This is a diverse set of standards and original tunes that aims at the intimacy and spontaneity of John Pizzarelli's live performance with a studio setting. The singer-guitarist's long-established trio with pianist Ray Kennedy and brother Martin Pizzarelli on bass just keeps getting better, working with an instrumentation that Nat "King" Cole first perfected in the '40s and which also served Oscar Peterson well in the '50s. The trio achieves a sound that's both smooth and complex when all the parts are working in perfect synch, and that's what happening here. Whether they're flying on uptempo numbers like "I Got Rhythm," with Pizzarelli scatting in unison with his guitar, or playing at a medium bounce on the Cole signature "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," the group swings magnificently. Pizzarelli's light but resilient voice can suggest Chet Baker at slower tempos, but his relaxed delivery and conversational ease contribute to this music's distinctive charm. He sounds particularly good on some great Jimmy Van Heusen songs, both the well-known "I Thought About You" and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and the rarely heard "I Could Have Told You So." Pizzarelli's ingrained familiarity with the great American songbook is such that his own songs–like the witty "I Wouldn't Trade You" and the effective title ballad–sound right at home beside the classics. Kennedy wrote the sole instrumental, "Oscar Night," a fittingly ebullient tribute to Peterson. – Adam Rains, Editorial Review, Amazon.com

"Mystic Island" by Cusco captures the heart and soul of the listener with ambient soothing mysterious music. This CD has flowing melodies and wonderful instrumentation and synthesizer accompaniment. One track includes a wonderful harp and flute melody with chimes and synthezier variations on the theme … which is very magical. Another track has an upbeat tempo with guitars and percussion … The music is varied and altogether highly satisfying - it does not get stuck in one mood or feeling but carries the listener across many feelings all of which are enjoyable experiences. The overall feeling of this music is like experiencing the wonders of nature … a sunset … watching the waves splash on shore … gliding down a river in raft or boat and absorbing the scenery as it unfolds. One senses the natural balance and harmony of different instruments but there is no competition for solo recognition … This CD is about moods and feelings that ride the waves of natural flowing music … slower at times, other times quicker paced but always natural and free. The ethereal sensations stay with the listener … long after the music has stopped playing. The sense of peace and contentment this CD produces is priceless

Cusco, under the watchful direction of Michael Holm, has once again managed to adopt traditional world music melodies and instrumentation into a Western Eurojazz sound with Apurimac II. Taking the music of the Andes, with its strong rhythms and ethereal flute sound, Holm has added the music of modern technology. The result is a near full orchestra of wonderful music with new depth and complexity without betraying its native roots, where Holm had found his inspiration.

…the treatment of the few musical conventions that still prevail provides a measure of the quality of a work of art. If a work is completely devoted to these conventions, it is worthless as a current piece of art; if it ignores them as completely, it is meaningless. Innovation in art has always entailed the gradual modification of existing forms. Erkki-Sven Tuur has absorbed the formal canon of music history, assimilated its needs and significantly enlarged upon them with out forgetting beauty of sound and the serenity of the liturgy: the Glass Bead Game and consolation. In the fine web of his musical imagination he is forever the poet. We all believe that we cannot do without poetry. Even if - like Jean Cocteau - we do not know what it is for.

Wolgang Sandner from the attached booket

This album is marked by the interaction between John Lee Hooker and his guitar-playing cousin Earl. Earl, who succumbed to illness in 1970, was a fine bluesman in his own right, possessing a formidable slide technique. Many are unaware that the two often performed together, and the band that accompanies John Lee here also backed Earl frequently. The opening cut, then, a slow 12-bar number called "The Hookers" is not about ladies of the evening, but rather about the gentlemen in question.

Heard here less than a year before his death, Earl still sounds frisky and versatile, often utilizing a funky wah-wah style without ever descending into the psychedelic excesses that plagued so many late-'60s electric blues albums. One of the most effective cuts is "Lonesome Mood," a low-key, one-chord stomper in the classic John Lee mold, where Earl's wah-wah guitar meshes with Johnny Walker's organ and Jefferey Carp's harmonica to create a subtly shifting, sensuously undulating web of sound over which John Lee works his hoodoo. On IF YOU MISS 'IM, John Lee definitely benefits from keeping it in the family.