The success of the Buena Vista Social Club series gave Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer the chance to finally begin his dream project in 2005, the recording of an entire album of bolero pieces, the musical form Ferrer loved above all others. Unfortunately the 78-year-old singer died in August of that year while sessions for the project were still underway, and that Mi Sueсo (My Dream) exists at all is in itself a small miracle. Ferrer left behind high-quality vocal demos of the boleros he still intended to record for the album, but these tapes were apparently misplaced and Ferrer's dream seemed destined to go unfulfilled. The demos were eventually recovered, and Mi Sueсo has finally seen the light of day. It is the perfect goodbye from Ferrer, a fitting and beautiful last testament that spotlights his easy and smoky vocals over subtle, non-intrusive arrangements generally featuring pianist Roberto Fonseca, guitarist Manuel Galbon, and bassist Cachito Lopez.

The musical roots of Big Joe Shelton, a 2012 Blues Music Award Nominee, run deep in the rich, dark, rich, soil of the Black Prairies of Northeast Mississippi; the same region that spawned the likes of blues icons Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Williams and Bukka White. As a young man Shelton was fortunate in befriending Williams and this friendship greatly influenced his musical sensibility. Big Joe has performed at numerous festivals and clubs throughout the southeastern United States including: King Biscuit Blues Festival, Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Blues Festival, Freedom Creek Blues Festival and the Beal Street Mess Around. He has also toured England, France, Belgium, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. He has played with blues legends Big Joe Williams, Furry Lewis, Son Thomas, Junior Kimbrough, Fenton Robinson and BMA / Handy Award nominees Willie King, Blind Mississippi Morris, R. L. Burnside and Johnny Rawls as well as Daniel “Slick” Ballinger, the 2007 BMA Best New Artist and 2009 Grammy nominee Elvin Bishop.

Pianist Jacky Terrasson's 2012 album Gouache is an eclectic, playful, and often beautiful album that showcases the pianist's lithe, technically adept jazz skills alongside a handful of guest artists. Terrasson is a gifted composer and improviser in a variety of jazz idioms, from straight-ahead, standards-based jazz to more contemporary and even avant-garde styles. He brings all of this to bear on Gouache. While Terrasson's virtuosic piano chops are the focal point of the release, it is also his choice of excellent sidemen here, including trumpeter Stephane Belmondo and bass clarinetist Michel Portal, that helps make the album such a buoyant and joyful listen.

Flautist Alexis Kossenko’s latest offering is evocative, impressionistic: a programme in which flute, piano and voice together have pride of place.

Praised for his musicality and exceptional voice, Cai Thomas has already built up a global following and has featured in segments for ITV news and Classic FM. Following a successful Kickstarter funding campaign and, with the help of his family, friends, local community and hundreds of new friends from around the world, Rubicon Classics is proud to support Cai for the release of his debut album.

Lou Rawls had such a long career, his music appealed differently to changing generations. In the 1950s he recorded doo-wop, in the 60s it was jazz, blues and big band swing, then come the 70s it was silky soul as epitomised by Gamble & Huff's. You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine) for Philadelphia International Records. Now Is The Time and Close Company, neither previously available on CD, find Lou at the tail end of his soul years ahead of his return to jazzier roots and a record deal with Blue Note.

Following on logically from his complete cycle of Monteverdi madrigals, Paul Agnew – here both conductor and stage director – presents his intimate and ‘sacred’ version of the composer’s first opera (and the first great opera in musical history). In a fine collective spirit, the singers and instrumentalists of Les Arts Florissants participate in the drama on equal terms, mingling in a single set that gives increased prominence to the (masterly) lighting and to the protagonists (overwhelmingly moving in their restrained movements and expressions): we are transported to the very heart of Monteverdi’s masterpiece, as if we had fallen into a painting by Nicolas Poussin, caught up in the mystical adventure of two lovers more mythical than ever.

In a Detroit classroom, two budding musicians with a love of soul and jazz became acquainted, they were guitarist Earl Klugh and drummer Gene Dunlap In 1978 Earl was a featured artist for Blue Note on an album “Blue Note Meets The L.A. Philharmonic” supported by Gene on drums. As Earl became more established as a solo performer, Gene played for him on professional dates and the affiliation continued through Earl’s solo recordings with United Artists and Liberty, part of the Capitol Records family of labels. It was Earl who took Gene to Capitol in 1981 for the two albums presented here.
“It’s Just The Way I Feel” and “The Party In Me” come from 1981, both albums ooze the quality of the period and with the benefit of Gene’s contributions in the songwriting came the classic recordings on both.

With his remarkable range and phenomenal technique, Arturo Sandoval is one of the world's great trumpeters; he can do virtually anything he wants on his instrument. Some detractors have claimed that he has too much technique (is such a thing possible?) and that his recordings for GRP are a bit erratic. The latter criticism cannot be applied to this 1988 release. Sandoval is heard with a standard quartet comprised of the great pianist Chucho Valdes (the leader of Irakere), bassist Ron Matthewson, and drummer Martin Drew. Recorded in England before Sandoval broke ties with Cuba, Sandoval is in near-miraculous form on some blues, a lyrical "My Funny Valentine," and a few basic originals. Just listen to him tear through "Blue Monk," playing in the low register with the speed of an Al Hirt before jumping into the stratosphere like Maynard Ferguson.

Louisiana Red is now due his rightful place as one of the giants of the blues scene. He has a stunningly intense and eclectic guitar style straight from the deep Mississippi. This disc is a representation of the various settings and approaches he took for the JSP label over the space of many years.

When Doris Day freed herself from those cotton candy films she appeared in, where her singing for the most part was limited to cute novelty tunes, she showed that she could successfully sink her vocal teeth into some solid standard material. The LPs compiled on this CD come from the late '50s, when she was recording for Columbia with backing from an orchestra headed by Paul Weston. The songs fall into two categories. The first are those where Weston employed a large, sugary string section. The far more interesting tracks are those where the strings were held out and Day was backed by a dance band group with some jazz personages present…

Every band which appears on "The Moon Revisited" was profoundly influenced by Pink Floyd and wanted to be a part of this tribute. Each of the bands showcased on this album worked separately, yet each strived to maintain the thread that would connect all the pieces of this high-concept album. To put together a record such as this was a major effort musically and logistically but all parties involved felt that "tribute" was the motivating force. The album's final cut, "Eclipse", features the vocalists from each of the groups that appear on this album in the finale of the great piece of rock history. Every word that is sung is infused with the emotion of the original version as well as an extra added element of respect for the originators.