Pieter Wispelwey partners for a second time with Paolo Giacometti, this time in a program of Chopin and Mendelssohn. But there is a another great musical figure on this disc the cellist and composer Karl Davidoff, who studied with Moscheles and Mendelssohn s violinist and composer friend Ferdinand David. Davidoff s brilliant arrangements of the Chopin Waltzes of Op. 64 form a sparkling interlude between Mendelssohn s brilliant second cello sonata, and Chopin s late and great sonata for cello and piano.

In the space of eight short years (1910-'18) in the Mississippi Delta, history's most important generation of bluesmen was born. Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Elmore James are all gone now, and, by 1997, Pinetop Perkins was almost the last of that fabled generation still playing.

Perkins was born in the Delta, as the title of his new album states, and he still reflects the rhythmic intensity of that place and time. In his 80s, his voice has lost much of its old power and range and he's now content to recycle old standards, but his boogie-blues piano playing is as spirited as ever and his vocal and keyboard phrasing has become more succinct and telling with each passing year. In 1980, Perkins, drummer Willie Smith, and harmonica player Jerry Portnoy left the Muddy Waters Band and co-founded the Legendary Blues Band. These three have reunited on Born in the Delta with help from guitarist Tony O and bassist Brad Vickers. The songs are familiar chestnuts such as Elmore James's "Look on Yonder Wall," Memphis Slim's "Everyday I Have the Blues," and Jimmy Reed's "Baby, What You Want Me To Do," but Perkins's quintet give them a stripped-down elegance that's a pleasure to hear, even if the Waters alumni are long past their peak performances. On Paul Gayten's "For You My Love," the five musicians play the syncopated New Orleans rhythms with such tight-knit rapport that they might as well be five fingers on one hand. —Geoffrey Himes

Produced by Elvis Costello, this is the second album by the Pogues, first released in 1985 on MCA in the U.S. on LP and cassette, but never on CD. This WEA/ Stiff edition features all 13 of the tracks found on the American release,including 'Sally MacLennane', 'A Pair Of Brown Eyes', 'The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn', 'Dirty Old Town', 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda', 'I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day' and 'Wild Cats Of Kilkenny'.

Hot Violins - Stuff Smith, Poul Olsen

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.