Pianist Art Hirahara unearths the heavenly landscapes of “Verdant Valley” on his eighth album for Posi-Tone Records. Searching for new realms of engaging expression, Hirahara perseveres steadily along on his personal journey of musical unfoldment.

With a unique sound founded on a persuasive mix of American and African jazz, Armitage Road, originally released in 1970, was the only studio recording released by South Africa’s Heshoo Beshoo Group. As a highly prized collector’s item, a re-issue and re-appraisal of this lost gem from the apartheid era has been long overdue. Heshoo Beshoo loosely translates from the inter-tribal lingo of the townships as either ‘going by force’, or ‘moving with force’. That is certainly the case here. With its undeniably funky element Armitage Road combines graceful and moving playing with invention and passion, and it does not disappoint from start to finish.

This is a superb retrospective, despite his very considerable physical disabilities, of one of the very greatest piano jazz masters in the late twentieth century. There are ten studio and eight live recordings captured during a period of high productivity between 1994 and 1997. All the tunes are composed by the pianist who we hear in solo, duo, trio and sextet modes.

Gábor explains: “In a way it’s a return to my childhood, when the aim of these tricks was to bring simple, honest joy. I tried to show these emotions and feelings as a composer on this record. As pianist I discovered the improvement of dexterity as the tricks require a lot of practice and sleight of hand movements which felt good to my hands and I’m certain they made an impact on my piano playing.”

Tim Ries to release long awaited album featuring Jack DeJohnette, Bill Frisell, Gregoire Maret, James Genus, Larry Goldings.

Wind, Sky and Diamonds celebrates much of what was important to the guitarist – the new world of rock music, the lure of California and the hope and inspiration of the "Summer of Love." But, at best, it's an ill-conceived jazz-rock concoction…

The Imaginary Roads is the second album by Italian drummer and composer Alessandro Campobasso and his quartet. Freely inspired by the “Invisible Cities” of Italo Calvino, this work aims to highlight the evocative and perceptive power of Jazz music and reveals a strong expressive urgency of the leader…

Gabor Szabo's quintet featuring Jimmy Stewart was one of the guitarist's very best units. Live performances like this, recorded at Boston's Jazz Workshop, document some of the excitement the group stirred in 1967-1968…

Released just six months after Gypsy '66, Gabor Szabo's second album as a leader (after leaving a sublime Chico Hamilton band that also included Charles Lloyd) remains one of his finest moments in the studio. Szabo utilized the tales of bassist Ron Carter and his old boss Hamilton on drums, as well as a pair of fine Latin percussionists – Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja…

The German saxophonist Denis Gäbel comes from a musical family, so it is no wonder that he began his musical journey at a young age. After taking his first musical steps with the cello and the piano, it wasn't long before he finally discovered the saxophone. At the age of 13, Denis won first prize at the national competition "Jugend jazzt" and it was during this time that he first discovered the music of Charles Mingus. "I had my first contact with the music of Mingus at the age of 13 at the JungendJazzWorkshop NRW. Since then I have been a passionate fan of his work. The first Mingus album I heard was his "Blues and Roots" and it is still my favourite album to this day," Denis explains.

The quartet of the Berlin saxophonist and composer Birgitta Flick is a band with a unique magic that has been playing together for 10 years. This familiarity, which is particularly important for a group that relies so heavily on improvisation, is also heard on the new, fourth album “Miniatures and Fragments” from the Birgitta Flick Quartet.

Jazz Raga, recorded in August of 1966, and released in early 1967, is Hungarian jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo's third album for Impulse!, and his most exotic and mysterious. Szabo not only played guitar on the live-to-two-track sessions, he also overdubbed sitar on nine of the album's eleven cuts…

WDR BigBand lead trombonist and bassist meet world-class pianists, double bass, trombone and piano - which sounds unusual at first, creates space, swings and carries you away - in a chamber music atmosphere…