inaugurated Cecilia Bartoli’s first season as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2012. “Bartoli’s Dream Start with Dream Voices” wrote the Vienna Kurier of this uproarious Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier in which Bartoli heads a hand-picked cast including Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky and Anne Sofie Von Otter with Il Giardino Armonico conducted by Giovanni Antonini. “[Andreas Scholl’s] coloratura is note perfect, he phrases recitatives with as much musicianship as arias, and the steadiness and purity of his voice are remarkable.” The Financial Times

Joan Osborne's "One of Us" was her one and only hit back in 1995, and it gave her near-mythical status though it misrepresented her talent as a singer. Osborne is a soul singer and a blues singer. She has performed with everyone from the Funk Brothers to the Grateful Dead. She's also released very few recordings. And seeing her name on anything gets the listener's hopes up. In this case, they are dashed, as One of Us is a compilation of tracks from her debut album, Relish, and 2002's fine How Sweet It Is. While "One of Us" will be the best-known cut here, it's the soul tracks, such as "Why Can't We Live Together," Barrett Strong's "Smiling Faces Sometimes," Sly Stone's "Everybody Is a Star," Thom Bell's "I'll Be Around," and Stevie Wonder's "Love's in Need of Love Today," that take the cake.

Sandy Denny's plaintive voice, haunting songs, and folk-rock style live on in the popular music of the 21st century, particularly in the recordings of Natalie Merchant, who so much resembles her in vocal timbre and overall approach, but also in her influence on other singer/songwriters, male and female. Denny never got her due in the U.S. during her lifetime, with only her third solo album, 1973's Like an Old Fashioned Waltz, and her final album with Fairport Convention, 1975's Rising for the Moon, even making the American charts.

Strangely enough, Tiger in the Rain would have been a smoother transition from Sleeping Gypsy, just as Burchfield Nines would have been a more natural follow-up to The Art of Tea. For the first time, Michael Franks made an album completely without the production team of Tommy LiPuma, Al Schmitt and Lee Hershberg, employing instead John Simon (the Band, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen). The recording boasts a large number of celebrated horn and string players, as well as jazz luminaries Ron Carter, Bucky Pizzarelli, Kenny Barron, Mike Mainieri and Flora Purim. Lush, romantic and more experimental than previous efforts, Tiger in the Rain has a seriousness of purpose that faithfully echoes that of Sleeping Gypsy, with less of a Brazilian feel and overall a more somber tone of lost love.

Miles Davis - In Stockholm 1960 Complete (1992) {4CD Set Dragon Records DRCD 228}
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© 1960, 1992 Dragon Records | DRCD 228
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Trumpet

This remarkable four-CD set features John Coltrane with the Miles Davis Quintet just a short time before 'Trane went out on his own. Davis sounds inspired by his star tenor and although Coltrane was reportedly bored with the repertoire ("On Green Dolphin Street," "All Blues," "Fran-Dance," "Walkin'" and two versions of "So What"), he is at his most explorative throughout this often-stunning music. In addition, the rhythm section (pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb) had been together for two years and is really tight. Although currently out of print, it is well worth any foot work that may be needed in order to acquire it. This highly recommended set also includes a brief interview with Coltrane from this period.

Among countless interpretations of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which range from modernized performances for large string orchestra to period-style versions for much leaner ensembles, there are few as pared-down as Rachel Podger's performances with Brecon Baroque. Podger plays the virtuosic solo violin part and directs an ensemble consisting of two violins, one viola, and one cello, supported by a continuo of violone, theorbo, and harpsichord or chamber organ. This might give an impression of extreme austerity or thinness of sound, but the surprising richness of the group's textures suggests that tonal production counts more than the number of players.

Ben Davies called Bachman-Turner Overdrive's first album a "fusion of Lynyrd Skynyrd-style Southern/trucker rock and ZZ Top's anthemic arena rock," and with their logo imprinted in a big metallic gear which looks like it inspired James Cameron's Terminator trademark, Randy Bachman, his brothers Tim and Robbie, and C.F. Turner dish out a methodical mix of plodding hard dirges…

Tony Grey is part of a new fraternity of extraordinary young electric bass guitar virtuosos (along with Matthew Garrison, Hadrien Feraud) who have taken the vocabulary of pioneers like Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke to the next level. The British-born bassist, a Berklee College of Music grad, has played on recordings by John McLaughlin (2006′s Industrial Zen) and the Japanese keyboard wiz Hiromi Uehra (2004′s Brain, 2006′s Spiral and 2007′s Time Control). On Chasing Shadows, his second recording as a leader (he previously released the self-produced Moving through his own website), Grey steps out in impressive fashion as a bandleader, accomplished composer and outstanding soloist.

Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis - Two Men With The Blues (2008) {Blue Note 50999 5 04454 2 4}
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© 2008 Blue Note / EMI | 50999 5 04454 2 4
Jazz / Blues / Mainstream Jazz / Progressive Country

History has proven that Willie Nelson will duet with pretty much anybody who comes along, and while this open-hearted open mind sometimes backfires, more often than not it results in some of his most sublime recordings. Two Men with the Blues, his album with jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis recorded over a two-night stand at Jazz at Lincoln Center on January 12 and 13, 2007, belongs in the latter category, standing as truly one of the most special records in either Nelson's or Marsalis' catalog. If the pair initially seem like an odd match, it's only because Wynton long carried the reputation of a purist, somebody who was adamant against expanding the definition of jazz, which cast him as the opposite of Willie, who never found a border he couldn't blur.

Interest in Spohr is on the rise –a fact demonstrated not only by our new recording of his complete symphonic oeuvre but also by the outstanding reputation rightly earned by our edition of his complete violin concertos. Spohr’s striking originality as a composer and violinist are reflected in these works from the middle and late periods of his life, presented here as world première recordings. The title Grand Duo concertant was given by Spohr to place equal virtuosic demands on both Violin and Piano, neither instrument has a subordinate role.