When it comes to younger generation musicians dedicated to preserving and advancing the fine art of mainstream jazz guitar culture, Pasquale Grasso has become part of the upper echelon of living practitioners. Through his precision-geared, clean-toned and tradition-steeped legacy in progress, the virtuosic Italian-born and NYC-based guitarist has gained due respect in the guitar scene–including high praises from Pat Metheny–and beyond. After establishing himself through work with celebrated vocalist Samara Joy and a series of recordings dedicated to such jazz icons as Bud Powell (one of his heroes), Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and 2022’s genre tribute Be-Bop, Grasso comes out swinging in a more varietal way on his bold new trio album Fervency, available now on Sony Music Masterworks.

“Helmut Nieberle’s compositions constantly surprise and delight me, always full of memorable melodies and subtle twists (and I find myself singing them in my mind, the mark of great tunes). After many happy years of collaboration with Helmut, I’m always amazed by his unique jazz guitar voice that combines the best of tradition, his many personal influences and an in-the-moment sensitivity and spontaneity!”

This release contains some of the best recordings made by Billie Holiday in the later period of her career. All of the tracks included here are studio recordings with excellent sound quality, and showcase Billie shining among such star jazzmen as Harry “Sweets” Edison, Ben Webster, Benny Carter, Charlie Shavers, Oscar Peterson, and Barney Kessel, among others. The six complete albums compiled on this set are: Music for Torching with Billie Holiday (Clef MGC- 669), Velvet Mood (Clef MGC-713), Lady Sings the Blues (Clef Records MG C-721), Solitude (Clef LP MG C-690), Songs for Distingué Lovers (Verve V6-8257), and Body and Soul (Verve V6-8197).

The World Arbiter label presents 1941 recordings of the Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai – masters of the shamisen. An extensive anthology of traditional Japanese music was created sometime around 1941-1942 by the Kokusai Bunka Shinkôkai (KBS), International Organization for the Promotion of Culture. KBS was established under the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1934 for cultural exchange between Japan and foreign countries, representing genres such as gagaku (court music), shômyô (Buddhist chants), nô (Noh medieval theater play), heikyoku (biwa-lute narratives of battles), shakuhachi (bamboo flute music), koto (long zither music), shamisen (three-stringed lute music), sairei bayashi (instrumental music for folk festivals), komori-uta (cradle songs, lullabies), warabe-uta (children songs), and riyou (min'you) (folk songs). Considering that 1941-1942 was a most daunting time for Japan's economy and international relationships with Asian and Western countries, it is remarkable that this excellent anthology of Japanese music was ever completed and published, as it contains judiciously selected pieces from various genres performed by top-level artists at that time.

One of the biggest teen idols of the late 1950s and early '60s, Paul Anka moved to the adult sphere several years later and became a successful performer, songwriter, music businessman, and recording artist, remaining so well into the new millennium. He had his first hit song with 1957's "Diana," which went to number two on the U.S. Hot 100 and all the way to the top of singles chart in the U.K. Following a string of subsequent hits, he finally topped the U.S. singles chart with 1959's "Lonely Boy" before just missing the top spot with "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" the same year. Anka remained a presence on the singles chart with songs like "Puppy Love" and "Dance On Little Girl" until around the time of the British Invasion – his last Top 40 hit of the '60s was 1963's "Remember Diana."

Lee Konitz is one of the great and genuine improvisers, a musician who can be counted on to take risks, striving to invent in the moment. In these live recordings from Los Angeles's Jazz Bakery, he's heard exploring familiar standards that have long been part of his repertoire, but every phrase seems newly minted by Konitz's dry sound and his slightly hesitant, always searching, line. Tunes that often receive pat performances, like "Cherokee" and "Round Midnight," appear here as unknown terrains. Veteran bassist Charlie Haden displays the intense listening skills that distinguish his playing, shadowing Konitz's invention and anchoring the harmony. Pianist Brad Mehldau, a rising star, extends his musical reach here, accepting Konitz's terms and playing jazz in its most naked and challenging form. –Stuart Broomer

Van Halen Taps into a Mean Streak on Fair Warning: The Darkest and Fiercest Album of the Band's Career
Double-Platinum 1981 Record Sounds Unrelenting on Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition Hybrid SACD: Audiophile Reissue Plays with Stunning Dynamics. The song titles on Van Halen's aptly titled Fair Warning don't lie. The likes of "Unchained," "Mean Street," "Push Comes to Shove," "One Foot Out the Door," and more indicate the mood the band channels on its double-platinum 1981 record — the nastiest, darkest, and fiercest album of the group's storied career. For the fourth time in four years, Van Halen throws down the gauntlet to all challengers and emerges victorious.

“Une Question d’Enfant” is the debut album of French guitarist and composer Emma Giulia (aka Emma Feld-Mugnaini). Emma is a 2025 winner of the prestigious Made in New York Jazz Competition. The title of the album is inspired by the book “Une Question d’Enfant” written by French psychoanalyst and philosopher Anne Dufourmantelle. Emma picked up the guitar at the age of 6 (among her heroes then: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Buddy Guy), and when she was 14 Emma discovered jazz (and the likes of Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall and Pat Metheny).

The EMI Classics recordings of Cécile Ousset (b. 1936), spanning the years between 1982 and 1991, would mark her third and most prestigious recording collaboration, launching her, at age forty-six, into the international limelight. Indeed, recognition did not come easily to this grand dame of the piano, who, at the age of fourteen, obtained her prize at the Paris Conservatoire under the tutelage of Marcel Ciampi and began the gruelling rounds at major competitions shortly after: Geneva, Long-Thibaud, Queen Elisabeth and Busoni, as well as the inaugural edition of the Van Cliburn. As a young female pianist, doors remained firmly shut, even with the support of the great Arthur Rubinstein, who personally invested in Ousset’s early career after witnessing her performance at the Long-Thibaud competition.

Both of the works on this 2024 release by pianist Éric Le Sage, violinist Daishin Kashimoto, and the Schumann Quartet have seen their fortunes rise in recent years as sumptuous late French Romanticism seemed somehow to resonate with the over-the-top luxuries of the present day. There have been several good readings of Chausson's Concerto for piano, violin, and string quartet, a unique work that combines the utmost lushness with considerable art in balancing the various forces involved. The work has attracted some big names, but this one, with Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster rendering the concerto's soaring passionate lines, can stand with any of them.

Lise Davidsen has recorded Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer in a live performance at her home opera house, Oslo. Her first full length opera recording on Decca Classics. These live performances were the only time she will ever perform the role of Senta, and this album forms an important part of her future legacy. Gerald Finley stars as The Dutchman, a role in which he has won international acclaim for his superb acting and lieder-like vocal finesse. The concert marked the inauguration of Edward Gardner as the new Music Director at Oslo Opera House.

2011 four CD set from the British Prog Rockers spanning the years 1969-1973. The Harvest Years contains remastered versions of their first five albums (Wasa Wasa, Sing Brother Sing, Edgar Broughton Band, Inside Out and Oora) plus a previously unreleased concert: Live at Hyde Park, London, 18th July 1970. It was the band's third appearance at the park, on a bill featuring fellow Harvest luminaries Roy Harper, Kevin Ayers, and headlined by Pink Floyd. This previously unreleased recording appears here for the first time, mastered at Abbey Road under the supervision of the band themselves. Their 45 minute set is faithfully reproduced in all it's raw and raucous glory.

Conceptually, Eldamar used to be inspired by J.R.R Tolkien, Heathenism, Elven Magic and Nature. On the new albums, however, this focus has shifted more towards existential themes and nonphysical experiences.
The goal of Eldamar's art has always been to help listeners to open up to the music in an emotional way and combine the experience with their imagination. To that end, the combination of aural and visual impressions was and still is important.
Where in the past Eldamar used the gorgeous nature paintings of Albert Bierstadt to help the listener to enter dream-like lands, the new album, which is part two of a conceptual work, uses another magnificent painting by the Polish master of surreal art Mariusz Lewandowski to give the listener some visual cues as to what this album is about…

Franco Alfano was born in Naples on 8 March 1875 and soon showed musical aptitude, studying piano with Alessandro Longo at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples and composition with Camillo De Nardis. In 1895 he moved to Leipzig to study with Salomon Jadassohn, where he was able to undertake deeper study of Bach and Wagner, as well as Busoni, Richard Strauss and other composers still little known in Italy.

Part of country music's late-'90s crop of female crossover stars, Jo Dee Messina's appeal nonetheless remained more with country fans than pop audiences. Messina was born August 25, 1970, in Framingham, Massachusetts, and grew up in nearby Holliston. She sang in musical plays starting at age eight but discovered country music at age 12 and got hooked on the likes of the Judds, Reba McEntire, and Dolly Parton.