Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 50 years and has spanned a repertoire in the styles of R&B, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, gospel, and country. In 2009, Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Collection includes: 'Everlasting' (1987); 'Good To Be Back' (1989); 'Unforgettable With Love' (1991); 'Take A Look' (1993); 'Holly & Ivy' (1994); 'Stardust' (1996); 'Snowfall On The Sahara' (1999); 'The Magic Of Christmas' (1999); 'Ask A Woman Who Knows' (2002); 'Leavin' (2006), and 'Still Unforgettable' (2008); Natalie Cole en Español (2013).

Collection includes 19 albums by British folk-rock legend Bert Jansch. One of the most important figures in contemporary British folk, Bert Jansch brought an unsurpassed combination of virtuosity and eclecticism to the acoustic guitar, both as a solo act and a key member of Pentangle.

Narrante is the highly attractive ECM debut album of Golfam Khayam and Mona Matbou Riahi, otherwise known as the Naqsh Duo. The guitarist and clarinetist, both born in Teheran, have pursued further musical adventures outside Iran while remaining fascinated and strongly influenced by their homelands rich and diverse traditions. In the process they have arrived at a synthesis of their own, finding points of contact between aspects of Persian tradition and contemporary music. The forms, modes, drones and rhythms of Persian music as well its call for improvisation are redeployed, to new creative ends, in their fresh and vital work.

Hubert Sumlin arguably did his best work during the 23 years he was Howlin' Wolf's guitar player, and his ragged, angular guitar style was a big part of Wolf's rough-and-ready sound. The perfect sideman, Sumlin was by all accounts somewhat shy and reticent about taking center stage, and Healing Feeling, his second album for Black Top Records, much like his first, Hubert Sumlin's Blues Party, is really more of an all-star blues jam than it is a fully realized project. Recorded May 5 and 6, 1989, at Southlake Recording Studios in Louisiana, with two additional tracks coming from a live show at Tipitina's in New Orleans earlier in the day on May 5, the sessions were once again organized by guitarist Ronnie Earl, whose band the Broadcasters is used on most of the cuts. The vocal duties were shared by James "Thunderbird" Davis and Darrell Nulisch, with Sumlin singing on "Come Back Little Girl," "Honey Dumplins," and the set closer, "Blues for Henry," all of which gain poignancy because of Sumlin's somewhat fragile, whispered vocal approach. A clear highlight is Sumlin's solo electric guitar version of "Down the Dusty Road," which is focused, clear, and intimate.

There may never be a setting as beautiful or a locale as ideal as a breathtaking ocean view complete with the sounds of beautiful Latin jazz floating over the ocean breeze. The fifth CD in the Colors of Latin Jazz series sets the scene for a collection of contemporary, smooth jazz peppered with Latin rhythms and percussion. This CD is a musical hybrid that's at once cool and smooth, yet hot and spicy! Up first is Jeff Linsky's beauty "Up Late," originally issued on Up Late by Concord Picante. His dynamic colors beckon the listener to "Come With Me," the second track sung and scatted by the inimitable Tania Maria on a cool samba just right for a hot day or night. Another smooth scorcher, "San Sabastian" by Ed Calle with special guest Arturo Sandoval is some of Sandoval's most melodic sax work bordered on all sides by the beauty of Spanish guitar, brass, and strings.

The Italian ensemble I Virtuosi di Roma's long tradition of performing classics of the Italian Baroque pioneered in many ways the contemporary revival of early music. When its founder, Renato Fazzano, passed away the group disbanded, but a regrouping of sorts took place in the early 80s with eight members of the original group. The new ensemble, which calls itself I Solisti Italiani, has continued the Fazzano legacy, emphasizing line and grace in presenting particularly the works of Vivaldi.

As an improviser of unsurpassed lyricism and technique Fred Hersch is at his most intimate and revealing in a solo setting. With 'Solo', the pianist kicks off a creatively fecund yearlong celebration of his 60th birthday with a definitive statement of his solo artistry. In many ways, 'Solo' distills the essence of Hersch's pianistic expression. Recorded in a jewel-like Catskills church at the 2014 Windham Chamber Music Festival, the set evolves with a compelling internal emotional logic all its own, flowing through Hersch's familiar solo touchstones (Jobim, Ellingtonia, Monk, originals) that turn into vessels for his supremely graceful invention. His 10th solo recording, 'Solo' joins an illustrious collection of albums that started with his riveting 1994 addition to Concord Jazz's Live at Maybeck series.

Ry Cooder's exceptional Paradise and Lunch takes a popular precept – music as the common denominator across all languages and styles – to extremes few artists have envisioned let alone fulfilled. Considered by many diehards to be the California native's finest hour, the 1974 set unfurls with rarified levels of joyousness, ingenuity, and sophistication. A prime contender for any Desert Island list and an album that repeatedly restores your faith in the inimitable effects experienced upon listening to special performances, Paradise and Lunch is an eternal "musicians' musician" record – an adventurous, ambitious, soulful leap down roads well-traveled and paths less known. Such eclecticism, virtuosity, and ebullience resonate with unmatched verve on our hybrid SACD. Mastered from the original master tapes and strictly limited to 2000 numbered copies, this audiophile reissue boasts dead-quiet surfaces, superb transient response, front-to-back soundstaging, and an organic immediacy that heightens the enjoyment, character, and craft of the arrangements.

Davy Graham was one of the most eclectic guitarists of the 1960s, and his mixture of folk, blues, jazz, Middle Eastern sounds, and Indian ragas was an important catalyst of the British folk scene. Like Sandy Bull and John Fahey – two folk-based guitarists with a similar taste for genre-bending experimentation – Graham could not be said to be a rock musician. But like Bull and Fahey, he shared the eagerness of the '60s psychedelic rockers to stretch out and incorporate unpredictable influences into his music. While he wasn't much of a singer, Graham's taste in material was broad and shrewd, encompassing blues, ragas, Joni Mitchell, Charles Mingus, and the famous instrumental "Anji," which Graham recorded in 1962, way before the more famous versions by Bert Jansch and Simon & Garfunkel. Collection includes: The Guitar Player (1963); Folk, Blues & Beyond… (1965); Midnight Man (1966); Large As Life And Twice As Natural (1968); Hat (1969); Godington Boundry (1970).

‘Aspects’ portrays the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet’s love of musical diversity. It is a collection of music that observes a startling variety of perspective and which reflects the group’s ability to craft an emotive and diverse musical tapestry. The album includes original works for four guitars, arrangements that have been made by members of the group, and even a new work written especially for this project. ‘Aspects’ is both retrospective and prospective: it includes favourites which the Quartet has been performing for many years and also pieces which it has learnt specifically for this recording and which will form the basis of new concert programmes in the future.

The long established musical relationship between guitarists Dave Specter and Steve Freund goes back nearly 20 years, when Specter sought out Freund as a guitar teacher. They have shared many stages, but this marks the first occasion that they have recorded together. In the best of the Chicago blues tradition as illustrated by the legendary Delmark label, Is What It Is is a loose, swinging, tough blues date filled with great tunes, inspired playing and loose-groove vibes. While Specter has become well-known for his jazzy blues playing, his former teacher Freund has stayed close to the roots of the Chicago sound. That contrast works beautifully here on both covers and originals. Freund's tunes are some of the bets on the set as evidenced by the opener "My Little Playhouse." One of the reasons for this is his deep, clear soulful singing which adds punch and nuance to the dueling guitars Specter brings classy elegance to the set in his instrumentals, like the title track that carries a deeply Southern-fried funk to the more urban Chicago sound and the shuffling gutbucket stroll of "Riverside Ride," where the two players wind around and through one another exuberantly.

Once you’ve heard Pat Metheny you will always recognise him, no matter what company he’s in or what instrument he’s playing, be it a simple acoustic guitar or some unlikely invention of his own. Beneath it all there’s a frank, open-hearted tunefulness that keeps the music airborne. This double album, recorded at the end of a year-long tour by his Unity Band, is as polished and sophisticated as any, but moments such as the opening melody of This Belongs to You or the gradual unfolding of Born are just plain elegant. There’s a similar quality about saxophonist Chris Potter’s playing, and all four are so relaxed in each other’s company that everything flows beautifully.

2012 album by renowned jazz bassist and composer Jaromír Honzák is for the first time not comprised of his own compositions but is dedicated to song by Suzanne Vega in Honzák´s charac­teristic arrangements. Honzák is joined here by the Norwegian singer Sissel Vera Pettersen, Polish drummer Łukasz Żyta, pianist Vít Křišťan and guitarist Josef Štěpánek. The album was recorded at the end of 2012 at Sono Studios.

While it isn't a gutsy rock & roll record like Your Arsenal, Vauxhall and I is equally impressive. Filled with carefully constructed guitar pop gems, the album contains some of Morrissey's best material since the Smiths. Out of all of his solo albums, Vauxhall and I sounds the most like his former band, yet the textured, ringing guitar on this record is an extension of his past, not a replication of it. In fact, with songs like "Now My Heart Is Full" and "Hold on to Your Friends," Morrissey sounds more comfortable and peaceful than he ever has. And "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get," "Speedway," and "Spring-Heeled Jim" prove that he hasn't lost his vicious wit.