Violonist MI-Sa Yang and pianist Adam Laloum present a program that mirrors four composers of different sensitivities who, in their confrontation with the second Vienna School's radical theories, have each sought in a genuine, personal way, to provide an alternative solution to the problems raised by the evolution of the musical language.

‘Mingus’, the album by Joni Mitchell from 1975 is the result of a 45-minute meeting arranged by Mingus’s wife between Mitchell, who was drifting towards a style of music jazzier than her previous output and Charles Mingus. Mingus was sadly waiting to die from motor neurons disease. Unable to play, he was bored, and his wife was keen to get him interested in something. Mingus sang the melodies into a tape recorder, chords were added by Sy Johnson, and Joni wrote the lyrics and organised the recording sessions. The band on the album were members of Weather Report. Mingus died before the project was complete. To ensure enough material was ready for the album, Joni added a song of her own ‘Wolf’. The album was cooly received by admirers of both musicians.

Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano laid the foundations of twentieth-century musical thought. Under the fingers of Gary Hoffman and David Selig, these five monuments of musical history, though dating from the early nineteenth century, reveal all their premonitory dimension. For these two peerless musicians, this recording marks the culmination of an artistic partnership that began more than thirty years ago. Gary Hoffman and David Selig met in 1986 and have been programing Beethoven's sonatas for many years. Sometimes they even play them all in a single concert. Hoffman says, "I regret that the notion of individuality is being lost today. What is wonderful is to reveal the different 'characters' of the score. Even in Beethoven's quartets, there are voices that emerge from a sonic 'fusion'."

Once again the groove is catchy, the way of shaping melodies utterly distinctive; these aspects define the sound of Shalosh. And once again, the trio is incredibly tight – after all, the band’s name does mean “three” in Hebrew. On “Tales of Utopia”, Shalosh have taken their music, their way of telling stories through sound, and placed them in the bigger context. Drawing elements from the Old Testament and the Odyssey, they combine Christian and Greek mythology in a way which is individual… rhapsodic. The connecting of world cultures gives a common thread to the album: a young hero is travelling into the unknown. But what is unknown to him is not just the external world, but also the inner self. Every journey also leads to increased self-awareness, and that makes him stronger. “Tales of Utopia” is about how utopian thinking is based on the preoccupation with one’s own self, on concentration and meditation. Keeping that focus well honed functions as the antidote to information overkill.

Four is a winner: that was the unanimous opinion of critics and audiences alike on the first album from German-Swedish supergroup 4 Wheel Drive. The eponymous debut disc from this band of bandleaders went straight to the top spot as best-selling jazz album in Germany for2019. And the media didn’t hold back with their praise either: “Four first-league jazz musicians with pure joy of playing and a love of good pop music”, said ZDF’s “heute-journal” about this spirited and enjoyable group, which combines trombonist/singer Nils Landgren, pianist Michael Wollny, bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson and drummer Wolfgang Haffner. AllAboutJazz, a leading American jazz website, asked whether this album might be worth adding to a listener’s collection, and answered the question succinctly:”4 sure”.