On this album, Nicki Parrott performs collection of well-known Theme songs from Hollywood movies. She has that special gift you cannot buy in a music store. She plays the bass fabulously, and has a singing voice that shares the relaxed sexiness of Julie London and the coquettishness of Blossom Dearie.

Jazz bassist & vocalist Nicki Parrott releases an album devoted to the theme of Spring, a season filled with hope and celebration of new life. She performs standards such as "April In Paris," "April Showers," "I Love Paris," and more, as well as "Sakura Sakura" which is a Japanese traditional song about cherry blossoms, which she sings in Japanese. A stellar team of New York-based musicians supports the leader.

One of the most popular jazz musicians in Japan today, Nicki Parrott's 2011's release from Venus Records is a gorgeous collection of romantic standards. The star-studded band includes her frequent collaborators–Harry Allen on tenor sax, her sister Lisa on alto sax, John Di Martino on piano–and, this time, Chuck Redd on vibraphone who adds a distinctive tonal color to the collective sound.

Giacomo Gates approaches jazz singing with a showman's poise and an aficionado's zeal. With his deep, cognac baritone and his vintage-hipster lexicon, his phrasing and his bearing, he upholds a distinctly masculine ideal of deceptively easy nonchalance. Gates is known as the modern day heir to Eddie Jefferson, the godfather of vocalese. Here he uses the style sparingly, but to great advantage, never showboating by using the challenging technique.

Coming after the Spring-themed "Sakura Sakura", "Summertime" is the second in bassist-vocalist's Nicki Parrott's seasonal series of albums. An all-star group of New York-based musicians supports the immensely gifted Parrott on this release. Her sister Lisa is noticeably featured on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and bass clarinet. The addition of the marvelous young trumpeter Dominick Farinacci is a great delight.

Multiple Grammy nominee John Di Martino–composer, arranger, pianist–has recorded many albums for Venus Records with his Romantic Jazz Trio. Noted for his versatility, John has performed and recorded with such notables as Kenny Burrell, James Moody, Joe Lovano, David "Fat Head" Newman, Pat Martino, Paquito D'Rivera and Houston Person. John has been described as a "shape-shifter", for his creativity across musical genres. Here the trio devotes an entire album to jazzing up music by the classical composer W.A. Mozart.

Sometimes it takes extremely talented and worthy musicians a long time before releasing an album in which they lead. Some of the musicians never do. Luckily, Aaron Heick got together with the Japanese label Venus Records to release his first album under his own moniker. Easily one of the best modern alto saxophonists in the United States, Heick has performed and recorded with stars such as Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Richard Bona. In this one-horn quartet setting with the extraordinary John di Martino and his Romantic Jazz Trio, Heick shows his phenomenal technique, solid sound, and emotionally charged soulfulness.

Philadelphia-native composer, arranger and pianist John di Martino is a versatile musician who is equally comfortable in the straight ahead jazz, Latin jazz and world music scenes. Di Martino has released a lot well-received leader albums for the Japanese Venus Records, with different rhythm sections, under the moniker "Romantic Jazz Trio". For this tribute to the King of Pop, John and his Romantic Jazz Trio perform some of Michael Jackson's best-loved songs.