Sunday, August 30, 2026

VA • Sun Records Originals 52 Rockabilly Rarities

 



Description from Sun Records / Bandcamp:
Sun Records, known as the birthplace of rock and roll, was arguably also the originator of the rockabilly sound that would define rock from Memphis and the surrounding areas in the 1950s and early 1960s. This compilation of 52 Rockabilly Rarities celebrates the lesser-known rockabilly gems in the Sun catalog, like Jimmy Haggett's "Rock Me Baby," Onie Wheeler's "Walkin' Shoes," Dickey Lee's "Hey Heart," and more.
https://sunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sun-records-originals-52-rockabilly-rarities

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Descripción de Sun Records / Bandcamp:
Sun Records, conocida como la cuna del rock and roll, fue también, podría decirse, el origen del sonido rockabilly que definiría el rock de Memphis y las áreas circundantes en los años 50 y principios de los 60. Esta compilación de 52 Rockabilly Rarities celebra las joyas rockabilly menos conocidas del catálogo de Sun, como "Rock Me Baby" de Jimmy Haggett, "Walkin' Shoes" de Onie Wheeler, "Hey Heart" de Dickey Lee y más.
https://sunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sun-records-originals-52-rockabilly-rarities


Saturday, August 29, 2026

Kenny Dorham • Jazz Contrasts

 



Review by Scott Yanow
Some of trumpeter Kenny Dorham's finest recordings were his sessions as a leader for Riverside in the '50s and fortunately all of that music has been reissued on CD. This album is a bit brief in time (41 minutes) but contains many memorable selections. Three of the songs ("Falling in Love with Love" a 12-minute version of "I'll Remember April" and the trumpeter's "La Villa") match Dorham in an all-star quintet with the great tenor Sonny Rollins, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach. The other three numbers (of which only "My Old Flame" includes Rollins) adds a fine harp player (Betty Glauman) and focuses on Dorham's lyricism.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/jazz-contrasts-keepnews-collection-mw0000267564

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Reseña de Scott Yanow
Algunas de las mejores grabaciones del trompetista Kenny Dorham fueron sus sesiones como líder para Riverside en los años 50 y afortunadamente toda esa música ha sido reeditada en CD. Este álbum es un poco breve (41 minutos) pero contiene muchas selecciones memorables. Tres de las canciones ("Falling in Love with Love" una versión de 12 minutos de "I'll Remember April" y "La Villa" del trompetista) hacen coincidir a Dorham en un quinteto de estrellas con el gran tenor Sonny Rollins, el pianista Hank Jones, el bajista Oscar Pettiford y el baterista Max Roach. Los otros tres números (de los cuales sólo "My Old Flame" incluye a Rollins) añaden una excelente arpista (Betty Glauman) y se centran en el lirismo de Dorham.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/jazz-contrasts-keepnews-collection-mw0000267564


Detroit 67 The Year That Changed Soul

 


Detroit 67 is the story of Motor City in the year that changed everything. Twelve chapters take you on a turbulent year-long journey through the drama and chaos that ripped through the city in 1967 and tore it apart in personal, political and interracial disputes. It is the story of Motown, the break-up of The Supremes and the damaging disputes at the heart of the most successful African-American music label ever.

Set against a backdrop of urban riots, escalating war in Vietnam and police corruption, the book weaves its way through a year when soul music came of age and the underground counterculture flourished. LSD arrived in the city with hallucinogenic power and local guitar band MC5 – self-styled holy barbarians of rock – went to war with mainstream America. A summer of street-level rebellion turned Detroit into one of the most notorious cities on earth, known for its unique creativity, its unpredictability and self-lacerating crime rates.

The year 1967 ended in social meltdown, rancour and intense legal warfare as the complex threads that held Detroit together finally unravelled.

 

Stuart Cosgrove (Autor)  

 

Memphis 68 The Tragedy of Southern Soul

 


In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was the launch pad of musical pioneers such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Al Green and Isaac Hayes, and by 1968 was a city synonymous with soul music. It was a deeply segregated city, ill at ease with the modern world and yet to adjust to the era of civil rights and racial integration. Stax Records offered an escape from the turmoil of the real world for many soul and blues musicians, with much of the music created there becoming the soundtrack to the civil rights movements. The book opens with the death of the city’s most famous recording artist, Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash in the nal days of 1967, and then follows the fortunes of Redding’s label, Stax/Volt Records, as its fortunes fall and rise again. But, as the tense year unfolds, the city dominates world headlines for the worst of reasons: the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

 

Stuart Cosgrove (Autor)  

 

Harlem 69 The Future of Soul

 

 

Harlem, 1969, and the vibrant community around 125th Street is rife with creative innovation. Troubled genius Donny Hathaway, bandleader King Curtis, and Miles Davis and his visionary wife Betty Mabry are reinventing black music. Jimi Hendrix is staging a benefit concert in support of the Biafran famine victims, and helping him behind the scenes is flamboyant indie label owner and heroin kingpin, Fat Jack Taylor. The Apollo Theater is bringing the best of soul music to the crowded streets, and at the height of a blistering summer Harlem plays host to Black Woodstock, a series of free concerts starring Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone.

Meanwhile, a city-wide raid has led to the arrest of twenty-one members of the Black Panther Party - and ultimately to one of the most controversial trials of the era - and a heroin epidemic is spiralling out of control. Young people are dying on the streets of Harlem faster than the body count in Vietnam.

Harlem 69 has all the trademarks of its predecessors - deep research, compelling storytelling and a keen awareness of social change - and maps out how Harlem became the genesis of future musical forms including jazz-funk, psychedelic soul, disco, boogie, rap and hip-hop amidst intense social change.

Stuart Cosgrove's critically acclaimed trilogy began with Detroit 67 and was followed by Memphis 68, which won the Penderyn Prize for Music Book of the Year in 2018. Harlem 69 brings his epic story of sixties soul to its triumphant conclusion.

 

Stuart Cosgrove (Autor)