Blues with a Feeling is a two-CD, 40-track compilation which makes the perfect audio bookend to The Essential Little Walter (or the single disc The Best of Little Walter for those on a budget) by systematically combing the Chess vaults and rounding up the best stuff. No bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings here; this compilation effectively renders all '70s Euro vinyl bootlegs null and void, both from a sound and selection standpoint. While not as exhaustive as the European nine-CD retrospective (in and out of print as of this writing), there are still things on this compilation that are left off the box set on Charly. The rarities (including the low down "Tonight with a Fool," possibly the rarest Walter Checker single of all and one whose title never shows up in the lyrics) are all noteworthy by their inclusion…

Though Heavy Heart was supposedly the "mellow, sensual" album Carla Bley had in mind, Night-Glo is more like it - a relaxed, easygoing, easy-listening series of compositions that nearly spills over into fuzak. Writing for a basic sextet with an added five-man horn section, most effectively when one color melts gently into another, Bley permits the lazy pina-colada mood to amble undisturbed from track to track. Hiram Bullock's guitar, whether in rock or jazz modes, almost defines the laid-back ambience all by itself; Steve Swallow's bass underpins the relaxed groove and velvety horn textures (Randy Brecker is the trumpet voice there); and Paul McCandless can be heard on a variety of single- and double-reed wind instruments. It's a pretty album, always intelligently made, but interminable at times - most noticeably on the aptly named "Rut."

With the vast majority of Beethoven's works being frequently performed as part of the modern canon, we can sometimes forget those few pieces that often lie dormant. This Hyperion album, featuring the Nash Ensemble, celebrates three such works. The program opens with the Op. 104 C minor String Quintet, which keen listeners will instantly recognize as a transcription of the Op. 1/3 Piano Trio. The quintet version came into being as a sort of "oneupsmanship" after an amateur composer submitted his own transcription. Beethoven, who accurately assessed that he could do better, rewrote it and published it as Op. 104. If you're not already familiar with the piano trio, you may never know that the string quintet began its life in a different genre. Beethoven's writing is highly idiomatic while preserving almost the entire original score of the trio. The Nash Ensemble's performance is equally refined and stunning, making it all the more curious why this piece is not performed more frequently.

Progressive rock bands stumbled into the '80s, some with the crutch of commercial concessions under one arm, which makes the Moody Blues' elegant entrance via Long Distance Voyager all the more impressive. Ironically enough, this was also the only album that the group ever got to record at their custom-designed Threshold Studio, given to them by Decca Records head Sir Edward Lewis in the early '70s and built to their specifications, but completed while they were on hiatus and never used by the band until Long Distance Voyager (the preceding album, Octave, having been recorded in California to accommodate Mike Pinder), before it was destroyed in the wake of Decca's sale to Polygram. In that connection, it was their best sounding album to date, and in just about every way is a happier listening experience than Octave was, much as it appears to have been a happier recording experience…

Frijid Pink's self-titled debut album is a slashing, seriously soulful example of late-'60s Detroit rock near its best. Although they never registered with critics or rock historians the way MC5 or the Stooges did, Frijid Pink had obviously learned something in the course of two years on the road, and with Mike Valvano producing, they were able to channel the excitement of their work onto the grooves of this album very neatly. Those who bought the number seven single "House of the Rising Sun" weren't disappointed with the bluesy boogie sound of "I'm on My Way" or the slowed-down Yardbirds approach of "Drivin' Blues" (somehow, when Kelly Green sang "My woman loves me" it seemed to matter), and even if "Tell Me Why" was a tuneless mess, Gary Thompson made up for it with a fuzz-out guitar performance that sounded like speaker burnout in slow motion…

This release from 2005 offers 56 minutes of calming electronic music recorded live at the Liquid Sound Festival at the Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza on November 8, 2003. Mario Schönwälder, Detlef Keller (both on synths) and Thomas Kagerman (on violin) are joined by “friends”: Bas Broekhuis (on percussion), Gerd Wienekamp (from Rainbow Serpent) and Chris Lang (both on synths), and Andrea Saphira Leonhardi (on ethereal voice).
Employing gradually building strains in an improvisational milieu, the performers generate a distinguished dose of soothing sonics that steadfastly mounts in density and passion. Languid textures coalesce while percussion lurks with subtle presence. Violin drones enter the mix, flavoring the tuneage with a classical edge and injecting a romantic flair with melancholy definition…