A prolific, Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist, Michael Whalen's impressive career has spanned numerous genres and platforms, from albums of jazz, classical, varied electronic music, and new age music to work on film scores, television themes, audio books, and commercials. After devoting much of the 1990s to material for the screen and early solo recordings such as 1996’s acclaimed Nightscenes, a collection of ambient electronic vignettes, he increased focus on his own classical compositions. The 2000s brought continued work on television documentaries including the series Nature, as well as eclectic solo albums that traversed instrumental piano pieces, electronic music, and piano jazz.

Intrada announces the 30th anniversary, two-CD set of Hans Zimmer's score for the 1995 political-action thriller Crimson Tide. Zimmer was truly flying high in his career by the mid-1990s. He had successfully made the jump from London to Hollywood and had just won an Academy Award® for his score for The Lion King (1994). His sound was going through an evolution during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it was on Backdraft (1991) that Zimmer fully embraced meshing an orchestra with his trademark synthesizers. It was also the start of the “power anthem” for which Zimmer would become known. Crimson Tide marks the full maturing of this style that would continue to be heard most notably in The Rock (1996) and The Peacemaker (1997). Zimmer won a GRAMMY® for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television for Crimson Tide. The main theme of Crimson Tide is a signature power anthem that embodies heroism and bravura, and in this expanded presentation of the score one can fully appreciate how it’s used throughout the narrative. The score is a master class in tension building. Zimmer utilizes atmospheric sounds to build a sonic tomb around the characters. Sounds resembling sonar, metallic colors and puffing woodwinds create sustained tension that slowly rises.

Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote the book on Southern rock with their first album, so it only made sense that they followed it for their second album, aptly titled Second Helping. Sticking with producer Al Kooper (who, after all, discovered them), the group turned out a record that replicated all the strengths of the original, but was a little tighter and a little more professional. It also revealed that the band, under the direction of songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, was developing a truly original voice. Of course, the band had already developed their own musical voice, but it was enhanced considerably by Van Zant's writing, which was at turns plainly poetic, surprisingly clever, and always revealing. Though Second Helping isn't as hard a rock record as Pronounced, it's the songs that make the record…

Classic Hits 1938-52 is a five-disc, 123-track collection of Big Joe Turner's earliest recording sessions before finding stardom with his mid-'50s R&B sides. While this JSP set isn't extravagant, it's a luxury to have Turner's sides for National, Aladdin, Freedom, MGM, and Imperial remastered and together in one collection. The final disc also includes the Boss of the Blues' first recordings for Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic Records: "Chains of Love," "Sweet Sixteen," "Poor Lover's Blues," and "Still in Love (With You)." Turner tackles blues, swing, and fiery up-tempo jump blues, assisted by Pete Johnson, Wynonie Harris, Pee Wee Crayton, Budd Johnson, Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino, Joe Houstin, Albert Ammons, Don Byas, Art Tatum, and Hot Lips Page. While this is a collector's dream, the casual listener would do better with Big, Bad & Blue: The Big Joe Turner Anthology on Rhino.

This mid-'90s DCC Jazz edition of the John Coltrane (tenor sax)/Paul Quinichette (tenor sax) title Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette (1959) contains the same excellent remastering and bonus tracks as its standard silver pressing - without the superfluous expense of a 24-karat gold disc. Audiophile pressing or naught, what remains as the centerpiece are the selections that the co-leads cut during a mid-May 1957 session with Mal Waldron (piano), plus a rhythm section consisting of Julian Euell (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums). Waldron - who penned all the album's originals - proves why he is one of the best composer/arrangers for Coltrane. His stylish tickling of the 88s sets the pace with a stealthy and sinister platform for Coltrane's bluesy blowing, followed by Quinichette's exceedingly soulful solo…

Windom End is a progressive rock band from Falun/Stockholm Sweden.
The seed for what was to become Windom End was planted back in 2007. During a heated debate among a group of friends, Pierre Stam and Tomas Nyström bonded over the greatest questions mankind has ever pondered: Who is Actually the greatest guitar player of all time. ”Steve Rothery”, they both proclaimed in unison. Strangers up until that moment, their eyes instantly locked. After staring at each other in disbelief for a second their lips once again parted as they shouted: ”Best Friends!”. The very next day, the duo started writing music together.
Pierre was already involved in the progressive death metal band In Mourning, with whom he released four albums and toured Europe…

Doesn't the beginning of "The Step" sound like Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell"? Maybe. It does for a tic anyway, before vocalist Nic Offer starts emoting all cool over eight layers of bass, spidery guitar, horns, and drums that wait patiently for the break. And when that break finally arrives, it falls out of the verse like Franzia from silver Mylar. Party time, baby! Let's keep it going with the bass groove of "Hammerhead," or "KooKooKa Fuk-U"'s chattering cool-part-of-town disco. On this, their self-titled debut for Gold Standard Laboratories, !!! trash the axiom that says bands influenced by angular post-punk must be populated by dour misanthropes who sport wallet photos of Ian Curtis. "If you're looking for a friend/You can kiss my ass!" Offer declares on "KooKooKa Fuk-U," and encourages suicide for - wait for it - someone else…

Embark on a series of Voyages through the late solo piano music of Brahms with pianist Leopoldo Erice as your guide. Brahms has been Erice's treasured travelling companion throughout his life, from growing up in Spain to travelling as a musician. He has chosen to perform the music of Brahms at key moments in his life - from celebration to loss - and feels a particular kinship with these later works, which are increasingly recognised as miniature masterpieces for their extraordinary structural integration and harmonic subtlety. Erice refers to Brahms's late piano works as miniatures with a symphonic soul, explaining in the album booklet: It's as though in his later years he stripped away everything nonessential, committing only the purest essence of his music to the page. The album features the Seven Fantasies, Op. 116, the intimate Three Intermezzi, Op. 117, and the two sets of piano pieces Opp. 118 and 119. These are works that in their relatively brief duration distil the essence of late Brahms: at once forward-looking and valedictory, introspective and daring, reflecting his remarkable imagination in all its rich complexity.

Can't Say I Ain't Country is the upcoming fourth studio album by American country music duo Florida Georgia Line. It is scheduled to be released on February 15, 2019, through the Big Machine Label Group. It includes the singles "Simple" and "Talk You Out of It", as well as the tracks "Colorado" and "Sittin' Pretty".

Whether playing solo, with a trio, a full-on electric band, or an orchestra, adventurous jazz pianist and composer Hiromi Uehara is as likely to meld post-bop and funk as she is pop and classical – sometimes in the same composition. Beginning with her 2003 debut Another Mind, she challenged genre classifications with her technical command of the instrument, her dynamic sense of harmony, and a complex rhythmic sensibility. Spiral, recorded live in 2005, was cut direct-to-disc with a studio trio. In 2008, she and Chick Corea recorded a series of piano duets at Tokyo's Blue Note.

Mirrors is a 1975 album by Peggy Lee on A&M Records. The album is made up of neo-cabaret "art songs" sung by Peggy, written and produced by rock & roll pioneers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and mostly arranged & conducted by Johnny Mandel.

Composer Dan Deacon has scored the new HBO detective series titled "Task." On October 3rd, Lakeshore Records will release the track "Here Was Here" from the official series soundtrack. The series follows an FBI agent in the suburbs of Philadelphia trying to stop a string of robberies. Deacon, known for his innovative electronic music and film scores, created a soundtrack that reflects the emotional range and character dynamics of the series using strings and synths. His previous work includes scores for the films "Venom: The Last Dance" and "Hustle," as well as various television projects.

Takenouchi’s enduring passion and respect for the work of female British composers has led to high-profile recording engagements focused on this area of the repertoire. He was invited to make recordings for the BBC Radio 3 of music by Hélène de Montgeroult, Doreen Carwithen and Johanna Müller-Hermann, amongst others, as part of the station’s initiative, the ‘Forgotten Women Composers Project’, and, with duo partner Simon Callaghan, released ‘Danza Gaya’, a critically-acclaimed album of music for two pianos by British composers Madeline Dring, Dorothy Howell and Pamela Harrison.

Cellist Inbal Megiddo brings remarkable freedom and expressive depth to Bach's timeless masterworks in this new recording of all six Cello Suites. The rich, resonant voice of her 1923 Giuseppe Fiorini cello perfectly complements her interpretive approach. This complete traversal of the suites demonstrates why Bach's solo cello works continue to inspire and challenge performers centuries after their composition.

Dockland Music Presents I Can't Stop Loving You Country Ballads of Heartache and Hope Vol.1 album original hits and the original artists genre rock pop.