LA Workshop Norwegain Wood is a project arranged by Joe Pasquale. This album features Lee Ritenour, Ray Parker Jr, Steve Lukather and more great musicians from the sessiondays.

Mémoriance is a unique sounding French symphonic progressive band from the 1970s who released 2 studio albums. Their debut album, "Et Après…", is a fine blend of styles, ranging from fellow French symphonic bands like Ange, Atoll and Carpe Diem, but also with a blend of Steve Hackett style guitar playing, as well as a hint of "Wish You Were Here", era Pink Floyd.
Their second release "L'Écume des jours d'après Boris Vian" is a concept album, based on the 1947 philosophical novel "L'Ecume des jours" (Froth on the Daydream), by Boris Vian.

The various bands led by harmonica player and singer George "Mojo" Buford hark back to the classic Chicago blues sounds of the early '60s. Among harmonica players, Buford has the distinction of being the only musician to have played with various bands led by the late Muddy Waters in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. (Waters died in April 1981.) Buford left Mississippi for Memphis in his teens and honed his chops around Memphis before heading to Chicago in 1952. He began playing with Waters in Chicago in the late '50s, but by 1962 Buford relocated to Minneapolis, where he recorded several obscure albums for the Vernon and Folk-Art labels. He rejoined Waters' band in 1967 for a full year and then toured with him again in the early '70s, after harmonica player Jerry Portnoy left to form the Legendary Blues Band…

Precursor in electronic music, he was known in the beginning of the 80s, mainly in the Geneva area, between the french alps and the Jura, and Switzerland.
Thierry Fervant built his career as a composer, publisher and record producer in 1964 after completing his piano, higher solfege, harmony and counterpoint classes in Geneva. At the same time, he worked for 10 years as press secretary for the record label Barclay Records…

The single-disc, 29-track compilation Puzzles collects all of Ed Bruce's RCA recordings from the late '60s, including "Blue Denim Eyes," "By Route of New Orleans," "Walker's Woods," "Last Train to Clarksville," "Painted Girls and Wine," "Memphis Morning," "Why Can't I Come Home," "Ninety Seven More to Go," "Give Me More Than You Can Take," "Something Else to Mess Your Mind" and no less than three versions of the title track. While this material is not among Bruce's best-known, it is among his best. Though the duplicate versions of some tracks can be tedious – "Puzzles" is presented in three versions, there are two takes of "I'd Be Best Leaving You," there are both dubbed and undubbed versions of "Painted Girls and Wine" and "Blue Bayou" – Puzzles nevertheless is an excellent way to become acquainted with a fine, underappreciated talent.

This particular version of the Broadcasters was unarguably magical, and this recording reveals why. Recorded four years after Earl dealt with his demons (alcohol, drugs, nervous collapse), it is the first of a string of all-instrumental albums by Earl, and it drips with class and soul. It's not just the exceptional skill of the players, however, that makes it so special; it was recorded on one of a handful of audiophile labels (AudioQuest), and therefore features state-of-the-art production. From the ringing opening chords of Magic Sam's "Blues for the West Side" to the beautiful acoustic guitar/piano duet of "Derek's Peace," Still River is thoroughly enjoyable. "Kansas City Monarch" is slow and sweet, featuring Bruce Katz tearing up the low notes, a nice sax solo by Anders Gaardmand, and some great double-string work by Earl. There is a moody version of John Coltrane's "Equinox" and a bog-dwelling rouser written by the entire band called "Chili Ba Hugh." You'll also like the greasy Hammond B3 organ on "Soul Serenade".

Powering thru two discs' worth of songs from both lineups of the Rollins Band, The Only Way to Know for Sure is a tight, focused live record that easily overshadows not only Rollins Band's early live output, but also the last two studio records. The live version of songs from Get Some Go Again and Nice are more powerful and meaty than their somewhat clean studio versions, and the new Rollins Band puts a little more muscle into some old material like "Low So" and "Disconnect." Obviously, one would assume that since these guys spend a whole lotta damn time on the road, that a live record would be great, not to mention a good starting point to get an overview of some of this band's (as well as the original lineup's) best material.

Taking inspiration from Charlie Christian and Lonnie Johnson, T-Bone Walker plays with an exceptionally elegant and relaxed style, the perfect foil for Charles Brown's piano. An innovator of this caliber could only spark emulation. T-Bone Walker's influence can be heard in B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown or Buddy Guy. Even Jimi Hendrix confessed his indebtedness. Today guitarists, like Duke Robillard, Pete Mayes or Otis Grand, still perpetuate his legacy. In 1962 he toured with the very first American Folk Blues Festival (with John Lee Hooker). T-Bone Walker subsequently performed in Europe on a regular basis, with a marked preference for France. In November 1968, Black & Blue took advantage of one of his tours to have him record the album "Feelin’ The Blues," rightly considered to be one of the best he made at the end of his career. We thought it appropriate to add a few titles from his sessions with Jay McShann and Eddie Vinson, recorded a few months later while T-Bone was doing a stint at the Trois Mailletz club in Paris. T-Bone Walker is surely the most jazzy blues musician, while McShann and Vinson are among the most bluesy jazz musicians! It was impossible for this confrontation to produce anything but success.

Jody Grind's debut album was early progressive rock with a somewhat jazzier orientation than most such bands, though the playing was a good sight more impressive than the singing and songwriting. There's a fairly grim tone to the original material, all (save a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black") written by Tim Hinkley and Ivan Zagni, who wrench extended heavy blues and jazzy solos out of their organ and guitar, respectively. The showcase is an 18-minute, four-part suite, "One Step On," that - like many long rock tracks of the time - goes on for way too long, incorporating horn fanfares, lurching tempos, and operatic vocals (and, yes, a drum solo). Shown to best advantage on "Little Message" and the most appealing song on the album, "Night Today," Hinkley's skilled Hammond organ work stands up well to the keyboards of well-known early prog rockers like Keith Emerson…

The eighteenth century is probably the most extraordinary period of transformation Europe has known since antiquity. Political upheavals kept pace with the innumerable inventions and discoveries of the age; every sector of the arts and of intellectual and material life was turned upside down. Between the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the revolution of 1789, music in its turn underwent a radical mutation that struck at the very heart of a well-established musical language. In this domain too, we are all children of the Age of Enlightenment: our conception of music and the way we ‘consume’ it still follows in many respects the agenda set by the eighteenth century. And it is not entirely by chance that harmonia mundi has chosen to offer you in 2011 a survey of this musical revolution which, without claiming to be exhaustive, will enable you to grasp the principal outlines of musical creation between the twilight of the Baroque and the dawn of Romanticism.

Cameo's second album, We All Know Who We Are, is uneven, but it has its moments, both in the quiet storm field ("Why Have I Lost You") and the disco-funk category ("It's Serious"). Much of the record sounds like filler, but the best moments illustrate that Cameo is beginning to grow and refine their own sound.
An outlandish, in-your-face stage presence, a strange sense of humor, and a hard-driving funk sound that criss-crossed a few musical boundaries earned Cameo countless comparisons to Parliament/Funkadelic in their early days. However, Cameo eventually wore off accusations of being derivative by transcending their influences and outlasting almost every single one of them. Throughout the '70s and '80s, the group remained up with the times and occasionally crept ahead of them, such that they became influences themselves upon younger generations of R&B and hip-hop acts…