With the death of Chick Webb in 1939, his big band was temporarily without a leader. Since Ella Fitzgerald had become the orchestra's most popular attraction, she was put at its head even though she had very little to do with the music. The Webb management, musical director Teddy McRae and trumpeter Taft Jordan actually ran the show, but Fitzgerald was still virtually the only female singer (other than Ina Ray Hutton) to be the leader of her own big band during the era. The experiment would last for two years, until Fitzgerald started her own remarkably successful solo career in 1941. While most of the band's recordings after Webb's death featured Fitzgerald's vocals, the four radio broadcasts that comprise this two-CD set have the orchestra taking instrumentals on over one-third of the material…

On the softer side of krautrock, Bröselmaschine are sometimes considered "krautfolk" a more unique subgenre. Lots of flute, acoustic and sometimes electric guitar, sitar, tabla and other hand drums. After six adventurous and successful years the original and first line-up disbanded in 1974. Some members went to India whilst others moved to the countryside (all members came originally from Duisburg). That was when the founders Peter Bursch and Willi Kissmer reformed Bröselmaschine. Klaus Dapper, a sax player and flutist from the jazz scene, joined as a new member. The musicians already knew each other from diverse sessions and common gigs…

Simon Meader and Alan Bruzon both have long and varied musical pasts but they were brought together by their love of synthesizers, ambient music, Berlin School electronica, Ableton Live and VST soft synths. Their work is based around live improvised pieces including guitars. Part Three in their series of albums inspired by Berlin School electronica. Created using vst synths and Ableton Live. Flowing pads, bubbling sequences and noodling solos. Also includes recordings of the mysterious number stations courtesy of The Conet Project.

The Essential Duke Ellington, a two-CD set, differs from previous Columbia/Legacy Duke Ellington reissues in that the music is drawn not only from Sony's vaults but from BMG's vaults, too. Four selections are from the 1920s, 20 date from the 1930s, seven are from the 1940s, and the final six were recorded between 1950 and 1960. Is this an essential acquisition? Most Ellington collectors will already have all of these performances in more complete fashion, while general collectors should realize that this two-fer does not cover Ellington's final 14 years and largely overlooks most of the highlights from the 1950s…

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Forgas has been making music for the last four decades, and now in the heart of his fifth one, he still has not run out of ideas to put into musical forms and arrangements display elements of orchestral-jazz, ambient-rock, and progressive-bop with ethnic accents based in Eastern Europe cultures, the Middle East, and the Latin World. It is as if he pulls various influences out of the air, and transforms these bits and pieces that he grabs into magnificent complexes of multi-textured broths.

Originally released in 1976, the album finally has found an audience and has been reissued by Staubgold. Patrick Vian is the son of French jazz musician Boris Vian. He was also a member of the underground rock band Red Noise, who made one album that is quite well known among prog and psych collectors. Bruits Et Temps Analogues is actually quite an interesting album that has probably been taken for granted over the years. Vian has assembled a high caliber instrumental quartet that includes noted percussionist Mino Cinelu. Vian plays a variety of analog synths - Moogs and ARPs. George Granier is the second keyboardist and Ame Son's Bernard Lavialle plays guitar…

Eldridge's final recording as a leader is a real gem. Although his chops were no longer in prime form, he was still pushing himself to the limit. With a brilliant rhythm section egging him on (pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Niels Pedersen, and drummer Bobby Durham), Eldridge still went for the high notes (and generally hit them) during this exciting set from the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival. Although the musicians did not know it at the time, the last two songs ("Perdido" and "Bye Bye Blackbird") were a perfect ending to a brilliant career. This dramatic CD reissue is highly recommended.

The band Perhaps begins their musical quest with their release of Volume One, a magnificent tour de force with orchestral attributes and a eagerness to dominate the sonic plains on which the band tramples. The nearly 38- minute epic evolves from an electric Math-Rock sensation into a psychedelic fusion jam, then again to an efficacious post-rock climax. The recording of the album comes from a live performance in a basement, giving the music a wonderfully expansive sound. Musicianship of the strings, drums and saxophone is top-notch and varied. The music invokes multiple moods and atmosphere with the shifting styles the band focuses on.

Hear & Now’s story is one of friendship and a shared passion for music. It began with a chance meeting on the dancefloor at Red Zone in Perugia, one of Italy’ s most legendary clubs of the 1990s. Nearly three decades on, these glassy-eyed clubbers have joined forces to deliver one of the most magical and sun-kissed albums that Claremont 56 has ever released. "Aurora Baleare", their debut album, follows on from a fantastic double A-side 12” for Claremont 56 in February 2017. Those two tracks take pride of place amongst an eight-track selection simply brimming with evocative workouts, gentle soundscapes and noon-bright sonic bliss…

With this album "Cosmoromantics" Moonbooter continues his well-known Cosmo-serial. Following the last two releases Zeitenwende and Still Alive the electronic musician from the Eifel applies himself to cosmic themes for the fourth time. With Cosmoromantics he has his sight especially on the history of the Russian cosmonautics. In more than 70 minutes moonbooter abducts the audience into his own soundscapes and as usual puts well incorporated rhythmic spots in place. Overall natural sounds appear fewer, electronic sounds dominate the event. One romantic note runs like a common thread through the complete concept album. Thereby Cosmoromantics is kept together by classical and also modern sequences. Moonbooter masters this symbiosis more than almost anybody else. Again, Cosmoromantics sounds fantastic, great and wide. Wellness for your ears…

Two things stand out on this previously unreleased concert recording from 1970: first, Ella's irrepressible energy and girlish sense of humor, which she indulges at every opportunity; second, her eclectic tastes, which allow her to follow Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll" with "Spinning Wheel," a Blood, Sweat & Tears song. And that's not to mention the Harry Nilsson number and the three Bacharach songs. There are the standard Ella showpieces that no audience would have let her leave out - "Mack the Knife," "The Girl from Ipanema," "You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)" - and she sings all of them with her typical flawless intonation and freewheeling allusiveness (only Ella could have figured out how to quote "Hello Dolly" in the middle of "Cabaret," or would have wanted to)…

Here is one of the most underrated French albums, but also one of the most sought after, finally reissued by Musea. Visitors was actually a one-shot band gathered around producer Jean-Pierre Massiera, and including about twenty musicians. Besides the rhythm section, the stress was here put on the keyboards (Hammond organ & Mini-Moog) and on choirs that remind of Vanilla Fudge. The band performs a sophisticated music based on numerous breaks and refined developments. Let's also mention beautiful parts by Didier Lockwood's violin, who was here playing for the first time on an album. The music goes from a Yes kind of Progressive rock to elaborated Seventies British bands (Cressida, Gracious!) and to the beginnings of jazz-rock.

Masayoshi Takanaka is a Japanese guitarist born in 1953. He began his professional career in 1971 in Fried Egg, a rock band. In 1972, Takanaka joined the Sadistic Mika Band. In 1976, Takanaka released his first solo album, Seychelles. In 2000, Takanaka formed his own record label, Lagoon Records. Takanaka is known for his flashy guitars, including a gold colored Fender Stratocaster.

Morre - Toronto, Ontario. This is a very solid album all the way through. Reminds of newer Pink Floyd and RPWL.

In jazz, live recordings not only document an artist or group's sound in its purest form but, in rare cases, herald the arrival of a musical genre. That's the case with this invaluable, two-CD collection that captures clarinetist Benny Goodman's historic 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, which exemplified the so-called "swing era." Originally released in 1950, it contains rare commentary from Goodman and music from the entire event, which was a unique mix of formality and spontaneity. Goodman's perfect intonation and lyrical improvisation front the big band here, featuring the smooth solos of trumpeter Harry James, the percussive power of Gene Krupa - jumping the blues on "Don't Be That Way" - and the Fletcher Henderson - arranged "Sometimes I'm Happy" and "One O'Clock Jump"…