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Vinyl

Bud Powell – Live At The Blue Note Café, Paris 1961 (2014 reissue)

Perhaps not quite as amazing as his fabled sides for Blue Note Records, but Bud Powell’s ‘Live At The Blue Note Café, Paris 1961’ is plenty good enough to make any jazzbo wish they’d have been there.

Vinyl

Aerial – Why Don’t They Teach Heartbreak at School? (2014)

Tingling and trembling with style and substance, Aerial’s ‘Why Don’t They Teach Heartbreak at School?’ is a power-pop epic.

Vinyl

Eric Bibb – Blues People (2014)

Eric Bibb’s civil rights blues manifesto ‘Blues People’ is poignant, and also entertaining.

Vinyl

‘Hydra’ may be the best Toto album you’ve never heard: ‘That’s a cult classic!’

Released 35 years ago today, ‘Hydra’ showed the full breadth of what Toto could do. It’s influencing their new album, too.

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Flying Colors, “A Place in Your World” from Second Nature (2014): One Track Mind

Flying Colors is a group loaded with talent, but in need of a rejiggering of priorities toward its own embedded prog-pop sensibilities.

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Thirty Steps to Forward – The Bird and The Fool (2009): On Second Thought

Warm, tranquil, and making do with minimal fuss, Thirty Steps to Forward’s ‘The Bird And The Fool’ is immaculately alluring.

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Ferenc Nemeth and Attila Laszlo [featuring the Yellowjackets’ Jimmy Haslip + Russell Ferrante] – Bridges of Souls (2014)

Here’s a review of ‘Bridges of Souls,’ a tasteful fusion excursion from Hungarian drum ace Ferenc Nemeth and Hugarian guitar ace Attila Laszlo.

Vinyl

The Kinks’ Dave Davies – Rippin Up Time (2014)

The overall feel of this new album by the Kinks’ Dave Davies is one of reminiscence, for a time and a place now perhaps irretrievably gone.

Vinyl

Jack Bruce (1943-2014): An Appreciation

In the aftermath of Jack Bruce’s long-awaited reunion with Cream, some people bitched. All I remember was watching in wonder.

Vinyl

Julian Leal – A New Beginning (2014)

Catchy songwriting, combined with imaginative breaks supply Julian Leal’s synth-poppy ‘A New Beginning’ with vitality and direction.