There are numerous "best of Jethro Tull" albums on the market, and too many of them feature virtually the same songs that have been endlessly played on the radio for the last thirty years. Jethro Tull are a group that are so much more multi-faceted and unique than many of those "hits" would suggest. Kudos then, to those who assembled this collection, which delves deeper into Tull's enormous catalogue of compositions and comes up with a greater, more accurate perspective of the band's history.

The classic hits of Frank Sinatra are presented with style and grace in an intimate jazz trio setting. A variety of tempos are showcased. Awarded the "Jazz Album of the Year" by the Nashville Music Awards. Beegie Adair say: "The only hard part of doing this album was limiting it to twelve tunes out of a lifetime of wonderful songs with which Frank Sinatra has informed my life and the lives of all those who truly love his music. This was truly a labor of love and I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed doing it."

One of the greatest figures of the 20th century, Bob Dylan helped shape the sound and form of popular music in the rock & roll era. Dylan emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s, earning a reputation as a perceptive, powerful songwriter, equally capable of penning a protest anthem or a romantic love song. His flair for impressionistic, stream-of-conscious lyrics marked a shift within folk music, an evolution Dylan also introduced to rock & roll when he picked up an electric guitar in 1965. Over the course of 18 months, he released Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, a trio of records that broadened the vocabulary of rock & roll, placing Dylan at the cutting edge of popular culture. Although he subsequently stepped away from the zeitgeist, his restless, occasionally messy work of the '70s and the '80s expanded his formidable songbook through a combination of classic albums (Blood on the Tracks) and intriguing detours (Empire Burlesque).

Le volume 2 met à l'honneur violons, flûtes, hautbois et basson, pour un récital savoureusement servi par l'ensemble breton, sculpté par une captation particulièrement goûtue. L'Allegro du RV 577 nous propulse dans un tourbillon énergiquement scandé, s'appuyant sur une vigueur très terrienne, puissamment rythmée par la basse du continuo. Sans contraindre la mobilité du discours, cette glaise leste un "Il Proteo" d'anthologie (ici joué selon l'effectif augmenté de l'édition de Manchester), délicieusement insaisissable dans ses chorégraphies versatiles et l'élan de sa verve caquetante.

Here is Vivaldi-playing with a commendably light, athletic touch. It's so easy to make a meal out of his orchestral tuttis yet these performances inspire the music with expressive delicacy and rhythmic vitality. The programme is a colourful one of concertos for a variety of instruments, wind and strings, in various combinations.

One of Decca/London's 2 CD sets, providing two discs for the price of one (even less, when downloaded from Amazon.com on MP3), this set is a bargain as well as a treat. It's lovely to hear from Mme. Robles in her concerted repertoire. The Handel, Boieldieu and Rodrigo concerti have hardly ever been in better hands (the Rodrigo transcription was made at the request of the Spanish harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, who played it brilliantly as well), and it's a delight hearing them again in such excellent sound.

Even for the Mosaic label, this limited-edition 12-CD box set is miraculous. Unlike most of their other efforts, this is not a "complete" set, although each of the 65 sessions covered is complete. A collection of mostly formerly rare sessions made for Capitol during its first 11 years, the music ranges from Dixieland in the Bob Crosby Bobcats manner to some swing-oriented big bands and a touch of bop. The quantity (245 selections) and the high quality are both remarkable. Included are exciting sessions by Paul Whiteman, Eddie Miller, Nappy Lamare, Ray Bauduc, Marvin Ash, Wingy Manone, Johnny Mercer, Scatman Crothers, Deane Kincaide, Armand Hug, Frankie Trumbauer (his last recordings), Pud Brown, Bud Freeman, Zutty Singleton, Bobby Hackett, Sid Catlett, Al Casey, the Capitol Jazzmen, Jack Teagarden, Anita O'Day, Ten Cats and a Mouse, the Benny Carter big band, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan, Mel Powell, the exciting and very underrated Cootie Williams Orchestra, Murray McEachern, Rex Stewart, Sonny Greer, Louie Bellson, Carl Kress, Kay Starr, Red Norvo and Stan Hasselgard. A remarkable and highly enjoyable set which contains many previously unreleased recordings.

"The Essential" Don Johnson might be stretching it. Still, Johnson's two albums had their merits, particularly Heartbeat, his debut. Of the 16 cuts on this set, nine of the ten original tracks from Heartbeat are included here. Of the tracks that come from Let It Roll, only the best make the cut, such as Johnson's versions of "Tell It Like It Is," "Your Love Is Safe With Me," "Heartache Away," etc. Johnson was smart about his singing career. He enlisted help form major-league songwriters like Bob Seger ("Star Tonight") and Tom Petty ("Lost in Your Eyes"), and of course his biggest hit, "Heartbeat," was written by Eric Kaz and Wendy Waldman. Throughout this collection there are surprises, and Johnson's voice is steady, rock-solid even. The material isn't always great, but it is never less that reliably sound pop/rock played by a host of aces, with guest stars including Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Ron Wood. Pretty cool, kitsch or not.

Frith plays the Sonata, and the balance of the program, with clarity and strength, and follows the dramatic contours with vaulting confidence.

Savage Garden is the eponymous debut studio album by Australian pop duo Savage Garden. It was released on 4 March 1997 in Australia by Columbia Records and Roadshow Music. The album won the award for Highest Selling Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 1998, selling more than 12 million copies worldwide, according to Billboard magazine. This album fetched the duo a record of 10 awards at the ARIA Awards 1997, grabbing Best Album, Best Single, Best Group, Song of the Year, Best Debut Album, Best Independent Release, Best Pop Release and Highest Selling Single award—the most awards ever won by a single act in one year. The following year at the ARIA Awards 1998, the album won two more awards—Highest Selling Album award and Outstanding Achievement Award. In October 2010, Savage Garden was listed in the top 40 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.

Composition for 1992 Summer Olympics opening ceremony officially released on the 1997 mini-album of the same name.
Ryuichi Sakamoto crossed numerous musical and cultural boundaries throughout his groundbreaking, highly accomplished career. As one-third of Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped build the foundation for synth pop, electro, and techno during the 1970s and early '80s. He won several major awards for his scores to the films Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Last Emperor (1987), both of which he had starring roles in. On albums like Neo Geo (1987) and Beauty (1989), he fused pop, classical, electronic music, and global textures and rhythms, working with an extensive guest list ranging from Brian Wilson to Youssou N'Dour…

With new John Lee Hooker songs, new versions of old Hooker songs, four duets with and a new song by Van Morrison, Don't Look Back continues the venerable bluesman's string of excellent albums in his '90s renaissance. Produced by Morrison, it also celebrates the 25th anniversary of their first recording together, as Morrison guested on Hooker's seminal Never Get Out of These Blues Alive in 1972. Don't Look Back hits the ground running with a rowdy, thumpin' remake of "Dimples" with Los Lobos; "Spellbound" pounds out more of Hooker's stylistic trademark - throbbing, raw, hard-driving boogie. The Morrison tracks include the ruminative title cut and his haunting "The Healing Game." Hooker also gives Hendrix's classic blues "Red House" his own rough-hewn, distinctive treatment.

While it's certainly too much for the average Wishbone Ash fan, "Distillation" is an excellent four-disc, 56-track box set that features the best of the band's heavy boogie from the '70s. None of the group's essential tracks are missing, and it contains 4 previously unreleased cuts, 11 very rare tracks from the vaults and 12 live versions (CD 4) plus band biography and track by track comments by Andy Powell and Martin Turner.

Unplugged is an acoustic live album by Canadian musician Bryan Adams. The album was recorded completely on September 26, 1997, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Recorded by David Hewitt and Bob Clearmountain on the Remote Recording Silver Truck. Adams was joined by Irish piper Davy Spillane and Michael Kamen who wrote orchestrations for many of the songs and brought students from the Juilliard School to play them. Three new songs were included; "Back To You", "When You Love Someone", and "A Little Love". The song "If Ya Wanna Be Bad - Ya Gotta Be Good" makes its debut on an album, originally appearing on the B-side of "Let's Make a Night to Remember" - to which it is paired on the Unplugged album.

Formed in 1967 by former Motions guitarist Robbie Van Leeuwen, the Dutch quartet Shocking Blue originally had a lineup of Van Leeuwen on guitar, lead vocalist Fred DeWilde, bass player Klaasje Van der Wal, and drummer Cornelius Van der Beek, and the initial configuration of the band had a minor homeland hit with “Lucy Brown Is Back in Town” a year later in 1968. Things really got moving, though, when DeWilde was replaced by sultry singer Mariska Veres, whose sexy presence and solid singing brought the band a second Netherlands hit, “Send Me a Postcard,” and then a huge international smash with “Venus” in 1970 after the group had signed to Jerry Ross' Colossus Records imprint. Although Shocking Blue's albums (1968’s Shocking Blue, 1969’s At Home, 1970’s Scorpio’s Dance, 1971’s 3rd Album, 1972’s Inkpot, 1972’s Attila, 1973’s Dream on Dreamer, and 1974’s Good Times) featured progressive rock elements…