From Australia comes progressive metal act Voyager, and their latest release for Sensory Records is titled The Meaning of I. This is actually their fourth album overall, and you can certainly tell that the band have their stuff together here, as The Meaning of I is a classy, powerful collection of prog-metal songs long on expert musicianship, memorable songs, and soaring melodies.

On the last volume of our edition of Dora Pejačević's complete works, Nataša Veljkovic turns to the great Croatian composer's music for piano. The nuanced richness in her attention to the tonal resources of the instrument, the demanding piano part, often polyphonic and exhibiting all the dimensions of orchestral sound, demonstrate Veljković's self-assured and virtuosic mastery of the art of performance and Pejaèeviæ's perfection in her compositional craft.

The Messiah by Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785) was performed by the Sächsisches Vocalensemble and the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle under the conductor Matthias Jung at St Anne’s Church in Dresden on the occasion of the three-hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth on 5 June 2014, and is now being released on CD by cpo. Homilius is regarded as one of the most significant church composers during the transition between the baroque and classical eras.

William McKinley "Red" Garland, Jr. (May 13, 1923 – April 23, 1984) was an American modern jazz pianist. Known for his work as a bandleader and during the 1950s with Miles Davis, Garland helped popularize the block chord style of piano playing. William "Red" Garland was born in 1923 in Dallas, Texas. He began his musical studies on the clarinet and alto saxophone but, in 1941, switched to the piano. Less than five years later, Garland joined a well-known trumpet player in the southwest - Hot Lips Page, playing with him until a tour ended in New York in March 1946. Having decided to stay in New York to find work, Art Blakey came across Garland playing at a small club, only to return the next night with Blakey's boss, Billy Eckstine. Garland also had short-lived career as a welterweight boxer in the 1940s. He fought more than 35 fights, one being an exhibition bout with Sugar Ray Robinson.

In this album the Munich Radio Orchestra brings us Italian passion in Surround. Ottorino Respighi’s masterpieces are a logical choice for this ensemble. During the course of its more than sixty years of performing, they have developed an extraordinarily broad artistic spectrum, and have warranted a lasting position in the orchestral world because of their adaptability.; Respighi was a composer who had a passion for music history.

Following the publication of Carl Orff's Gisei, CPO now release its sister work: Felix Weingartner's one-act Die Dorfschule (The Village School) a work also based on the plot of Terakoya. Weingartner's masterfully crafted realization of the ancient Japanese drama centring on a village school, can now be contrasted with young Carl Orff's tentative early version.

Lead guitarist Esa Holopainen and drummer Jan Rechberger formed the band Amorphis in Finland in 1990. To complete their lineup they recruited vocalist/guitarist Tomi Koivusaari and bassist Olli-Pekka Laine. They released a demo in 1991 called Disment of Soul. The demo was so successful in getting attention for the group that they acquired a record deal and released an EP the same year…

Elton John was the biggest pop star of the '70s, grabbing headlines and generating hits throughout the world. As it turned out, this was merely the first act in a remarkable career that kept him at the top of the charts for over 25 years. He charted a Top 40 hit single every year between 1970 and 1996, a sign that he knew how to both change with the times and mold the times to fit him. Initially marketed as a singer/songwriter, John soon revealed he could craft Beatlesque pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. He could dip into soul, disco, and country, as well as classic pop balladry and even progressive rock. His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic skills, dynamic charisma, and flamboyant stage shows, became his calling cards and many of his songs became contemporary pop standards.

The mambo has become fashionable again lately, but for Tito Puente it has never gone out of fashion. In 1957 he cut two stellar albums for RCA, but just how good they were didn't become obvious until the advent of the CD. The full, rich sound on these LPs is nothing short of astonishing. This is mambo at its most ecstatic: blasting brass, sensual saxes, and that irresistible Afro-Cuban rhythm section led by Tito, Ray Baretto and Mongo Santamaria. This set contains 23 titles, including 3-D Mambo, Mambo Gozon, Conga Alegre, Hot Timbales…. etc.. Ay! Ay! Ay!

At the age of three Urs started playing little melodies on the piano. Later he developed a great passion for playing drums. With his teacher Pierre Favre he began to target a career as a jazz drummer. At the young age of 12 he was already touring with the Big Band of Fernsehen DRS, the national TV station, and was soon regarded as one of the greatest young talents of the Swiss music scene. What followed were several years of gigs in the best reputated jazz clubs in Switzerland where he played with his older brother, the jazz pianist Chris Wiesendanger.

Vivian Buczek was born in Malmoe, Sweden with Polish roots. She studied at Malmoe Academy of Music where she graduated in 2003. She already started performing and recording during her studies and has developed into one of Sweden’s foremost jazz singers today. She has a remarkable range and feeling for the jazz idiom and has made a number of appearances with both international and Swedish celebrities.

Hey, Rosemary Clooney fans what say you to 24 completely unreleased radio performances from the ‘50s?! Courtesy of the Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby estates, these songs hail from The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric, The Ford Road Show, and The Rosemary Clooney Show, and have never been released in any format, not even on that humongous box set of radio transcriptions issued by Mosaic a few years ago. Rosie was in her element singing on the radio; freed from Mitch Miller’s iron hand (and seemingly inexhaustible supply of novelty songs) at Columbia, she was able to tackle material that was a more suitable match for her effortless, floating voice. This collection of rarities includes selections pre-recorded for radio broadcast on tape for outstanding studio quality and features Rosie in both small group and big band settings. Liner notes by Clooney expert Tom Pickles, rare photos and warm remastering by Mike Milchner at SonicVision designed to capture every lilting note make this a keeper for Clooney aficionados.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to issue the first ever OFFICIAL UK CD edition of the self titled album by FIELDS. When the first line-up of RARE BIRD folded in early 1971, keyboard player GRAHAM FIELD formed this outfit with bass player, vocalist and guitarist ALAN BARRY and KING CRIMSON drummer ANDY McCULLOCH. Although the band failed to emulate the commercial success of FIELD’s previous group, the sole album they recorded was a magnificent example of British Progressive Rock. Much sought after for many years, this official ESOTERIC CD edition has been re-mastered from the original master tapes and features an essay by Sid Smith and interview with Graham Field.

Rare Bird are perhaps best remembered for having the distinction of being the first act to be released on Tony Stratton Smith's gloriously eclectic label Charisma records (also the home of GENESIS, THE NICE and VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR to name but a few) and for their excellent 1970 hit single 'Sympathy'. Like fellow future Charisma stable mates Van Der Graaf Generator, Rare Bird was formed around the principle of keyboard dominated progressive rock which eschewed the use of guitars. Following the success of their debut album and single ('Sympathy'), the band recorded this classic album in the Summer of 1970. 'As Your Mind Flies By' featured the epic 'Flight', a legendary piece which dominated the albums second side. An excellent work, the album met with much success, with Billboard magazine in America declaring Rare Bird to be in the top ten best new acts of the year.

Sex Machine is the 1970 album by James Brown. While promoted as a live album, the applause of some of the tracks were dubbed in during post-production. A few of these songs would become the source of countless hip-hop samples, including "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose". This CD was released on 23 March, 1993.