To be sure, Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn didn’t anticipate opening the act’s live U.S. debut with an apology. Yet there he was, center stage on the opening night of a six-night stand at Harlem’s storied Apollo Theater, curtain closed, mic in hand, explaining how the world’s most famous virtual band was experiencing problems with its video screens, and as a result would not be using any animation.

A mere drag for most artists, it was a blunder of vaguely massive proportions for Gorillaz. While opening night felt a bit half-delivered, the musical performances shined nevertheless, the full performance of Demon Days was peppered with enough hipster heroes and charm to overcome any technical mishaps.
Playing piano and singing at the back of the stage for all but one song, Albarn buried himself behind a string section, backing vocalists and a full band on a stage that swelled to more than 40 people at times. While Neneh Cherry, De La Soul, Ike Turner, the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, Roots Manuva and others all reprieved their studio-recorded roles live, it was the Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown and the aw-shucks sweetness of a local kids choir on “Dirty Harry” that brought the grinning crowd to its feet. The odd pairing of the forever mischievous Ryder and leggy hottie Rosie Wilson on “DARE” was massive, and De La Soul’s “Feel Good Inc.” cameo was cool, if corny.

The performance, and especially the songs mentioned above, heated up on night two in Harlem. With the center screen up and operational, things moved at twice the pace. Adult choir performances and Albarn’s solo-piano songs, which teetered on dull the night before, came to life through vivid, supernatural storylines on the overhanging screen—also where a taped performance of MF Doom and moving in-the-studio footage of late Buena Vista Social Club great Ibrahim Ferrer came to life.

В августе 1969 года Джими выступил на легендарном фестивале в Вудстоке (сопровождавшая его группа называлась Gypsy Sun & Rainbows). На "Live At Woodstock" Джими Хендрикс в замечательном стиле презентовал своё творчество слушателям – каждая грань его таланта представлена в этих 11 главах. Джаз, блюз, фанк, соул, фьюжн, предтечи хард-рока и элементы более тяжёлых стилистик будущего. Классическая концертная работа, имеющая неоспоримое право пребывать в коллекции любого поклонника гитарной музыки, и must-have для каждого ценителя самого гитарного гуру))

Diana Krall: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival is a portrait of an already-accomplished musician in the process of evolving into a great artist. Always a fine jazz pianist, an expressive singer, and a capable interpreter (mostly of the Great American Songbook), Krall spent little time developing an original voice prior to her marriage to Elvis Costello and her CDThe Girl in the Other Room, which features multiple songwriting collaborations with Costello as well as more adventurous choices in cover material (Joni Mitchell's "Black Crow," Tom Waits's "Temptation"). That 2004 recording is the centerpiece of this concert; fully nine of the 13 selections here, including the Waits and Mitchell songs as well as five Costello-Krall compositions, were drawn from it. Purists may lament the lessening of the straight-ahead jazz element in Krall's music (indeed, with its simple major chords and countryish lilt, the original "Narrow Daylight" will inevitably invite comparisons to Norah Jones). But Krall and her excellent band still swing mightily (cf. an extended version of the standard "All or Nothing at All") and improvise like the seasoned jazz pros they are. It's a heady combination: Krall is at least as good an instrumentalist as her contemporaries; add to that her singing and now an interest in songwriting that reflects the influence of pop music as well as jazz, and you have a genuinely unique talent.