This DVD is a new production of the Puccini favourite, staged at Salzburg 2012.Tenor Piotr Beczala rocks as Rodolfo, Mimì’s lover. Massimo Cavalletti sings Rodolfo’s friend Marcello with uncommon finesse and beauty of tone. Nino Machaidze is a moving Musetta.The robust orchestration of this popular opera verges on the ethereal as Mimì’s life slips away. Throughout his reading, conductor Daniele Gatti strikes the perfect balance between sentiment and sentimentality, vigour and fragility, the specter of untimely death and the quick and young it haunts. The New York Times wrote, “You don’t often hear Mimì sung with such vivid character and sheer charisma.”

If you can imagine a band whose members have performed with blues legends including Luther Allison, Popa Chubby, Jimmy Dawkins, Chuck Berry, Lucky Peterson, Billy Price , Otis Clay, Paul Personne, Hubert Sumlin, Johnny Copeland , Guy Davis, Rod Piazza, and many, many others… The B.T.C Blues Revue is that explosive combination of musicians from the U.S.A and France. The group is fronted by three great Dixiefrog Records Artists : Neal Black (from Texas) , Nico Wayne Toussaint and Fred Chapellier ( from France), and backed by an All Star Band including Mike Lattrell ( from New York ) as well as Christophe Garreau and Vincent Daune (from France).

Sombre Reptile is a Progressive rock band from Bordeaux, formed by the brothers Jean-Paul & Michel Dedieu in 1977. Some twenty five years would be required before they released their first album "In Strum Mental" (2001). Firstly influenced by King Crimson ("Red" period), Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, the trio developped there quite more personal views. The rhythm base was strongly "ethnic" sounding and proved to be as enchanting as original. Dialogues between keyboards and guitar came in foreground of these seven medium-length, very dense and inspired instrumental pieces. Four years later, "Le Repli Des Ombres" takes yet a step upward: even though the sometimes tense atmospheres and an hypnotic side still remind of the first influences of the band, the latter has been able to develop its own personality…

This extensive collection gathers together four volumes of demos, live performances, interviews, and other ephemeral material from the earliest phases of Detroit shock-glam legends Alice Cooper, and even traces their roots before the band as most know it came to be. The collection begins with the stompy garage psych number "No Price Tag" from Vincent Furnier's pre-AC 1966 band Spiders. Early demos from 1969's Pretties for You album follow, as do radio spots and raw live recordings from the earliest eras of the band, including an 11-minute organ-drone version of "I'm Eighteen," introduced as "a brand-new song" and sounding more like some bastardized take on the Doors than the three-minute confused coming-of-age rocker that wound up on 1971's Love It to Death album.

On "Fire Red Moon", it’s full-on kick ass time again. The blues-heavy set features vocalist Rolf Hartley wailing on a mix of tunes co-penned by Chaquico and-standard-but-never-old covers like "Born Under a Bad Sign", "Rollin’ and Tumblin" and "Crossroads." Those who miss his softer side can find traces of it in the instrumental "Blue on Blue," but Fire Red Moon leaves no doubt that this always-masterful player has returned to plugged-in mode for real.

Five CD set containing a quintet of albums from the groundbreaking British Art Rock band: Siren, Viva, Manifesto, Flesh + Blood and Heart Still Beating.

The legendary American pianist Sir Charles Thompson (1918-2016) played with virtually everyone in the jazz hall of fame, including Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and Lester Young (who gave him the nickname "Sir"). We can point to his recent CD released by SSJ (Love Is Here To Stay), and now this album from Marshmallow Records. The album was made with a focus on songs with beautiful melodies, and combines a studio recording session (Tracks 1-8) and a live recording (9-13). Both in a trio setting with Japanese bassist and drummer, Thompson showcases a distilled art of a jazz pianist. He doesn't play fast or too many notes; he plays just what he needs to and still says a lot. Swinging and melodious!

Naked Truth fuses the polyrhythmic electro-acoustic beats of King Crimson and Stickmen drummer Pat Mastelotto, the fuzz-inflected lines of electric bassist and producer Lorenzo Feliciati, and the jazz-informed textures of Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3 organ, piano and synthesizer player Roy Powell, and finally the unique voice of avant-jazz cornetist Graham Haynes. On Ouroboros, their second release, the members of Naked Truth push the envelope of contemporary electric instrumental music, an edgy blend of jazz, prog-rock, ambient music and electronica. The opener, “Dust” pits aggressively driving rhythms from Feliciati and Mastelotto against the relaxed, ambient textures of Powell’s spacious piano and Haynes’ lyrical cornet work floating over the top in half-time.

Screen superstar Hugh Jackman (X-Men, Les Misérables) and acclaimed actress Maureen Lipman (The Pianist) head a spirited cast in this visually stunning adaptation of the beloved Broadway favorite from Rodgers & Hammerstein! Some of the greatest songs ever written! Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', The Surry with the Fringe on Top, People Will Say We're in Love, Oklahoma and more!

Johnny Cash was fortunate enough to enjoy a massive resurgence of attention and respect in the last decade of his life, but while no one seemed to be paying much attention to him from the early '80s (when his contract with Columbia ran out) to 1994 (when the Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings reminded listeners that a great artist was still in our midst), Cash continued to make good-to-great records and play for fans around the world, and this album, taken from a 1987 taping session for the long-running television series Austin City Limits, shows the Man in Black was still in sterling form as he traveled beneath the radar of country radio and the hipster music press.

After trying their loyal followers' tolerance like never before with the generally aimless symphonic fluff that surrounded the handful of real songs contained in 2007's Gods of War album, Manowar gratefully adopted a more serious and focused working approach for their 11th studio LP, 2012's The Lord of Steel…

Wolfgang Dauner has now been highly active on the scene for more than fifty years. Dauner hired top young musicians to be around him for the current upgrade to United 2.0. The second United generation, like the first one, is eagerly researching the crossing points between jazz, rock, funk and world music. Featuring some of the finest avant-garde jazz players from Germany and beyond the Ensemble began life in 1975. Pianist Wolfgang Dauner, initially recruiting musicians from his home base of Stuttgart (then a hotbed of avant-garde jazz), put together a rotating cast of musicians, and shared writing and arranging duties with guitarist Volker Kriegel. They recorded the first album under the United Jazz+Rock Ensemble name, Live im Schützenhaus, in 1977, to be released on the group's then founded Mood Records label. The album was a hit, eventually becoming the best-selling German jazz record of all times, and the Ensemble was awarded the "Deutscher Schallplattenpreis 1978" for artist of the year, followed by another 14 albums plus a variety of international collaborations.

As part of Columbia/Legacy's ongoing celebration of Johnny Cash's 80th birthday in 2012, the label assembled a series of compilations under the rubric "The Greatest." This 19-track collection covers ground so obvious that it's a wonder there hasn't been a similar compilation before: it showcases Cash's chart-toppers. Strictly speaking, some of these singles did not reach number one – 1958's "The Ways of a Woman in Love" and 1979's "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" peaked at two, while 1958's "What Do I Care" topped out at eight – and a good case could be made that "Get Rhythm," the charting flip of "I Walk the Line," should have been here, but that's ultimately nitpicking as this provides a single-disc overview of Cash's charting years unlike any other compilation on the market.