Thirteen years into their tenure, the Dave Brubeck Quartet was still able to mine the creative vein for new means of expression. Despite the hits and popularity on college campuses, or perhaps because of it, Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, and Joe Morello composed a restless band with a distinctive sound. These eight tracks, all based on a tour of Japan the year before, were, in a sense, Brubeck fulfilling a dictum from his teacher, the French composer Darius Milhaud, who exhorted him to "travel the world and keep your ears open." The sketches Brubeck and Desmond created all invoke the East, particularly the folk melodies of Japan directly, while still managing to use the Debussian impressionistic approach to jazz that kept them riding the charts and creating a body of music that, while playing into the exotica craze of the moment, was still jazz composed and played with integrity…

Navigator are Tony Anderson, Kent Eskildsen and Jens Peschke from Kubusschnitt. So what we get here is certainly born from retro influences but with a decent dollop of their own inventiveness at the same time. Also involved as guests are two more of the Kubusschnitt boys, Ruud Heij who appears on almost half of the album plus Tom Coppens on the fifteen minute 'Leaves on the Line'. Indeed on this track you get effectively three quarters of Kubusschnitt.

Corima is a new Zeuhl/R.I.O. band based out of Texas very influenced by Magma, Koenjihyakkei, and Present at times. Formed in the year 2005, they started out with 4 musicians: Sergio Sanchez on drums, Juan Tarin on bass, Jaime Silva on guitar and Erik Martinez on guitar as well. They started out playing music very influenced by King Crimson and ELP. About a year later Francisco Casanova joined the band in keyboards. They remained together for about a year and a half and after that Erik Martinez was forced to leave the band for personal reasons and soon after Jaime Silva left the band as well. It was during this period that Corima found out about the Zeuhl and R.I.O. genre and fell completely in love with it.

Herz aus Glas (subtitled "Singet, denn der Gesang vertreibt die Wölfe" [German for "Sing, for singing drives away the wolves"], French "Cœur de verre") is the ninth album by Popol Vuh. It was originally released in 1977 on Brain Records. In 2005 SPV re-released the album with two bonus tracks. This album was released as the original motion picture soundtrack of Heart of Glass (Original German title: "Herz aus Glas", French title "Coeur de verre") by German director Werner Herzog, but in fact only two tracks ("Engel der Gegenwart" and "Hüter der Schwelle") were actually featured in the film.

A soundtrack for the Werner Herzog film of the same name and originally released in 1987, Cobra Verde was the sixteenth album by Popol Vuh.

‘Agape-Love’ was one of Florian Fricke’s favorites, at a point in his life where he was inspired by 13th century Persian poet Rumi. Still utilizing a choir for Gregorian chant-like ethereal intensity — though they sing in Byzantine scales – the band delves deeply into the drone world of Fricke’s sacred music muse. This is an album of many moods/feelings & is a worthy, devastatingly beautiful outing (both introspective & intense at the same time).

Johann Wilhelm Wilms was once called the Dutch Beethoven. His works were extremely popular and were met with tremendous praise. However like contemporaries such as Eberl and Fesca, it became increasing difficult to compete with Beethoven and his works eventually fell into oblivion. This new release on CPO documents two of Wilms’s symphonies and the Overture in D major. Howard Griffiths and the NDR Radiophilharmonie give an inspired interpretation and demonstrate the accessibility of this composer’s music.

This disc marks the beginning of a new Mahler cycle with these forces in SACD sound. If you collect SACDs, you’ll be impressed with the engineering in the surround-sound format, which is very natural, coherent, and has plenty of room ambience without excessive rear-channel emphasis. “Natural” also describes Zinman’s performances. The first movement has a great sense of flow, and he doesn’t drag out the introduction as relentlessly as some others have. He catches the rustic character of the scherzo to perfection, though I do wish he’d exaggerated the Jewish music in the funeral march a bit more. The music could take a bit more schmaltz, and a bit more spookiness in the march itself despite the careful observance of Mahler’s dynamics.

Here Spohr manifests himself not as a serial producer from the nineteenth century’s age of virtuosity but as a highly imaginative composer who lent a unique imprint to each and every one of his concertos. Brought together in this new box set are the Violin Concertos with the Concertanti for two violins and orchestra.

On 100 discs (99 CD & 1 DVD), this box presents the complete oeuvre of Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert on Archiv Produktion. Purcell, Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Haydn and Mozart are the focus of the repertoire. Numerous recordings such as the Brandenburg Concertos, Corelli's Concerti Grossi or the symphonies of William Boyce are among the milestones of recording history. A Bach album from the ensemble's early days is released for the first time on CD, as well as the never-published Dead March from Handel's "Saul". A 184-page booklet with essays by Trevor Pinnock and Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, the director of the Royal Academy of Music, as well as numerous photos and documents complete the extensive portrait.

A 'tour de force' of thrilling orchestral playing and brilliant audio engineering, Antal Dorati's mono recordings are collected for the first time. Newly remastered, this collection comprehensively documents a golden era in American classical recording and most of these vividly-characterized recordings appear on CD for the first time."has to be heard to be believed … is it possible to exceed this in the art of reproduced sound?" The New Records.

Miles Davis' concert of February 12, 1964, was divided into two LPs, with all of the ballads put on My Funny Valentine. These five lengthy tracks (specifically, "All of You," "Stella by Starlight," "All Blues," "I Thought About You," and the title cut) put the emphasis on the lyricism of Davis, along with some strong statements from tenor saxophonist George Coleman and freer moments from the young rhythm section of pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams. This hour-long LP complements the up-tempo romps of Four & More.

Pianist Satoko Fujii introduces a new trio with two younger and very active musicians on the Japanese jazz scene–bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura–recording in 2020 at Pit Inn in Tokyo for their 3rd live date together, performing five lyrical Fujii original compositions, including "Aspirations" from her album with Leo Smith & Ikue Mori.

With his extensive artistic biography, Michael Formanek is one of the most outstanding figures in American jazz – As a composer, as a bassist in ensembles, and as a soloist. Although the bass often plays in the background, bassists write jazz history. So does Michael Formanek, who makes an impressive solo statement with Imperfect Measures (24 years after his first solo album).

With his impressive artistic biography, Michael Formanek is one of the outstanding personalities of contemporary jazz as a composer, a bassist in ensembles and a soloist. He belongs to the circle of leading bassists and composers that includes Charles Mingus, Dave Holland, Charlie Haden and Barry Guy. Formanek's musical world, his immense experience, his knowledge of jazz tradition and the avantgarde, his ability and his charismatic appearance have a highly stimulating effect on the musicians of his bands. After the release of the CD with the Elusion Quartet (with Kris Davis, Tony Malaby, Ches Smith), the first album from his new trio follows: Michael Formanek Very Practical Trio with saxophonist Tim Berne and guitarist Mary Halvorson.