When Joe Pass recorded and released this first of his Virtuoso series of albums, he was 44 years old, and ready to reclaim his crown as king of jazz guitar after years of heroin abuse. As a solo artist playing only acoustic guitar in an amplified fusion era, the odds were stacked against him, but Pass boldly issued this, his most creative and improvisation-based work, to mass critical acclaim and widespread general public sales. The genius of Pass was that he was easily able to retain melodic lines of these standards while adding stretched-out, extrapolated thoughts on the top and bottom of the melodies. On every track, with each passing phrase, modified and extended line or poetic thought, Pass proves his unique style is better than all the rest…

September grew out of the short-lived super-group project Jugoslovenska Pop Selekcija in September 1975, whose members included Tihomir Pop Asanovic-organ, Janez Boncina-vocals, guitar, Braco Doblekar-percussion, congas and Ratko Divjak- drums. Charley Novak on bass and formally educated musician Pero Ugrin on electric violin and trumpet joined soon for the recording of the first album, ironically titled "Zadnja avantura" (Eng. "The Last Adventure"). The album was recorded in February 1976 in Ljubljana and released shortly afterwards but passed largely unnoticed. This is in fact a pure gem of Yugoslavian jazz fusion that lacked popularity simply because there was no single hit song on it that would draw attention of the wider public. That said, this album is probably the first complete fusion release in ex- Yugoslavia that did not rely on the blues/R'n'B fundament, going instead further into free jazz exploration in a vein of Mahavishnu Orchestra or Return To Forever…

The successful self-titled reissue of Fame-era material released in early 2004 allowed Candi Staton to make this, her first secular album in several years. Where 1999's Outside In was a way to take advantage of her unplanned return to the clubs – a couple singles released during the '90s used a vocal she recorded for a documentary about a man's struggle with life-threatening obesity – His Hands is 100 percent Southern soul. Staton involves several family members and longtime associates, including son Marcus Williams (a seasoned drummer who has played with her for years), daughter Cassandra Hightower, sister Maggie Staton Peebles, and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section organist Barry Beckett. It might be surprising to see that Lambchop's Mark Nevers produced the session, and that Lambchop ally Lloyd Barry arranged the horns, but both men have done extensive work with Staton's peers in the gospel world.

Soundtrack to the film 'Farinelli', the 1994 biopic film about the life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time. It stars Stefano Dionisi as Farinelli and was directed by Belgian director Gérard Corbiau. Although Dionisi provided the speaking voice, Farinelli's singing voice was provided by a soprano, Ewa Malas-Godlewska and a countertenor, Derek Lee Ragin, who were recorded separately then digitally merged to recreate the sound of a castrato. Through the film the general public discovered a whole repertoire of works for a voice that can no longer be heard today. The soundtrack from the film became a bestseller, as we discovered with delight some beautiful pieces by Handel, Pergolesi, Hasse, Porpora and others, in a unique interpretation.

Jaga Jazzist, the Norwegian multi-instrumental boundary-busters, may occupy a niche, but it feels like an enduringly spacious and fertile one, where sounds that recall everything from Weather Report to big-band jazz, krautrock, Radiohead or even the Pat Metheny Group intertwine. Last year’s 20th anniversary retrospective was fascinatingly diverse, but Starfire – conceived in composer Lars Horntveth’s new Los Angeles home, rather than in Oslo – is a more densely layered and studio-dominated deployment of this band’s awesome resources. The title track is classic Jazzist: a sound like the Shadows driven by a marching-band thump skids through power-chord guitar hooks and Zappaesque melodic zigzags; the atmospheric Big City Music is a masterly balance of quickfire rhythm-section ingenuity and the instrumental diversity of guitars, keys and brass. The tunes remain quirkily dramatic and the thematic scene-shifting spectacular, but a little thinning-out would have let Jaga Jazzist’s uniquely mercurial music breathe more.

Sony Music's aptly named Synth Pop box rounds up 53 slabs of new wave, new romantic, post-punk, and AOR pop goodness from the 1980s.
Synth Pop reads like a who’s who of the late 70s and early 80s, featuring 53 of the most recognisable and iconic songs of the era. The collection kicks off with Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and picks up the pace pretty fast. You know you’re on to a winning collection when Don’t You Want Me by The Human League, Cars by Gary Numan and Tainted Love by Soft Cell are sequenced one after the other. There are so many highlights over the 53 tracks that it’s really hard to single out specific songs for mention. The late Donna Summer’s I Feel Love continues to be one of the greatest synth pop songs ever recorded whilst the irresistible Gold by Spandau Ballet continues to be both a karaoke and dancefloor favourite all these years on…

Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s and became counterculture icons of the decade's social revolution, alongside artists such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan. Their biggest hits—including "The Sound of Silence" (1964), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1969), and "The Boxer" (1969)—reached number one on singles charts worldwide. They won 10 Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

This five-disc, 116-track box set presents a sweeping history of the blues from its emergence in the early 1900s clear through to its various contemporary guises, and includes samples of country blues in all of its regional variations, as well as cuts from string bands, jug bands, jazz combos, gritty Chicago blues outfits, and a look at how rock artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix incorporated the blues into their distinctive styles. Intelligently gathered and arranged, it treats the blues both from a historical perspective and from a working assumption that the form is still alive and well, continually morphing and transforming itself. There simply isn't a better or deeper survey of the blues on the market.

Graced with cover art of a grotesque gorilla sporting the Stones' trademark leering lips, GRRR! doesn't quite have the classy veneer usually associated with a 50th anniversary collection. Frankly, that's a good sign for the Rolling Stones: they're celebrating their half-century together but refusing to take themselves too seriously, even when they're assembling a mammoth retrospective that's available in three different incarnations. Each chronicles the Stones' story beginning with their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On," to a pair of good new recordings (a loose-limbed rocker called "Doom and Gloom" and the poppier "One More Shot"). Neither the standard triple-disc version, a budget two-disc version, or the super deluxe four-disc set - which has the added bonus of a disc of the band's Chess Records-heavy demos for IBC in 1963, a significant enticement to make the investment…

hänssler Classic presnts "Romantic Classical Music" - a compilation of 11 classical works, including Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik Serenade for strings, Liszt's Romance oubliée, for piano, Dvořák's Romance in F minor.