Perhaps it was the presence of bassist Charlie Haden, but this trio set has more energy than one normally associates with the other members of the group (Jan Garbarek on tenor and soprano and Egberto Gismonti doubling on guitar and piano). The trio performs group originals and an obscurity during the picturesque and continually interesting release; this combination works well.

Messages is a 1956 album by Hank Mobley, a prominent American jazz saxophonist and one of the key figures in the hard bop movement. Released by Blue Note Records, Messages is considered a classic of the genre and showcases Mobley's skillful, smooth tenor saxophone playing, along with his ability to blend melodic invention with complex harmonies.

Released on March 29, 2021, on the occasion of Piano Day 2021, for the first time on the Erased Tapes label, Graz is the new album by the German pianist-composer Nils Frahm, recorded in 2009, in Mumuth, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, and never previously released. Sometimes when you listen to a piano, you may think it is a conversation between a woman and a man. At the same time, it can suggest the shapes of the universe and describe the appearance of a black hole. You can create sounds that have no relation to anything we can measure.

Produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Alpenglow is the Minnesota-based sextet’s tenth album. The album, named after the optical phenomenon that takes places when the sun casts a reddish glow across the mountains at dawn and dusk, opens with the wistful beauty of “It’s So Hard To Hold On”. The narrator contemplates the passing of time and how imperative it is to savor it while you have it.

Mike Patton and renowned French composer Jean-Claude Vannier, who is perhaps best known for his work with Serge Gainsbourg, have come together on the 12-song album, Corpse Flower.

Level 42 At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was squarely a jazz-funk fusion band, contemporaries of fellow Brit funk groups like Atmosfear, Light of the World, Incognito, and Beggar & Co. By the end of the ’80s, however, the band — whose music was instantly recognizable from Mark King’s thumb-slap bass technique and associate member Wally Badarou’s synthesizer flourishes — had crossed over to the point where they were often classified as sophisti-pop and dance-rock, equally likely to be placed in the context of Sade and the Style Council as any group that made polished, upbeat, danceable pop/rock.

Cold War On The Rocks presents 20 tracks from the history of Finnish disco and early electronic music. The journey goes from orchestral disco to experimental electronic sounds and back. It includes lone 7” singles from relatively unknown performers, interesting album cuts from artists who are better known in completely different musical genres, and also a few electronic artists whose work is rather underrated.

Somebody Put Bad Luck On Me is Bob Corritore's latest masterpiece collection of newly recorded songs featuring a spectacular offering of today's top blues artists. Bob's brilliant harmonica work is the connecting thread, always serving the song. Guest vocalists include Bobby Rush, Thornetta Davis, John Primer, Carl Weathersby, Johnny Rawls, Francine Reed, Oscar Wilson, Eugene Hideaway Bridges, Tia Carroll, Diunna Greenleaf, Willie Buck, Jimi Primetime Smith, Sugaray Rayford, and Lurrie Bell.

Mémoriance is a unique sounding French symphonic progressive band from the 1970s who released 2 studio albums. Their debut album, "Et Après…", is a fine blend of styles, ranging from fellow French symphonic bands like Ange, Atoll and Carpe Diem, but also with a blend of Steve Hackett style guitar playing, as well as a hint of "Wish You Were Here", era Pink Floyd. Overall, they're never over-the-top or heavy, but they always manage to stay interesting, due to their songs having several movements.

The Rough Guide to the Music of Kenya and Tanzania is a world music compilation album originally released in 1996. Part of the World Music Network Rough Guides series, it focuses on the music of Kenya and Tanzania, two countries which share Swahili as a common language. The release was compiled by Phil Stanton, co-founder of the World Music Network. Artwork was designed by Impetus.

Evergreen is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Echo & the Bunnymen. It is their first album since reforming after they disbanded in 1993. Vocalist Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant had previously worked together as Electrafixion before they were rejoined by bassist Les Pattinson under the name Echo & the Bunnymen in early 1997. The album was recorded at Doghouse Studios in Henley-on-Thames and was produced by McCulloch and the band's manager Paul Toogood but was credited to the whole band.

TRIPLE-DISC SET OF LIVE PERFORMANCES BY RY COODER FROM ACROSS HIS CAREER Featuring 3 superb live recordings by Ry Cooder, all from the peak of the great man s career, this triple disc set will prove a delight for fans of the master musician the world over. Kicking off on disc one with Ry s full show, broadcast live on 12th November 1972 from The Radio Ranch in Cleveland, Ohio, which finds Cooder in sublime form playing an acoustic, country blues set, with special emphasis on his blues hero of the day, Sleepy John Estes. Disc Two contains his gig from a couple of years later, recorded at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California on 7th July 1974, which features a fine selection of cuts from Cooder s early 1970s Reprise albums, records which still sound as fresh today as they ever did; as indeed does this performance. Concluding this boxed set is a recording made at the Montreux jazz festival in 1990 by Ry with long-time collaborator David Lindley, when the pair storm through a fabulous set featuring long-time Cooder classics and a great selection of numbers from his extensive film soundtrack catalogue With all recordings in near perfect quality and fully remastered, this collection is destines to become a must-have addition for every decent Ry Cooder collection in existence.

Big Bill Morganfield continues to forge his own sound with a delicate balancing act on this, his forth album. He pays tribute to his dad and the Chicago sound he helped create on the title track, but he has a jazzy side that keeps moving the blues in a more sophisticated direction as well. Al Duncan's "Too Late Brother" opens things with a juke-joint rocker in the style of Morganfield's dad, with Steve Guyger's harp tossing some fat on the fire. "High Gas Prices," a Morganfield original, gives the country blues an urban edge with a tune too many sang in the waning months of 2009. Morganfield sings Pearl Woods' "I Play Dirty" with a winning combination of humor and aggression, with Clark Stern's organ giving the tune a sanctified feel. "Who's the Fool," another original, is a shuffle on the familiar subject of a faithless woman, and Morganfield growls out the lyric with plenty of panache. What really distinguishes Morganfield from his dad is his way with love songs. Muddy always sounded dangerous, even when he was proclaiming his passion. Big Bill's voice is smoother and more mellow, and when he sings a soulful tune like Buddy Guy's neo-R&B ballad "My Love Is Real," his voice has a seductive power his dad lacked.

Midge Ure's career, as fans well know, did not begin or end with Ultravox, and so If I Was: The Very Best of Midge Ure & Ultravox attempts to give an overview of one of '80s' Britain's most popular singers. As a career retrospective goes, however, it's pretty spotty. The Scottish vocalist first found fame with the pop band Slik, who scored a chart topper with "Forever and Ever" in 1976. Unfortunately, you won't find that here, nor its hit follow-up, scored just as a car accident took the band out of the charts. Once recovered, Ure moved on. His first port of call, in 1978, was ex-Pistol Glen Matlock's punk/post-punk supergroup the Rich Kids, who released a single and album, although this compilation draws nothing from this period, either. The following year, with the Kids in disarray, Ure helped form the even more illustrious Visage. Joining him there was Ultravox's Billy Currie and, before the year was out, Ure was fronting two hit-bound bands. Visage gets short shrift here, with Ultravox invariably, if unfairly, better represented. But even this wasn't enough to keep the singer busy. In 1981, as both bands' albums and singles swept up the charts, Ure linked up with Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott for yet another hit, "Yellow Pearl".

Masters of synth pop, Wolfsheim's "Spectators" album cannot fail to please any fan of the genre. Smooth and sexy, Wolfsheim's mix of bittersweet electronic harmonies and intense vocal style pave the way for lyrics which serve more than the melody. Spectators hits a mark in the synth pop genre between the reflective intensity of acts such as Deine Lakaien and the more danceable influences artists such as Beborn Beton. From track to track, Wolfsheim go from strength to strength. The dancefloor beats of "Once in a Lifetime" contrast with the reflective romance of "Kunstliche Welten," with tracks like "Read the Lines" giving a jovial relief from the gravity of the rest of the album. The new romatic characteristics have receeded from Wolfsheim's "Sparrows and the Nightingales" days, and what remains is a sound that is more intense than before…