Thelonious Monk - Live At Monterey Vol 1 (1963)

For Monk fans, these Mo-Fis are must-haves. Wow! After releasing so many mediocre rock albums, Mobile Fidelity came through with not one but TWO shiny gold CDs by the enigmatic, lovable Thelonious Monk (accompanied in these live recordings by Charlie Rouse on sax, John Ore on bass, and Frank Dunlop on drums). Wow! Volume 1 starts off with "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" and then offers three Monk originals, "Well You Needn't," "Evidence," and "I Mean You." Wow! Volume 2 brings us one cover, "Sweet and Lovely," plus four Monk tunes, "Light Blue," "Criss Cross," "Epistrophy," and Bright Mississippi." Wow!

Either disk can stand by itself as a jazz treasure, but the real Monk fan will really have to get both. I seldom recommend premium-priced CDs, but here I am, enthusiastically recommending two of them. Wow! Alas, MFSL is gone, so you nay have a devil of a time finding them. Bummer!

ByKarl W. Nehring, amazon

Paul Revere and The Raiders - A Christmas Past And Present (1967)

A Christmas Present…and Past, by Paul Revere & the Raiders featuring Mark Lindsay, was one of the stranger seasonal albums ever made, which was perhaps appropriate given its release in the midst of the psychedelic '60s/Vietnam War era. Lindsay and producer/co-songwriter Terry Melcher concocted a comic, satirical take on Christmas that included sendups of President Lyndon Johnson, references to current social problems, and "A Heavy Christmas Message," which plaintively asked, "Who took the Christ out of Christmas?" Amazingly, Columbia Records reissued this odd artifact on CD in the 1990s as though it were just another collection of holiday songs. Listeners who buy it unaware are in for a surprise.

Samuel Prody - Samuel Prody (1971)

Samuel Prody foi uma banda inglesa de Heavy Psych Blues formada por Tony Savva (voz), Derek Smallcombe (guitarra), John Boswell (bateria) e Stephen Day (baixo) em Londres, Inglaterra no ano de 1969.

Em 1970 lançaram seu primeiro e unico disco, um álbum caracterizado pela psicodelia pesada sendo comparado com as bandas Ancient Grease e Sir Lord Baltimore.

Uma das caracteristicas da banda são seus solos de blues, por mais que altere a sua sonoridade pesada com um som limpo eles mantem uma estrutura  nativa no blues.

"Excellent heavy psychedelic blues-rock in the being of the Masters Apprentices, Morly Grey, Ancient Grease and Sir Lord Baltimore. Samuel Prody is very much underrated one album miracle, which any addict of proto-metal (or classic hard'n'heavy and psychedelia) will enjoy; it will definitely please and surprise hardcore fans of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. The mastermind behind the band was Tony Savva, London-based bass guitarist and singer, who went through various minor bands of the 60s. After over 30 years of various 'unofficial' CD releases of the album Tony has decided to offer a limited edition CD himself and he has signed each one of the first 100 personally."

Peter Hammill - Incoherence (2004)

Unlike anything else Peter Hammill has done before, Incoherence seems to counterbalance the relative simplicity of his previous studio outing, Clutch. A multi-tracked keyboard extravaganza, Incoherence consists of a single 42-minute suite in 14 movements. There are separate songs, but they are segued in ways that make the transitions unnoticeable, especially on first listen. That alone is enough to set the album apart from its neighbors in Hammill's discography, but there is more: a renewed urge to experiment with forms and textures within the song format; a rare level of richness and complexity in the arrangements; and the overarching concept of incoherence, language, and miscommunication that ties all 14 songs into a single, highly convincing whole. Several listeners will have a harder time getting into this album, as it demands some focused listening and requires assessment as a complete work, instead of being absorbed song by song. Some of the keyboard sounds are rather trite, but Hammill's multi-keyboard arrangements are a step or two ahead of his usual self, with some sections sounding surprisingly close to some of Peter Gabriel's work. Hammill also plays acoustic and electric guitars, although keyboards remain the main focus. Stuart Gordon adds violin in several sections, and Van der Graaf Generator alumnus David Jackson contributes saxes and flutes. Highlights include "Babel," the electronic-sounding "Cretans Always Lie," and the poignant ballad "Gone Ahead," which has become a live favorite (see Veracious). Even though Incoherence is a suite, not an epic track, it still feels like Hammill's most ambitious undertaking since "Flight." It also represents a high mark in the man's artistic creativity.

Syd Barrett - Barrett (1970)

On his second solo album, Barrett was joined by Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley and Pink Floyd members Rick Wright (organ) and Dave Gilmour (guitar). Gilmour and Wright acted as producers as well. Instrumentally, the result is a bit fuller and smoother than the first album, although it's since been revealed that Gilmour and Wright embellished these songs as best they could without much involvement from Barrett, who was often unable or unwilling to perfect his performance. The songs, however, are just as fractured as on his debut, if not more so. "Baby Lemonade," "Gigolo Aunt," and the nursery rhyming "Effervescing Elephant" rank among his peppiest and best-loved tunes. Elsewhere, the tone is darker and more meandering. It was regarded as something of a charming but unfocused throwaway at the time of its release, but Barrett's singularly whimsical and unsettling vision holds up well.

Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways (2014)

Nobody ever would've thought the Foo Fighters were gearing up for a hiatus following the vibrant 2011 LP Wasting Light, but the group announced just that in 2012. It was a short-lived break, but during that time-off, lead Foo Dave Grohl filmed an ode to the classic Los Angeles recording studio Sound City, which in turn inspired the group's 2014 album, Sonic Highways. Constructed as an aural travelog through the great rock & roll cities of America -- a journey that was documented on an accompanying HBO mini-series of the same name -- Sonic Highways picks up the thread left dangling from Sound City: Real to Reel; it celebrates not the coiled fury of underground rock exploding into the mainstream, the way the '90s-happy Wasting Light did, but rather the classic rock that unites the U.S. from coast to coast. No matter the cameo here -- and there are plenty of guests, all consciously different from the next, all bending to the needs of their hosts -- the common denominator is the pumping amps, sky-scraping riffs, and sugary melodies that so identify the sound of arena rock at its pre-MTV peak. There are a few unexpected wrinkles, as when Ben Gibbard comes aboard to give "Subterranean" a canned electronic pulse and Tony Visconti eases the closing "I Am a River" into a nearly eight-minute epic, but the brief eight-song album just winds up sounding like nothing else but the Foo Fighters at their biggest, burliest, and loudest. They've become the self-proclaimed torch barriers for real rock, championing the music's history but also blessedly connecting the '70s mainstream and '80s underground so it's all one big nation ruled by six-strings. That the mainstream inevitably edges out the underground on Sonic Highways is perhaps inevitable -- it is the common rock language, after all -- but even if there's a lingering predictability in the paths the Foo Fighters follow on Sonic Highways, they nevertheless know how to make this familiar journey pleasurable.

Billy Squier - Hear and Now (1989)

Hear & Now is a rock album by Billy Squier that was released on June 14, 1989. Like his previous album, 1986's Enough Is Enough, it sold roughly 300,000 US copies. The disc's single, "Don't Say You Love Me”, reached #4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and #58 on the Billboard Hot 100.