The album "Animals 1920s: Songs About Animals, Animal Imitations and Metaphors" is a concept album that explores themes of animals, animal imitations, and metaphors in the context of the 1920s era. The album features a mix of jazz music and animal-themed songs. Listeners can expect a variety of animal sounds and metaphors incorporated into the lyrics, from the croaking of frogs to the soaring of eagles. Each song tells a story, drawing on the symbolism and folklore associated with different animals.

Roots 'N Blues: The Retrospective 1925-1950 is a four-CD box set released on Columbia Records in June 1992. The set features five hours worth of early blues, folk/country and gospel recordings from a variety of American artists. Many of these recordings had never previously been issued in any medium.

Let us first salute the title, given by the publisher, and undoubtedly also by Jean-Paul Ricard and Jean Buzelin, co-responsible for this edition: Jazz Ladies, and not Women in Jazz as in the past, or even “girls » as was also the case. Not the “women” of jazz, a term that is used everywhere, but the “ladies”. We do say “ladies and gentlemen” after all. This time, the ladies are entitled to three CDs, one more than usual. The tenacity of Jean-Paul Ricard, a great specialist on the subject for years, collector of records and CDs, therefore produces its effect, and it is with pleasure and a certain amazement that we see the list of instrumentalists lengthening female who has practiced jazz. And again, the usual rights reasons limited the selection to the year 1962. We suspect that if we could go to the present day, we would need a good dozen cakes. Because, even if the figures do not seem to indicate a break in the famous “glass ceiling”, the presence of “ladies” is not weakening, and is even strengthening. Let us add that female singers are not included in this selection, except obviously the cases (not rare at all) of instrumentalists whom the producers pushed into singing, for financial reasons.

"100 jazz hits as featured in the celebrated TV series".

This double album is devoted to the exceptional match between African-American musicians and boxers who all packed a punch in carrying the hopes of their people. Selected by Monique Pouget and Jean Buzelin from material that has all the passion of the ring, these emblematic pieces evoke a people’s admiration for its champions… with some unexpected bouts with fighters who were heroes. A bonus is the tribute paid to the exboxers who shelved their gloves before going on to vibrate, body and soul, and with great talent, in the arena of blues and jazz.

This is a fascinating and engrossing compilation: the most remarkable sensation I had was that the musical evocation of Christmas mattered to these performers in a very direct and secure way. There is in almost every track a deep sincerity which I cannot find in many of the recent or current Christmas releases - and I don't think this is a brutally cynical comparison. Not only are there some superb voices displayed here, but the delivery and use of some of the voices seems to go way beyond the technical, and at times reaches magically inspiring heights.

In conjunction with the 2006 DVD documentary of record collector Joe Bussard, Dust-to-Digital released this companion CD, featuring 19 tracks in some of the kind of styles – rural blues, jazz, and old-timey country music, mostly from the '20s and '30s – that Bussard loves. Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the Roots of American Music isn't exactly a soundtrack to the documentary, since these records are not featured in their entirety in that film. Rather, it's a survey of some of the highlights of the music in which Bussard specializes, the liner notes featuring track-by-track annotation by Bussard himself. It's an excellent mixture of classics by some of the most esteemed early country and blues giants and the kind of more obscure items that are primarily known only to the type of listeners who covet what Bussard collects. Among the classics are Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues," Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues," Clarence Ashley's "The Coo-Coo Bird," the Carter Family's "John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man," and the very first version of "Stack O' Lee Blues" ever made (by Cleve Reed and Harvey Hull, in 1927).

From 1910 through to the late 1940s the big bands were on the main branches of the entertainment business that truly reflected the changing demands and economic climate of the age. Playing the popular music of the day, these bands fuelled the dance craze that swept the American Continent. This monster includes all of the bands that made the U.S. swing.

The Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was first to bring to wider notice the works that open this set, J.S. Bach’s solo cello suites. Thereafter we hear his celebrated partnership with Horszowski in Beethoven and the groundbreaking piano trio formed with Thibaud and Cortot in Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. From the symphonic repertoire come the concertos by Dvořák (with George Szell) and Elgar (Adrian Boult). Finally, an enchanting disc of encores and – with Casals’s own street-band or cobla – seven examples of the sardana, the national dance of the great artist’s beloved homeland.

The principal audience for Polish folk and dance music in the 1920s and ʼ30s was Polish immigrants and Polish Americans living in urban areas in the northeastern US as well as in and around Chicago. This collection of music presents a variety of bands and musicians from that era. Although interest in Polish village music waned during the Depression, it served as a precursor to the development of Chicago-style polkas in the 1950s.

The first in a series of Classics CDs focusing on the recordings of Sidney Bechet, this disc features the clarinetist/soprano-saxophonist on two early titles with blues singer Rosetta Crawford, his torrid 1932 session with The New Orleans Feetwarmers (which also features trumpeter Tommy Ladnier and is highlighted by "Shag" and "Maple Leaf Rag") and sides from Noble Sissle's somewhat commercial orchestra. Fortunately Sissle was wise enough to give Bechet plenty of solo space on some of his selections, most notably "Polka Dot Rag." Even with a few indifferent vocals, this CD is recommended to those not already owning this music.

The so-called Great Swing Band Era is generally considered to have started in 1935 when Benny Goodman, playing at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21 and tiring of what he described as 'mundane' dance music, moved his band into high gear and gave out with some Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Quoting saxophonist Hymie Schertzer, "The place exploded." and Goodman was proclaimed 'King of Swing'. But back in the Twenties there were great bands that played good swingy numbers, bands like those of Whiteman, Goldkette, Waring, Weems, Olsen and Lopez (to name but a few), although the 'swing' wasn't quite the same. The rhythm could often seem a little jerky and sometimes rather on the frantic side. Repertoires were laced with novelty tunes which were much in demand. But who cared? It was the 'Jazz Age', the 'Flapper Era' (take your pick) and everyone was hell-bent on having a good time, making whoopee.

(2-CD set) World War 1 began on July 28, 1914 and was also known as the Great War in the optimistic belief that this momentous event would end all wars. Some of our most popular and enduring songs were written and recorded during that period, although the conflict itself washorrendous. In 1997 Take Two Records released a 2-CD set of songs actually recorded during World War 1 that were transferred from pristine vintage recordings and re-mastered to provide superb sound. This set includes 40 popular songs that reflect a variety of reactions to the Great War by the leading songwriters and recording artists from that time. This album is currently being reissued to commemorate the WWI centennial taking place this year.

Bruno Blum, himself part of the Punk movement in London in the late Seventies, here returns to the original forms of subversion contained in Rock. As hedonists looking for ways to overtake their own selves as well as their social status, Artists — and particularly Musicians — seemed to be the only ones who could free themselves of society’s rigorous norms.
From Charlie Parker to Bo Diddley via Artie Shaw or Richard Berry, the irreverence and arrogance later celebrated in the Punk Rock of Iggy Pop, The Clash or The Ramones has roots in the frenzied tempos of Bop and the contorted melodies of Free Jazz, with branches as far as the sexual allusions of the Blues and the wild solos of Rockabilly.

Original 4 CD box set issued by The Smithsonian Collection of Recordings encompassing 1924 - 1968, including recordings from Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock.