Gato Barbieri, one of the most distinctive instrumentalists in jazz, is in top form on Que Pasa. Barbieri's tone and sense of melody is stunning–evoking a myriad of emotions with just one phrase. This is no more evident than on the opening track, "Straight into the Sunrise" which is dripping with sensual and moving lines that are unsurpassed in jazz today. Barbieri's rare ability to use his instrument to convey his emotions is amazing; it's as though he is baring his most intimate thoughts and feelings to the listener.

Gato Barbieri is the second Argentine musician to make a significant impact upon modern jazz — the first being Lalo Schifrin, in whose band Barbieri played as a teenager. His story has been that of an elongated zigzag odyssey between his homeland and North America. He started out playing to traditional Latin rhythms in his early years, turning his back on his heritage to explore the jazz avant-garde in the '60s, reverting to South American influences in the early '70s, playing pop and fusion in the late '70s, only to go back and forth again in the '80s. North American audiences first heard Barbieri when he was a wild bull, sporting a coarse, wailing John Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders-influenced tone.

With her delightful but unsettling mix of whimsy and earnest irony, Kat Edmonson is a vocalist who can get inside your head and keep you up at night. Her fifth album, Dreamers Do, offers a bracing antidote to sleepless nights, as she’s scoured Disney soundtracks for songs about dreams, slumber, and the anxieties that ruffle our pillows. Rather than serving as a soporific, it’s a seductive sojourn that alternately lulls and surprises.
Although nominally a concept album about soothing oneself through an angst-filled evening, Dreamers Do is held together more by Edmonson’s fey aesthetic and small, pliable, Blossom Dearie-esque voice than any thematic through line…

Some artists totally change directions; some reinvent their personalities. It is hard to know exactly what to make of the case of this Argentinian tenor saxophonist, who first appeared as a sideman on several extremely important Don Cherry projects, making such an essential contribution to the overall feel of these records that listeners expected great things. After a few attempts at finding a meeting place between the energy and harshness of free jazz and the his own rhythmic roots, he created this album in which everything seemed to come together perfectly.

Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon (2015) {Flying Buddha–Sony Music 88875 06248 2}
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© 2015 Flying Buddha / Sony Music | 88875 06248 2
Rhythm & Blues / Alternative R&B / Soul / Neo Soul / Future Soul / World Music

A stunning second set from Hiatus Kaiyote – a group we already loved the first time around, but who really blow us away with this amazing little record! The style is this incredible mix of cosmic keyboards and soulful vocals – but not in a way that's like any of the other oft-tread paths in that combination on the market at all. Instead, the group almost put the keyboards first – working from some Herbie Hancock electric 70s mode, but very much with their own style – then find a key place for the sublime singing of Nai Palm – a vocalist who's got this style that's heavenly, and almost with her own sort of electricity as well. Individual tunes are great, but the whole thing really works together as one long sonic trip – a mindbending journey through tracks that include "Prince Minikid", "Shaolin Monk Motherfunk", "Laputa", "Borderline With My Atoms", "Swamp Thing", "Fingerprints", and "The Lung".

Gato Barbieri - Caliente! (1976) {A&M Records ‎CD 3247 rel 1986}
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© 1976, 1986 A&M Records ‎| CD 3247 / 75021 3247 2
Jazz / Latin Jazz / World Fusion / Jazz-Pop / Saxophone

Believe it or not, this Argentinian-born saxophonist spent his early years playing in the jazz avant-garde with the likes of Don Cherry. But for all his free-form experiments, "the Cat" hit his stride with this pristine piece of seminal pop-jazz. His emotional, warm-blooded playing, gritty-sweet tone, and Latin-laced grooves slide down smooth and easy. Covers of Santana's "Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)" and Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" remain faithful to the originals' vibe, yet take on a seductive Spanish accent thanks to Barbieri's expressive tenor and a battery of Latin percussion.

2001 release of what was the 2nd Älgarnas Trädgård album; originally recorded in 1973-1974, but never released (until this CD rescued these recordings from oblivion). Exact same lineup as witnessed on their epic debut from 1972. And what a fantastic offering…it slowly extends into meta-improvisations with distant guitars, heavily effected organs, swirling strings, plenty of space, reaching an early peak-build amidst the detritus floating through the 12-minute "Interstellar Cruise." Later, an Eastern-themed campfire freakout (sitars, tablas, Yod-chant) breaks out, then a bit of the mellow reverbed flute, later still a long vocal loop fade out over some well placed drones. One could say this record has a bit of everything.

Collapse is a strange and beautiful record that refuses categorization, traipsing through the fields of house, free jazz and musique concrète on the way to something inscrutably Other. Despite being ostensibly an "electronic" record, Seiho proudly boasts that "very few samples were used in the making of the LP," instead utilizing live instrumentation and sounds captured in personal recordings of animals, machines and nature, which he sculpted into many of the beats, rhythms and chirps put on display.

Mongo Santamaria - Skins (1962-64) {Milestone MCD-47038-2 rel 1989}
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© 1962, 1964, 1989 Riverside / Milestone / Fantasy | MCD-47038-2
Jazz / Latin Jazz / Soul Jazz / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Boogaloo / Bongos / Congas

This single CD has all of the contents of the two Mongo Santamaria Riverside albums originally titled Mongo Explodes and Go, Mongo! The music was last available as a two-LP set also titled Skins. The 1964 session, oddly programmed first, finds Santamaria on conga and bongos at the head of a ten-piece band also including trumpeter Marty Sheller, then-unknown flutist Hubert Laws (also featured on piccolo and tenor), Bobby Capers on alto and baritone, and a seven-piece rhythm section with five percussionists.

This CD is so commanding in its musicality that one can hardly imagine being able to sit still for the live recital itself, given in Carnegie Hall in Feb. 1993. Kissin had already made the debut of a lifetime, also recorded by RCA, but this Chopin recital and its compansion from the same event exhibit a towering mastery. The famous showpieces–the F minor Fantasy, Grande Valse Brillante, F-sharp minor Polonaise, Scherzo #2–eclipse all rivals unless you go back to Rachmaninov, and the audience knew it. Their applause is a roar of ecstatic approval.

This is the companion CD to Herreweghe's recording of the Masses in A major and G minor (CD VC7 91118-2, 1/91), and it means that at last Bach's four short Masses are available in recordings that do them justice. Justice is what they deserve, too, because thanks to Bach's extensive plundering of earlier works for these settings of the Kyrie and Gloria (the only sections of the Mass required by Lutheran usage) they have come to represent one of the least valued groups of pieces in the composer's entire output.

David Benoit And Friends' features special guests Dave Koz, Marc Antoine, Rick Braun, Vincent Ingala, Lindsey Webster and others. All are Smooth Jazz stars in their own right, highlights include the gorgeous Dave Koz feature "Vernaaza","Make It Real" a sensuous ballad featuring Lindsey Webster, "Moon and Sand" featuring Marc Antoine, David's interpretation of the Portugal hit "Feel It Still" and much more.