For those who love Gene "Jug" Ammons' playing, there are various reasons to be frustrated. First, the tenor titan was only 49 when he died of cancer on August 6, 1974 - in an ideal world, a player that masterful would have had as long a life as Benny Carter. And second, there is the fact that Ammons was imprisoned for heroin use from 1962-1969; the harsh sentence that he received makes an excellent case for combating drug abuse with treatment rather than incarceration. But here's the good news: When Ammons wasn't behind bars, he recorded frequently and his work was - despite his drug problems - amazingly consistent. If Fantasy decided to put together a 20-CD Ammons box set, there would be a wealth of five-star material to choose from…

Josh Rouse plays it straight like the roads and byways which criss-cross the Great Plains. This music is the no-frills variety that takes a bit of getting used to, but once acclimated, listeners start to feel like they've come across something real. The songs which comprise Dressed Up Like Nebraska sound like they've really happened, if not to the artist, then to those near and dear to him…

Four-time Grammy® winners turn their attention to a very unique take on Holiday Favorites. Big Band Jazz, with some very special guests, will make your Holidays especially Merry! Carol of the Bells (feat. Eric Marienthal, soprano sax) Do You Hear What I Hear? (feat. Take 6) Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow (feat. Jeff Driskill, tenor sax) Hark The Herald Angels Sing (feat. Trey Henry, bass, Gordon Goodwin, piano, Andy Martin, trombone) The Little Drummer Boy (feat. Jay Mason, baritone sax, Andrew Synoweic, guitar) A Christmas arol (feat. Wayne Bergeron, trumpet, Francisco Torres, trombone) I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day (feat. Dan Fornero, trumpet, Gordon Goodwin, tenor sax) Somewhere in my Memory (feat. Gordon Goodwin, soprano sax) Santa Baby (feat. Brian Scanlon, tenor sax, Willie Murillo, trumpet) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

You're going to love this disc. It does everything this wonderful series of "Romantic Piano Concertos" is supposed to: present captivating repertoire in excellent performances. Christian Sinding was a notoriously spotty composer when working in large forms. After all, if you live well into your 80s writing tons of music along the way, but remain famous for one three-minute piano miniature ("Rustle of Spring"), then something's not right. That said, this youthful concerto offsets its tendency to ramble with an abundance of fresh, enjoyable tunes and fistfuls of pianistic fun and games. When the melodies are so attractive it's impossible to deny Sinding his right to dwell on them at length. Eyvind Alnaes was one of those composer/performer/administrators whose busy schedule prevented him from writing much music, but thank God he turned out this piano concerto. Scored for a massive orchestra with an enormous brass section (six trombones!), the piece is, believe it or not, actually rather light and vivacious, except for those moments when the full ensemble really cuts loose. The finale, a free-flowing waltz, would be a "pops" favorite if the scoring weren't so extravagant. It's just the kind the music you'll want to enjoy on disc because you'll never hear it live: a big, juicy, Wagnerian love-fest between the soloist and the orchestra that leaves you wanting more.

A direct descendant from the traveling bundled artist packages of the '60s right down to its retro "hatch show"-styled cover art, Tommy Castro and his band play host to a relatively diverse assortment of high-energy blues and soul acts. The concept originated on the yearly Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise where such musical collaborations are typical. Castro's concept was to take that concept on the road, resulting in this dozen-track live album cherrypicked from various tour stops. It's a rollicking, very plugged-in affair, perhaps not surprisingly geared toward some of Castro's current crop of Alligator labelmates such as Janiva Magness, guitarist Michael Burks, and ex-Little Charlie & the Nightcats frontman-gone-solo Rick Estrin…

”Live at the Troubadour” is a live album by Carole King and James Taylor released in 2010. The album was recorded at The Troubadour in West Hollywood in November 2007 to celebrate the venue's 50th anniversary. It was also the first venue that King and Taylor played together in November 1970. The album debuted at #4 in the United States with first-week sales of 78,000. This gives James Taylor a top 10 album in every decade since the 1970s and Carole King her first top 10 album since 1976.

The Band’s pioneering, self-titled album of 1969 is to be released by Capitol/UMe on 15 November in a suite of newly remixed and expanded editions to mark its 50th anniversary.

Revisited and remastered, with additional takes, texts and photos, here is the very first ECM session, recorded in Ludwigsburg in November 1969, featuring the great American pianist Mal Waldron, whose resume included work with Coltrane, Mingus, Dolphy and Billie Holiday. In his original liner notes, Mal wrote: “This album represents my meeting with free jazz. Free jazz for me does not mean complete anarchy… You will hear me playing rhythmically instead of soloing on chord changes.” As Jazz Journal noted, “tough, two-handed modal blues” predominates, and the music sounds as fresh now as the day it was recorded. Indeed, the tersely-grooving “Boo” and “Rock My Soul” could be club hits half a century later.

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto share recordings of their show at Sydney Opera House in 2018, yielding 80 minutes of sublime, glassy electronics; minimal but full of that light-handed emotive brilliance Sakamoto seems to always supply so generously, and with such little effort. Gorgeous, moving music.

Richard Stephen Sinclair is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene (Caravan, Camel, Hatfield and the North, Camel…). Caravan of Dreams were a British progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene. On their first album, Caravan of Dreams (1992), the band consisted of Richard Sinclair (guitar, vocals, bass on studio tracks), Dave Sinclair (keyboards), Jimmy Hastings (flute, saxophone), Andy Ward (drums), Rick Biddulph (live bass), Michael Heupel (flute) and Alan Clarke (harmonica).

Japan's brightest rising guitar virtuoso and Xotic endorser Yuya Komoguchi showed off his talents in his album Picture.

Bad for You Baby is a 2008 album by Northern Irish blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Gary Moore. It features a similar hard rock influenced sound in comparison to the artist's previous releases over the past several years before, with two songs best known for their Muddy Waters' done versions being covered by Moore. The release also notably includes collaborative work with musicians Cassie Taylor and Otis Taylor. It is the last studio album recorded by Moore; he died on 6 February 2011.

Yves Rousseau is one of the leaders of the french and european jazz scene. Among his various activities, he has managed for more than ten years, as head of his quartet, a work of writing and improvisation at the outpost of jazz and new music styles. With an original orchestration that gives to this formation its so unsual sound. It unites 4 musicians with affirmed personnality in touch with various musics like jazz, of course, but also baroque music, song, without neglecting the major composers of the 20th centuary… The result is a wide variety of melodies, tempi, nuances, choices in the timbres and in the modes of play which have a single quality and aim to solicitate the publics imaginative.

Leading off with the 1981 number six U.K. hit single "Night Games," Line Up is a journeyman, early-'80s cross between hard rock and AOR. It's neither pop nor heavy metal, but somewhere in between. Though it may be far less metal than the group he'd just left (Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow), it was also far less catchy than, say, the post-Keith Moon-era Who. It was just the sound of a guy belting out mediocre songs with a lot of lung-power in the waning days of '70s-style hard rock popularity, with Cozy Powell's thumping drums doing more than anyone else to bring it into the 1980s production-wise.

Die mit Gold und Platin ausgezeichnet Mittelalter-Band FAUN hat sich mit »Märchen & Mythen« von der Welt der heimischen Märchen inspirieren lassen. Wohl wissend dass im 19. Jahrhundert »Grimms Hausmärchen«, das nach der Bibel am meisten verbreitete Buch war. FAUN weben uns ein musikalisches Kunstwerk in dem - wie meist in Märchen - die Traumwelt und Realität immer wieder spielend miteinander verbunden sind. Die Natur ist dabei lebendig und beseelt.