Blood, Sweat and Tears /Greatest Hits – This is a good compilation from a group that didn’t know whether it wanted to be Chicago or Weather Report. “Spinning Wheel “ was so prevalent back in the day that I remember it being performed by the Muppets on Sesame Street. That said, their first album, Child is the Father to the Man, when Al Kooper was in charge, is the one to listen to. It successfully melds a number of different types of music and still sounds fresh today. The David Clayton-Thomas stuff (like Spinning Wheel) is fine, but the quality suffered with each successive album. "Lucretia Macevil" sounds like treading water to me.
Jean-Pierre Ramphal /Bach Flute Sonatas – Ramphal singlehandedly made the flute a more popular instrument than what it had been and is justly considered one of greatest flute players of all time. Consider that someone like James Galway, the current most popular flutist, pads out his The Essential.. album with dross like The Pink Panther, Annie’s Song, and Baby Elephant Walk. Galway is a fine flautist, but why do we have to endure a whole CD full of his interpretations of pop music. Waltzing Matilda? Really? It’s beneath him. Ramphal did some jazz stuff with Claude Bolling but, as far as I know, never covered Beauty and the Beast. Please check out the Partita in A minor.
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