Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic Album series with a re-mastered 2CD second set release from Kenny Burrell, complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details. “Earthy” (with The Prestige All Stars); “Kenny Burrell”; “On View At The Five Spot Café” (with Art Blakey) and “A Night At The Vanguard”.
For our second exploration of the work of Kenny Burrell we have divided this 2CD set into a studio side and a live side in order to contrast the many styles and nuances of the playing of this great Detroit guitarist. We begin with “Earthy” an album Kenny led for The Prestige All Stars (an ever evolving group of jazz musicians who would come together for a recording date and then split to do their own thing). On this occasion Kenny leads a fine set of musicians in a fiery five set recording…

A companion to Elements Of King Crimson 2014 Tour Box, the 2015 Elements Tour Box is a limited edition release created exclusively for sale at King Crimson's concerts and via the band's official online outlets. The set contains a 24 page tour booklet and two CDs featuring extracts, elements from studio recordings, alternate takes, live tracks, rehearsals and finished recordings from 1969 - 2015 (much previously unreleased on CD).
A fascinating audio history/alternate best of/introduction to the band, which includes every KC line-up across its two discs.
Packaged in DVD-sized fold out digipak style book case, the accompanying booklet features sleeve-notes by co-compiler Sid Smith, photos of memorabilia, full info about the current tour and a number of band and individual photos taken by Tony Levin.

Vangelis uses ringing synthesizer textures and stately rhythms to evoke the majesty of China, in a similar fashion to another of his "geography" works, Antarctica. While a few tracks use acoustic piano and other organic instruments, the centerpieces "Chung Kuo," "The Dragon" and "Himalaya" use bracing percussion and synthesizer effects to emphasize the subjects (each reflected by its title).

Issued in 2007 on the 4AD label, THE BEST OF LISA GERRARD collects many of the finest tracks by the former Dead Can Dance vocalist/multi-instrumentalist. While the compilation includes a few tracks by that revered act, most notably the mystical "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)," a song that showcases Gerrard's striking voice, it primarily focuses on her solo work and film compositions, which both draw from music across the globe. On these pieces, Gerrard often collaborates with fellow Australian native Pieter Bourke, as on the passionate "Swans" and the expansive "Sacrifice," the latter from the INSIDER score. Although this anthology is a mere fraction of Gerrard's recorded output, it does serve as an excellent introduction to her impressive catalogue.

In 1997, Dave Alvin – former guitarist and songwriter with the Blasters, and one of the leading advocates of classic blues and R&B on the West Coast roots rock scene – played a special show in Long Beach, California, where he was joined by three very special guests. The fabled Texas fiddler and guitarist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Chicago harmonica master Billy Boy Arnold, and San Francisco-born blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker all sat in with Alvin that evening, making for a very eventful evening for fans of blues and American roots music. The show was captured on tape, and Live in Long Beach 1997 allows listeners to hear Alvin mix it up on-stage with a few of his heroes. Songs include "Barn Burning", "Long White Cadillac", "I Wish You Would", "Chains of Love", "Jolie Blon", "Wabash Cannonball", and more.

Whether as a trumpeter or singer, Chet Baker was always the subject of controversy among jazz listeners, a victim of fashion who was doomed in his lifetime to be either over- or underrated. These Pacific Jazz recordings from the mid-1950s present Baker the instrumentalist at the height of his popularity. While his coolly passive treatments of ballads like "Imagination" and "Stella by Starlight" may play to the languid stereotype of West Coast jazz, there's boppish fire and invention on the medium- and up-tempo tunes, with Baker emphasizing the middle register that was his forte. Altoist Art Pepper and valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer turn up among the supporting cast, and there's a good choice of material by boppish heads from both coasts, including Carson Smith's "Carson City Stage," Jimmy Heath's "C.T.A.," and Al Haig's "Jumping Off a Clef".