Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of American Music

Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of American Music
~ Ken Burns JAZZ Collection, Various Artists - Jazz
1760 days in the top 100
(76)

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No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: KEN BURNS JAZZ-STORY OF AMERICA'S MUSIC
Title: KEN BURNS JAZZ-STORY OF AMERICA'S MUSIC
Street Release Date: 11/14/2000
Domestic
Genre: JAZZ COLLECTIONSThis five-CD box set soundtrack to filmmaker Ken Burns's 10-part, 19-hour documentary Jazz spans nearly a century of jazz styles, from the martial rhythms of James Reese Europe to the soul-jazz of Grover Washington Jr. It includes time-tested classics like Benny Goodman's 1938 classic, "Sing, Sing, Sing"; John Coltrane's chanting 1965 immortal track, "A Love Supreme"; Billie Holiday's blue-ember ballad, "God Bless the Child"; and Ella Fitzgerald peeling off "A-Tisket A-Tasket." Bebop is represented by Charlie Parker's orchestral bop version of "Just Friends"; Thelonious Monk's nocturnal calling card, "'Round Midnight"; and Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" and "Groovin' High."

The jazz-instrumentalist-as-singer comes to life on Coleman Hawkins's "Body and Soul" and Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers' "Doodlin'." Clifford Brown and Max Roach's "I Get a Kick out of You" epitomizes the hard-bop era, while Miles Davis's "So What" stands as the modal masterpiece. The cool school is in session with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan dishing out "Walkin' Shoes," and the Modern Jazz Quartet's soulful elegy "Django" straddles all the above musical orbits. As for Django Reinhardt, he's featured on "Shine" with the justly famed Le Quartet du Hot Club de France.

Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" and "Potato Head Blues" and Duke Ellington's rousing rendition of Billy Strayhorn's anthem, "Take the A Train," and his moody "Solitude" show why they are the Olympian masters of this art form--and the most frequently featured artists in the series. Although Ken Burns tries bringing the music up-to-date with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, and two jazz-hip-hop-influenced tracks--Herbie Hancock's robotic "Rockit" and the French-language "Un Aige en Danger" by MC Solaar and bass legend Ron Carter--there are significant holes here. After Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman, the avant-garde period from the late 1960s to the 1980s is lacking. And aside from the bossa nova hit "Desafinado," Latin jazz is also missing. It's a tough task summarizing jazz in five CDs, and Burns has given us a vibrant and vivid multicolored aural portrait of the music. --Eugene Holley Jr. Read more

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The Essential Bruce Springsteen

The Essential Bruce Springsteen
~ Bruce Springsteen
1834 days in the top 100
(171)

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2003 career retrospective from the boss! This strictly limited Australian exclusive edition comes with a bonus disc of rarities, live and previously unreleased tracks on 3 CDs. Columbia.Vastly expanding 1995's single disc Greatest Hits, The Essential Bruce Springsteen easily surpasses the earlier best-of set by serving up all its true essentials and tossing in less appreciated treats and a full disc of rarities. Disc one spans the first decade of Springsteen's recording career, serving up at least two tracks each from the six albums that laid the groundwork for his '80s burst into superstardom. Disc two picks up with his mainstream breakthrough, 1984's Born in the U.S.A., and carries on through 2002's The Rising, tossing in live recordings of "American Skin" and "Land of Hope and Dreams" for good measure. The selections and sequencing surpass those made on Greatest Hits, though there's not too much in the way of surprises, other than that it appears that Born in the U.S.A. hasn't aged all that well for the Boss; here, he selects only three songs from the hit-laden smash, one fewer than is found on the skimpy Greatest Hits. Disc three is where the fun really starts for all but neophytes. The live "Held Up Without a Gun" is as gutsy a one minute and 20 seconds as Springsteen as one could ask for, and the likes of "Trapped," "Countin' on a Miracle," and a cover of "Viva Las Vegas" rank with his signature songs. --Steven Stolder Read more

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Songs for Christmas

Songs for Christmas
~ Sufjan Stevens
182 days in the top 100
(66)

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In December 2001, Sufjan set out to create a Christmas gift for his friends and family. The result was a seven-song recording that he called "Noel Vol. 1". Over the next several years, he created new EPs to add to the collection. This 5-CD box set includes all five volumes, plus a 42-page booklet with an original Christmas essay by acclaimed American novelist Ricky Moody, two essays, a short story by Stevens, a holiday sticker, chord charts, lyrics, comic strip, family portrait poster, photos, and an animated video.Every year it's an issue: how does one stomach the onset of holiday music? With an endless stream of overplayed pop stars stirring what Sufjan Stevens calls "That Creepy Christmas Feeling," how does one navigate the sound of the season? Back in 2001, Stevens began making annual EPs of traditional carols and songs mixed with his own holiday-themed tunes. With 2006 and Volume 5, he's compiled a perfect gift for the Christmas-inclined indie rockster: all five EPs in one box, separately slipcased, plus a booklet filled with lyric sheets, chord charts, a Rick Moody essay, and more. Yes, Stevens knows that "Jingle Bells" features him playing (as he notes) "insipid piano," but he also writes gorgeous arrangements. Check out the three versions of "O Come O Come Emmanuel"; each aches. And "O Holy Night" from Volume 3 is lo-fi genius, never mind anyone's resistance to theology; it's a time-stopper. Stevens's own tunes are unmistakably his, hushed vocals highlighting a unique mix of whimsy and yearning--much like the justly-lauded Illinois and Michigan. In the end of the liner essay, Stevens writes that the Christmas story is about love, and on that note, he proclaims that these songs and the "Creepy Christmas Feeling" prompt "a transformation of the heart" for him and bring out affection and reflection. Isn't that a great holiday vibe? --Andrew Bartlett Read more

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Orphans [Fold-out Digipak with 24-page booklet]

Orphans [Fold-out Digipak with 24-page booklet]
~ Tom Waits
1676 days in the top 100
(116)

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The three disc set is packaged in a fold-out digipak with a beautifully designed 24-page booklet, including neverbefore-seen Waits’ photographs.With these astounding 54 songs (plus two bonus tracks) Tom Waits has added a vital new work to his catalog. The title, Orphans, refers to the songs either being from a range of outside projects, various impulses, and whims, or simply not having found a place on the albums for which they were intended. While that scenario has constituted a stopgap measure for lesser artists, this set stands alongside Waits's finest work. He has shaped it into three separate discs, each one separately titled after the prevailing character of its tracks and playing with its own mood and dramatic arc. Brawlers favors raucousness and uptempo grinds and grooves, while Bawlers showcases balladry and the more overtly poetic. Bastards is a funhouse of angular characters, spiky anecdotes, shaggy dogs, and even a Kurt Weill cover. The set offers everything from the amped-up rockabilly hiccuping of "Lie to Me" to the breathtaking perfection of "Shiny Things," and from the outraged political reporting of "Road to Peace" to the closing-time lament of "Little Man." --David Greenberger

More from Tom Waits

Rain Dogs	Swordfishtrombones	Closing Time	Franks Wild Years	The Heart of Saturday Night
Small Change	Mule Variations	Nighthawks at the Diner	Bone Machine	Real Gone

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Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection (4 CD's + 1 DVD)

Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection (4 CD's + 1 DVD)
~ Michael Jackson
(240)

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Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection is a limited edition box set consisting of four CDs and one DVD, Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour.

Much of the music is drawn from the height of Jackson's career particularly from the albums Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, and Invincible. The set also features three tracks from The Jackson Five and six tracks from The Jacksons. Notable tracks on the compilation include the first release of the demos of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", "Shake a Body", "Cheater" and "We Are the World." The set also contains 8 unreleased songs, including "Beautiful Girl", "The Way You Love Me" and "We've Had Enough" and previously out of print songs such as the full version of "You Can't Win," "Someone in the Dark," the early versions of "Dangerous" and "Monkey Business," "Someone Put Your Hand Out" and "On the Line." Read more

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Pure Genius: Complete Atlantic Recordings 52-59

Pure Genius: Complete Atlantic Recordings 52-59
~ Ray Charles
188 days in the top 100
(20)

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Ray Charles is an American legend beyond compare. A ten-time Grammy-winning superstar who almost single-handedly laid the groundwork for soul music, Charles proved his mastery with countless jazz, country, R&B, and pop masterpieces as well. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the first year they gave the honors ('86), and his extraordinary career spanned seven decades. His remarkable life was celebrated in the 2004 biopic Ray-featuring Jamie Foxx's Oscar-winning performance as the artist-and now Ray Charles' musical genius is spotlighted in this comprehensive box of his seminal Atlantic Records era, 1952-1959. As preeminent music writer David Ritz notes inside, "These are the historic years of his creative explosion, the time when he reinvented himself as a musical revolutionary. These records will live forever." Jamie Foxx's Oscar-winning turn as Ray Charles could only touch on the musical highlights of the American musical legend's career. But for those further intrigued by Charles' savory musical roots, this seven CD/one DVD anthology of Charles' epochal career at Atlantic Records (who purchased the fledgling star's contract from a small L.A. label for $2500) is the ultimate chronicle. While the singer's recorded output for the label was typically shuffled and jumbled across a series of contemporary albums and compilations, this set offers them up chronologically as originally recorded in NYC, New Orleans and elsewhere, a gambit that allows a clearer insight into the musician's artistic growth and burgeoning confidence as a performer in the bargain. Though focused on the `fervent r&b and soul sides he cut before crossing over into country and pop in the ‘60s, Charles' Atlantic tenure also includes insightful excursions into small jazz combo work that further underscored the range of his incomparable gifts.

The final CD in the set is a treasure trove of unreleased (mostly) solo performances that range from a lengthy 1953 rehearsal tape to a handful of hotel room-recorded arrangement demos for his 1959 Genius of Ray Charles collection. The set's DVD is another welcome bonus, containing the legend's complete performance at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival (though he'd just left Atlantic, his repertoire and band for the show are rooted in the era), capped with the modern reminisces of Atlantic founder Ahmet Ertegun. Lavishly packaged in a box that replicates a ‘50's-era 45-player and featuring a hard-bound liner book that includes reprints of the original albums' liner notes, a comprehensive sessionography and an insightful new essay from noted r&b biographer David Ritz, the collection lives up to its billing at every level: Pure genius, indeed. --Jerry McCulley Read more

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Rachmaninov: The Symphonies

Rachmaninov: The Symphonies
~ Tom Krause (Performer), Sergey Rachmaninov (Composer), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Conductor), Natalia Troitskaya (Performer), Ryszard Karcykowski (Performer)
960 days in the top 100
(27)

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The Christmas Trilogy (3CD/DVD)

The Christmas Trilogy (3CD/DVD)
~ Trans-Siberian Orchestra
1242 days in the top 100
(162)

Buy new: $24.99
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Hard rock producer Paul O'Neill, renowned for his work with Aerosmith and Savatage, teamed with the latter band's Jon Oliva to create Trans-Siberian Orchestra, an inspired fusion of classical music and rock-opera pageantry. Their first two releases are visionary and timeless Christmas-themed concept albums, spotlighting lead guitars and classical string sections alike, and they became instant contemporary holiday classics. 2004's The Lost Christmas Eve, which completes their symphonic rock Yuletide triology, underscores Billboard's recent comment that TSO "seems to be turning into a Christmas tradition." Read more

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The Live Anthology (4 CD)

The Live Anthology (4 CD)
~ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
(80)

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The Live Anthology is a multiple-disc set of recordings drawn from thirty years of live performances. The collection brings together material from 1978-2007 culled from hundreds of hours of live concert recordings covering every era of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' tours and represents the best tracks as chosen by producers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Ryan Ulyate.
The producers made no fixes or overdubs, letting the newly mixed original recordings showcase the invention, spontaneity, craft, and the musicianship that has made Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers among the most celebrated live performers of their time. Along with powerful interpretations of their own classic hits and originals, The Live Anthology features the band tackling some of their best-loved cover material, from classics to obscure beauties to unexpected adaptations. The theme from Goldfinger, the Zombies' 'I Want You Back Again,' the Grateful Dead's 'Friend of the Devil,' early Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well,' Booker T. and the MGs' 'Green Onions,' James Brown's 'Good, Good Lovin' and many more. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers travel wide, paying their musical debts through song and showing just how confidently the band moves across genres and over time. Read more

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3 Pak: 80's Pop Hits

3 Pak: 80's Pop Hits
~ Various Artists (Artist)
1685 days in the top 100
(26)

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No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: 80'S POP HITS
Title: 80'S POP HITS
Street Release Date: 08/21/2001
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP COLLECTIONS Read more

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Live: 1975-85 (3CD)

Live: 1975-85 (3CD)
~ Bruce Springsteen
1763 days in the top 100
(119)

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How the West Was Won

How the West Was Won
~ Led Zeppelin
1761 days in the top 100
(410)

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Here is the motherlode of Led Zeppelin live recordings, the first official release of legendary performances recorded at the Los Angeles Forum and Long Beach Arena in June, 1972. Highlights include a more than 25-min. version of "Dazed and Confused," a 23-min. medley kicked off by "Whole Lotta Love," and such classics as "Stairway to Heaven" and "Rock and Roll."
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: LED ZEPPELIN
Title: HOW THE WEST WAS WON
Street Release Date: 05/27/2003
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POPFor a band with such an overarching legacy, the official record of Led Zeppelin's legendary--and unpredictable--live act has heretofore been poorly represented by the disappointing, scattershot soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same. But this triple-disc live set (culled from 1972 Long Beach/LA shows in advance of Houses of the Holy) addresses history with a vengeance, if a few decades late. These shows have rightfully assumed cult status in the bootleg market, showcasing a band at the peak of its creative and performing powers. Zep faithful will welcome the belated release as evidence for enduring loyalty, but younger fans may find its diversity and dynamics even more enlightening--indeed, whole careers have since been built on the musical ideas Jimmy Page and company toss off here as decorative filler. Crucially rooted in the amped-and-hammered American blues of the guitarist's former band, the Yardbirds, the marathon workouts of "Dazed and Confused" and "Whole Lotta Love" (which consume nearly an hour all by themselves) somehow encompass Ricky Nelson, Morocco, James Brown, Holst, Elvis Presley, and Muddy Waters amidst their trademark sturm und drang, while the acoustic set that closes out disc one showcases the band's--and particularly Robert Plant's--good-natured, crypto-Celtic folk appeal with energetic aplomb. Bigger and brasher than just about any rock act that followed in its historic wake, yet ever fan-loyal to its myriad influences, Led Zeppelin's live juggernaut finally gets the monument it deserves. --Jerry McCulley Read more

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