Speak Easy: Rpm Records Story-1954-57 2/ Various - Speak Easy: RPM Records Story-1954-57 2 / Various2014 collection, the second and final volume in Ace Record's overview of the Modern subsidiary label RPM picks up where the first one, NO MORE DOGGIN', left off in December 1953. It continues through to the label's closure in early 1957 in order to make way for the new Kent subsidiary. As with the first volume, the focus here is on quality blues, R&B and doo wop, with occasional forays into rockabilly and rock 'n' roll representing the repertoire from

The first release on his own label

Confronted by two LAPD officers

the Gruca White Ensemble draws from countless musical cultures

will he want to

which evolved from a string quintet he wrote in 1895

" "Close Your Eyes" and "Growing/Dying

a mood of elegiac yearning inhabits much of his choral music

The mid-eighties spawned a controversial hit for the soul diva with "Another Man" - a surprising

the incredibly prolific songwriter

In Under Alter'd Skies

Staring out at the horizon

I believe that those who perform early music have a responsibility to explore obsolete practices and return to the genuine sound of the period