Peggy Lee and George Shearing...Beauty and the Beat!

Beauty and the Beat! is a mostly live (yes, mostly live) album by the great Peggy Lee with the equally talented George Shearing at the piano. It's interesting that they recorded introductions to these songs after the live concert was recorded. However, despite this unusual feature this disc is extremely pleasing to the ear. Peggy sounds just great here and George plays his piano wonderfully. We also get two bonus tracks that apparently were not on the record album release of this recording; Peggy and George perform "Nobody's Heart" and "Don't Ever Leave Me."

For decades we've been listening to the live-in-concert "Beauty and the Beat" and hearing a studio project with applause, announcements and low volume audience chatter dubbed in. Now all the distractions have been removed, along with the echoey sound necessary to make it all sound live, and what we have is a beautiful, detailed collection with great depth never before apparent. In the previous version Peggy sounded like she was socking it over to an enthusiastic audience; now, with the very same recordings, she sounds intimate and close. Shearing sounds the same--totally engaging and delightful.

Beauty and the Beat

Robert Crumb's Heroes of Jazz, Blues and Country

Anyone who knows R. Crumb’s work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading card sets he created in the early to mid 1980's. 

They have been packaged together in book form, along with an exclusive 21-track CD of music selected and compiled by Crumb himself (featuring original recordings by Charley Patton, “Dock” Boggs, “Jelly Roll” Morton, and others). A bio of each musician is provided, along with a full-color original illustration by the cartoonist. A characteristically idiosyncratic tribute by an underground icon to the musical innovators who helped inspire him, R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is a must-have collection for Crumb aficionados, comics fans, and music lovers alike.

Heroes Of The Blues
1     –Memphis Jug Band     On The Road Again     2:52
2     –Blind Willie McTell     Dark Night Blues     2:55
3     –Cannon's Jug Stompers     Minglewood Blues     3:42
4     –Skip James     Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues     2:50
5     –Jaybird Coleman     I'm Gonna Cross The River Of Jordan Some O' These Days     3:08
6     –Charley Patton     High Water Everywhere     3:08
7     –Frank Stokes     I Got Mine     3:07
        Pioneers Of Country Music
8     –"Dock" Boggs*     Sugar Baby     3:00
9     –Shelor Family     Big Bend Gal     2:49
10     –Hayes Shepherd     The Peddler And His Wife     3:22
11     –Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers     Little Rabbit     3:01
12     –Burnett & Rutherford     All Night Long Blues     3:15
13     –East Texas Serenaders     Mineola Rag     2:44
14     –Weems String Band     Greenback Dollar     3:09
        Early Jazz Greats
15     –Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra     Kater Street Rag     2:34
16     –"King" Oliver's Creole Jazz Band*     Sobbin' Blues     3:19
17     –Parham-Pickett Apollo Syncopators     Mojo Strut     2:49
18     –Frankie Franko & His Louisianians     Somebody Stole My Gal     2:30
19     –Clarence Williams' Blue Five     Wild Cat Blues     3:02
20     –"Jelly Roll" Morton's Red Hot Peppers*     Kansas City Stomps     2:56
21     –Jimmy Noone*     King Joe     3:03

click here for more information

                                                                  

That's What I Call Sweet Music: American Dance Orchestras of the 1920's re-uploaded

This popular post from February 2013 has now been updated with a new download link.

Click here to go to the original post....enjoy!

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Soundtrack Heaven

The Jazz Music Blog

This Jukebox Rocks

The Blues and Roots Music Blog