This was the last of the six albums John Mayall originally made for Blue Thumb/ABC Records between 1975 and 1978, about which he has said, "ABC released six of my albums as a tax write-off. A week after they were released you couldn't find them in any store." It's a live album on which Mayall fronts a quartet consisting of guitarist James Quill Smith (who sings lead on several songs), bassist Steve Thompson, and drummer Soko Richardson. The approach is rock-oriented, and the set list includes such Bluesbreakers favorites as Mose Allison's "Parchman Farm," and Freddie King's "Hideaway" (taken at a frantic tempo), along with the usual complement of generic Mayall originals, among them, a remake of "The Bear," from Blues From Laurel Canyon.

On the Who's final album with Keith Moon, their trademark honest power started to get diluted by fatigue and a sense that the group's collective vision was beginning to fade. As instrumentalists, their skills were intact. More problematic was the erratic quality of the material, which seemed torn between blustery attempts at contemporary relevance ("Sister Disco," "New Song," "Music Must Change") and bittersweet insecurity ("Love Is Coming Down"). Most problematic of all were the arrangements, heavy on the symphonic synthesizers and strings, which make the record sound cluttered and overanxious. Roger Daltrey's operatic tough-guy braggadocio in particular was beginning to sound annoying on several cuts. Yet Pete Townshend's better tunes - "Music Must Change," "Love Is Coming Down," and the anthemic title track - continued to explore the contradictions of aging rockers in interesting, effective ways…

The sister of the Tubular Bells composer Mike Oldfield, Sally Oldfield had contributed to many of her brother's recordings before releasing this solo debut in 1978. With her mellifluous vocals and a similar multi-instrumental ability to her brother, Oldfield spins a series of Tolkien-esque tales that set her firmly in the vanguard of 1970s prog rock.

52nd Street (1978). 52nd Street is Billy Joel's sixth studio album and the first to reach #1 in Billboard. The 1978 release contains some essential American pop songs including the three Top 40 hits, "My Life," "Big Shot," and "Honesty."
The sophisticated and somewhat jazzy album is conceptualized like a musical, a showcase of masterful writing and musicianship. Joel interjects rock, soul and Latin rhythyms along with the jazz. The music flows together smoothly, thanks to Phil Ramone's seamless production and Joel's melodic craftsmanship. The jazz influences come through most strongly on "Zanzibar" - featuring Freddie Hubbard's trumpet solos - "Stiletto," and the title track. The album's standout is the gorgeously layered love song, "Until the Night"…

Iceberg from the middle of the 70's were easily one of the best Progressive bands to come from Spain. This band came from Barcelona and consisted of: Max Sune (guitar), Josep Mas Kitflus (keyboards), Primi Sancho (bass) and Jordi Colomer (drums), Angel Riba (voice) could only be heard on the first record. Their style was definitely jazzier but with continuous conversations between the guitars and keyboards in a mixture of fusion and symphonic sounds. The band mixed Return to Forever or The Mahavishnu Orchestra's crazy and energetic music and Santana's more latin one. Iceberg made four studio-albums entitled: "Tutankhamon" (1975), "Coses Nostres" (1976), "Sentiments" (1977) and "Arc-en-Ciel" (1979).

Gary Boyle - The Dancer (1977). Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce a new remastered edition of the first solo album by acclaimed guitarist Gary Boyle, founder of Jazz Rock group Isotope. Released in 1978, "The Dancer" was Boyle’s first solo album and followed the final Isotope album, “Deep End”. The recording sessions saw Boyle joined by such celebrated alumni as Robin Lumley, Rod Argent, Dave MacRae, Morris Pert and Simon Phillips. The resulting album is now regarded as a classic Jazz/Rock album…

This band was supposed to call themselves Soft Heap and include drummer Pip Pyle, but though a tour was booked, he found himself otherwise engaged, and Dave Sheen was hired to accompany fellow Canterbury scenesters Alan Gowen, Hugh Hopper, and Elton Dean on a tour of Europe. Calling themselves Soft Head, they hoped to draw in those frustrated fans of Soft Machine and Gilgamesh. And perhaps they did on this night in France in 1978. But make no mistake, even though Hopper and Dean are present here, this is no pure fusion date with a bunch of knotty harmonics and angular changes riffing around all over the place. This is an electric jazz date, period. Largely this is due to Gowen's compositions and arrangements that walk a tense line between strictly composed elements and improvisation, and the fire of the band themselves, who are - on this night anyway - inspired beyond belief…

Wings Greatest is a compilation album by Wings and is their eighth album as well as Paul McCartney's 10th since leaving the Beatles. It is notable as being the first official retrospective release from McCartney's post-Beatles career. Excepting interest in its vinyl LP mix, this collection has become largely irrelevant since the releases of All the Best! and Wingspan: Hits and History.

Allan Taylor is one of England's most-respected singer/songwriters. His songs have been covered by artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Don Williams, Frankie Miller, Fairport Convention, Dick Gaughan, the McCalmans, the Fureys, the Clancy Brothers, and De Dannan. Folk Roots praised him for his "ability to crystallize a mood and evoke an era with the ease of a computer memory access, crafting perfect songs with dramatic changes in the spirit of Brecht, Bikel, and Brel." The Oxford Book of Traditional Verse felt as strongly, writing that Taylor was "one of the most literate and sensitive of contemporary songwriters in terms of words and music and one who is capable of exploring more complex subjects than most of his contemporaries."

Don't be fooled by the Bee Gees-esque cover photo, Love Beach is not really ELP gone pop. True, many of the songs are more concise and accessible than those on previous albums, and there are a couple of Greg Lake-dominated "romantic" tunes, but those had always been part of the deal. They're still classically rockin' along on "Canario," and half the album is dominated by the 20-minute epic "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman," reminiscent of such long-form ELP classics as "Trilogy."

Graham Bonnet is considered one of the finest Rock vocalists of his generation. Beginning his career in the sixties Graham was one half of the pop duo The Marbles who scored a worldwide hit single with the Bee Gees written song Only One Woman. Following on from the Marbles Graham embarked on a solo career in the seventies and was one of the first signings to former Beatle Ringo Starr's record label Ringo records. Following one self titled album Graham was approached to replace Ronnie James Dio in Rainbow. Graham featured on the album Down To Earth and also the hit singles Since You've Been Gone and All Night Long before he left Rainbow in late 1980 following Rainbow's performance at the first Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington.

Released in 1978 after London Town gave McCartney another huge hit, Wings Greatest rounds up McCartney's greatest hits from 1971 to 1978 – which means it skips "Maybe I'm Amazed" but touches on Ram. The main strength of this collection is that it contains many hits that never appeared on any album, and these are among McCartney's very best non-Beatle singles: the eccentric domesticity of "Another Day," the choogling rocker "Junior's Farm," the Bond anthem "Live and Let Die," the piledriving "Hi Hi Hi," and "Mull of Kintyre," a Scottish-styled folk ballad that was his biggest hit in England. And yes, it's fair to peg these as McCartney successes, since some of them were billed as McCartney, not Wings, and as such, this record is a great overview of McCartney's first decade of solo recording, containing many of his very best solo tunes.

A pair of great Mtume albums for Epic – paired up in a sweet 2CD package! Kiss This World Goodbye is early crossover set from Mtume – one that still holds onto some of the elements first forged in the spiritual jazz underground of the early 70s, yet one that also starts to showcase more of the tighter soul groove he'd burst into prominence in the early 80s! The blend is a great one, and makes the album one of Mtume's most compelling records – as even amidst some of the more grooving numbers, there's some great offbeat elements at work too – almost putting the record in the territory of work by Roy Ayers or Edwin Birdsong.

Before his name became associated with bad things (in relation to Vangelis), Stavros Logaridis (Σταύρος Λογαρίδης) was well established in the Greek rock scene, forming the band Poll in the early 70s, and then the famous progressive band Akritas in 1974. The lyricist for the Akritas album was none other than Costas Ferris, Vangelis' lyricist for the Aphrodite's Child album "666". During the 70s, a friendship was struck between Vangelis and Logaridis. He even lived with Vangelis for a brief spell. In 1980, Vangelis co-wrote a song, "NA M' AGAPAS" performed on his second solo album entitled SE ALLH GH. Vangelis used his pseudonym, "R. Broadbaker".