Deutsche Grammophon brings us two excellent boxes of piano duo music - one on vinyl, one on CD - featuring the two foremost piano duo teams of the last half century: the Labèque sisters and the Kontarsky brothers. I take a look at the history of the piano duo, and how important it was not only in promulgating the masterpieces of classical music before the advent of radio and the gramophone, but also its unusual but important place in social interaction at a time when "girls and boys" were highly circumscribed in how they could carry on the more intimate aspects of their courtships.

Whoever said classical music was dull has never enjoyed the frisson of playing a piano duet with one's beloved...

Or heard great piano duos give it their all!

The Move never hit it big in America. Between 1968 and 1971 they released 4 albums: Move (1968), Shazam (1970, Looking On (1970), and Message From the Country (1971). The final two were issued simultaneously in the U.K. and U.S. The other part of the discography is more complicated and the reissues and compilations even more so! On this video I don't attempt a chronological presentation or try to make sense of the many compilations I hold up. I wasn't trying... Read More

This album on Kip Hanrahan's american clavé label released in 1984 features on this track Taj Mahal, Allen Toussaint, David Murray, Old Dara, Steve Swallow, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma.It's a raucous, ribald, bluesy, jazzy tune played with a light, swinging touch you're sure to enjoy!Hanrahan's american clavé label featured an impossibly eclectic mix of musicians and music. Sting was a big fan and later reissues some of the records including this one on... Read More

Always loved the Nick Lowe song "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding that Elvis Costello covered on his Columbia album Armed Forces, but it was an "add on" and not on the far superior sounding and packaged U.K. Radar original.One day back then, BTW, not now, I saw the Lowe single "I Made an American Squirm" and on the neck of his guitar was "Costello" in pearl inlay. Very nice!I turned the single around and... Read More

Second Song is the second studio album Neil Young has recorded with the band The Chrome Hearts, and the third album in total following the live album As Time Explodes that was released in April. Second Song is produced by Lou Adler and the Volume Dealers (Neil Young and Niko Bolas.) Anthony LoGerfo (drummer for The Chrome Hearts) and Manny Adler are associate producers. The album features seven songs written by Young. Five are previously unreleased, and two are... Read More

Mike Scott thought he was finished with the archive surrounding the Waterboys' fourth album, 1988's Fisherman's Blues. In 2013, the band unveiled Fisherman's Box: The Complete Fisherman's Blues Sessions 1986–88, a 121-track, six-CD set encompassing alternate takes, unreleased songs, improvisations, demos, session recordings and other material from the period. At the time, that was genuinely thought to be the end of the line.“The music flowed... Read More

Captured February 1970 at University of Leeds in the student cafeteria that could hold tops 1500 kids, with a most basic recording rig set up in the kitchen below the space amidst the pots, pans and stoves, and released to resemble a bootleg because the young photographer the band assigned to shoot the concert couldn't get any cover-worthy shots, Live At Leeds documents an on fire rock group just returned from the States, happy to be back home and anxious to both... Read More

(Press release): AudioDeskSysteme Gläss GmbH is best known for nearly two decades of manufacturing “the original” Vinyl Cleaner, the first fully automatic ultrasonic record cleaning machine that has been considered the benchmark in its product category ever since being introduced in 2009. Over the past seventeen years of manufacturing, the Vinyl Cleaner has evolved in terms of both effectiveness and reliability with each new iteration: In 2015, the Vinyl Cleaner PRO... Read More

The Ed Sullivan Show has found an entirely new audience across digital platforms with 1 million YouTube subscribers, 1 billion views on Facebook and now, 1 billion views on YouTube. Fans can explore this vast archive through more than 250 curated YouTube playlists featuring Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Motown legends, and iconic music performances.

You’ve probably heard Steve Swallow even if you haven’t heard of him. His discography compiled on Wikipedia cites more than 100 album titles and, even so, calls it a “partial list.” Yet he’s fairly modest in his musicianship, rarely strutting forth with octave-hopping solos. He’s a master of harmony, more often stressing the inner voices of a chord in a way that weaves together the disparate strands of a complex passage or that enriches the blend of horns blowing in... Read More

Good evening, we’re the Ramones, and you’re a loudmouth baby, you better shut it up. 1-2-3-4!!The Sunset Strip was in a transitional phase during the summer of 1976. Rodney Bingenheimer–once the mastermind behind his glamorous English Disco–started dominating the airwaves on KROQ with the latest new wave/punk groups from London and New York. Teenagers who were both listening and hanging outside the typical Strip haunts couldn’t have cared about what Fleetwood Mac and... Read More

Today, Acoustic Sounds, the world's premier destination for audiophile music, announces their official partnership with Newvelle Records, the acclaimed boutique jazz label known for its meticulously crafted, analog-first vinyl releases. The partnership brings Newvelle's celebrated catalog of more than 25 audiophile-quality jazz titles to Acoustic Sounds, where customers can purchase the label's releases directly through AcousticSounds.com, while... Read More

Keith Richards' 1992 solo album Main Offender Is IMO his best solo effort. It was produced by Keith, Steve Jordan and Waddy Wachtel. Following Charlie Watts' passing Steve became the Stones' drummer but here he was with Keith decades earlier laying it down, co-producing and co-writing songs.The band includes Ivan Neville on keyboards, Charley Drayton on bass (he's also a crack drummer), and Bernard Fowler singing some background vocals.Recording... Read More

The Polish trumpeter, who passed away at age 76 in July, 2018 made his ECM debut with this muscular, free-form quartet album anchored by bassist Dave Holland, who Manfred Eicher brought to the session, and drummer Edward Vesala. Stanko and saxophonist Tomasz Szukalski run the voodoo down bathed in echoey sheen on top of the hypnotically precise rhythm duo. You'll not confuse Stanko's muscular, insistent, lengthy excursions with Miles's more... Read More

Jewelmade, a Norway based company recently sent a link to its website, where you can see its products for displaying records and CDs both on the wall or on table top stands. The designer, Marius Brandl's story is here but first you might want to look at the products, made of aluminum and steel, here.For those living is Oslo, there's a store: Gabels Gate 510262 Oslo, usually open Monday to Friday (13-17),and Saturday (11-15).Maybe Jan Omdahl can get a sample... Read More

I shot this video after returning home from an outdoor party with afternoon temperatures hitting 93 degrees, but at least the humidity was high! Probably shouldn't have done it but whatever...I'm semi coherent and sufficiently so to get the job done. Henry the Human Fly was Richard Thompson's first solo effort after leaving Fairport Convention. Released on Island Records in the U.K. and Reprise in the United States, its poor sales were inversely... Read More

Hot, sticky summer day so I figured either "Summer In the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful or "Groovin'" by The Young Rascals, went with the latter, both mono and stereo from original Atlantic Records pressings mastered at Atlantic Records. Avoid the ones mastered at Columbia Records! There's also a video of Johnny Farina, half of Santo and Johnny doing a live "Sleepwalk" from an Eddie Brigati benefit for a music school... Read More