Critical Mass 2000

10. Don Byron, A Fine Line (Blue Note)The clarinetist swipes the concept of arias and leider from the opera snobs to re-create his own list of pieces he finds deserving of the classification. Ornette Coleman rubs shoulders with Henry Mancini and Chopin, with the killer cut being a tuxedoed version of Roy Orbison's "It's Over."

Best Boxed Set: A tie between The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) and Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection 1960-2000 (Arhoolie). Both disprove the notion of hard-core blues and folk music being pre-WWII stuff, with much of this material railing against the Vietnam war. The Broadside box focuses on protest music whose lyrics appeared in the anti-establishment Broadside folk journal; the Arhoolie box is an overview of what label head/folklorist Chris Strachwitz unearthed during 40 years of recording all manner of local musicians in the deep South.

Steve Earle's Transcendental Blues: The record a '90s Beatles reunion might've spawned.

Marah emerges from the City of Brotherly Love with the big tableau rock 'n' roll of Kids in Philly.

Related Content

• The Beach Boys Are Coming to Phoenix (And Playing Tucson Tonight)
  April 24, 2012
• Foreign Affairs
  November 3, 2011
• Tumblr of the Week: The Kitten Covers
  February 1, 2012
• Take Cover: Tommy Ash Band Perform a Rip-Roaring Take On Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues"
  May 7, 2012
• Four Songs for 2012 Graduates Heading Into the Job Market
  May 17, 2012

More About

• Charlie Parker
• The Rolling Stones
• Carrot Top
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Celebrity News

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Best Reissue: Charlie Parker, The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings (Savoy/Atlantic)Much of this material has haphazardly been reissued in chunks over the years, but this is the first time anyone's presented complete documentation of what's possibly the most radical period of stylistic alteration in jazz history. The eight discs cover the years following Parker's initiation into the jazz world, beginning approximately when he and Dizzy Gillespie cut what are regarded as the first bebop recordings. Far more intriguing and substantial than the 1988 Verve box of later Parker material.