04/12/07
UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES
CHUCK MANGIONE/20th Century Masters: The runaway success of “Feels So Good” obscured the music and art he was making before that major crossover hit and the fine jazz that was to come after. This set pulls together the hit as well as the tracks that came before and after on the various labels he was with that are now under the Universal roof. A well rounded single disc look at his oeuvre, this is the place to look further if all those “King of the Hill” references have gotten you curious.
8437 (A&M)
ASTRID GILBERTO/20th Century Masters: Hey, she did have her share of hits, but if this set can be issues several times in a few years, where is our Claudine Longet collection? Her debut did go gold and she was produced by Tommy LiPuma. But back on topic, the girl singer that had a career by accident (the real singer for the session didn’t show up and the horn player’s wife was pressed into action because she was hanging around). For all the disrespect she’s gotten over the years, she did a nice job of doing the best she could with what she had and was a mighty fine voice of sex kittens of the 60’s. A solid samba/bossa collection that has everything the bossa tourist and retro taste could ask for on a single disc.
8427 (Verve/Hip-O)
ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION/20th Century Masters: How would you like it if you bi single sounded like Stevie Nicks played at the wrong speed? Transmuting from Classics IV into ARS, they continued their hit making ways in the 70’s for a nice career extension. The 24 bit remastering here brings out a lot of music deep in the grooves you never really heard before and makes for a nice re-evaluation of a group generally regarded as a moments fancy.
8674 (Polydor)
DELLS/20th Century Masters: One of the longest running vocal acts with the original members, this set gathers the best of the Chess years and matches it with the later Mercury career bounce for a solid, concise set of their 60’s classic sound that still has it on the ball today. Not quite given their due in wider circles today as well as they should, this is a great set for keeping these great sounds alive for more than retro tastes to trip across. Did we mention it’s full of major hits and killer tracks?
8467 (Geffen/Chess)
DVD SUPPLEMENT
SONY PICTURES
DONNIE BRASCO: In his bid to be Marty Scorsese, Barry Levinson took some liberties with the real Donnie Brasco story to bring it to the screen. A mob tale told from the other side of the fence, Brasco was an undercover agent that brought down organized crime from within. Al Pacino’s downbeat portrayal of his character takes away from the sense of what heavy players we are looking at here, but that’s dramatic license for you. Although this has been out for a while, this is the extended cut with 20 minutes of previously unseen footage which will certainly move it up on the list for true crime pic fans. Certainly part of the mob movie canon genre fans will want to own with the true fans going fro the upgrade.
18693
Volume 30/Number 163
April 12, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
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Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record