With 18 Decca tracks from 1938-1948, this CD is not only a good survey of some of Tharpe's best work, but one of the best compilations of any sort to illustrate gospel's crossover into blues, R&B, and secular music in general. Admittedly that's not the busiest cross-fertilization of popular music, but it's not one that's given much attention. And if you think you might not like this because Tharpe is sometimes described as a gospel artist, think again, for this is fine stuff on any terms, mixing the devotional exuberance of gospel with first-rate accompaniment blending blues, early R&B, and at times some swing jazz. In truth, sometimes you won't think of this as gospel at all, such is its rhythmic verve, even on the half-dozen numbers with nothing but guitar in the backup. Some other tracks find her backed by the groups of Lucky Millinder and Sammy Price, and the jubilant "Shout, Sister, Shout!" comes off as a missing link between gospel, jazz, blues, and the birth of rock & roll. "Trouble in Mind," "This Train," "Down by the Riverside," and "Up Above My Head I Hear Music in the Air" are other highlights of a set with no shortage of them.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo

Listeners familiar with keyboardist/vocalist Amp Fiddler before his pair of 2002/2003 12" releases likely knew him through his associations with Detroit house figure Moodymann and, to a greater extent, his run-ins with George Clinton and Prince. In 1990, he also recorded an album with his brother Bubz, released under the name Mr. Fiddler; this project came and went without much notice, mostly because it failed to fit in with much of anything else at the time. Come 2003, however, you couldn't be a house head or read a dance-music-for-grown-folks magazine without hearing him or reading about him. In addition to the singles, Fiddler was the star of the phenomenal Moodymann production "I'm Doing Fine," credited to Amp Dog Knight, as well as Only Child's upbeat disco-house track "U Bring Me Vibes." He also played a role in the Carl Craig-helmed Detroit Experiment, providing keys work and doing the vocal duties on a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Too High." After a couple decades spent floating around, Fiddler finally came up with his first solo album. Most of the cuts from those singles reappear here in slightly different forms, while the remainder is all new. Just like the Mr. Fiddler album, Waltz of a Ghetto Fly is something of an anomaly, mixing up the occasional 4/4 house track with funky R&B that's reminiscent of There's a Riot Goin' On-era Sly Stone (this goes beyond the references to "You Caught Me Smilin'" in "You Played Me") and Fiddler's past connections. Since the house tracks also draw heavily upon '70s funk, the album is more cohesive than you'd expect. Throughout, Fiddler maintains a steady, assured, laid-back flow. Even at his most aggressive -- as on the protest song "Love and War" (with backing courtesy of Moodymann) and the sweaty "Superficial" -- it goes down smoothly and richly, as suitable for background listening as it is a get-together. Hearing Fiddler's voice -- alternating between a butter-smooth croon and a deep-throated yowl -- and sensitive keyboard wriggles throughout the course of an entire album is a pure joy.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Language of the Soul is a wonderful change of pace for guitarist Ronnie Earl. The record is the first all-instrumental album Earl has recorded and, if anything, it's even more successful than his full-fledged, band-oriented records. Working without vocals has given him the freedom to try all sorts of new things, whether it's the jazzy interludes of "Indigo Burrell" or the gospel-flavored "I Am With You." Earl's compositions aren't memorable in and of themselves (he wrote all but two of the cuts), yet they give him the opportunity to play freely. He comes up with some truly remarkable solo passages, offering definitive proof that he's one of the best contemporary blues guitarists of the '90s.© Thom Owens /TiVo

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A wonderfully gifted child, the Danish composer Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) occupies a completely unique place in the history of music, in which he is only just beginning to feature. A virtuoso organist at the age of eleven, he composed a First Symphony at the age of seventeen. An hour long, it was performed for the first time by no less than the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1913. But Langgaard was too visionary, too original, too far from fashion and the common world to be successful.He was forty-seven when he finally got an official position as an organist on the west coast of Jutland (Jylland in Danish), a remote province with no connection to the musical life of the Danish capital. An idealist, isolated in absolute solitude, this strange composer wrote music that was full of peculiarities, complex and confusing, a good half-century ahead of the evolution of the musical language at the end of the 20th century.Composed in 1918, the Music of the Spheres for a solo soprano, choir, organ and distant orchestra waited fifty years for its premiere, under the astonished eyes of György Ligeti, who immediately and humorously declared upon discovering this music that he was "an imitator of Langgaard without knowing it!" A lovely admission of admiration from one of the most original composers of the end of the last century. A sound object that is difficult to identify, this music is incredibly innovative with its notions of endless space, height, and depth between light and shadow. It touches on philosophy with its apocalyptic ending, expressing the conflict between Christ and Antichrist before dissolving into the cosmos.Under the generic title 4 Tone Pictures, the four songs for voice and orchestra appearing on the same album date from the same time. Their late romantic musical language is sometimes quite similar to that of Music of the Spheres. Created only in 1980, these four pieces were recorded here for the first time. It took a conductor as out of the ordinary and as peculiar as Gennady Rozhdestvensky to bring this astonishing music to life, recorded in 1996 in Copenhagen in the large concert hall of the Danish Radio. © François Hudry/Qobuz

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Don Byron's catalog reveals him to be a musical chameleon and master conceptualist. The range of music he's had fun melding with jazz -- Raymond Scott's, Mickey Katz's -- classical arias and lieder, Blaxploitation funk and more -- is expansive. It should come as no surprise then, that Love, Peace and Soul is an album of (mostly) classic gospel tunes, primarily written by Thomas A. Dorsey. It was Dorsey who kept the blues and ring-shout lineages inherent in gospel as it evolved, and revolutionized the music in the process. The other inspiration here is master guitarist and vocalist Sister Rosetta Tharpe. While she played primarily sacred music drenched in jazz and blues, she moved effortlessly between it and secular tunes. Byron's New Gospel Quintet are D.K. Dyson on vocals, pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Pheeroan akLaff, with guest appearances by guitarists Brandon Ross and Vernon Reid, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, vocalist Dean Bowman, and baritone saxophonist J.D. Parran. Byron’s clarinet and akLaff's tom-toms introduce "Highway to Heaven," adding the spirit of Sidney Bechet's and Louis Armstrong's New Orleans jazz to Dorsey's blues before Dyson cuts loose on the vocals; Jones' funky bassline makes the entire thing pop. The spirit of improvisation on this set is alive and well too, as evidenced by "When I've Sung My Last Song," the very next cut. Byron's clarinet and Dyson's vocal play on and around the melody before the band enters, and while Dyson moves more toward the straighter end of the lyric, akLaff creates a slippery sense of time and establishes a jazz groove, and Davis' piano solo solidifies it. Given the feel of the album's first three sacred numbers, the juxtaposition of Eddie Harris' funky party anthem "Sham Time" feels right at home. Even the more reverential numbers, such as Dorsey's "Take My Hand Precious Lord" (introduced by a beautiful duet between Byron's saxophone and Dyson's vocal) carry blues into melodic jazz improvisation. Charles Tindley's "Beam of Heaven" is drenched in early blues, from Jones' bumping bassline, Byron's swooping clarinet, akLaff's shuffling kit, and Ross' acoustic slide guitar. Dyson's vocal is simply sublime. In Dorsey's “I’ve Got to Live the Life I Sing About," the hard blues in Tharpe's example underscore the message in the lyric. Love, Peace and Soul is another successful Byron experiment, but it's more than that. While its grooves are not a vision of gospel music since Dorsey, the music points to possibilities for the future that, like Dorsey's and Tharpe's examples, never lose sight of the blues.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Officially credited to A.M.P. rather than Amp, only core member Richard performs any music on this release, with Karine credited for some vocals as well. While on the face of it the music isn't too terribly different from Amp, the strongest distinction is the lack of the crisp electronic percussion which appeared towards the end of Sirenes -- this is pure zone and drone through and through, with the echo and reverb turned up to high. Bass burbles provide rhythms at points, but otherwise ultraspookyblissout is the name of the game. The title track, which opens the release, is gorgeously evocative and subtle, with heavily processed guitar noise buried deep in the mix and soft clanging appearing in irregular patterns. "Heart and Soul Resolves" works with the same basic elements, but with more prominence to the bass notes than the guitars, while the clanging is more continuous throughout. The energy level rises in comparison -- everything is a little faster and more ominous, and when a buried percussion crunch that almost sounds like military fire starts emerging from the background, the intensity level ratchets up even higher (nicely offset by the sudden appearance of Karine's low, wordless vocals). The final, untitled track, actually the longest on the disc, further uses familiar elements from the two preceding numbers, with stretches of near-perfect minimalism balanced against the abstract intensity of the various bass and percussion combinations. At times, clear strumming actually surfaces, an unexpected (in context) development that works well. In all, a marvelous release that easily compares to any of the official Amp albums.© Ned Raggett /TiVo