The title "Bold Music" says everything and nothing, this is a challenging and ambitious avant-jazz date that features Joachim Kühn tackling everything from piano to alto sax to antelope horn. It's nevertheless most audacious for tempering its outré leanings with soulful, melodic grooves and insistent rhythms that make the music more accessible and more idiosyncratic. Working in collaboration with bassist/cellist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, drummer Stu Martin and percussionist Jacques Thollot, Kühn fuses improvisational skronk and sound-library smoothness to make a record that occupies both extremes of the MPS label sound at the same time. Somehow, Bold Music is both free and easy, and that's a rare feat indeed.

Another beautiful MPS session from 1971, featuring legendary post bop guitarist Atilla Zoller and Japanese jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh. It's "a harmonically challenging and at times tonally ambiguous, though relatively straight ahead with lots of delightful free wheeling interplay between Satoh and Zoller".

Czech multi-instrumentalist-composer Karel Velebny was a major force in the emergence of Czechoslovakia onto the international jazz scene in the 1960’s. Appearances at the Berlin Jazz Days in 1964 and subsequent tours throughout Western Europe led to his group’s (SHQ) breakthrough. Here the group is augmented by four woodwinds. All the tunes are by group members.

This matchup between pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and drummer Louis Hayes directly precedes Peterson's recordings for Pablo. The pianist is in typically brilliant form on this recording, performing six standards (including 'Soft Winds' and 'On the Trail') along with his own 'Wheatland.' It is not too surprising that Peterson would want to record frequently with Pedersen in future years.

Even from the globalized world's point of view in the year 2017: whenever you listen to recordings J.E.Berendt initiated in the '60s you are completely amazed about his visionary character. This is THE landmark album which showcases his explorations. Mani Neumeier, the incomparable drum wizard of Guru Guru fame, convinced Berendt to get the Jazz meets India idea into shape by engaging the Irène Schweizer Trio (which also featured bassist Uli Trepte) and calling in an Indian trio, with sitar player Dewan Motihar, responsible for arousing the Beatles' interest in India. In-between: German trumpet player Manfred Schoof and French saxophonist Barney Wilen. Jazz meets India is a stunning set in which it is a natural course of action that every musician respects and listens to each other - and we dare to say a more sincere approach to Indian music than many of the half-hearted world music blendings of nowadays.

Born in Mozambique, pianist Edgar Wilson enrolled in the Vienna Academy of Music at the age of 21 to study with, among others, the acclaimed classical pianist Friedrich Gulda. Wilson gravitated towards jazz, however – a musical direction that his Mozambique roots served him well. Centered in Munich, he has become a staple on the German music scene, touring extensively with jazz violinist Hannes Beckmann, and soul jazz drummer George Greene’s band. Wilson’s 1979 debut album pairs him with bassist N.H. Ørsted Pedersen, whose work with the likes of Dexter Gordon and Oscar Peterson has garnered him near-legendary status.

French tenorist and racing enthusiast Barney Wilen arrived at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix with his Nagra sound recording system in hand, planning nothing more than to tape the race for private use. But when famed Italian Formula One racer Lorenzo Bandini lost control of his car and crashed, suffering horrific burns that claimed his life three days later, Wilen set to work on integrating the tape into a new composition celebrating the driver's life and career. The resulting Auto Jazz: Tragic Destiny of Lorenzo Bandini remains one of the most adventurous and potent recordings in Wilen's catalog, its careening, visceral music brilliantly paralleling the exhilaration of its subject matter. Bandini's Ferrari speeds in and out of the musical narrative, jockeying for position amid Wilen's soaring tenor and Eddy Gaumont's crashing drums while uniting driver and musicians in their reckless abandon and addiction to adrenaline.

The lauded Chris Hinze Combination, led by Dutch flutist Chris Hinze, includes two jazz stalwarts: bassist John Lee and drummer Gerry Brown; both have worked with a “who’s who” of the jazz and pop world. Add electric keyboard, guitar and percussion, plus the emotional vocals of Henny Vonk and the combination results in this tasty concoction of jazz and funk, seasoned with a pinch of pop and the classics. Mission Suite is an outstanding fusion venture by one of the preeminent flutists in jazz.

For their fourth album, Supersax continued its practice of recreating recorded Charlie Parker solos harmonized for a full saxophone section. What was different this time around was that with one exception, all of the solos were taken from concerts rather than studio dates. The result is that the ensembles sound fresher (since Bird's live improvisations are generally not that well-known) and longer. Trumpeters Blue Mitchell and Conte Candoli, trombonist Frank Rosolino and pianist Lou Levy get solo space, and highlights include "Shaw Nuff", "Drifting on a Reed", "Dizzy Atmosphere" and a six-minute rendition of "Night In Tunisia".

Monty Alexander's career was beginning to take off at the time of this 1971 club date at the Monticello in Rochester, NY. Accompanied by Dave Brubeck's former bassist, Eugene Wright, and veteran drummer Bobby Durham, who was recording extensively with Oscar Peterson, the young pianist kicks off the set with an ambitious, quote-filled rendition of a great standard "It Could Happen to You"…

"Perception" is 1974's album by American (born in Jamaica) pianist / composer Monty Alexander, who started as a young prodigy and later on recorded many albums for the German MPS (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald) label in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Recorded in 1969, "Motions & Emotions" from Oscar Peterson is a bit of a departure from what the famed pianist was doing back in those days. Featuring lush orchestral arrangements by Claus Ogerman, known for his work with Frank Sinatra and more recently, Diana Krall, the album shows off Peterson and his trio members Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar and Bobby Durham on drums performing a wide range of cover songs, from the Beatles to Bacharach, Bobby Gentry to bossa nova.

This obscure album is a hidden gem. Dee Dee McNeil began her career singing jazz with such greats as Hampton Hawes and Frank Butler, and then veered towards R&B and soul, writing hit songs for Motown. The Afro-American singer/songwriter’s pieces have been recorded by the likes of Diana Ross & the Supremes, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Nancy Wilson. Singer Barry Window’s father was South African, and those roots serve him well: he is the perfect counterweight to Dee Dee’s resonant voice. Saxophonist Barney Wilen is something of a jazz legend in France, having played with Miles Davis on the sound track for Louis Malle’s iconic "Ascenseur pour l’échafaud".

The New Orleans brass band continuum stretches from the 19th century through to the present in a tradition passed on from father to son through the generations. Hired to accompany funerals, ceremonies, and street festivals, the music these bands played “just touch your heart, they were so beautiful”, reminisced Louis Armstrong. This album has all the ‘live’ exuberance of a N.O. street parade and features a cross-section of classic brass band repertoire – the religious hymn Glory Land the upbeat the funeral dirges, Leave Me Lord Me and In the Upper Garden, the folksy Lilly of the Valley and the up-beat jazzy pieces We Shall Walk Through the Streets, Take Your Burden to the Lord, Shake It and Break It and Olympia Special. A classic of the genre.

Innovative pianist and organist Milt Buckner originated the "locked hands" technique, emulated by his and future generations from George Shearing to Red Garland to Oscar Peterson and beyond. This album features Buckner with an all-star rhythm section of bassist Jimmy Woode, a Duke Ellington alumnus, and great swing drummer Jo Jones of the Count Basie Orchestra. Play Chords was awarded the Hot Club de France’s prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz for the best album of 1967.