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A hard slammer from the Clarke-Boland Big Band – recorded when the band was burning up the road in Europe, taking great players and audiences in one fell swoop, coming up with some of the strongest straight jazz of their generation! The album features stunning solos all around by an all-star mix of American and European players that includes Benny Bailey, Johnny Griffin, Tony Coe, Dave Pike, Sahib Shihab, and Ronnie Scott – all coming together with incredibly fluidity, yet also breaking out for some massive solos on their own! Arrangements are by Boland – tight, right, and outta site – and titles include "Let's Face The Music & Dance", "High School Cadets", "By Strauss", "Gloria", "Sweet & Lovely", "Get Out Of Town", and "I'm All Smiles".

Patti Page is working here to class up her image from the country waltz sound of her biggest hit – and is going instead for a waltzing mode that's more traditional, and which brings out the duskier side of her vocal talents! Don't get us wrong, there's not a lot of Strauss in the mix – it's just that the arrangements of tunes all have a lightly dancing, gently waltzing quality – one that still preserves the syncopated rhythms of Patti's bigger singles, yet which takes them out of the country pop side of the spectrum, and showcase Page as a singer with a deeper range. Backings are by Vic Schoen, and titles include "What'll I Do", "Memories", "Till We Meet Again", "Remember", "Now Is The Hour", "Wondering", and "You Will Find Your Love In Paris".

Includes highlights by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Bizet, Verdi, Mascagni, Lehar and Strauss.

The mostly orchestral music used for the Kubrick film, with alternating spooky and grand passages Strauss, Ligetti and others. Inlcudes "Also Sprach Zarathustra", "Requiem For Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Mixed Choirs & Orchestra", "Luz Aeterna", "The Blue Danube" and "Atmospheres". In a groovy gatefold sleeve with great stills from the film inside and and excellent sci fi illustration on the front and back cover!

Pretty great stuff – two groovy albums from German maestro Kai Warner, back to back on a single CD! Warner Plays Wagner is exactly what it sounds like – Kai takes on a host of compositions from Richard Wagner – but the results sound even better on record than they do on paper – thanks to Warner's groovy way of mixing strings together with early 70s production modes – all in ways that are far less classical than kind of a hip sort of soundtrack or sound library sort of vibe! Strings are heavy, but the grooves are too – and there's often a nice little bounce on the bottom, which cuts through the orchestrations in a great way, with lots of nice moments you wouldn't expect. Titles include "Tannhauser", "Am Stillen Herd In Winterszeit", "Lohengrin", "Dir Ton Lob", and "Lied An Den Abensternd". Swingin Johann is a whole new take on the music of Strauss – big band versions of older waltz numbers from the 19th century, but pepped up with plenty of that economic miracle German mode of the 70s! Instrumentation is jazz-based, but gets some sound library touches too – a bit of electrification in the bass, and some smoothing in the production – and even a bit of keyboards too. The end result isn't far from Berry Lipmann at the time – and titles include "Wiener Bonbons", "Annen Polka", "Wer Uns Getraut", "Rosen Aus Dem Suden", "Schatz Walzer", "Thema Aus Die Fledermaus", and "Kunstlerleben".

Some of the grooviest classical piano work you'll ever hope to hear, thanks to the keyboard talents of the amazing Eugen Cicero – heard here on a two rare albums of material recorded for the MPS label! Back in the 60s, a number of European artists were experimenting with a blend of classics and jazz – but few did it as well as Cicero, who could hit the keys with the fluidity of a concert pianist, but make the whole thing swing like some of his best jazz labelmates! The set begins with Marching The Classics – which has Cicero really swinging some unlikely numbers – march numbers from Mozart, Strauss, and others – taken at quick tempos that really move wonderfully with very fluid piano lines from Eugen, and work on bass from JA Rettenbacher, and drums from Kenny Clarke. Titles include "Aida March", "Carmen March", "Boccaccio March", "Love Of The Three Oranges March", and "Radetzky March". Balkan Rhapsody features wonderful tunes sourced from Balkan folklore, but also revamped strongly by Eugen Cicero – to give them a swinging 60s piano sound overall! Great credit here goes to the members of his trio – Peter Witte on bass and the legendary Charly Antolini on drums, the latter of whom had a sense of tightness that really brought a new sense of energy to these tracks. Titles include "Der Gehort Mein Ganzes Leben", "Memories Of Clausenberg", "Suber Sang Ertront", "Dort In Der Ferne", "Ima Modenschein", and "Der Schlitten Eilt".