“Hagar’s Song”, the newest release from long-time ECM luminary Charles Lloyd, is an interactive duo recording with Jason Moran, the pianist who has been a key member of Lloyd’s latter-day quartet, contributing to the albums Rabo de Nube (2008), Mirror (2010) and Athens Concert (2012). The album features pieces especially dear to Lloyd, ranging from compositions by Billy Strayhorn (“Pretty Girl” a/k/a “Star-Crossed Lovers”), Duke Ellington (“Mood Indigo”), George Gershwin (“Bess, You Is My Woman Now”) and Earl Hines (“Rosetta”) to a standard strongly associated with Billie Holiday (“You’ve Changed”), Brian Wilson’s most famous Beach Boys ballad (“God Only Knows”) and a Bob Dylan song definitively interpreted by the Band (“I Shall Be Released”).

2014 marks the 45th Anniversary of the launch of the Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant labels – the trio of labels that Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland launched following their acrimonious split from Berry Gordy’s Motown Empire. Since the 45rpm record was the fulcrum of the new operation, we thought this would be the perfect excuse to celebrate the 45th anniversary by pulling together every single 45 release from the discography of Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant - both A and B sides. That’s 96 x Invictus 45s, 44 x Hot Wax 45s and 17 x Music Merchant 45s – 157 singles and 269 original recordings total.

This summer, a wave of hits sweeps over the waves … Find the 100 hits of the summer 2019! With: Daddy Yankee, Slimane, Vitaa, Gims, Angele …

A "greatest hits" album, a concept pioneered by Columbia Records, is usually thought of as a compilation containing the single recordings by an artist that scored on the charts. In that sense, one might wonder what business Columbia had releasing a Nancy Wilson album called Greatest Hits since, in her 12-year tenure with the label, she had only placed four singles on the R&B charts, none of which reached the top half of the list.

Charles Lloyd teams with a different band here, replacing Bobo Stenson's piano with John Abercrombie's guitar, bassist Anders Jormin with Dave Holland, and drummer Billy Hart with Billy Higgins. The title references the feeling on the album in that Lloyd was going for more of a jazz sound, something more basic and lyrical as opposed to exotic and unusual.

Pieter Wispelwey received his early training from Dicky Boeke and Anner Bijlsma in Amsterdam, and continued his studies with Paul Katz in the USA and William Pleeth In England. His repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach to Carter, Kagel and Schnlttke. He regularly plays the complete solo cello suites by Bach and Britten and the complete sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms in his many recitals, the latter with Paul Komen, and in the USA with Lois Shapiro, as his piano partner.

Great set featuring the best tracks from the 1972 to 1975 period including the group's signature track "Gamma Ray". Birth Control is among the longest running german bands and were formed wayback in 1968 in Berlin. The group had several line-up changes over the years and fused Krautrock with progressive rock and the blues rock genre, with percussive keyboards & synthesizer effects an unique sound was created.

Like 1999's Voice in the Night, The Water Is Wide features Charles Lloyd in the company of one of his dearest friends, drummer Billy Higgins, who would pass away less than a year after the album's release. Guitarist John Abercrombie also remains on board, but Lloyd extends the group's generational span by recruiting two younger players: pianist Brad Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier. The album begins with a straightforward, elegant reading of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia."