Heinichen’s Mass employs especially the capabilities of the brass to achieve a festive majesty in sound. A four-voiced trumpet choir in combination with the double choir layout lend Zelenka’s Te Deum a festive character. Hans-Christoph Rademann brings choir, orchestra and soloists to their highest level of performance.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi is arguably one of the best-known baroque composers. However, the rediscovery of the Prete Rosso in modern times took place quite recently. The history of this rediscovery might still offer us some surprises. This recording is aiming to be part of this history, featuring the most recently discovered Vivaldi sonatas for violin and continuo, including the latest discovered works by the Venetian composer (added to the RISM as RV 820 and RV 205/2), as identified by Javier Lupiáñez in 2015, and presenting the first recording of the RV 205/2.

These are Mozart's greatest orchestral works, and they are so rich and full of variety that the "period" instrument approach often makes them sound lackluster and limited in mood. It's especially important to use a fortepiano that combines warmth of tone with clarity. So many of them sound like keyboard xylophones, with a dull low end and little if any sustaining power. Fortunately, Malcom Bilson has selected an attractive-sounding instrument that can hold its own in dialogue with John Eliot Gardiner's very forceful and dynamic accompaniments.

Thirty years on from their acclaimed recording for Erato, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir return to the Bach Motets in a new SDG recording, taken from a concert in London last year at the end of a tour which saw performances in Italy, France, The Netherlands and Germany. The Motets can be seen as some of Bach’s most perfect and hypnotic compositions. Through their extraordinary complexity and density, they require exceptional virtuosity and sensitivity of all the performers. Each of them is endlessly fascinating, and each inhabits its own sound world, Bach's masterful use of canon, fugue and counterpoint, the brilliant exploitation of double-choir sonorities are perfectly matched by the Monteverdi Choir's virtuosity.

A genre-defying new album, Salt unfolds as a ritual in movement—a sonic pilgrimage through loss, memory, resistance, and return. The album begins in stillness, in the suspended breath of a woman turning to look back, and from that moment it travels across centuries and sonic landscapes, carrying fragments of Baroque hymns, sacred chants, and contemporary lamentation.

In the fall of 1990 the Grateful Dead were on another career high, with the two new keyboard players bringing a fresh sense of adventure and inspiration to the music. Brent was sorely missed by everyone, but the Dead rose to the challenge and were creating some of the best music of their second half. We left the weekend in Paris to head over to London with a sense of joy that the Dead were not going anywhere, and in fact kept getting better. Hearing Jerry sing “sometimes we visit your country and live in your home” in Paris at the second show, we knew we were experiencing something special that was likely not going to happen again. These moments of community and music are why we kept coming back, and even though my bank account and my education took a hit because I’d chosen to take this trip, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. - David Lemieux

Among the dozens of recordings he made from 1937 to 1950 with various groups, Django Reinhardt waxed just one, may two unaccompained solo guitar titles per year. This 2CD-set presents all of these rare outstanding solo documents, as well as all of Django's duets with other musicians, whether recorded live or in studio. Among the latter are Django's only existing recordings playing violin!!

First full-scale, cross‑school anthology of Japanese biwa music, bringing together all major styles in one collection. Originally released on 7LP(SLJM-1031~1037) by Nippon Grammophon Co., Ltd. on 20 Nov 1963. A 5‑CD box set (catalog numbers VZCG‑8439–8443) released on September 22, 2010 by the Japanese Traditional Culture Foundation (in association with Victor Entertainment) These are digital remasters from the original stereo master tapes of the 1963 LP release (seven‑LP set SLJM‑1031–37 by Nippon Grammophon), which won the 1959 LP the 18th Japan Arts Festival Record Award (Arts Encouragement Prize) in 1963. The set provides a comprehensive survey of styles of Japanese biwa music, featuring rare recordings by renowned masters across all major traditions: Gaku‑biwa, Mōsō‑biwa, Heike‑biwa, Satsuma‑biwa (both Seihā and Kinshin school), Chikuzen‑biwa, Kin biwa, Higo‑biwa, and comic Biwa (Kokkei‑biwa)

CD reissue. What makes this album work are the rhythms and virtuoso guitar playing. Three of the eight songs, "Doobie Wah", "I Wanna Go To The Sun" and "Baby (Somethin's Happening" appeared on the highly successful 1976 Frampton Comes Alive! Album. This remastered version is fresh, vibrant, and very much a live production in the studio. An interesting mix of acoustic and electric styles. The general feel is rhythmic, rocky and raw, and the album is quite experimental in character, with vocals and instruments awash with studio sound effects, including a very early guitar synthesizer. This album finds Peter Frampton returning to more of a harder rock format with the hooks and riffs which make him the unique live performer he is.

Blue Note compilation series in the 1990s for soul jazz & jazz funk releated recordings.

First anthology to chronicle the music of Uncle Walt’s Band, includes five previously unissued tracks. “Walter Hyatt, David Ball and Champ Hood have been an inspiration to me ever since the first time I heard Uncle Walt’s Band,” said Lyle Lovett, a journalism student at Texas A&M University when he first heard the band. “Musically, their finely crafted original compositions reflect diverse influences, while lyrically they demonstrate a sensitive, sophisticated understanding of the dignified South.” Uncle Walt’s Band, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, was an eclectic music trio that moved to Nashville in 1972 and shortly thereafter to Austin at the urging of Willis Alan Ramsey. ​An attempt at ​an album proved unsuccessful​, so the band headed back to Spartanburg in 1974 where they recorded their own debut LP, Blame It On The Bossa Nova. One thousand copies pressed, sold through performances and self-promotion, disappeared quickly. Heat was gaining for the band so they headed back down to Austin with a reissued album now titled, Uncle Walt’s Band. (Pressings of their original LP change hands for hundreds of dollars these days)

One of the world's most popular latin-style nylon string guitarists, Pavlo has sold over half a million albums over his career, toured the world to sold out theatres, and his "Live In Kastoria" PBS special has become one of the most viewed and highest earning pledge concerts in PBS history. "Together" is Pavlo's first "Pop" album and his first album to incorporate vocals. He has invited some of the world's best vocalists and songwriters as collaborators to make it happen. The Singers and Co-Writers on "Together" are some of the most talented in the world! Collectively, they have worked with Celine Dion, Avicii, David Foster, Gloria Estefan, Rihanna, Eminem, Zac Brown and so many more.

Kay-Gees were to Kool & The Gang what The JB’s were to James Brown – namely, a spin-off group that was able to function as an independent entity and release albums in their own right. The group’s name was derived from the initial letters of the band whose proteges they were, i.e. Kool & The Gang. Kevin Bell of the Kay-Gees is Robert (Kool) Bell’s younger brother, and later on in his career joined Kool & The Gang. Robinsongs brings you the first three Kay-Gees albums “Keep On Bumpin’ & Masterplan”, “Find A Friend” & “Kilowatt” on a double CD package, plus four bonus tracks. The package includes all their R&B singles ‘You’ve Got To Keep On Bumpin’’, ‘Master Plan’, ‘Get Down’, ‘Waiting At The Bus Stop’, ‘Cheek To Cheek’ and as a bonus track – ‘Hustle Wit Every Muscle’, which was the theme tune to the U.S. show “Party”. Also included on this package are two extended versions of the track ‘Kilowatt’ and the 12” mix of ‘Cheek To Cheek’. The Kay-Gees had many of their tracks sampled over the years, including Kanye West for his album “Late Registration” and Dr. Dre who featured ‘Who’s The Man (With The Masterplan)’ on his classic “The Chronic” album. If you love Kool & The Gang this is the package for you. This package includes sleeve notes by MOJO & Record Collector journalist Charles Waring.

If you’re talking about modern progressive rock and don’t bring up Haken, you’re doing it wrong. Since the south English sextet started jamming together in 2004, they’ve been one of their genre’s most loyal yet, simultaneously, adventurous forces. And how do you honour such an eclectic, unpredictable career? You make Fauna: Haken’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date.
Musically, Fauna represents Haken at their most diverse. Taurus commences the album with its scraping heavy metal chords, as polyrhythmic as they are jagged. However, Ross’s melodic croon and the triumphant chorus are true Haken. Eyes Of Ebony is pure math rock, delicate in its start-stop clean guitar picking and chiming cymbals, while Island In The Clouds flaunts its bouncing bassline…

Starting out briefly as The Electric Garden, Middle Earth opened its doors in 1967 and immediately became the most happening club in London. More than just a home for UK bands that were pushing the boundaries of rock music, Middle Earth also attracted some of America's finest exponents of psychedelic rock such as Captain Beefheart, The Byrds, The Fugs, Jefferson Airplane, and many more.