Samara Joy makes her Verve debut, with a voice, tone and phrasing that harkens back to the most iconic jazz vocalists of all time. At just 22 years old, Samara already belongs in the company of iconic label mates from Ella Fitzgerald to Sarah Vaughan to Billie Holiday, and is poised to become synonymous with timeless jazz music. Her stunningly timeless voice belies her youth and her approach to jazz feels reverent but also truly fresh and exciting.

Ezra Furman can feel the future barrelling toward the now. Inside the world of her new album, All of Us Flames, the end of the patriarchal capitalist empire seems both imminent and inevitable, a turn down a path we can't see yet but can't avoid, either. The heat of a different world throbs just behind the skin of this one; all around us, openings to it flicker. They vanish almost as soon as they've appeared. But they keep appearing, as if daring us to hold them open, to widen them until they turn into a way.

On CENTER CHAMBER, wind, string, and keyboard instrumentalists come together to perform a collection of original and intimate compositions that include the saxophone — particularly Paul Cohen’s conn-o-sax, a rare and long forgotten instrument given new life in contemporary works. The conn-o-sax brings a dark, contemplative quality and infuses a unique tonal and musical spirit to these often lively, brooding, and captivating works. The engaging and brilliant intimacy of the playing eloquently reveals the unique emotional and musical bonds that tie together these exceptional artists. Listeners will undoubtedly agree: CENTER CHAMBER offers a listening experience as special and engaging as the instrument it features.

Rare manuscripts from the library of an Italian abbey, rediscovered and recorded for the first time.

Born in Bologna, Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632–1692) spent all his life between his birth city and Modena, where he moved in 1674. There is something noteworthy in this geography of the composer: Vitali’s move from Bologna, then part of the Papal States under the administration of Rome, to the smaller but significantly more secular and artistically stimulating Modena, under the rule of the splendid Este family, is suggestive of a desire to achieve greater expressive freedom. All composers must tackle the dilemmas of their times, and Vitali’s legacy is his ability to use his great skill to achieve that ideal synthesis between tradition and innovation.

César Franck gradually abandoned his career as a virtuoso pianist as he completed his training under various Parisian masters, one of whom was the organist François Benoist. Franck then served as organist in various important Parisian churches from 1853 onwards before accepting a position at Sainte-Clotilde, where he benefited from Cavaillé-Coll's brand new instrument. He composed works for the organ as well as in other genres that became part of the apotheosis of what is now termed Le Renouveau français. Franck also composed pieces specifically intended for the harmonium. We are proud to mark the bicentenary of his birth with a reissue of his complete works for organ and for harmonium, in which Joris Verdin's fascinating interpretations have incorporated Franck’s own recently discovered metronome markings.

Now we have all three of the concertos, plus the Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46, and the Serenade, Op. 75, all in one convenient 2-CD set. The reproduction is broad, spacious and defined, with the solo violin in perfect perspective.