“For the best part of 35 years, her distinctive saxophone and flute style – warm, open, immensely accomplished but never flashy – has been a constant presence. Jazz fashions and ideologies have come and gone but Barbara has just blithely carried on being Barbara, always herself, always contemporary.”

Murry Hammond (old 97s)’s 2025 release Trail Songs of the Deep is his greatest achievement, the perfect distillation of his grand vision, and conclusive evidence of his centrality to the last half-century of American music.

Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles today and recipients of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since soaring to international acclaim as the first-prize winner at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. They are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program from 2024-2027.

Works by Béla Bartók, Sulchan Zinzadze, Fazıl Say and others, as well as traditional music. The mandolin is the instrument of the year 2023 and its most prominent representative is currently the Israeli musician Avi Avital. With works by Béla Bartók, Sulchan Zinzadze, Fazıl Say and others as well as traditional music, he will take us to the Black Sea region as part of the “Between Worlds” project he initiated and show just how virtuoso the mandolin can be. Other performers include the Between World Ensemble, which Avital founded in 2014, and the male choir of the Rustavi Ensemble, which was founded in 1968 and is dedicated to traditional Georgian folk music and dances.

Rick Germanson, a Milwaukee native, has been quickly emerging as one of the most in-demand pianists on the New York scene. He has toured as member of the Cannonball Adderley Legacy band led by drummer Louis Hayes as well as Pat Martino, Tom Harrell, Slide Hampton and Frank Morgan. On this live album from Smalls Live, Germanson is joined by jazz legend Dr. Eddie Henderson, bassist Paul Gill and all-star drummer Lewis Nash for a brisk and hard swinging, straight-ahead set that displays his ample talents.

Regal and majestic masterpieces from the finest French composers, incorporating elements of classical, modernism, neoclassicism, romanticism, humour, tension and baroque.

Due West is the culmination of multi-instrumentalist Althea SullyCole’s fourteen years studying the kora, a twenty-one stringed harp from the Mandé region of West Africa (encompassing present-day Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and the Gambia). The tracks that constitute Due West are songs that Althea has collected travelling across three continents (Africa, Europe and North America) with the instrument. From “Alalake,” a song at the heart of the kora tradition, to original meditation “Middle Passage,” the album traces routes across the Black Atlantic in modes, rhythms and collaborations that are the reflection of Althea’s unique imagination as a kora player.

Jim Watson is the first-call pianist for a range of internationally renowned artists from across the pop spectrum - including Van Morrison and Incognito - while maintaining a busy schedule of touring and teaching at the heart of the UK's jazz scene. 'Calling You Home' finds him right back where it all began - seated by himself at the piano, with no-one else in the room, just playing the music that feels closest to him.

A wonderful harmony soul record from Chicago! 21st Century were part of a young soul group trend that had come out of the city – and which included bigger stars like The 5 Stairsteps and Brighter Side Of Darkness – but the album really doesn’t focus on their youth so much as it does on their strong vocal harmonies.

This album is a multi-faceted collection of chamber music works from a period of over 40 years. In addition to the three flute trios, there are smaller works for piano, which often deal with the music of past times - in line with Enjott Schneider's CCC concept: ‘Cross Culture Composing’ – a new musical thinking as a result of the dialogue with inspiring impressions from former contexts of musical speech.

The Album - the supercharged companion album to Apple Original Films and Warner Bros. Pictures' high-octane, action-packed film F1, starring Brad Pitt. From the label that brought you the award-winning, blockbuster soundtracks Barbie The Album, Twisters: The Album, The Greatest Showman, Suicide Squad and more, F1 The Album is driven by brand new tracks from an exhilirating lineup of superstar artists.

A musical and introspective journey into "Wonderland" - a place as beautiful as it is uncanny, where the laws of nature no longer apply. Inspired by the classic Alice in Wonderland, Maddalena Del Gobbo embarks on a sonic voyage of discovery into a world where nothing is as it seems. Confusion and despair linger at every turn - and yet, hope remains. Despite all uncertainty and dramatic twists, everything ultimately falls into place, for in the end, goodness proves stronger. The program spans four centuries of music - from Tobias Hume (around 1600) to contemporary compositions - drawing a fascinating arc through time and space.

Guest appearances from Brian Wilson, Mike Love, America, Robert Lamm (Chicago), Christopher Cross, Los Straightjackets, and more on this first-ever anthology of Jeffrey Foskett.

Mädhouse are an Austrian glam metal band that formed in 2017 after performing together at a Hard N’ Heavy tribute show in their hometown of Vienna.

Over the past eight years, I've been looking forward to the follow-up to the debut album by TOWER OF BABEL more than any other album.