More than a year ago, Walt Disney Records released a soundtrack to little fanfare within the general music community, but rightfully deserves some attention. Collect a bunch of famous Disney tunes and gather some jammin’ jazz artists. Spin the two together and your creation is an awesome assortment of standards breathing new energy. Here is my review of Disney Jazz Volume 1: Everybody Wants To Be A Cat.

1. “Ev’rybody Wants To Be A Cat” by Roy Hargrove: The Grammy-winning trumpeter lends his potent musical skills into mixing up this classic tune from The Aristocats. While the first minute or so of the five-minute cover closely resembles the jazzy piece, he then spins some impressive arrangements. I could imagine listening to this strong instrumentation in a coffeehouse or lounge. Though it steers off in a different direction for much of the entirety, Hargrove returns to the memorable theme toward the end.

2. “Chim Chim Cher-Ee” by Esperanza Spalding: The artist who prevailed over teen sensation Justin Bieber at the 2011 Grammys as the “Best New Artist” adeptly takes control over the Sherman Brothers’ legendary melody. The orchestration possesses a French flair, with some light piano and accordion in the background at different points. Spalding scats with beautiful range in this romantic version that still stirs up a chilling sensation. Guesses are that if Dick Van Dyke has heard Spalding’s take on the piece, he would be pretty proud.

Stevie Ray Vaughan
The Real Deal Greatest Hits Volume 2
MP3 | CD
Originally Released: March 23, 1999
Label: Sony

Amazon MP3 is offering up some amazing $5 album deals for the month of August, so it seems like a great time to visit some classics and see how they hold up to the modern music era. That’s right, you can snag Stevie Ray Vaughan The Real Deal Greatest Hits Volume 2 for $5 in MP3 format right now.

The loss of Stevie Ray Vaughan was a tragic one. He was at the forefront of a blues rock revolution that just fell apart with his death. Others such as Kenny Wayne Sheppard followed in his footsteps, but none could come close to filling his shoes. In the 1970s, guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jimi Hendrix were responsible for integrating the classic blues riffs of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Howlin’ Wolf into pop music in innovative ways. Stevie Ray Vaughan picked up where these musicians left off both by crafting his own brand of modern blues music, but also by bringing on the pop blues music with songs like his most arguably mainstream title Crossfire.

XXX
Asia
CD+DVD | CD | MP3
Frontiers Records
Release Date: June 29, 2012

XXX, the newest album by the progressive rock group Asia and it marks the third release since the original members reunited, and for fans of this group, who got their start 30 years ago, there will no disappointments whatsoever. Others, however, might see the musical circumstances rather differently.

Asia, which is a group made much in the mold of those other supergroups like Cream or Blind Faith, is comprised of John Wetton on bass and vocals, Geoff Downes on keyboards, Carl Palmer on drums, and the great Steve Howe on guitar. These men came from more adventurous prog rock groups such as Yes, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. They shed their respective gymnastically sonically hyper-arranged skills that they ultilized during their tenures in these aforementioned bands and gave a more leaner, tighter, realized progressive pop sound in Asia, even spawning hits like “Heat of the Moment,” and “Don’t Cry,” which remain unabashed 80’s anthems. On this newest release, XXX, the band is firmly still mired in that sound, which is almost like a zeitgeist for the group, as all songs included on the album sounds like artifacts from that time, without missing a beat one iota.

Apocalyptic Love
Slash feat. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators
CD | Deluxe CD | MP3 | Vinyl*
Label: Dik Hayd
Release Date: May 22, 2012

The musicians that made up one of America’s greatest rock bands of all time, Guns N’ Roses, have had problems finding their way after that band fell apart. Each of them has tried solo acts with varying degrees of success. Axl Rose, maintaining ownership of the band’s name, has even attempted a new album and tour with new musicians. The album that Rose crafted took many years to complete and it ended up being mediocre. Slash‘s first attempt at creating a new band with some of his GN’R band mates was Slash’s Snakepit. The music featured Slash’s razor-sharp riffs, but it lacked the heart of GN’R at their best. Slash’s second attempt at building something with his GN’R buddies was a new band that featured Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots on vocals. While the lead singer of an alternative rock band doesn’t seem to make sense fronting a classic hard rock band, it really worked for the debut album. The music was truly modernized hard rock. After that fantastic release the follow up, with a different singer, was weak.

Halestorm
The Strange Case of…
CD | MP3
Atlantic Records
Release date: April 9, 2012

It’s not often that you get the pleasure of hearing a solid hard rock band with a female lead singer. I’m not exactly sure why that is but it just is. There are exceptions, such as old school Heart, but hard rock is traditionally dominated by male singers. One modern notable exception is the band Halestorm. Halestorm successfully blends a modern sensibility of instrumentation and production with a classic 80’s hair band sensibility and tone. This is a tough fence to sit on. Most bands that try it either sound poser or they just sound like a complete throwback to that era of music, which isn’t in and of itself a bad thing. Halestorm does this and also brings us a powerhouse female lead vocal that once you hear it, you won’t forget it.