The “Katsushika Trio,” formed by Tetsuo Sakurai, Akira Jimbo, and Minoru Mukoya, all of whom were early members of the legendary fusion band “Casiopea,” has released their debut album, “M.R.I. Mirai,” which was well received and ranked No. 1 in the Oricon Weekly Album Ranking for Jazz, Classic and other genres on November 6, 2023. The second album “M.R.I_Mirai” was released less than a year after the debut album “M.R.I_Mirai” which was well received and ranked No. 1 in jazz, classical and other genres! As the title “Wild Guys in the Universe” suggests, this album offers a spacy and cool fusion sound! This is a must-have for fusion fans, bursting with “music for mature adults!

Tetsuo Sakurai (B), Akira Jinbo (Dr), and Minoru Mukoya (Key), three of the early members of Japan's leading fusion band "Cassiopeia," have come together after a quarter of a century! The much-talked-about trio is now ready to release their first original full-length album! Tetsuo Sakurai (bass), Akira Jinbo (drums), and Minoru Mukoya (keyboards), all of whom were members of Japan's leading fusion band "Cassiopeia" in its early days, began their activities as the "Katsushika Trio" in 2021. The trio has performed in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Yokohama, and has thrilled audiences of all ages, from longtime fans to the young. In the midst of all this, the long-awaited release of their first original full-length album is underway. This album includes popular songs such as the song from 2022, which was ranked No. 1 on the iTunes Store Jazz Chart, as well as newly recorded songs.

"Blue False Indigo" is both the album title and the title track of the new, entirely improvisation-based duo work by saxophonist Marc Stucki and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier. The title, inspired by the plant of the same name with its deep blue blossoms, symbolizes the unpredictability and beauty that arises when music unfolds freely – without constraints, without structures, without boundaries.

Love's Work is the first instrumental album by NY based songwriter/musician Zachary Cale. With his signature fingerstyle guitar technique at the forefront, the album highlights Cale's natural sense of melody and movement.

Despite the fact that the band was one of the more influential outfits of the late '60s and early '70s, a few key departures caused them to recede from the charts before a few of their peers. Even the return of vocalist David Clayton-Thomas couldn't help the fortunes of their last two '70s albums, and they were released in 1976. Brand New Day is their first and only effort for soon defunct ABC. Brand New Day is produced by Roy Halee and group member Bobby Colomby. The two had been co-producers for 1971's classic Blood Sweat and Tears 4, but, by 1977, the musical landscape had changed, so this is closer to R&B and polished pop, rather than the amalgam of styles that the group was famous for. "Dreaming As One" is a duet between Clayton-Thomas and Chaka Khan and despite the interesting chemistry, the song is barely there…

Here's a very reasonable compromise between the pricey Mosaic box and EMI's incomplete single-disc treatment of Milburn's Aladdin legacy: a three-disc, 66-song package that's heavy on boogies and blues and slightly deficient in the ballad department (to that end, his smash "Bewildered" was left off). Everything that is aboard is top-drawer, though - the booze odes, many a party rocker, and a plethora of the double-entendre blues that Milburn reveled in during his early years.

Successful instrumental session from the electric violinist who was a dominant figure at Blue Note in the late '70s. Pointer could at times churn out a surprisingly riveting solo, but he spent more time plugging into rigidly arranged, heavily produced and orchestrated structures and supporting background vocalists.

Formed in Helsinki in 1968, the band featured the talents of British Keyboard player and vocalist Jim Pembroke, Jukka Gustavson (keyboards, vocals), Pekka Pohjola (bass, violin, keyboards) and Ronnie Osterberg (drums). The end result was Wigwam's first real stab at pure progressive rock. On "Fairyport", Wigwam mix jazz, rock, pop all in one exploratory album with a nice wide range of themes and moods. Generally the songs are pretty organ drenched with lots of rhythmic syncopation. With "Fairyport" the threesome of Gustavson, Pembroke and Pohjola was completed. Jukka Gustavson wrote the most progressive pieces, with Jim Pembroke wrote the lighter and shorter songs and Pekka Pohjola's focus on the instrumental aspects.

After eight years Blank & Jones surprise with this club-driven Electronica-Album. Piet and Jaspa describe the sound as Adult Electronica, which nails it completely. They totally waive vocals and re-invent themselves one more time. If you join the journey, the songs, which rarely run under seven minutes, unfold their whole beauty and force. It s almost like an audio drama without words, just the energy of music running free. The tracks have this signature mix of euphoria and melancholy like only Blank & Jones can create.

Idlewild return with a self-titled album, their first since 2019, to land October 3rd via V2 Records. Produced by Rod Jones (who also mixed the record) and Idlewild, 'Idlewild' is the tenth studio album from the group and was written over 2024 at Post Electric Studios in Edinburgh and the Isle of Iona Library in the Hebrides. Since forming in Edinburgh in 1995, Idlewild have been a lot of different things. They were a teenage punk band, slinging buzzsaw riffs and barbed refrains on their seminal early records 'Hope Is Important' and '100 Broken Windows', before becoming one of the most compelling mainstream rock groups of their generation with 'The Remote Part', an album that debuted at number three on the UK charts behind Oasis and Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2002.

Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams. Limited Edition of 3000 Units
La-La Land Records and Paramount Pictures proudly present a remastered CD reissue of renowned composer John Williams’ original motion picture score to the 1977 dramatic feature film thriller BLACK SUNDAY, starring Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern, and directed by John Frankenheimer. A white-knuckle suspense thriller chronicling a diabolical terrorist attack on the Super Bowl via airborne blimp needed a score to wind the film’s ticking clock tension with precision. At the time, Williams’ recent FAMILY PLOT and legendary JAWS scores made him a perfect choice to tackle BLACK SUNDAY. His score to the film is pitch-perfect – a winding tapestry of percussion and ominous atmosphere that had the audience on the edge of their seats, while the inner conflicts of the characters are explored through emotionally resonant melodic material. The composer’s remarkable ability to balance action and suspense with human drama is on full display within this remastered presentation of the Maestro’s few forays into the political thriller genre.

Page McConnell Surprise Releases New Solo Album, ‘Something Will Land’. Phish keyboardist Page McConnell surprised fans on Friday morning with a previously unannounced studio album, Something Will Land. The half-hour collection of eight ambient instrumental tracks follows McConnell’s 2021 ambient synthesizer album, Maybe We’re The Visitors. In an accompanying profile by GQ‘s resident Phish demystifier, Grayson Haver Currin, McConnell went into detail on the album, a partial Vida Blue reunion, and what is turning out to be one of the 62-year-old’s most productive artistic periods. In some ways, Something Will Land can be seen as a sequel to Maybe We’re The Visitors, as the prolific improvisor “yes-anded” his last solo effort by combining use of piano and synthesizer—the first time he’s done so on one of his instrumental albums. He recorded the album at the studio he keeps across from his home in Burlington, swiveling around on an office chair between an upright piano and three synthesizers, recording and mixing everything himself. “My appreciation for space has grown and grown,” McConnell told GQ of the album he made with an emphasis on simplicity. “It’s hard for me to listen to my own stuff, Phish or any of it, because I want to edit it all. I hear it and think, ‘I wish I could have played just a few less notes there.’”

A powerful intergenerational trio emerges on Murasaki, featuring Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Jakob Bro on guitar. Recorded at Power Station (formerly Avatar Studios) in New York, this exploratory session unfolded spontaneously—no retakes, no discussions, just a shared musical language rooted in intuition and trust. “It felt as though this music already existed before we started playing,” Bro reflects. Murasaki captures the creative summit of three visionary artists, each pushing beyond the boundaries of form and genre. This marks Wadada Leo Smith’s final European tour appearance, with select live dates in Berlin, Antwerp, Reykjavik and Copenhagen in November.

The music made by Quincy Jones during the second half 1950s was a stunning example of contemporary jazz during that pivotal decade for the form. Listening back today to these groundbreaking records delightfully illustrate how the dynamic musician, performer, composer and arranger first introduced his extraordinary skills to the world. After spending the first half of the decade working for other musicians, including a number of freelance commissions arranging songs for renowned artists such as Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, and his close friend Ray Charles, Jones soon decided it was time for him to take the lead. The first album release to feature Quincy as a named artist was the 1955 release on Mercury Records 'Jazz Abroad' on which he featured alongside jazz drummer Roy Haynes. Next up was, 'That's How I feel About Jazz' featuring an all star cast including Art Farmer, Lucky Johnson & Phil Woods - following which he would record and release a further six albums before the end of the 1950s, all for Mercury. Quincy Jones first eight albums, all released during this period, are featured on this 4CD set in their entirety, in glorious re-mastered sound, making this package the most complete Quincy Jones 1950s collection available today.

Initially limited to 100 copies on Boards of Canada's own Music70 label, 1995's Twoism EP set a high standard for future BoC output - though only the few willing to pay silly money for it were able to hear for themselves until Warp quietly reissued it on CD at the tail end of 2002. For those trying to compare it to the full-length debut (Music Has the Right to Children), it holds up surprisingly well (granted, two tracks here were only slightly reworked for later release). Excepting only the rigid drum monster "Basefree" (which sounds a bit like Aphex Twin circa 1992), Twoism features the same exquisitely spooky, textured emotronica that fans will want to hear, all at as high a level as the brilliant Music Has the Right to Children to boot.