The current issue of No Depression has an excellent feature article on Chicano Soul music focusing on the ELA music scene. After several successful singles, Thee Sinseers are riding high (or is that low?) with their debut album. This nine piece group has definitely found its groove channeling the smooth sounds of the sixties and especially the seventies. A while ago I greatly enjoyed the collected works box set from Thee Midnighters, and Thee Sinseers freely acknowledge the debt they owe to that seminal group, right down to the album cover art.
The BBC utilized its massive archive of classical broadcast recordings to create an encyclopedic series of CD releases like this one. Here we can enjoy for the first time in decades two electrifying performances by the immortal cellist from Azerbaijan. The Beeb is renowned for its sound quality which conveys with clarity these intimate concert performances which have an inherent spontaneity that studio sessions often lack. The two trio pieces match Rostropovich with two more equally legendary Russians: Emil Gilels and Leonid Kogan. Small wonder that the prices of these one-of-a-kind albums escalated as they fell out of print.