Music can provide a powerful pop of positivity. Letting yourself get fully immersed in a song sometimes gets those brain waves flowing just how you need to carry on your day with a smile. Our recent discovery Jay Elle has found a way to share this positivity with his music. The singer-songwriter and guitar player now based in New York City takes each song he writes with an attitude of optimism. Music has been a part of the life of Jay Elle since childhood. When his aunt bought him a guitar and a cousin showed him some chord he was off and running with a passion. This led to his enrollment at the Geneva Conservatory Of Music, where he studied theory, composition, classical guitar, and singing. Although this classical education gave Jay his skills he was always drawn to blues, rock, jazz, and pop.

Predating Metallica's self-titled blockbuster by 11 years, Judas Priest's British Steel was a similarly pitched landmark boasting many of the same accomplishments. It streamlined and simplified the progressive intricacies of a band fresh off of revolutionizing the entire heavy metal genre; it brought an aggressive, underground metal subgenre crashing into the mainstream (in Priest's case, the NWOBHM; in Metallica's, thrash); and it greatly expanded the possibilities for heavy metal's commercial viability as a whole. Of course, British Steel was nowhere near the sales juggernaut that Metallica was, but in catapulting Judas Priest to the status of stadium headliners, it was the first salvo fired in heavy metal's ultimate takeover of the hard rock landscape during the 1980s.

Private Life may be obscure, but the producers of its debut album are anything but – guitar hero Eddie Van Halen produced the album with Ted Templeman, who is best known for his work with the guitarist's band Van Halen. One would think that an album containing Eddie Van Halen's name would have done better, but surprisingly, this disc is far from well known. Private Life's focal point is female lead singer Kelly Breznik, who sometimes brings to mind Warlock graduate Doro Pesch. But this isn't a metal album by any means, and while some Van Halen influence can be heard on "Give It Up," "Night All Night," "Communication" and other commercial offerings, it isn't nearly as strong as some might assume. Private Life's own personality comes through on this slick, glossy corporate rock release, which isn't fantastic, but is decent and generally likable.

With numerous available recordings of Beethoven's music for cello and piano available, one might wonder what British cellist Steven Isserlis has to add on this Hyperion release, which includes not only the five Beethoven cello sonatas but three entertaining early sets of variations and a transcription, by Beethoven himself, of the Horn Sonata in F major, Op. 17. The answer lies in Isserlis' decision to record the works with a fortepiano, in this case an instrument built by American-Czech maker Paul McNulty and based on a Viennese Walter model of 1805.

George Adams & Don Pullen Quartet - Earth Beams (1980) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 264 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 95 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 264 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1980, 2015 Timeless Records / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-6406
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone / Piano Trio

Reissue with the latest remastering and the original cover artwork. Comes with a description written in Japanese. A firey session from the quartet of George Adams and Don Pullen – a set that has the group stretching out in some of their most spiritual modes, yet still finding plenty of time to swing as well! Adams is tremendous on tenor – a very fresh voice in the post-Coltrane world, with phrasing that is all his own – even more amplified when he switches to flute – and Pullen's got this ability to go outside, and show his knowledge of the darker corners of the keyboard – yet never let that side of his playing overwhelm things, possibly because the rhythmic accompaniment from Cameron Brown on bass and Dannie Richmond on drums is so strong. Tracks are all long, and very individual – with the group in high spirits on the titles "Earth Beams", "Magnetic Love Field", "Saturday Nite In The Cosmos", "More Flowers", and "Dionysus".

This immeasurable masterpiece has a disconcerting habit of resisting attempts to capture its haunting and evocative atmosphere on disc. There is no really bad recording, but only two or three to which I at any rate return again and again secure in the knowledge that I will be as moved as I often am in the concert-hall. I'm afraid this new recording can't be added to that select band. It is, I hasten to say, a very fine recording indeed, as most of this Frankfurt Mahler cycle have been.

The international project of Michał Urbaniak, which was created in New York and published by the Hip Bop Records. Urbanator established his position on the American music stage.

This two-CD tribute to Art Blakey, recorded live over two nights in 2018 at the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut, does justice to its honoree’s high standards. Ralph Peterson, the last drummer to perform side-by-side with his mentor, united five alums of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers: tenor saxophonist Billy Pierce, alto saxophonist Bobby…

Presented with a University of Oregon Faculty Excellence Award in 2016, saxophonist Idit Shner chose to invest that award in the creation of new compositions for saxophone. Participating in both individual and group commissioning efforts, this recording was programmed from that collection of ten new works by long established composers, such as Chicago's Stacy Garrop, to several more diverse and emerging voices, including Ziv Slama from Israel and the Oregon-based Andrea Reinkemeyer and Evan C. Paul. With pianist EunHye Choi, Shner performed several concerts with each of these pieces to enthusiastic response, forming the belief that while obvious audience favorites, they also represent a substantial contribution to current saxophone literature.