NuGroove Records is proud to present the highly anticipated and innovative new release by saxophonist/super-producer Darren Rahn. Talk Of The Town, which is also the title track of the album, will be released nationwide on February 17, 2009. As one of the smooth jazz genres hottest producers, Darren has dominated the Billboard and Radio and Records (R&R) charts over the past few years. He recently had three consecutive #1 productions on the coveted R&R smooth jazz chart, holding the #1 position with three different artists (Dave Koz, Eric Darius and Tim Bowman) from September all the way through the end of 2008. That's 14 consecutive weeks at #1! During that time, Darren held the top three chart positions for several weeks and had as many as four songs in the top 10 at the same time.

About Dario Castello and Giovanni Battista Fontana, two Italian composers from the turn of the 17th century, musical scholarship hasn’t much to tell us. We know as little about Castello, who was leading an ensemble at St. Mark’s around 1629, as we do about the exact birth and death dates of Fontana, who came from Brescia and probably perished during the 1630 outbreak of plague in Padua. Yet there are a number of surviving works by both men that reveal them to have been remarkable composers for the violin. Two books by Castello of sonate concertate in one to four parts, in stil moderno with continuo, were printed during the composer’s lifetime. In his new recording violinist John Holloway has selected a number of sonatas from this collection to couple with similar works by Fontana, some originally for violin as well as some conceived for other string or wind instruments.

Dave Holland's debut as a leader, Conference of the Birds, doesn't seem to get its proper due outside of avant-garde circles; perhaps, when discussing the greats, Holland's name simply doesn't spring to mind as immediately. Whatever the case, Conference of the Birds is one of the all-time avant-garde jazz classics, incorporating a wide spectrum of '60s innovations. Part of the reason it works so well is the one-time-only team-up of two avant-garde legends: the fiery, passionate Sam Rivers and the cerebral Anthony Braxton; they complement and contrast one another in energizing fashion throughout.

We Walk The Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash is a live tribute album to country musician, Johnny Cash. The album features various interpretations of Cash's hits and songs he had covered on his American Recordings albums. The concert presented artists from a wide variety of genres and were backed by an all-star band led by Grammy Award-winning producer and musical director Don Was, country songwriter and musician Buddy Miller, drummer Kenny Aronoff, keyboardist Ian McLagan, and multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz.

This seminal production of the John Gay/Benjamin Britten arrangement of "The Beggar's Opera" filmed in 1963 has finally seen the light of day and what a performance it is. The music and stage drama comes to life as it never has since and the sheer dramatic force of Britten's superb concept surely remains the version to retain for posterity.