On The Road is a 1978 compilation album highlighting the joys and pleasures of cruising in an automobile. This was released in Germany by Selected Sound.

As the repository of the earliest phase of Frank Sinatra's solo career, 1943-1952, Columbia Records is usually thought to be at a disadvantage against the more accomplished work the singer recorded for Capitol Records and his own Reprise imprint. But in two albums released on the same day in 2003, Sinatra Sings Cole Porter and Sinatra Sings Gershwin, Columbia's Legacy division expands on its studio recordings of Sinatra by borrowing airchecks from the collection of Charles L. Granata, and thereby improves its holdings. Sinatra would not seem at first blush to be the ideal interpreter of Porter, if only because his rough-and-tumble background is always visible beneath his careful intonation, while Porter's lyrics are redolent of wealth and comic condescension. But Sinatra sang "Night and Day" in his first solo session in 1942 and went on to perform Porter throughout his career, often achieving near-definitive readings. The ground on which they met was intellectual rather than social: Porter was at heart a wit, and Sinatra understood the jokes, while emphasizing what emotional content there was, giving it a greater sincerity than the songwriter might have intended. This collection effectively mixes a bunch of studio recordings with previously unreleased radio performances that find Sinatra ranging over many different Porter moods.

Allegria was the first album the Gipsy Kings released under their own name. It consists primarily of more traditional flamenco-style pieces, featuring, of course, Tonino's otherworldly guitar. It includes two songs never released on a U.S. album (Pharaon and Recuerda) and the original acoustic version of Djobi Djoba. Note that this album and its successor, Luna de Fuego, are very different from the Gipsy Kings' later albums. They are both "unplugged" and have no instruments besides guitars, voices, and hand clapping.

Henri Crolla (1920-1960) was an Italian jazz guitarist and film composer. Born in Naples, Campania, Italy, to a family of itinerant Neapolitan musicians, he moved with his family to Porte de Choisy in France in 1922 following the rise of fascism in Italy. One of his neighbours was a young Django Reinhardt, with whose family he became close. He also put to music many poems from Prévert's Paroles with Joseph Kosma.

Stockholm’s Oscar Simonsson and Magnus Zingmark embarked on their esoteric musical quest in 1997, initially sampling jazz’s rich and diverse catalogue into their own collage-style melting pot, topped with an array of guest singers from home and abroad which became their trademark. Over the three albums they recorded over the following 10 years, the pair refined and broadened their sound, replacing the borrowed music with their developing songwriting skills.
This 11-track set presents highlights from Koop’s three albums.

New wave dancefloor instrumentalists Snazzback release stunning second album on new label from Bristol’s cultural instigators, Worm Disco Club.

Two classic easy-listening albums by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, originally released in 1969 and 1975 on the Philips label, together on one CD and remastered from the original stereo tapes for Vocalion's trademark crystal-clear sound. French composer/conductor Paul Mauriat is a classically trained musician who decided to pursue a career in popular music. His first major success came in 1962, as a co-writer of the European hit "Chariot." In 1963, the song was given English lyrics, renamed "I Will Follow Him," and became a number one American hit for Little Peggy March. Mauriat is best remembered for his 1968 worldwide smash "Love Is Blue."

All Proceeds from the Release Benefit the Non-Profit Detroit Sound Conservancy Understanding, a blazing 1970 concert recording featuring the Detroit born master percussionist Roy Brooks leading a gifted quintet through its spirited paces at Baltimore’s Famous Ballroom, will be released by Reel to Real Recordings in July. Comprising more than two hours of expansive performances averaging 20 minutes in length, the potent date was recorded by Left Bank Jazz Society and stars trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett, pianist Harold Mabern, and bassist Cecil McBee. It will initially be issued on June 12 as a three-LP set mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram platters at Standard Vinyl in Toronto. The set will be released as a two-CD set and digitally on June 18. All proceeds from the release – produced with the cooperation of McBee and Garnett and the estates of Brooks, Mabern, and Shaw – will go directly to the Detroit Sound Conservancy, a non-profit organization founded in 2012 and devoted to the preservation, education, conservation, and placekeeping of the Motor City’s musical heritage.

After India’s heat and its vibrant colors, Buddha-Bar takes us to the wild East to discover Russia. Emblematic and mysterious country, Russia offers a wide array of climates, cultures and arts. That last aspect has seduced DJ Ravin and led him to have Buddha-Bar XV focused on this enchanting atmosphere. Take a journey to these unexplored territories; walk through Russia from east to west and from North to South to the sweet sounds of Russian traditional instruments and vocals. The first CD, acoustic and enchanting, will take you through the steppe, listening Bliss, Yasmine Hamdan, Thor… The second CD, more infused with electronic music, will immerse you in Russia’s warm nights with artists such as Dim Vach or Sean Bay.

Gus Gus create a multi-vibe stir with Polydistortion. At times as cold and icy as their frosty homeland (Iceland), at other times a rumbling volcano of pyrotechnic rhythms, the CD is a study in the dynamics of the electronic. Atmospheric without ever being boring, Gus Gus rely on soul-filled or breathy vocals to turn their compositions into some of the more interesting and accessible aural amalgamations ever committed to disc. "Believe" is a rhythmic juggernaut, while "Gun" is a moody study of beats and texture. "Why" is particularly stunning, a sparse torch song carried along by a Fender Rhodes-style piano line. More eclectic than electronica, Gus Gus make aural sculptures out of rhythm.

The first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, Billie Holiday changed the art of American pop vocals forever. More than a half-century after her death, it's difficult to believe that prior to her emergence, jazz and pop singers were tied to the Tin Pan Alley tradition and rarely personalized their songs; only blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey actually gave the impression they had lived through what they were singing. Billie Holiday's highly stylized reading of this blues tradition revolutionized traditional pop, ripping the decades-long tradition of song plugging in two by refusing to compromise her artistry for either the song or the band. She made clear her debts to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong (in her autobiography she admitted, "I always wanted Bessie's big sound and Pops' feeling"), but in truth her style was virtually her own, quite a shock in an age of interchangeable crooners and band singers.

Two classic easy-listening albums by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, originally released in 1971 and 1969 on the Philips label, together on one CD and remastered from the original stereo tapes for Vocalion's trademark crystal-clear sound. French composer/conductor Paul Mauriat is a classically trained musician who decided to pursue a career in popular music. His first major success came in 1962, as a co-writer of the European hit "Chariot." In 1963, the song was given English lyrics, renamed "I Will Follow Him," and became a number one American hit for Little Peggy March. Mauriat is best remembered for his 1968 worldwide smash "Love Is Blue."

Two classic easy-listening albums by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, originally released in 1973 on the Philips label, together on one CD and remastered from the original analogue stereo tapes for Vocalion's trademark crystal-clear sound. French composer/conductor Paul Mauriat is a classically trained musician who decided to pursue a career in popular music. His first major success came in 1962, as a co-writer of the European hit "Chariot." In 1963, the song was given English lyrics, renamed "I Will Follow Him," and became a number one American hit for Little Peggy March. Mauriat is best remembered for his 1968 worldwide smash "Love Is Blue."

An underground icon throughout the Arab world, vocalist Yasmine Hamdan presents her mesmerizing debut solo album - an elegant mutant strain of electro folk, inspired by various Middle eastern traditions - written and produced in collaboration with Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague. Yasmine first became known with Soapkills, the duo she founded in Beirut, which was probably the first indie/electronic band to appear in the Middle East. The music of Soapkills quickly became the soundtrack to the vibrant, young arts scene which developed in postwar Lebanon and elsewhere in the Arab world. On moving to Paris Yasmine worked with CocoRosie and French electronic music producer Mirwais. The inspiration for the melodies and the lyrics of her music comes from the great Arab women singers of the mid-20th century and the mischievous sensuality and the subtle, ironic social criticism which pervades their lyrics. Yasmine's vocals are connected to traditions of Arabic music but the structures and arrangements of the songs are very remote from its codes.

Quelle que soit la façon dont on aborde l’équation, l’association des mots « voix » et « soul music » donne toujours le même résultat : Aretha ! Tout au long de sa carrière qui débuta tôt, celle que l’on surnomme Lady Soul malaxera de sa voix unique le gospel, le funk, le rhythm’n’blues, le jazz et la soul, comme nulle autre. Une voix qui a grandi aux côtés de celles de ses sœurs à l'église de Détroit dans la chorale de son père pasteur. Le légendaire John H. Hammond qui découvre la toute jeune Aretha Franklin la signe chez Columbia au début des années 1960, désireux d’en faire une chanteuse de jazz.