Meant as a tribute to Ben Webster, Jacintha's album nonetheless expresses her Billie Holliday Influence as well. A well known singer and stage talent in the Singapore entertainment scene, Jacintha (in the tradition of one name jazz luminaries such as the Duke, Django and Ella) now pays her dues to the music she grew up listening to. This disc has been all the rage among jazz aficionados and audiophiles everywhere since its release, garnering endless positive reviews.

Tim Garland is one of the U.K's most talented reedsmen. He's recorded several albums with Chick Corea including Originations and The Vigil plus orchestral works, The Mystery and The Continents. With virtuoso percussionist Bill Bruford, he recorded Earthworks Underground Orchestra. He's also recorded numerous albums under his own name and with Llamas and Acoustic Triangle. This is Garland's third album for Edition, the first being Return To The Northern Sky (2014), closely followed by Return To The Fire (2015).

Curiously, Rossini has composed two roles for a castrato: to Alceo in the cantata Il vero omaggio, and that of Arsaces in Aureliano in Palmira, both for Giambattista Velluti, the last castrato internationally renowned opera . Against the Argentine tenor Franco Fagioli has deliberately given up these roles to this album Rossini, preferring to focus on transvestites roles that address sexual ambiguity from another angle. In operas "serious" by Rossini, rarely given today, there are many male characters whose roles were written for singers.

It might strike as a paradox, but sometimes the brilliance of certain inventions can be measured by how obvious, how commonplace they seem. The music of Venezuelan pianist Silvano Monasterios is so easy-on-the-ear, so elegantly structured, and has such a casual, lived-in feel that it takes a bit to catch on to how sophisticated his work truly is. It's only after awhile that one notices the harmonic turns, the storytelling soloing, or his rhythmic vocabulary, especially his discreet use of traditional Venezuelan styles. Partly Sunny is Monasterios' second album for Savant, and his choices suggest that he feels no need to accommodate any conventional expectations about how Latin jazz should sound.

Quelque part entre Esperanza Spalding et Camille, Archibald nous invite à un voyage musical. Issu de la nouvelle scène jazz française, Archibald est un jeune groupe constitué autour de Roxane Terramorsi au chant et Nicolas Gardel à la guitare. Entourés de jeunes musiciens talentueux (piano, contrebasse, batterie), ils proposent un jazz qui se joue des styles et des frontières, porté par la belle voix mature d'une chanteuse voyageuse et polyglotte. Entre grooves délicats et bossa nova lumineuse, chantées en français, anglais ou portugais, les compositions d'Archibald entremêlent les genres et les influences, allant d'Esperanza Spalding à Camille, en passant par Emiliana Torrini et Mayra Andrade.

One for the Road, Willie Nelson's duet record with fellow American music maverick Leon Russell, followed months after his freewheeling, jam-heavy double album Willie and Family Live. This record (once a double LP, now a single CD) wasn't recorded live and the songs run a little shorter, but it shares the same sort of loose spirit and easy-rolling eclecticism as the two, essentially backed by the Family, run through a mess of country and pop standards.

Recorded at Lake Tahoe in 1978, WILLIE AND FAMILY LIVE effectively documents the laid-back, freewheeling approach Nelson and his band take to live performances. Unlike many country acts that strive to play the same set with the same note-for-note precision every night, Nelson's band prefers to live on the edge, wringing surprises out of every note and beat. This "free jam" aesthetic explains why Nelson is popular among Grateful Dead fans, and aficionados of this musical approach will be most likely to enjoy WILLIE AND FAMILY LIVE.

Released in late 1976, at the height of Willie mania, The Troublemaker is Willie Nelson's first all-gospel album, but country gospel in his hands doesn't sound like traditional country gospel – it's a Willie album, through and through, performed with the freewheeling Family as support. Consequently, it's every bit as wonderfully idiosyncratic as any of his other mid-'70s work and, in some ways, even more so, because inspirational songs and religious material are usually not given arrangements as imaginative and free-spirited as this.

"…Recommended with enormous pleasure. " ~sa-cd.net