Music : Ultra-Lounge: Wild, Cool & Swingin' - Artist Series Vol 1 |
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Rating: - * you'll love it! ... the reason i HAD to buy this CD, was to get mine back! i brought this to a house-warming dinner party & everyone LOVED it - including the host. Now they can enjoy Louie Prima & Keely Smith anytime they want - and I got my CD back. :) you'll find yourself singin' & swingin' along too. Rating: - * fun swing ... i just started to appreciate louis prima's band-this remastered double cd offers an excellent listening experience. Rating: - * Jump, Jive, An' Wail! ... Songs from Louis Prima and Keely Smith with Sam Butera and the Witnesses. Songs are great. Compilation includes songs from "The Wildest", "The Call of the Wildest" and "The Wildest Show at Tahoe". Rating: - * Fast, funny, and worth every penny! ... I was skeptical about buying a compilation CD set for fear it wouldn't be good... but I was wrong! I can't get enough of these CD's. I do Swing dance and Lindy Hop, and I think some of the tempos to these songs are a bit fast for dancing, but excellent for listening to when you just want to be in a good mood! Keely has a great voice, and Louis is just plane hysterical :D Rating: - * A trip to the Moon on nuclear wings! ... What a blast! This was my first introduction to Mr. Prima & Co. What a swingin' treat! You can tell from each and every cut on this twin CD set that these guys were having fun. Many of the songs have little ad-libs between Louis, Keely Smith, Sam Butera, and the other band members. Louis jumps in between solos to throw out comments, he'll scat, even proto-rap, and is having such a good time he'll try to keep from laughing while he and Sam duel with brass. Only true professional musicians can get away with that sort of thing and make it sound good. Louis & Co. are top-notch pros. Keely solos on a few cuts to round things out, and basically, you get the feeling of what it must have been like to be kickin' it in Vegas back in the swank era while taking in Louis Prima's act. Maybe tomorrow night, you'll catch Dino at the Sands, and take in Torme on Tuesday. Or, maybe you'll just keep coming back here to see Louis, Keely, Sam, and the Witnesses again and again. Many of the songs are just plain fun ("Robin Hood/Oh Babe", "Banana Split For My Baby", "Felicia No Capicia", "Greenback Dollar Bill", "There'll Be No Next Time"), and even the old standards take on a wink and a smile when Louis gets ahold of them ("The Music Goes 'Round And Around", "That Old Black Magic", "Just One of Those Things", "Embraceable You")! Get yourself a martini, sit back and relax, and get ready to be swung back to swanksville. This set is one swingin' good time, whether you're six or sixty! |

Where the NBA Dynasty series (the other initial entry is the slightly meatier Los Angeles Lakers: The Complete History) outdoes Ultimate Jordan is in the six playoff games--one for each year--as they were originally broadcast, minus halftime and commercials. Having the nearly complete game (usually running 90-100 minutes, from the TV introductions to post-game interviews) means you can skip straight to John Paxson's clutch basket or what was expected to be the final shot of Jordan's career. Or you can savor each game in its entirety, all the better to appreciate the artistry of Jordan in his three-pointer barrage against Portland or his "flu game" against Utah. You can see other great players too, of course, including Jordan's teammates--Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman--and those opponents unfortunate enough to face the Bulls--Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, and others. Because these are all NBA Finals games, you won't see Jordan's shot over Craig Ehlo or his 63-point coming-out party against Boston, but the 1990s Chicago Bulls were a team for the ages, and merely having their games--some of them all-time classics--available for home viewing is a major milestone in archived sports. --David Horiuchi

While last-minute heroics tend to be the standard by which we define excellence, there are many other moments that have left an indelible impression, many of them highlighted here. The video clips fall into 10 categories: Dunks, Alley-oops, Assists, Steals, Blocks, Teamwork, the Clutch Shot, Moves, Hustle, and Buzzer-Beaters. At the beginning of each section is a brief introduction. Before showing the top 10 dunks of all time, for example, we learn about the evolution of the dunk--from the first slam to the man who could fly, Michael Jordan--and we hear background commentary from NBA legends such as Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Dr. J, and Bill Russell. This video recalls familiar moments of NBA lore that you will want to own for countless repeat viewings. --Jeremy Storey