Pressearbeit / Media Deutschland:
Shack Media Promotion Agency
Tom Redecker - Postfach 1627 - 27706 Osterholz-Scharmbeck
Tel.: 04791-980642 - Fax: 04791-980643 [email protected]  www.shackmedia.de

Automatically scanned from the original press reviews by an OCR software, the text files in our Press Archive may contain errors and mutilations. We will eliminate these errors whenever time allows. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Pressearbeit / Media Deutschland: Shack Media Promotion Agency Tom Redecker - Postfach 1627 - 27706 Osterholz-Scharmbeck Tel.: 04791-980642 -  Fax:... read more »
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Bear Family Records Press Archive

Pressearbeit / Media Deutschland:
Shack Media Promotion Agency
Tom Redecker - Postfach 1627 - 27706 Osterholz-Scharmbeck
Tel.: 04791-980642 - Fax: 04791-980643 [email protected]  www.shackmedia.de

Automatically scanned from the original press reviews by an OCR software, the text files in our Press Archive may contain errors and mutilations. We will eliminate these errors whenever time allows. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - Now Dig This
FATS RE-BOXED Due for mid-October release from Bear Family Records of Germany is a new Fats Domino box-set, 'I've Been Around - The Complete Imperial & ABC Recordings'. Back in 1993, the company assembled all of Fats' known Imperial rec-ordings of the 1949 - 1962 period onto the 8xCD box-set, 'Out Of New Orleans'. That package has now been completely overhauled and expanded into a 12xCD collection also con-sisting of a DVD (Joe Lauro's acclaimed 'The Big Beat - Fats Domino And The Birth Of Rock n Roll'), together with a 240-page full colour book containing an updated Imperial discog-raphy. "We've found a lot of new material", says a Bear Family press release, "[including] some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternative takes that have never before been issued. We've got new unedited and non-overdubbed versions of some familiar Fats songs and newly discovered overdubs of familiar songs.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - offbeat.com
Bear Family Records is releasing a new box set, I’ve Been Around, which offers access to 312 tracks from the New Orleans singer-pianist Fats Domino. The set includes Domino’s work with Imperial Records (recordings from 1948-1962) and–collected for the first time in a Bear Family Records set–Domino’s ABC-Paramount Records sessions (recordings from 1963-1965). Also included are originally unreleased takes, undubbed masters and unreleased instrumental backing tracks, making this set a must-have for any collectors interested in Domino’s life and work.

Besides Domino’s iconic music, I’ve Been Around includes both a 60-minute and 90-minute cut of the PBS American Masters documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll, which was released in 2016 and includes interviews with the late Dave Bartholomew and Crescent City studio owner Cosimo Matassa. The set also includes a 240-page full-color book, filled with updated notes by biographer Rick Coleman, commentary by producers Hank Davis and Scott Parker, a complete Domino sessionography and a collection of previously unpublished pictures.

During the 1950s, Domino was the first R&B artist to gain recognition by the younger generation, bridging the gap between African-American and white audiences. By leaving indelible marks on the history of music–such as “Ain’t it a Shame,” “I’m in Love Again,” “Blue Monday,” “Blueberry Hill” and “I’m Walkin’”–Domino was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. On Oct. 24, 2017, Domino died at his home in Harvey, LA at the age of 89.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - the Vinyl District
The collection also contains a DVD including both the 60-minute broadcast version and the 90-minute director’s cut of the 2016 PBS American Masters documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll. The film — which includes interviews with the late Dave Bartholomew and Crescent City engineer and studio owner Cosimo Matassa — was directed by Joe Lauro and written by Lauro and Rick Coleman.

Befitting the wide, deep scope of the set and reflecting Bear Family’s longstanding commitment to quality presentation, I’ve Been Around includes a full-color, hardcover, large-format book of 240 pages. It contains updated and extended notes by biographer Coleman; track-by-track commentary by producers Hank Davis and Scott Parker (who have been involved in more than 50 Bear Family projects); a comprehensive Domino Imperial sessionography and the most complete ABC-Paramount discography available to date; and many previously unpublished images.

In its dimensions and clothbound elegance, the box replicates the packaging of two previously released, widely acclaimed Bear Family boxes devoted to a pair of Domino’s fellow inaugural Rock Hall inductees: Chuck Berry’s Rock and Roll Music Any Old Way You Choose It, which compiled the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s complete studio recordings, and Jerry Lee Lewis’ What the Hell Else Do You Need?, the most extensive collection ever produced of the singer-pianist’s Sun Records material.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - the second disc
Get ready to find your thrill, as Bear Family Records has announced the ultimate tribute to singer, pianist, and rock-and-roll pioneer Fats Domino. The new 12CD/1DVD box set I’ve Been Around is due on November 8. It’s packed with 312 tracks including all of Domino’s recordings for Imperial Records, the label on which he made his name and recorded his biggest hits from 1948-1962, and ABC-Paramount Records, where he continued turning out stellar work between 1963-1965. This being a Bear Family box, it also features a treasure trove of originally unreleased alternate takes, undubbed and unedited masters, and backing tracks.

With his brash, joyful piano pounding, New Orleans native Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. was one of the first “crossover” artists to bridge the divide between R&B and pop in the 1950s. It’s no surprise that he was one of the first ten inductees in the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as he was a major influence on such artists as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Elton John, Bobby Darin, and Randy Newman. All 61 of his R&B chart hits (including nine No. 1s) are present on Bear Family’s box, including his 37 top 40 crossover hits. These songs are still as familiar today as they were six decades ago: “Ain’t It a Shame,” “Blue Monday,” “I’m Walkin’,” and of course, “Blueberry Hill.” The original master tape to the latter, a No. 1 R&B/No. 2 pop smash, is badly damaged, but is presented in superior sound here as derived from a clean, original 78 RPM disk.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - goldminemag
Domino (1928-2017) was the first major artist to explode off the R&B charts and into the teenage consciousness during the 1950s. He made his mark both as a session pianist behind Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Price, and Smiley Lewis (whose work backed by the keyboardist is heard on I’ve Been Around) and as a star in his own right, notching hit after hit with his sunny vocalizing and romping, rolling work on the 88s.
He changed American music in the process by crafting universally popular songs that bridged the then seemingly vast chasm between African-American and white audiences. New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew called him the “cornerstone” of rock ’n’ roll.
As biographer Rick Coleman noted in Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll, the musician “[stepped] beyond blues and jazz to the crossroads of a new, wider world that he would help create both musically and socially.” In 1986 he was one of the 10 inaugural inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - metal rules
Bear Family Records, the international gold standard for excellence in music reissues, offers the most in-depth look yet available at the groundbreaking R&B and rock ’n’ roll hits of the pioneering New Orleans singer-pianistFats Domino in its new box set I’ve Been Around, to be released November 8, 2019.

The monumental collection contains 312 tracks comprising all the Crescent City titan’s work forImperial Records, for which he cut his first and greatest hits from 1948-1962, and ABC-Paramount Records, his recording home from 1963-65. A motherlode of originally unreleased alternate takes, undubbed and unedited masters, and newly discovered instrumental backing tracks, is included.

Domino (1928-2017) was the first major artist to explode off the R&B charts and into the teenage consciousness during the 1950s. He made his mark both as a session pianist behind Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Price, and Smiley Lewis (whose work backed by the keyboardist is heard on I’ve Been Around) and as a star in his own right, notching hit after hit with his sunny vocalizing and romping, rolling work on the 88s.

He changed American music in the process by crafting universally popular songs that bridged the then seemingly vast chasm between African-American and white audiences. New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew called him the “cornerstone” of rock ’n’ roll.

As biographer Rick Coleman noted in Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll, the musician “[stepped] beyond blues and jazz to the crossroads of a new, wider world that he would help create both musically and socially.” In 1986 he was one of the 10 inaugural inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - shepherdexpress.com
A case could be made for 1948 as the birthdate of rock and roll. "Okie Boogie," recorded that year by The Maddox Brothers and Rose, was western swing stripped to bedrock with a furiously pounding rhythm yanking the usually tragic pedal steel along for a reckless ride. Then again, a track by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, "Seven Come Eleven," recorded in 1945 and also included in The Bakersfield Sound, also hints at rockabilly with its fierce slapping rhythm.

The Bakersfield Sound is a magnificently authoritative 10-CD box set whose heavily illustrated hardbound book contains artist bios and track-by-track notations. Wills was included in the set for his seminal influence on the country music scene that coalesced in the environs of Bakersfield, Calif. The city was a mecca for Dust Bowl refugees with farm fields and oil wells offering work for any man willing to roll up his sleeves. Honky-tonks were their place of refuge when the workday ended.

Bakersfield is recalled as an alternative to Nashville, and during the 1960s, it challenged the Tennessee town as country music's capital. All of the folks whose recordings are collected here had aspirations of popularity, and some made it. To generalize the difference with Nashville, the Bakersfield boys (and several gals) were proud of their authentically rural roots and had no interest in hiding them behind slickly conceived pop arrangements.
Press - Fats Domino I’ve Been Around - The Complete Imperial and ABC Recordings - Now Dig This
That package has now been completely overhauled and expanded into a 12xCD collection also con-sisting of a DVD (Joe Lauro's acclaimed 'The Big Beat - Fats Domino And The Birth Of Rock n Roll'), together with a 240-page full colour book containing an updated Imperial discog-raphy. "We've found a lot of new material", says a Bear Family press release, "[including] some things that were thought to be lost and other things that nobody knew existed. We have alternative takes that have never before been issued.
Press Archive - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - AllMusic
Strictly speaking, many of the 32 tracks on the 2018 compilation The Ballads of Fats Domino are not ballads. They're blues and slow-rolling R&B, songs that seem to define the Big Easy sound of Fats: "Blueberry Hill," "Blue Monday," "One Night," "Poor Me, "Before I Grow Too Old," "Natural Born Lover," and "I Hear You Knocking." They're surrounded by lots of songs that could conceivably be called ballads, but the feel of the comp isn't sweet and anodyne. Some of the tempos may be slow, but this is an R&B and rock & roll record through and through; it just happens to lean toward an easier roll. That sustained feel is appealing, as is the fact that this compilation is filled with songs that aren't hits but aren't slouches either. For some listeners, this may be a good way to launch an exploration of his classic Imperial period.
Press Archive - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - AllMusic
Strictly speaking, many of the 32 tracks on the 2018 compilation The Ballads of Fats Domino are not ballads. They're blues and slow-rolling R&B, songs that seem to define the Big Easy sound of Fats: "Blueberry Hill," "Blue Monday," "One Night," "Poor Me, "Before I Grow Too Old," "Natural Born Lover," and "I Hear You Knocking." They're surrounded by lots of songs that could conceivably be called ballads, but the feel of the comp isn't sweet and anodyne. Some of the tempos may be slow, but this is an R&B and rock & roll record through and through; it just happens to lean toward an easier roll. That sustained feel is appealing, as is the fact that this compilation is filled with songs that aren't hits but aren't slouches either. For some listeners, this may be a good way to launch an exploration of his classic Imperial period.
Press Archiv - Fats Domino - Teenageparty with Mr. Domino - Vintage Rock
FATS DOMINO TEENAGE PARTY WITH MR DOMINO BEAR FAMILY VINYL CLUB 00000 Bear Family Vinyl Club once again unearths the most obscure pressings imaginable with this 1962, Dutch, 10" The compilers didn't limit themselves to then-recent material from his vast Imperial Records catalogue: Please Don't Leave Me was a smash for Domino nearly a decade earlier and I'm Walkin' shot up the charts like a rocket in 1957. Some of Fats' lesser-known boppers are here too, including What A Party, My Real Name and Rockin' Bicycle. Only 1,000 copies pressed.
Press Archiv - Fats Domino - Teenageparty with Mr. Domino - Ugly Things
FATS DOMINO–Teenage Party with Mr Domino (Bear Family) 10" The Ballads of Fats Domino (Bear Family) CD The 10" LP Teenage Party with Mr Domino is a reissue of a 1963 Netherlands release freshly pressed onto gold vinyl. A well-chosen blend of early rock ditties circa 1953-1962, it is entertaining and concise. Some million sellers are here: The stomp-ing "I'm Walkin'," the teen appeal working man's lament "Blue Monday," the countryish tribute to a varmint "Bo Weevil," and the plead-ing R&B of"Please Don't Leave Me." However, this 10-song disc mainly works because of the less famous ]racks, Domino's 1962 allusion to „idninY Jones's "Handy Man," "MY Real Name," is a happy boast. The lost love song "It Keeps rifling," features a trilling guitar Hre and trumpets instead of s.. sound is further updated on the lawful "Rockin' Bicycle" where '",kne not only smartly double-Ceics his vocal on the chorus but . down some nasty piano bogie the middle.
Press - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Now Dig This Dez. 1993
Here it is, the box-set that was deferred for two years after EMI released their 4xCD box in 1991. I bet that the modest Fats can't believe it - two box-sets of his Imperial output in two years, and Rick Coleman's book to come around the end of 1994!
Press - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Juke Box 1994
Fats Domino had two distinctly different periods of stardom during the 1950s: his first as a successful R&B artist, with his output aimed at and tailored to suit the black record buying public of the post-war years, his second with unforeseen success as an international rock 'n' roll star selling to an increasingly white audience with his style suitably modified. There can be few who are not familiar with Fats' R&R hits, and most either love them or hate them, but what went before, between and even after them may be of far more interest than expected to those yet to explore Domino's output. This excellent box gathers together for the first time Fats' entire recordings for Imperial Records, from 1949 to 1962, in chronological order, on to eight CDs.
Press - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Blues & Rhythm
Tony- Watsori Looks at the new Fats Domino Bear Family Box Set
Of all the fabulous collections that Richard Weize has put together on Bear Family this is the one that has been, perhaps the most eagerly awaited, at least in R&B and rock and roll circles. As every single available Imperial master recorded by the Fat Man between 1949 and 1962 is included here, there is little need for a track listing.
Press - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Record Collector 1993
Mining the rich seams of Fats' original recordings for the Los Angeles-based Imperial label in the 1950s and early 1960s, this compilation promised much, and certainly delivered. With 100 tracks, and an excellently researched booklet featuring verbatim interview material, this could have easily survived the decade as the last word in Domino retrospectives. But then came Bear Family. The German reissue label which does nothing by halves has done it again.
Press - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - Blueprint April 1994

This is Bear Family's long-planned release of the complete Domino Imperial canon, put on ice when EMI issued their 'Best 100' set. That information alone will be enough for many of you. 'Complete Works' sets really allow the CD format to come into its own (with programming permitting all shades of listening, from the casual to the obsessive) and Richard Weize has set unsurpassable standards in the field.