News & Updates — classic albums

Karlheinz Stockhausen, a leading figure in avant-garde "contemporary" European music, made several records that could be enjoyed by rock & free jazz & noise fans, as well as those into experiments in orchestral music, serialism and nutty orchestral ideas. While the brainiac set will go off about his theories and how they apply to academic sound art, acoustics and music, the fact is that some of his music is also appealing to street jerks like me. Whether percussion pieces, chamber works, pieces for voices, pieces for piano, musique concréte, operas or single instrument concepts, his ideas fleshed out pretty well...

Happy birthday to that great big-band leader Count Basie. His preserve in the history of jazz is well-documented and much loved. From New Jersey, William James Basie got his start playing in the '20s in Harlem and the Jersey Shore before touring the Vaudeville circuit. He moved to Kansas City in '29 to play with Benny Moten, eventually taking over the band. The group was a hit with the swinging Kansas City scene for many years. After a brief stay in Chicago the band moved to NYC in '37, joining the competitive big band action the city's scene was entertaining...

Happy birthday to the great trumpet and flugelhorn player of bop and beyond, Art Farmer! A player of precise control and elegant brightness, he had a long and distinguished career that was creatively giving til the end. He grew up in Phoenix and tried out several instruments: piano, violin, tuba and cornet before settling on trumpet as a teenager. He started making his name on the Los Angeles scene of the '40s, working with his bassist twin brother Addison Farmer, Sonny Criss, Jay McShann, Roy Porter, Johnny Otis, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, Big Joe Turner, etc. In the early '50s...

Happy birthday to rock hero John Graham Mellor aka Joe Strummer!! Thanks for the great music with one of the greatest rock bands ever, The Clash, as well as your other projects.

Thin Lizzy are one of my favorite classic rock bands and bassist/vocalist/songwriter Phil Lynott is a big reason. A black Irishmen, he was a composer, singer and poet who grew up in Dublin. He started singing in bands in '65. In the late '60s he learned rhythm guitar and bass, forming Thin Lizzy with ex-members of Them. Thin Lizzy recorded several great albums with their twin lead guitars and Phil's poetic street-wise, yet romantic lyrics. The band mixed hard rock, heavy metal, blues, Irish folk and funk and yielded several lasting hits. Ravaged by drugs, the band called it a...