The second posthumously released duo album featuring Charlie Haden. The first last year was with Jim Hall recorded in Montreal in 1990. This latest one, poetically titled as Tokyo Adagio, is more recent, Haden duetting with the Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and draws from a March 2005 Blue Note Tokyo club four-night residency. The polite audience reaction and applause is respectful and the sound of a few knives and forks neither here nor there in the background not distracting: the album feels lived in, which is far better than clinical.

Bassist Charlie Haden has done a tremendous amount of playing in duo contexts (very little of it on the ECM label, however). This live recording with the remarkable pianist/guitarist Egberto Gismonti is a fine addition to his duo resume. Recorded at The Montreal Jazz Festival in 1989 and released over a decade later, the album mostly features noted works by Gismonti, although two of Haden's pieces also appear. Gismonti plays guitar rather than piano on Haden's "First Song," making for an interesting comparison with the version that graced Beyond the Missouri Sky, Haden's 1997 duet record with Pat Metheny.

Chris Anderson is one of the unsung heroes of modern jazz piano. A revered figure among musicians, largely for his role as mentor to a young Herbie Hancock, Anderson has long been hindered by illness from aggressively pursuing his rightful place in the jazz limelight. As Charlie Haden poignantly states in the album's liner notes, "Chris is risking his life with every chord, that's how much it means to him." Although he has performed with everyone from Charlie Parker to Sun Ra over the course of his lengthy career, Anderson remains mostly unknown even to serious jazz fans. One hopes that this outstanding new duo effort with bass master Haden on the British Naim label helps to earn him some richly deserved acclaim.

Philadelphia indie rock quartet the Districts put all the pieces together on their third LP, Popular Manipulations. Friends since grade school, bandmates since high school, the four members have grown up in front of their fans, self-releasing their first album in their teens and signing a deal with Fat Possum Records not long after graduation. While earlier releases revealed a scrappy, hard-working band performing beyond the expectations of their tender age, they had yet to lock onto an essential sound. Produced in part by returning collaborator John Congleton, Popular Manipulations is a significant step forward for the Districts, taking a more streamlined yet experimental approach delivered with a buckled-down intensity that leaps out of the speakers…

Who do we become when we live our dreams? It’s all here—the high hairdos, the dreams and schemes, the tender camp, the wedding bell fantasias and chaste tragedies. Sister acts, studio receptionists, classmates, angelic voices of the 1960s; some legendary, many hidden in the basement of expired rainbows. Gathered on this deluxe double CD are 56 (28 on the 2LP) foiled escape attempts, now free to soar in girl group heaven.

Traditional Vietnamese songs arranged by the Grammy awarded Silkroad Ensemble from the PBS film The ""Vietnam War: A Film By Ken Burns & Lynn Novick."

When most people think about Nigerian music, the first thing that comes to mind is Lagos, the country's main commercial center, the glittering megacity that spawned Yoruba-speaking music luminaries such as Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Sir Shina Peters and Wizkid. But Nigeria is a country of rich diversity, especially in its music: From the Igbo highlife and rock bands of east-central region, to the deep Edo roots rhythms from the midwest, to the keening, ornamented Fulani melodies of the north. But one region whose music has remained largely under-explored is the south eastern land of the Efik and Ibibio ethnic groups in Cross River and Akwa Ibom State, the region colloquially referred to as "Calabar." A cradle of culture, this region was one of the earliest outposts of Nigerian popular music. Its primordial rhythms traveled across the Atlantic during the slave trade to provide the part of the foundation for Afro-Cuban grooves that would go on to influence the development of jazz, rock & roll, R&B and funk.

God Body Disconnect presents us his third album on Cryo Chamber. An atmospheric journey dealing with loneliness and solitude. Layered guitar builds walls of sound on top of textured field recordings and spoken word. Recommended for fans of film soundtracks and cinematic ambient.

Charlie Haden has a long-standing interest in Cuban music, first touched on with his Liberation Music Orchestra over 30 years ago. Nocturne expands on that affinity and on the bassist's relationship with Cuban piano virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who introduced Haden to the tradition of the Cuban ballad, or bolero. The result is this very unusual mix of slow- to medium-tempo pieces, limpid, sometimes almost somber songs that are filled with yearning romanticism, wistful lyricism, and an inner light. NOCTURNE won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Haden is also known for his signature lyrical bass lines.