British trumpeter Ken Colyer, one of the major New Orleans revival brassmen, had broken up his regular group in 1971 due to his erratic health but fortunately he continued playing on a part-time basis during the remaining 17 years of his life. This infectious set (which came out on CD in 1998) was performed at a church in 1972 before a live audience and although Colyer and his septet play songs that could be thought of as hymns, there is nothing somber or overly reverent about the interpretations. Colyer (who is in excellent form), clarinetist Sammy Rimington, trombonist Barry Palser, pianist Ray Smith, banjoist Pete Morcom, bassist Alan Jones and drummer Colin Bowden put lots of feeling into the music and there are plenty of stomps and ensemble-oriented jams. Among the ten selections (all of which are quite enjoyable) are "Just A Little While To Stay Here," "Sing On," "Bye And Bye" and "Walking With The King." This is easily recommended to New Orleans jazz collectors.

The Deaton Le May Project was established and set up as a 100% pure studio project by Craig LeMay (drums and percussion) and Roby Deaton on guitar, keyboards, and vocals.
The sound of the Deaton LeMay Project truly reminds of bands like Saga, Camel; but it also “shows” influences of Rick Wakeman and even Keith Emerson. The latter influence can be heard in Different Place In Time, which is packed with beautiful flowing and sometimes dramatic keyboard motifs and melodies; but the duo also has a tendency towards classic hard rock elements and even some AOR characteristics. The second part of the album which consists of the six-part Elements Of Life Suite is the highlight and most extraordinary song of The Fifth Element. A true prog rock gem packed with tempo changes, intense vocals, pompous keyboard textures, impressive instrumental passages, and stunning guitar work…

Unplugged…and Seated is a live album released by British musician Rod Stewart on 24 May 1993. It is Stewart's second live album and his first (and only) appearance on MTV Unplugged. The album was released by Warner Bros. Records. The unplugged versions of "Have I Told You Lately" by Van Morrison, "Reason to Believe", "Having a Party", and "People Get Ready" were released as singles, with "Have I Told You Lately" and "Having a Party" reaching success as singles.

['ramp] is a collective of German musicians, making music in the vein of the Berlin school of electronic music. Frank Makowski and Steve Parsick are joined by Lambert Ringlage and Martina Fantar in various studio and concert sessions. Using a wide range of synthesizers, samplers and sequencers, Ramp adds an original and fresh touch to the history of German electronic music, with a deep and dark ambient sound, similar to Tangerine Dream and Radio Masacre International.
Originally released on Manikin records in late 1998, "Nodular" became Ramp's first major exposure to the world of electronic music. Billed as "Germany's response to Britain's invasion of sequencer-based and mellotron-heavy retro electronica from Redshift, Radio Massacre International, and Node"…

Three prior Mountain collections, 1973's THE BEST OF, 1974's ON TOP, and 1995's box set OVER THE TOP, left few stones unturned in their overviews of these short-lived yet successful power rockers. If you're looking for a succinct collection of their best-known tracks, then 1998's budget priced SUPER HITS is recommended. Containing 10 tracks, SUPER HITS features such classic rock radio standards as "Mississippi Queen," "Never in My Life," "Theme for an Imaginary Western," and "Flowers of Evil." Although THE BEST OF may have a longer track listing, SUPER HITS contains several tracks not included on the former, which rank among some of the band's best–"Flowers of Evil," "Blood of the Sun," "You Better Believe It," and "The Great Train Robbery."

Three of the five musicians on this quintet date (flügelhornist Art Farmer, altoist Frank Morgan, and pianist Lou Levy) had played on Central Avenue in Los Angeles of the late '40s. Not all of the eight songs that they perform with bassist Eric Von Essen and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath are from the era ("Blue Minor" and "Cool Struttin'" were written by Sonny Clark several years later), but the outing is very much in the bop style of the period. Their live set is highlighted by spirited versions of "Star Eyes," "Farmer's Market," "I Remember You," and "Donna Lee." This CD is filled with high-quality bebop that is easily recommended to straight-ahead jazz fans.

Five centuries, seven languages, and six singers with 35 years of remarkable experience inform this rare collection of choral music. In the world-renowned King's Singers resplendent voices, ancient and modern choral music comes to life with all the blazing immediacy and timeliness of the gospel of the nativity. With 25 pieces of music–ranging from familiar works such as "Coventry Carol" to the obscure Tchaikovsky piece "The Crown of Roses"–the King's Singers move through this hallowed and festive set with the vocal mastery that only three-and-a-half decades of accomplished work together is capable of creating. A number of contemporary carols written in the last century by composers such as John McCabe, Philip Lawson, John Rutter, and others are balanced by pieces by Bach and a host of traditional works. Lawson's "You Are the New Day," performed with a string quartet, stands out as one of the more notable performances. Like most of their music throughout Christmas, it reminds listeners that the art of music often interprets divine aspects gladly realized here on Earth.

Coming off his Grammy-nominated 2013 album, The World According to Andy Bey, vocalist/pianist Andy Bey delivers the equally compelling 2014 release Pages from an Imaginary Life. As with its predecessor, Pages finds the jazz iconoclast returning to his roots with a set of American Popular Song standards done in a ruminative, stripped-down style. This is Bey, alone at the piano, delving deeply into the harmony, melody, and lyrics of each song. But don't let the spare setting fool you. Bey is a master of interpretation. In his seventies at the time of recording, and having performed over the years in a variety of settings from leading his own swinging vocal trio, to working with hard bop pioneer Horace Silver, to exploring the avant-garde with Archie Shepp, Bey has aged into a jazz oracle who doesn't so much perform songs as conjure them from somewhere in the mystical ether of his psyche.

Dubbed the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune nearly 30 years ago, Erich Kunzel – one of the most successful classical crossover artists of all time – has recorded over 70 albums for Telarc; one of the most popular of those is 1990s Christmas with the Pops. The warm and wonderful Christmastime Is Here, named for the Vince Guaraldi classic from A Charlie Brown Christmas that's given a spirited reworking here, is something of a sequel to that collection. With the exception of a punchy Dixieland arrangement of "Jingle Bell Rock," Kunzel and the orchestra – working with the Indiana University School of Music Singing Hoosiers, under the direction of Dr. Michael Schwartzkopf – play most of the classics here very straightforwardly. That is to say, charming, elegant and engaging, just not overly innovative. Telarc's true stroke of genius is having some of its top jazz vocalists perform on lush but smartly restrained arrangements of various classics – like Tierney Sutton on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and John Pizzarelli on "Silver Bells." The disc also showcases two of the label's newest artists, Ann Hampton Callaway (a haunting "I Wonder as I Wander") and Tony DeSare (doing Mel Tormé proud on a dreamy version of "The Christmas Song"). This is 2006's premier holiday disc for lovers of jazz, pop and classical music.

In 1709, the music-loving Landgraf Ernst Ludwig from Darmstadt had discovered Christoph Graupner as a harpsichordist at the Hamburg Opera in 1709 and had hired him on the spot. The Landgraf had made a real stroke of luck with Graupner, because he was not only an outstanding musician but also a perfect organizer of the courtly musical life and especially for the church music which had to be performed weekly. Over the years, more than 1,400 works of sacred music and more than 250 concertos and orchestral works have gathered from his pen and paper. L'arpa festante and Rien Voskuilen have put together an exquisite selection with orchestral music from this repertoire for the present release: two concertos for oboes and trumpets and two Overtures for transverse flute in the French style, probably all from the first half of the 1730's.

Frescobaldi must be accounted one of the most important keyboard composers of the first half of the 17th century. He was born in Ferrara, where the musical tastes of the ruling duke, Alfonso II d’Este, attracted musicians of great distinction. Moving to Rome at the beginning of the new century, he was under the patronage of Guido Bentivoglio, who took him in 1607 to Brussels, an important centre of keyboard music in the northern European tradition. In 1608 he became organist at St Peter’s in Rome, where he remained until his death (with a brief absence for promised employment in Mantua in 1615 and a subsequent period of six years spent serving the Medici in Florence).