s dune.” Costa’s 1973 album "Índia" cemented her status as one of Brazil’s biggest and most defiant stars, from its government-banned cover image to its closing cover of the standard “Desafinado.” With it, Costa paid tribute to her country’s musical heritage while also bravely forging ahead in the post-tropicalismo era, one increasingly repressed by the military regime running the country.

With "Índia", Gal Costa completely abandoned the absurd, screaming guitars and wild drumming for some of the lushest, most sophisticated, and most complex arrangements of her career. Her voice is clear and inviting as always, sitting perfectly with the strings, accordions, horns, reeds, and percussion that swirl around, effortlessly punctuating the romance in every track. 

With Gilberto Gil alongside on acoustic guitar and musical director, the arrangements definitely glow with his polyphonic personality, but these songs have a feel all their own - sounding as if they blossomed out of necessity and the sharp edge of elegance. 

"Índia" seems as if it were conceived with ideas walled off to past influences and future aspirations, holding a timeless quality, leaving one to wonder if Costa and Gil were at all aware of what they were producing while it was happening or if they were completely swept up in the magic of the moment. 

Even though the hugely influential Tropicalia movement was over by the time of this release, "Índia" unquestionably shows that Costa's inventiveness was still unfolding and impulsive and should be considered by the wave of Tropicalia collectors as a worthy addition to the assortment of recordings in that it shows how a major player in that movement transferred her ambitions to a completely different direction without forsaking her class or drive.


Tracklist:

A1 Índia 6:51
A2 Milho Verde 4:20
A3 Presente Cotidiano 2:54
A4 Volta 3:17
B1 Relance 4:52
B2 Da Maior Importância 5:12
B3 Passarinho 2:23
B4 Pontos De Luz 2:40
B5 Desafinado 2:36


Gal Costa - India
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Boris Blacher et al - Testimonies of War - Kriegszeugnisse 1914-1945

Boris Blacher was an important twentieth century cosmopolitan composer whose best works linger near the fringes of the standard repertory. The music from the first half of his career was tonal and largely approachable, though in the latter half he adopted serial techniques with less emphasis on atonality. He was quite versatile, composing operas, ballets, symphonies, various instrumental works and choral, chamber, film, and electronic music.

Although our century is littered with documents and records - notably of its tragedies - authentic testimonies remain priceless. Music, since Beethoven, has acquired a documentary significance all its own. From about 1910 onwards its forecasts have generally been as accurate as its reports. "Testimonies of War" was planned and first released in connexion with the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Without the example of Britten's "War Requiem", the nature of this double-CD might have been very different. Nevertheless they are essentially independent from that example: for they attempt, within a modest framework, to define in musical and textual terms certain links and coherences which are beyond the scope of any single work, however comprehensive. In the extensive and informative booklet which accompanies these CDs, the music and the composers are presented in their historical context.

Among the plethora of communicative projects inspired by the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Europe, the present collection deserves a special place. Apart from Blacher, this enthralling set contains further major discoveries including the brief but ineffably poignant "Fanfare for Those Who Will Not Return" by Harrington Shortall, and two previously unknown psalm setting by Berthold Goldschmidt dating from 1935, the year the composer fled from the Nazis. Such inspired programme planning, coupled with committed performances and outstanding liner notes, make this an urgent recommendation by any standards. (Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine)

A pair of stunning psalm settings, reminiscent of Bach's chorale preludes, composed in 1935 by the German-born Berthold Goldschmidt, who, at ninety-two, lives on today as witness to the outrage. (The New Yorker)

Kurt Weill's grimly penitential Choral-Fantasie is in the solemnly denunciatory language of the chorale in Mahagonny. To follow it with Vaughan Willams' radiant vision of Mr. Valiant- for-Truth's passing is deeply moving. Most listeners will hear this serene motet with the sounds of Harrington Shorta11's haunting "Fanfare for Those Who Will Not Return" and Blacher's remarkable Partita still ringing in their ears. An ideal way of presenting unfamiliar repertory. (Gramophone)

Tracklist:

Disc: 1   1. Boris Blacher :  Alla Marcia (1934) Berlin RSO / Noam Sheriff  Boris Blacher :  Scènes de danse ("la Vie") (1938) LPO / Noam Sheriff   2. Intrada    3. Pas De Deux    4. Scherzo    5. Rag-Caprice   6. Valse, 'La Vie'   7. Carnival   8. Episodes   9. Tango 10. Intermezzo 11. Theme and Var I (Rumba) 12. Var II (March) 13. Danzon 14. Envoi Boris Blacher :  Chiarina (1946) Berlin RSO / Noam Sheriff 15. No.1 Promenade (Thema) 16. Var I 17. Var II 18. Var III 19. Var IV 20. Var V 21. Coda 22. No.2 Adagio 23. No.3 Rondo-Finale Disc: 2   1. Harrington Shortall :  Fanfare for Those Who Will Not Return (1942) The Wallace Collection Boris Blacher :  Partita pour cordes et 6 percussions (1945) Poznan PO / Andrej Borejko   2. Allegro   3. Partita: Andante Con Moto   4. Partita: Vivace Molto   5. Kurt Weill :  Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen, pour choeur d'hommes (1929) BCC Sym Chor / Stephen Jackson Berthold Goldschmidt :  Zwei Psalmen, pour ténor et cordes (1935) Endrik Wottrich   6. Psalm 120 'Ich Rufe Zu Dem Herrn In Meiner Not'    7. Psalm 124 'Wo Der Herr Nicht Bei Uns Ware' Boris Blacher :  Deuxième Sonatine pour piano (1940) Sylvie Lechevalier   8. Moderato   9. Allegro 10. Darius Milhaud :  Choral pour piano op111 (1941) Sylvie Lechevalier Boris Blacher :  Drei Psalmen, pour baryton et piano (1943) Michael Kraus / Walter Moore 11. Psalm 142 'Ich Schreie Zum Herrn Mit Meiner Stimme' 12. Psalm 141 'Herr, Ich Rufe Zu Dir; Eile Zu Mir' 13. Psalm 121 'Ich Hebe Meine Augen Auf Zu Den Bergen'  14. Kurt Weill :  Choral-Fantasie "Herr Gott dein Zorn tu von uns wenden" pour orchestre à cordes, trois vents et choeur d'hommes (1922) Poznan PO/Andrej Borejko 15. Ralph Vaughan Williams :  Valiant-for-Truth, pour choeur mixte (1940) BBC Sym Chor / Stephen Jackson Boris Blacher et al. - Testimonies of War - Kriegszeugnisse 1914 - 1945 (320 kbps, cover art included)