"Voodoo Guitar", the way-kool debut studio disc by this bad-ass, killer blues/rock axeripper from Los Angeles, features 10 tracks of hard-assed, get-down, nasty, rough & ready, blues-based heavy guitar power trio riffage that will rock your low-down blues and kick your ass right into the next county. Dirty Dave Osti is a bonafide blues/rock guitar hero who can rip it hard with the best of them. The man gets down to serious six string business and rocks the blues with wild abandon as the Dirty One cuts loose and goes for the throat nailing down each muscular riff with sheer force and relentless groove. Osti knows when to jam hard and when to kick back @ the shack for an unforgettable, dynamic, blues/rock guitar ride. Fierce and powerful blues-based heavy guitar riffage rules in the world of Dirty Dave Osti.

"How Anton Rubinstein in the end succeeded in creating a comprehensive oeuvre covering all the genres while making breathtaking concert and traveling rounds as a pianist is something that numbers among the incomprehensibilities of his life marked by a tireless work ethos. During the course of his busy life on the go he composed more than a dozen operas, six symphonies, an oratorio, a ballet, some two hundred songs, countless works for piano solo and for piano in the concerto style and with orchestral accompaniment, and chamber music for various formations with and without piano. He also composed ten string quartets, two of which are now being released on cpo. Rubinstein composed these works during his time in Leipzig, and the Reinhold Quartet, whose members are musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, offer powerful interpretations of them. The two Quartets Nos. 1 and 3 in minor keys from op. 47 are on the one hand subtly linked together motivically and on the other hand most highly different in design."

'Two rarely performed piano trios by Sylvio Lazzari and Wilhelm Kienzl form the core of this CD. Lazzari’s Piano Trio op. 13 is characterized by a passionate tone and displays the composer’s dramatic talent; like Kienzl, Lazzari would later become first and foremost an opera composer. Sylvio Lazzari was known for his skillfully crafted, sonorous music. In comparison with Lazzari’s work, the piano trio by Wilhelm Kienzl is even more melodic and full of verve, even if it is also more conventional – which is not surprising since it is by a twenty-three-year-old student. His piano trio is full of youthful freshness. At times Kienzl’s music exhibits flowing structures reminiscent of Schubert, and a hint of salon music wafts through the piece. À propos: Wilhelm Jeral’s »Sérénade Viennoise,« arranged for piano trio, is presented as a charming encore. This musical gem with »Wiener Schmäh,« as irresistible as a slice of plum cake with whipped cream on top, is congenially brought to the musical table!'

In a way, this is the veteran duo's version of Fathers and Sons, a meeting of old black bluesmen with young white admirers that Muddy Waters and Otis Spann cut with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield…

Recorded over a series of live concerts in London, this double CD features an Acoustic Alchemy lineup of Greg Carmichael, Miles Gilderdale, Fred White, Greg Grainger, and Gary Grainger playing songs from 2011's Roseland as well as signature songs from the band's 16-album career, including "The Beautiful Game," "Jamaica Heartbeat," "One for Shorty," and "Lazeez."

The relative intimacy of the Storytellers stage is appropriate for an artist like Sarah McLachlan, who in the course of this 10-song, 55-minute performance establishes an easy and close rapport with her audience. In truth, empires will neither rise nor fall, and few lives are likely to be changed, on account of McLachlan's music…

In retrospect, violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Sirone, and drummer Jerome Cooper's free-jazz trio, the Revolutionary Ensemble, stands as a gentler cousin to those original free-jazz collectives, Art Ensemble of Chicago and AACM, the latter of which introduced Jenkins's string playing to the scene. On this live 1977 date, each of the members doubles or triples up on other instruments so there is a variety of textures and timbres to be heard here, including kalimba, flute, and piano. Mostly it's Jenkin's fluent, fugal violin improvisations that predominate, however. At their most successful, these jams sound like a loosely strung Bach "Chaconne" accompanied by bass and drums. Originally an Inner City LP with limited distribution, Enja has reissued Revolutionary Ensemble in 2008 with 24-bit remastered sound.

To celebrate what would have been the 74th birthday of David Bowie on the 8th January, this very special limited edition 7” single features two previously unreleased cover versions John Lennon’s MOTHER and Bob Dylan’s TRYIN’ TO GET TO HEAVEN.

The Les Humphries Singers was a 1970s musical group formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969[1] by the English-born Les Humphries (born John Leslie Humphreys, 10 August 1940, in Croydon, Surrey, England - died 26 December 2007, in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England)…

Sergio Mendes spent the '70s straying very far from his Brazilian roots. The Sergio Mendes album from 1975 is very much in the smooth soul/quiet storm bag and Magic Lady from 1979 is a straight disco record. Neither of the records are the disasters you might have already pegged them as. Sergio Mendes is actually a small pleasure and Magic Lady, while overly smooth, isn't an embarrassment. The best part about Sergio Mendes is the sweetly harmonizing vocals of Bonnie Bowden and Sondra Catton and the laid-back groove that percolates throughout the album. The songs are all covers. Some like the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" or Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" have interesting arrangements, while some like Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)" have hackneyed or meandering arrangements…

This live recording of the two Shostakovich cello concertos continues audite's successful cooperation with Marc Coppey, who approaches both works with boundless energy and without any sentimentality.

"After award-winning Langgaard recordings, the Nightingale String Quartet turns to one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996). Volume 1 in this new cycle takes in the composer’s first published quartet, his momentum momentum-fueled Quartet No. 3 and his taut Quartet No. 15 with its pathos-imbued Funeral march. These are fresh new performances that support the idea that the deeper you dig into Holmboe’s music, the more you find."

The first six volumes (9.70307–9.70312) of Boris Giltburg’s traversal of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas have been received with much acclaim: ‘[Giltburg brings] us closer to the spontaneous feel of a live performance… on this form Naxos’s cycle looks set to be something special’ (Malcolm Hayes, BBC Music Magazine, on Sonatas Nos. 4–7 / 9.70308). In this instalment the light and joyful Nos. 24 and 25 are bookended by two cornerstones of Beethoven’s piano sonatas: the powerfully dramatic Appassionata, and Les Adieux, the only programmatic sonata in Beethoven’s cycle.

The inaugural production of Riccardo Chailly’s era as La Scala’s music director, Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco stars Anna Netrebko “ablaze in the title role of warrior-saint” (The Observer) and features an imaginative production by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. The first performance of the opera at La Scala in over 150 years.