This retrospective of Abdullah Ibrahim's life in music is not only a great introdcution to the music of a giant of jazz but a fantastic album in itself. Drawing on recordings from 1979 to 1997, it covers a period of exile in Ibrahim's life - residing in America to escape the apartheid regime in his native South Africa - and his eventual return home.

Taken from his summer 2023 sold-out headline date at London's Barbican Centre, the new album "3" follows suit and is spread across two performances - the first is recorded without an audience recorded ahead of the concert straight to analogue on a 1" Scully tape machine, which had previously been used by Elvis at the famous Memphis-based Sun Studios. The second recording is taken from the evening's performance itself with Ibrahim performing in a unique trio which includes Cleave Guyton (flute, piccolo, saxophone) who has performed alongside the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, and Joe Henderson, as well as lauded bassist and cellist Noah Jackson, both of which are members of Ekaya and featured on Ibrahim's top 3 Billboard Jazz album "The Balance".

It's almost 50 years since blues harp master Carey Bell released his debut album on Delmark Records. Carey's children followed him into blues and performed with him often while growing up. Lurrie's debut recording was with Carey appearing on Heartaches And Pain and he joined with pops again in 2006 to record a live album / DVD, Gettin' Up only one year before Carey passed away. Now Lurrie, Steve, Tyson and James Bell join forces as The Bell Dynasty to present this tribute to their dad, Carey Bell. The Bell Dynasty is joined by special guests Charlie Musselwhite and Billy Branch.

Bill Evans's Finest Hour represents a number of choice tidbits recorded by the pianist between 1958 and 1970 for Verve. The settings of these recordings range between the intricate trio work he became so identified with to, in at least one instance, full orchestration. While Evans is certainly capable of bopping with the best on songs like "Luck Be a Lady" and "I Should Care," his style glimmers more distinctly on quieter numbers. The fragile "Elsa" and subtle "Spring Is Here" allow him to slowly, though deliberately, develop his impressionistic piano lines. Sensitive accompaniment by drummer Paul Motian and bassists Gary Peacock and Chuck Israels also adds a rich dynamic to these cuts. The recording of "I Loves You, Porgy" at the Montreux Jazz Festival is even more low key and bare, featuring Evans unaccompanied…

New expanded 3CD edition of the classic 1975 album by Procol Harum, with eight bonus tracks (five previously unreleased) of session out-takes, along with two previously unreleased concert recordings made at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey & Leicester University in October & November 1975. Includes a lavishly illustrated booklet with essay by Procol Harum authority Roland Clare featuring exclusive interview quotes from Gary Brooker and Mick Grabham.
Released in August 1975 the album was the product of a series of recording sessions at The Who’s Ramport Studios in Battersea, produced by the legendary American song writing and producing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Procol’s Ninth was another fine collection of material written by Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid, with such memorable tracks as Pandora’s Box…

Ambient Ibiza Vol. 1 (1996). Ambient Ibiza has been compiled with care fo reflect the true feeling of Ibiza. Ambient Ibiza does not mean long was electronic tracks as you would find on other compilations - maybe mellow would be a better term to use. The link between all the tracks is beauty and melody. There are many styles of ambient on this compilation and no matter where you are, whether it be winter, summer, spring or autumn, the music contained on this CD will evoke memories of sunny days and warm nights in Ibiza. Close your eyes and drift away to the music that is Ambient Ibiza…

It is an album devoted to excerpts from the Schemelli-Liederbuch. This song book was a mammoth collection of hymns or chorales put together by Georg Christian Schemelli, a choirmaster in Zeitz, Germany, in the first half of the 18th century. (His son studied with Bach.) For the hymnal, Bach contributed figured basses (to guide in the harmonization by the performer) for 69 chorale melodies. He also was responsible for a few melodies themselves and some complete harmonizations.

This disc from the Bogotá, Colombia-based ensemble Música Ficta jumps on the fast-moving bandwagon carrying Baroque music from Latin America. It is billed, with unnecessary specificity, as covering "Feast and Devotion in High Peru of the seventeenth century," but like other releases in this general repertoire it ranges widely, including music from other Latin American countries and from Spain itself, and covering music of several centuries. The subtitle is a bit misleading but not seriously annoying, for all this music traveled quite a bit in its time, and all the lands that are individual countries today were simply part of New Spain.

Armonico Consort return to album on Signum with a collection of Handel arias, performed by leading counter-tenor William Towers. A noted soloist in both opera and oratorio, the programme is taken from roles which Towers has sung across his career in various productions across the globe. Towers writes: “It is the life-affirming, live-giving aspect of Handel that I’m aiming to celebrate. So frequently his operas reveal their most devastatingly beautiful and uplifting music when life is at its darkest. Here the arias shine brightest, here we find Radamisto’s ‘Ombra cara’ and the boundlessly optimistic ‘Dopo l’orrore’, looking out beyond the darkest clouds to the faint glimmer of a dawning hope. This is the uncrushable, indomitable spirit that lies in all of us … We just need to take the time to listen.”

Dirkschneider & The Old Gang (DATOG) was originally launched in 2020 as a one-off charity project, but quickly developed a momentum of its own and formed into a band consisting of Udo Dirkschneider (vocals, Accept/U.D.O./Dirkschneider), Peter Baltes (bass, vocals, Accept/U.D.O./Dirkschneider), Stefan Kaufmann (guitar, Accept/U.D.O.), Mathias Dieth (guitar, Sinner/U.D.O.), Sven Dirkschneider (drums, U.D.O./Dirkschneider) and Manuela Bibert (vocals). Between 2020 and 2021 the first three singles attracted a lot of attention, whereupon the band wrote more songs and recorded their debut album. With a unique vocal concept of three voices, powerful riffs and stylistic complexity, DATOG combines classic heavy metal with a modern, powerful production.

Movie Music with the Mancini Sound, a prime package of film themes complimented by the musical touch of Henry Mamcini.

Mancini’s first long play in its entirety, the 1957 "Driftwood and Dreams" (Liberty LRP-3049), later reissued as The Versatile Henry Mancini (Liberty LST-7121). It features Mancini’s outstanding music, plus the wonderful guitar of Laurindo Almeida and vocals by the soprano Loulie “Lulu” Jean Norman, who would later achieve fame with her singing on the theme for Star Trek.