Release Round-Up: Week of July 15

Average White Band, All the Pieces: The Complete Studio Recordings 1971-2003 (Edsel)

Nineteen discs of AWB goodness, including two discs of rarities? Now that’s something to blow your horn over. Full specs will be posted later today. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

John Coltrane and Friends, Sideman: Trane’s Blue Note Sessions (Blue Note)

Three discs of ‘Trane’s time as a sideman, with performances by Miles and Monk, all in glorious mono. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The Jerry Garcia Band, Garcia Live Volume 4: March 22, 1978 – Veteran’s Hall (ATO)

The latest volume in this official vintage live series is an unreleased, double-disc show of Garcia and band (including fellow Dead Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux) in Sebastopol, California. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Release Round-Up: Week of September 25

Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb, In Session (Concord)

The legendary songwriter and equally legendary country superstar join forces for two 1988 television broadcasts, joined together on one DVD and accompanied by a CD of the programs’ musical selections!  Campbell’s only recording of Webb’s “Sunshower” can be found here, among other gems.  For those of you anticipating the arrival of In Session today, it appears that this title has been delayed until October 9!  You can read more about it here.  Now, onto some titles actually arriving in stores today…

Aretha Franklin, Love All the Hurt Away / MFSB, Love is the Message / Platypus, Platypus / Lipps, Inc., Mouth to Mouth / Dionne Warwick, Heartbreaker (Big Break Records)

It’s another soul banquet from the good people at Big Break Records with expanded and remastered titles from the catalogues of Casablanca, Arista and Philadelphia International!  Watch for features and reviews on all of the above, coming soon!  These are out in the U.K. today, while a U.S. berth follows next week.

Dickie Goodman, Long Live the King/Moving Sidewalks, The Complete Collection (RockBeat)

RockBeat Records returns with two new releases: a single-disc compilation spanning the career of the “break-in record” king, Dickie Goodman, and a two-CD anthology of music from Billy Gibbons’ pre-ZZ Top band, The Moving Sidewalks!  Here’s the scoop on these titles and more from RockBeat.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The 50^th Anniversary Collection (Columbia/Legacy)

The New Orleans institution turns 50, and celebrates the occasion with this deluxe box set of performances recorded between 1962 and 2010, including five previously unreleased tracks!  Read more here!

R.E.M., Document: 25^th Anniversary Edition (EMI)

R.E.M.’s fifth studio album has turned 25!  Document was recorded by vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry, and was the band’s first album to achieve platinum sales.  The remastered album is joined by a previously unreleased 1987 concert, and it’s all packaged in a sturdy lift-top box with four postcards.  Read all about it here.

Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia, Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings (Fantasy/Concord)

Fantasy Records issues four CDs of prime live Garcia, in which the Grateful Dead leader is joined by Merl Saunders.  These remarkable Bay Area performances are packaged in a handsome box with copious notes and a bit of swag, too.  Watch for our review as part of our Holiday Gift Guide, coming soon!

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., Christmas with the Rat Pack (Capitol)

2012 is bringing another new version of Capitol’s Rat Pack holiday compilation, and it appears to have lost a few tracks since its original 2002 release (and subsequent 2006 reissue).  Still, this music simply can’t be beat, pallies.

Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols: Super Deluxe Edition (Universal U.K.)

Never mind the rest, the Sex Pistols have gone super-deluxe!  That means you’ll get a remastered version of the original album, a CD of outtakes and rarities (including previously unreleased tracks), a live CD, and a DVD, too, plus the requisite swag including a replica of the original A&M pressing of “God Save the Queen.”  This is available in the U.K. now, and in the U.S. next week!  If you don’t think this set is a load of bollocks, you’ll want to read more about it here!

Barbra Streisand, Release Me (Columbia)

La Streisand unlocks the vault doors for this first collection of previously-unreleased material recorded between 1967 and 2011, with songs by world-class composers like Jimmy Webb, Randy Newman, Paul Williams and Michel Legrand.  Word has it that future volumes might follow as Streisand kicks off her 50th year of recording for Columbia Records.  Release Me is out today on vinyl, while the CD release follows on October 9.

The John Wilson Orchestra, That’s Entertainment: A Celebration of the MGM Film Musical (EMI)

The John Wilson Orchestra’s 2009 BBC Prom concert, with guest stars Seth MacFarlane, Kim Criswell and Curtis Stigers singing reconstructed tunes from classic MGM musicals, receives an American release.  It’s available as a standard edition and a deluxe one, with the latter containing liner notes and session photos in a casebound, hardcover book plus a DVD containing a featurette and music videos.  A stand-alone DVD of the concert is also available.

Frank Zappa, 12 catalogue reissues (UMe/Zappa Records)

Twelve more Zappa classics arrive on CD, many in freshly-remastered editions. Full details and pre-order links for every title can be found in yesterday’s full rundown, or just click on the li’l fella, above, to order and jump headfirst into FZ Territory!

Warren Zevon, Mr. Bad Example/Mutineer (Friday Music)

The late Warren Zevon’s witty, mordant and moving oeuvre is celebrated on this two-fer from Friday Music, bringing together his 1991 and 1995 studio albums.

Original Soundtrack, Dirty Dancing: The Anniversary Edition (RCA/Legacy)

Will you have the time of your life with this deluxe version of the smash soundtrack album to the 1987 film?  Only the original 12 songs are present, but they’re joined in a commemorative package by six suitable-for-framing art cards and a bumper sticker.

Always Grateful: Garcia and Saunders’ “Keystone Companions” Coming from Concord, Rhino Readies “Spring 1990” Dead Box

2012 marked what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 70^th birthday year.  The favorite son of San Francisco is being celebrated this fall with two monumental new box sets: one chronicling a renowned stand with The Grateful Dead, of course, and another turning the spotlight onto his less-heralded collaboration with keyboardist Merl Saunders.

Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings is the most complete edition of the yet of the concerts recorded on July 10 and 11, 1973 at Berkeley, California’s Keystone Club.  When Garcia and Saunders got together, audiences were rewarded with wide-ranging renditions of songs crossing genre barriers, with both musicians challenging each other to new, improvisatory heights.  Due on September 25, the lavish box set from Fantasy Records premieres seven previously unreleased tracks.  It includes a booklet with liner notes from Grateful Dead historian David Gans, numerous photographs, and an assortment of swag such as a poster, coaster, button, and “scratchbook” (replicating the design of the original album’s promotional matchbook).

Live at Keystone was originally released as a double LP in 1973.  Further material was issued on two LP volumes of Keystone Encores in 1988.  The tracks from the original double LP and the two Encores sets were then reconfigured and released on three CDs.  Live at Keystone, Volumes 1 & 2 arrived on CD in 1988 along with one CD of Keystone Encores.  Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings simplifies matters considerably, assembling the original recordings and presenting them in the order in which the songs were performed at those two shows on July 10 and 11, 1973.

Garcia on guitar and vocals and Saunders on keyboard were joined by John Kahn on bass and Bill Vitt on drums.  David Grisman contributed mandolin to Bob Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street,” one of two Dylan songs performed over the two nights.  Dylan joined a stellar array of songwriters represented in the eclectic sets, including Jimmy Cliff, Dan Penn, Holland/Dozier/Holland and even Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

The rapport between Garcia and Saunders shines through on these performances.  It was a mutual admiration society, with Saunders once reflecting, “Anything he played was very musical. He knew how to do a rhythm on any kind of tune — gospel, blues, jazz. I was amazed.”  Garcia returned the compliment, definitively stating, “He taught me music.”  The Keystone gigs weren’t the first (or the last) collaborations between the two men.  By December 1970, Saunders, Garcia, Kahn and Vitt had all been participating in a weekly jam session at the famed Matrix in San Francisco.

Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings will be joined on September 25 by a vinyl reissue of the original Live at Keystone double LP, pressed on multi-color vinyl.  After the jump: meet the Grateful Dead in 1990!