The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling instrumental band of all time. In 2008, the Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their instrumental virtuosity, experimentation with guitar effects, and unique sound laid the groundwork for innumerable groups, earning them the moniker "The Band that Launched a Thousand Bands". While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains revered in Japan, where they tour regularly to this day.

On the back cover of Captured Live!, Johnny Winter's second live album (following 1971's Live Johnny Winter And), Winter is pictured with his band (second guitarist Floyd Radford, bass player Randy Jo Hobbs, and drummer Richard Hughes) from the back, playing before a giant, open-air sports stadium full of fans. The photograph is not identified, leaving the impression, along with the large cheering heard on the LP itself, that Winter was headlining such a venue – but he couldn't have been, because he isn't that big a name. He must have been performing as part of a festival or opening for an act that can fill stadiums, like the Rolling Stones.

The primary impetus behind this ambitious 12-disc box set is to gather all nine of the Grateful Dead's Warner Brothers titles. However, the staggeringly high quotient of previously unissued bonus material rivals - and at times exceeds - the content of those original albums. The Golden Road (1965-1973) truly has something - and usually a lot of it - for every degree of Deadhead. Working chronologically, the bonus material begins before the beginning so to speak, with the two-disc sub-compilation aptly titled "Birth of the Dead," a project actually green-lighted by Jerry Garcia in the mid-'80s. Disc one features studio recordings by a primordial incarnation of the band known as the Warlocks and later the Emergency Crew. Disc two contrasts their studio efforts with some of the earliest surviving live Grateful Dead recordings from July of 1966…

Exotic and Latin albums were big deals in the 1950s and early '60s, and singers as diverse as Dean Martin, Lena Horne, and Peggy Lee were recording with castanets and bongo drums. Peggy Lee was so successful at the style that she cut two albums of light pseudo-Latin jazz in 1960. Like Peggy Lee, Julie London combined a restrained vocal approach with jazz phrasing and a cool attitude with icy sex appeal. But while London had Lee's stripped-down musical approach, she just didn't share her unrelenting rhythmic vocal drive or her innate feeling for exotic rhythms. It doesn't help that London is paired with arranger Ernie Freeman, who was usually better at crafting Nashville and soft rock style charts than Latin jazz arrangements. This isn't a bad album - London sounds casual and confident throughout - but it is a rather bland one, and isn't blandness what these types of exotica albums are supposed to be fighting against…

Man's importance in the history of Welsh rock music cannot be understated. Fusing the worlds of Psychedelia, Blues, Rock and Roll and West Coast inspired rock, they were simply one of Britain's most original groups of the 1970's. Along with label-mates Hawkwind, Man were true champions. The reissuing of Man's entire legacy for United Artists continues with their 1974 Top 30 album hailed by many as their defining moment. The reissue is expanded with an extra previously unreleased CD recorded in Los Angeles in 1974 featuring "American Mother" never recorded by Man. The booklet includes liner notes exclusively penned by Man guitarist and raconteur Deke Leonard.

This is Schulze's first attempt at opera, and it has yielded mixed results. Klaus Schulze has been deeply influenced by Richard Wagner and his music. So it is natural that he would compose, produce and perform (except the vocals) the world's first electronic opera. Totentag: Oper in 7 Bildern (roughly Death Day: An Opera in 7 Scenes) is a monumental achievement. Klaus, in keeping with a tradition started by Mozart, composed the opera in his native German. He recruited five virtuoso vocalists to play/sing the roles. The opera, again in the truest German tradition, is tragic. It tells the story of a young man and his drug induced hallucinations and visions.

Tejas is the fifth studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top. It was released in late November 1976. The title is a Caddo language word meaning 'friends', which is the origin of the name of the band's home state, Texas. On Tejas, ZZ Top countrified the bluesy posture of their previous albums, resulting in a slight detour between the madcap spirit of Fandango and the psychedelic strut of Deguello. While the album lacks any singles as strong as "Tush" or "La Grange," "Arrested for Driving While Blind" is one of ZZ's classic anthems, capturing the group's wacky humor and jaunty good-time boogie. Other highlights include the driving "Enjoy and Get It On," "Avalon Hideaway," and the fine instrumental "Asleep in the Desert."

Incredible 43-track collection features "Broad Daylight", "Fire and Water", "My Brother Jake", "All Right Now", "Little Bit Of Love", "The Stealer", "I'll Be Creeping" and more favourites! Free were an English rock band formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums. Lead guitarist Paul Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler in 1975, but died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25 in 1976. Bassist Andy Fraser formed Sharks.

When Jeff Lynne was growing up, he listened to music on longwave radio, soaking up all the sounds coming through the big radio in the living room. His 2012 tribute to these days, appropriately called Long Wave, is a far-reaching salute to the glory days of pop in the years before the Beatles. It's too easy to peg this as a standards album, a designation that isn't quite accurate. Lynne may cover many show tunes along with '50s favorites of big-band vocalists but he spends nearly as much time with rock & roll, and not just the operatic pop of his fellow Traveling Wilbury Roy Orbison, either. He cranks through Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," slides into the silken harmonies of the Everly Brothers on "So Sad," and grooves through Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy."

Amongst a pantheon of great Czech composers it is Bedrich Smetana who is revered as the musical personification of his country’s national spirit and the founder of its modern musical character. Composed after the onset of Smetana’s incurable deafness, Má vlast (My Fatherland) is an unprecedented cycle of six related symphonic poems that evoke ancient Czech legends and celebrate the majestic beauty of the country’s landscapes. Acclaimed with ‘unending storms of applause’ at its 1882 premiere, Má vlast reflects the unique characteristics that form the living heart and soul of the Czech nation.

Recorded on 25 and 26 April 1991 at the Teatro Bulevar Casa de Cultura in Torrelones (Madrid) and originally released in October 1991, it was a respectful flamenco vision of Spanish classical music in a flamenco style. In it, Paco de Lucía performs with the Cadaqués Orchestra, conducted by Edmon Colomer, the concerto for guitar and orchestra that Joaquín Rodrigo wrote under the title Concierto de Aranjuez. To complete the album, he recorded with Juan Manuel Cañizares and Jose María Bandera three pieces, arranged by Juan Manuel Cañizares, from Isaac Albéniz's Suite Iberia. The result was absolutely devastating and is one of the best known and recognised versions of Maestro Rodrigo's masterful work.