Maria Muldaur - Sweet Harmony (1976)

The title track reveals just about everything a listener will need to know about Maria Muldaur's third time around on the big-label recording scene. The first few moments of instrumental interplay between guitarists Amos Garrett and David Wilcox and electric bassist Bill Dickinson will make old-timers nod in the delight of recalling an era when musicians actually jammed on pop records, and bass players were not just listening to click tracks. Once the song itself starts, it won't take long before the urge to take the album off will also begin, but it is a smarter move to simply move ahead. "Sweet Harmony" the song is overdone, and dated in its sanctimonious hippie white-gospel feel, but "Sweet Harmony" the album clicks at times with some of the finest productions ever created around a Maria Muldaur vocal. "Sad Eyes" would have been a better choice for an opener. The unbeatable rhythm team of bassist Willie Weeks and guitarist Waddy Wachtel -- who, a decade later, would get the nod to back Keith Richards up on solo projects -- really set up a delicious shuffle here, and once the superbly recorded band sound is established, it turns out to be a perfect spotlight for Muldaur's vocal talents.

A sort of encyclopedia of country, old-time, boogie, and Memphis jug band influences rolls out in her vocal like a barbecue chef in Kansas City spreading out the evening's offerings. For a musician of her intelligence and savvy, aspects of this session must have surely felt like arrival at some kind of professional nirvana. To be singing a Hoagy Carmichael tune -- "Rockin' Chair," an astute choice that the songstress pulls off with great comic flair -- with orchestral backup arranged and conducted by the great alto saxophonist Benny Carter, for example. Does it get any better than that? Not really, and the Carter tracks are some of the best in Muldaur's entire discography, especially "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye." The way Muldaur goes for a high note on the word "go" -- and gets it, practically yodelling -- is one of her most enjoyable vocal tricks. There are many influences involved in this project, however -- not just master musicians such as Carter, baritone saxophonist Sahib Shihab, and guitarist Kenny Burrell.

Maria Muldauer - Sweet Harmony (1976)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Tracklist:

"Sweet Harmony" (Smokey Robinson) – 4:45
"Sad Eyes" (Neil Sedaka, Phil Cody) – 4:30
"Lying Song" (Kate McGarrigle) – 4:07
"Rockin' Chair" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 3:42
"I Can't Stand It" (Smokey McAllister) – 3:37
"We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye" (Harry Woods) – 3:35
"Back by Fall" (Wendy Waldman) – 3:55
"Jon the Generator" (John Herald) – 3:20
"Wild Bird" (Wendy Waldman) – 4:45
"As an Eagle Stirreth in Her Nest" (William Herbert Brewster) – 4:11

Tom Robinson - Living In A Boom Time (1992)

Tom Robinson (b.1950) is a UK songwriter & broadcaster first known in the 70s as an anti-racist and LGBT campaigner. He released 19 albums between 1975-2001 with various bands and has co-written songs with Elton John, Peter Gabriel, Dan Hartman and Manu Katché. He's an award-winning presenter at BBC Radio 6 Music, and released "Only The Now" (his first album in 19 years) in October 2015.

Tom Robinson seems to have been forgotten by the musical mainstream. The Tom Robinson Band were one of the great early punk bands, with an enormous following. The band split up after two albums and seem to have been forgotten, although Tom Robinson briefly returned to the charts in the early 80s with War Baby.

Tom Robinson continues touring and producing albums. "Living In A Boom Time"  - a solo acoustic album, recorded live at club gigs in Ireland - is one of his best albums and demonstrates the powerful mix of musical talent, wit and anger at the world's injustices that makes Tom one of my favourite artists. It captures the spirit of a Tom Robinson solo show around the beginning of the 1990s.

It starts with a brief intro, which comments ironically on Tom's transition from Punk Rocker to the more acoustic style of this album. Most of the album contains new material. "Living in a boom time" is an attack on the get rich quick culture of the early 90s and "Yuppy Scum" comments ironically on the transition from young rebel to middle aged pillar of the establishment that many people go through. My own favourite is "Rigging it up, Duncannon" inspired by the tragedy of the explosion on the Piper Alpha Oil Rig. "More Lives Than One" is better than the original, and "Castle Island" is unavailable on any other album. The album finishes with new versions of the classic tracks, "War Baby" and "Back in the Ould Country".

"Across eleven tracks, recorded live on tour in Ireland earlier this year, Tom Robinson reinvents himself as a solo folk singer. But where some faded rock stars may clutch desperately at the acoustic guitar, as a straw to save them from the harsh realities of life without chart positions, our Tom would appear to have made a sound and successful career move.

Shorn of the obligatory bass, drums and electric guitars', Robinson reveals a bite at the bottom of his voice-and a dozen more tonsiliary textures besides which will come as a considerable surprise to those who remember only the one-dimensional, weak and watery sound of his singing on the likes of '2-4-6-8 Motorway' and 'Glad To Be Gay'.

Standing alone and vulnerable like this, Robinson still manages to infuse his material with a strong sense of meaning, without having to resort to the blatant sloganeering which has often blighted his writing since the late '70s.

But then, with the possible exception of 'Yuppie Scum', Robinson's own translation of Jacques Brel's inflammatory 'Les Bourgeois', the songs here are uniformly less angry and embittered than they were back in his heyday as a pinko Punk.

Robinson's subject matter on 'Living In A Boom Time', 'My Own Sweet Way', 'Rigging It Up Duncannon' and 'The Brits Come Rolling Back' is still everyday social injustice in the post-AIDS, post-Thatcher era. But he now handles his themes with a weary resignation which, paradoxically, pushes the message home all the more effectively. And entertainingly.

Such a shift in emphasis may well prompt the agitprop fraternity to accuse him of going soft politically but, for the rest of us, Living In A Boom Time is Tom Robinson's most appealing album in years." - Chas de Whalley , VOX Magazine         

Tracklist:

1 Intro 1:00
2 Living In A Boom Time 3:55
3 Blood Brother 4:31
4 More Lives Than One 2:44
5 Yuppie Scum 3:05
6 My Own Sweet Way 4:10
7 Castle Island 4:24
8 Rigging It Up, Duncannon 3:26
9 The Brits Come Rolling Back 3:18
10 War Baby 4:31
11 Back In The Old Country 3:40

Tom Robinson - Living In A Boom Time (1992)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Shura Cherkassky - Frédéric Chopin / Franz Liszt (EP, Electrola)

Shura Cherkassky (7 October 1909 – 27 December 1995) was a Ukrainian-American concert pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone. For much of his later life, Cherkassky resided in London.

Alexander Isaakovich Cherkassky (Shura is a diminutive form of Alexander) was born in Odessa, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) in 1909. Cherkassky's family fled to the United States to escape the Russian Revolution. His family was Jewish.

Cherkassky's first music lessons were from his mother, Lydia Cherkassky, who once played for Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg. She also taught the pianist Raymond Lewenthal. In the United States, Cherkassky continued his piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music under Josef Hofmann. Before studying with Hofmann, however, Cherkassky auditioned for Sergei Rachmaninoff, who advised him to give up performing for at least two years and to change the position of his hands at the keyboard. Conversely, Hofmann suggested Cherkassky should continue giving concerts, and this long association with public performance meant that Cherkassky felt comfortable before an audience. Hofmann also recommended that he practice for four hours every day and Cherkassky did this religiously throughout his life, maintaining an extensive repertoire (baroque to Berio) to an exacting standard. His studies and advisory sessions with Hofmann continued until 1935. In the interim he began his lifelong obsession with world travel with trips to Australia, New Zealand, the Far East, Russia and Europe.

Cherkassky performed actively until the end of his life and many of his best recordings were made under live concert recital conditions.

Tracklist:

Side 1:
Chopin: Fantasie Impromptu, CIS-Moll, Op.66 (Posth.)

Side 2:  
Chopin: Etüde, C-Moll, Op.10, Nr.12, "Revolutionsetüde"
Liszt: Liebestraum (Nr.3)

Shura Cherkassky - Frédéric Chopin / Franz Liszt (EP, Electrola)  

(320 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Jah Children Invasion - Dancehall Classics Volume 1 (Wackies, 1983)

A follow-up to 1982's "Jah Son Invasion", "Jah Children Invasion: Dancehall Classics Vol. 1" rounded up another ten Wackies singles, this time concentrating on crowd-pleasing club numbers.

The two riddim 1983 set kicks off in style with Sugar Minott's "Original Lovers Rock," a romantic triumph over an inspired, minimalistic version of "Full Up." While Minott luxuriates in the glories of love, Chuck Turner isn't sure if his festivities are ending or just beginning on the emotive "She's out of My Life." Deeze Smood knows what he's feeling - passionate - and melts the disc with his smoldering "Jungle Love." Spragga Lexus, in contrast, has no time for romance, he's too busy just trying to survive on the hard-hitting "I Am Justa Youth." Producer Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes brings this section to an end with the hefty "Tickle Dub."

Steve Harper launches the second half of the set with his potent cover of the Wailers' "Jah Live" over a dread drenched militant version of the riddim, followed by Anthony Green's even more powerful "Victim," hitting virtually every cultural touchstone along the way. Minott returns on "Gi Mi a Reason," turning to the personal realm and his tortured state of his relationship. The growling Spragga Lexus is also back, now a "Conquering Lion" smacking down the ragamuffins, the wicked, and everyone else in his path, all in the name of Jah of course. After which, Barnes and his Wackies Rhythm Force let loose with "Unchain Dub" taking the riddim to its apotheosis.

Wackies released a steady stream of strong singles across the first half of the '80s, and although the vocalists didn't always do his riddims justice, this compilation from stars and barely remembered artists is proof of the label's and producer's power. 

Tracklist:

01. Sugar Minott - Original Lovers Rock
02. Chuck Turner - She's Out Of My Life
03. Deeze Smood - Jungle Love
04. Spragga Lexus - I Am Justa Youth
05. Wackie's Rhythm Force - Tickle Dub
06. Steve Harper - Jah Live
07. Anthony Green - Victim
08. Sugar Minott - Gi Mi A Reason
09. Spragga Lexus - Conquering Lion
10. Wackie's Rhythm Force - Unchain Dub 

VA - Jah Children Invasion - Dancehall Classics Volume 1 (Wackies, 1983)
(320 kbps, front cover included)      

VA - Music Of The Ukraine (Folkways, 1951)

Folk music in Ukraine retains great vitality to this day. Ritual songs, ballads, and historical songs (dumy) were sung a cappella or accompanied by folk instruments, of which the bandura (a multistringed lutelike instrument) is the most popular. Itinerant blind musicians known as kobzars or lirnyks (depending on their instrument of choice) were a common feature of the Ukrainian countryside until the 20th century. The hopak, an energetic folk dance composed of leaps and kicks, received renewed attention in the 21st century as martial arts practitioners integrated its movements into a self-defense technique based on ethnic Ukrainian traditions.

"Music of the Ukraine" includes traditional Ukrainian instruments such as the duda (bagpipe) and dances such as the Huculka - "a rapid dance played on mandolin-like instruments (balalaikas) and a home-made fiddle" (Henry Cowell). Often tracks demonstrate a confluence between Western and Eastern modalities, as on "Country Dances."


Tracklist:

A1 Gutsul Kolomyika Dance-Song
A2 Kozachok Dance-Song
A3 Hoculka Dance
A4 Country Dances

B1 Wedding Melodies
B2 Hutsulka And Kozachok Dances
B3 Folk Song - The Wind From Field
B4 Folk Song - One Half Of The Garden Blossoms

VA - Music Of The Ukraine (Folkways, 1951)

(320 kbps, cover art included)