Delano Stewart - Stay a Little Longer - Sonia Pottinger Production

 

Delano Stewart - Stay a Little Longer - Dr Bird  DBCDD066

The postman`s been today to deliver this and as usual I`m like a big kid at Xmas !

This is a re-release of Delano Stewarts` 1970 album, which was produced by the late Sonia Pottinger, plus 48 other Pottinger-produced tracks, including 4 more from Mr Stewart, 60 tracks in all. 

Some of the extras had been scheduled for a Trojan LP to be titled Dr No Go which in fact was never released. However, as it would have been a compilation, those had already been released in other forms. As far as I know there are no previously unreleased tracks on this album.

Delano Stewart was and is a very talented performer, and Sonia Pottinger in my view was second only to Duke Reid as a producer, though some of the credit may be due to her engineer, Duke Reid`s nephew Errol Brown. 

Aside from the 16 Delano Stewart tracks, others featured in this collection include Roland Alphonso, Marcia Griffiths, The Victors, The Conquerors and Winston Wright.

Looking forward to giving this one a play later today.  

  

David Stuart Davies (ed) Classic Locked-Room Mysteries

 

David Stuart Davies (ed) - Classic Locked-Room Mysteries - Macmillan - 2016

Includes stories by R Austin Freeman, Edgar Allan Poe, Jacques Futrelle etc

An interesting collection put together by veteran writer and noted Sherlockian David Stuart Davies.

I`ll have to be frank and admit that a few weeks have passed since I read this.

I do recall thinking that DSD, who I respect and admire very much, had allowed himself quite a bit of leeway on the question of what constitutes a locked-room mystery. If you`re a bit of a purist at heart and require all LRMs to conform to the classic format (A crime has taken place in a room which was locked from the inside before the event and which remains locked afterwards. How did the perpetrator enter the room and how did he escape ?)  then you probably won`t care for this. If you take a broader view of the matter then read on. 

Some of the stories are better than others, but perhaps that`s to be expected.

In his introduction, DSD remarks that some of the authors in this collection "are now forgotten names, their work unjustly neglected for many years". That to me is the strength of this collection. While many of the usual suspects (Conan Doyle, Austin Freeman etc) appear in these pages, a number of the writers were new to me, even after years as an avid reader of this sort of thing.  

Most of the stories in the collection date from the Victorian and Edwardian ages. Overall I think this volume has something to offer to newcomers to the genre of vintage detective fiction, while still finding something fresh to offer to those of us who are long-standing afficionados.

Robert Dallas/Vin Gordon - Trust and Believe/Warrior Charge - Room in the Sky

 

Robert Dallas and Salute - Trust and Believe

Vin Gordon and Salute - Warrior Charge

This is a recent acquisition of mine that I thought people might like to see. 

Robert Dallas I can`t tell you much about, other than the fact he is a British-based reggae singer living in Bristol and seems to have recorded quite a bit over the years. Generally speaking I am not a huge fan of modern reggae, but Mr Dallas is a singer I have a lot of time for and I hope more people will seek out his music. I certainly intend to seek out more of his tracks. 

Vin Gordon is a very well-respected veteran reggae trombone player who probably needs no introduction to anyone with an interest in this sort of music. Always a pleasure to hear him play.