Accomplished blues man Darren Watson returns with a new release this month, a complete album of John Hiatt songs reinterpreted – Darren Watson Sings John Hiatt. Watson has been pushing out quality material for the best part of 40 years, beginning in the 80s as frontman of Chicago Smoke Shop (which supported the Robert Cray Band, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds), and continuing since the early 2000s as a solo artist with six albums released to great acclaim, including a bunch of NZ Music Award nominations.

Digitally remastered edition of one of the most ambitious and costly records to come out of '70s library music, the legendary Rythmes Contemporains from the brilliant Janko Nilovic. This complex and protean work shines out particularly from the rich discography of this Yugoslavian composer, and according to his many fans across the world, is one of his greatest achievements. The year is 1972 and Janko Nilovic is in his most creative period. The label Montparnasse 2000, trusting him entirely, give him the means to make his ambitions a reality, allowing him to put together a gigantic big band comprising 45 musicians, including the gifted drummer Andre Ceccarelli, percussionist Jean Schultheis and Catherine Laura on lead violin.

The first new recording led by legendary jazz bassist Buster Williams since 2004, the 2018 album, "Audacity", was conceived as Buster celebrated the milestone of his 75th birthday. The result is a mission statement for an artist turning a new corner with the experience of three-quarters of a century behind him. "Audacity" also features Buster’s long-running, all-star quartet Something More with saxophonist Steve Wilson, pianist George Colligan, and drummer Lenny White. There are few jazz groups working today with the creative skill and brilliance of Something More and Audacity captures all four musicians at their very best. They cover a lot of ground musically with six new compositions from Buster and one each from Steve, George and Lenny. Recorded live at New York City's Sear Sound Studio C.

This CD could almost have been subtitled "The Lost Years," defining the period in which Donovan's records barely even made it into stores so that they could be ignored by the public - that had been the fate of Essence to Essence (which actually made it into stores), and 7-Tease and Slow Down World - each died an absolute commercial death in its wake. More's the pity, because there's a lot of beautiful (even gorgeous) and clever music here, a big chunk of it about as good as anything that Donovan ever put out. The zeitgeist behind the songs on these two albums may throw people who are accustomed to his '60s material, when Donovan had a wide listenership and was in sync with the times; here he's singing against his times (and mostly against indifference and self-involvement), and he is so beguiling musically and lyrically, that one feels a real sense of tragedy that these albums weren't more widely heard…

Last Time Around – Live At Legends is a fitting farewell to the late, great Junior Wells and his partnership, friendship and kinship with Buddy Guy that lasted decades. The album is a historic release in many ways. It reunites two blues legends who began their unique association in the 1950s. The album was recorded live in March 1993 at Buddy Guy's world-famous Chicago blues mecca Legends, and it's an acoustic document of many classic songs that made both Wells and Guy legends in their own right, such as "She's Alright" and "I've Been There," along with other classic blues standards such as "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Key to the Highway," all delivered with a looseness and power that define both Guy and Wells. It also marks the last time the two ever played together.

This live American concert in 1992 emerged on cd at about the same time as the Geffen release "The road to you" which was culled from PMG's european concerts in the early 90's. While this current selection may not quite equal that release in the quality of the sound, it is a much better live performance overall. There are a couple of small blips in the performance but this is live and taken from one concert. Raw Metheny but edge of your seat performance.

More than a quarter century after he cut his debut album, Bell recently made his finest disc to date. Boasting superior material and musicianship (guitarists Carl Weathersby and Lurrie Bell and pianist Lucky Peterson are all stellar) and a goosed-up energy level that frequently reaches incendiary heights, the disc captures Bell outdoing himself vocally on the ribald "Let Me Stir in Your Pot" and a suitably loose "When I Get Drunk" and instrumentally on the torrid "Jawbreaker." For a closer, Bell settled on the atmospheric Horton classic "Easy"; he does it full justice.

I happily announce ‘Piano’, my most personal album to date: a 15-track self-composed piano album. Each song was recorded in one-take in Dolby Atmos. The album releases October 31 exclusively on Apple Music. This project is something I’m sure many of you didn’t see coming, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share it at first. It wasn’t dance music. No beats, no drops, only raw emotion. So I kept these songs for myself. But after recording the album with the strings section at ConcertLab in Utrecht, I knew this was something special to release. It’s not a step away from dance music, but it’s a different side of me. ‘Piano’ is the most honest music I have ever made, stripping away all the beats and focusing on the strength of each note. Together with my piano teacher, Geronimo Snijtsheuvel, we shaped my vision into 14 original compositions and 1 interpolation. You can pre-add now and get early access to “Sonic Samba”. From heart, to keys, to ears, Armin

His indistinguishable sound – sophisticated, swinging and catchy – made German band leader Bert Kaempfert a bestseller in the 50s and 60s. His American Decca albums sold millions of copies and brought him four gold records in America alone. In 2023 Bert Kaempfert would have celebrated his 100th birthday, for this special occasion a 24-CD box set collects his American Decca albums recorded between 1958 – 1970, an era filled with many super-hits from Kaempfert’s pen, such as “Wonderland By Night”, “A Swingin’ Safari”, “Spanish Eyes”, „Danke Schoen“, “Sweet Maria”, “Strangers In The Night”, „L.O.V.E.“, and “The World We Knew”. The BERT KAEMPFERT DECCA COLLECTION features 24 albums in an attractively designed box. The individual albums are housed in paper sleeves with the iconic original Decca covers, which exude the flair of those years with their colorful lifestyle motifs. In addition to the complete original albums, the BERT KAEMPFERT DECCA COLLECTION contains more than 35 bonus tracks as well as the worldwide CD premiere of the album “Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert”, which the famous clarinetist recorded with the Kaempfert Orchestra in 1967. A detailed booklet tells the extraordinary story of the German musician who conquered the world and wrote music history.

After epic Psychonavigation BOX we're back with Air! Are You ready for the Travelling Without Moving Pete Namlook, one of the most influential figures in the history of electronic music, passed away in 2012, leaving behind a vast sonic legacy. Yet Air remains his most poetic, organic, and emotionally resonant project. Created between 1993 and 2006, the Air series is a five-part symphony of ambient, ethnic, jazz, neoclassical, and cosmic electronic elements. Now, nearly two decades later, we proudly present the long-awaited reissue of the entire series — for the first time ever as a complete 5CD boxset. From the wind-kissed sensuality of Air I, through the abstract voyages of Air II, the rich instrumental palette of Air III, the stylistic fusion of Air IV, to the deeply personal and introspective Air V — this collection stands as a milestone in ambient music history.

Hungarian Jazz/Fusion band Djabe and Steve Hackett collaborated on various occasions and have released a couple of albums together, such as Summer Storms And Rocking Rivers (iTunes Link) and the more recent Life Is A Journey. On 15th February, Djabe released yet another interesting live CD/DVD digipak: It Is Never The Same Twice. It contains two recordings: The CD was recorded at Ady House of Culture in Miskolc (8th June 2017), while the DVD was recorded in Budapest, Jazz Club, 3rd June 2017. Both recording feature Djabe and guest musicians Gulli Briem and Steve Hackett.

Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra presents their new album, Still Blooming. Fresh from his starring roles in Kaos and the hit Wicked movie, Goldblum returns to the piano, joined by guest vocalists Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Scarlett Johansson and Maiya Sykes. The album showcases reimagined jazz standards alongside original compositions, highlighting Goldblum's enduring passion for jazz.

Make no mistake, Willy & the Poor Boys is a fun record, perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made. Apart from the eerie minor-key closer "Effigy" (one of John Fogerty's most haunting numbers), there is little of the doom that colored Green River. Fogerty's rage remains, blazing to the forefront on "Fortunate Son," a working-class protest song that cuts harder than any of the explicit Vietnam protest songs of the era, which is one of the reasons that it hasn't aged where its peers have. Also, there's that unbridled vocal from Fogerty and the ferocious playing on CCR, which both sound fresh as they did upon release. "Fortunate Son" is one of the greatest, hardest rock & rollers ever cut, so it might seem to be out of step with an album that is pretty laid-back and friendly, but there's that elemental joy that by late '69 was one of CCR's main trademarks.

BBE Music presents a meeting of musical spirits in a unique live recording captured just a few months before the world changed due to a global pandemic. Recorded in September 2019, Live at Café Oto sees two giant heavyweights of the post-war Japanese jazz scene come together with a pair of exemplary musicians from the heart of the new UK jazz movement. Generations and continents apart but united as one for a very special concert.

The stage cantata David features Eleni Karaindrou’s music for a unique piece of Aegean drama, a verse play with words by an unknown 18th century poet from the island of Chios. Its text (first published only in 1979), invites a musical response and Greek composer Karaindrou rises splendidly to the challenge, imaginatively moving between past and present in her settings for mezzo-soprano and baritone singers, instrumental soloists, choir and orchestra. Kim Kashkashian’s evocative viola against strings may trigger associations with Karaindrou’s acclaimed writing for Ulysses’ Gaze. The music also draws inspiration from the world of baroque opera as singers Irini Karagianni and Tassis Christoyannopoulos are brought to the foreground. Karaindrou’s David is a work of changing music colours . Recorded live at the Athens Megaron, it was edited and mixed by Manfred Eicher and Nikos Espialdis for CD release.