John Price is a virtuoso pianist who captures the verve and pulse of these Broadway songs. The piano is electric and the phrasing is like no other I've heard. Just a stellar album. If you love this music, you MUST have this album.

]At Columbia, Franklin lived an entirely different musical life than she would at Atlantic, one that was grounded in jazz and the Great American Songbook, revealing a gigantic vocal talent that betrayed potent hints of the tectonic soul shift to come at Atlantic. It takes precious little imagination to conclude that Franklin was as important to American music in the middle-to-late 1960s as singer/pianist Ray Charles was the decade before, the two star ascents crossing in creative eclipse.

The Police were back in 1983 with Synchronicity, which hit No. 1 everywhere and remained on top a phenomenal 17 weeks in the U.S. The gold, Grammy-winning "Every Breath You Take" was No. 1 for eight weeks. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" was Top 10 and both "King Of Pain" and "Synchronicity II" became Top 20 hits. The quadruple platinum album took home a Grammy as well. "I do my best work when I'm in pain and turmoil," Sting told Rolling Stone. And indeed, the dissolution of his first marriage produced some of his best work yet, including "King of Pain" and the stalker's anthem "Every Breath You Take." There was pain and turmoil in the band, too — it would be the Police's last album."

Recorded in churches in Tallinn as well as the Estonian Concert Hall, the five compositions heard on “Arboles lloran por lluvia” (Trees cry for rain) give deeper insight into the unique sound-world of Helena Tulve, into music which is nourished by both contemporary and ancient currents. Tulve draws upon a wide-range of inspirational sources.

Blind Faith was cursed at its very inception by being billed as a supergroup. This was truly a pity, because for all the classic beauty of its only recording, Blind Faith was a band that never had a legitimate opportunity to come together as a performing ensemble. Hyped to the hilt and rushed into a massive, chaotic tour, the band fell apart after its final American concerts when Eric Clapton packed it in to join Delaney & Bonnie's band. Despite the hurried and mysterious nature of the recording of the album Blind Faith, it produced two classic hits "Can't Find My Way Home" and "Presence of the Lord".

Mary Lattimore’s music functions as a kind of emotional synesthesia. Rather than seeing colours when she hears notes, Lattimore feels things: sadness, hope, longing, memory. She funnels all of that into stirring songs composed on her harp. “I feel like a lot of my music is me channeling feelings or memories,” she says. “I just do whatever I want, and try to paint a picture of a memory.” The memory that provides the basis for At the Dam is particularly striking.

This beautiful – and now legendary – recording date between iconic Brazilian vocalist Elis Regina and composer, conductor, and arranger Tom Jobim is widely regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian pop recordings. It is nearly ubiquitous among Brazilians as a household item. Regina's voice is among the most loved in the history of Brazilian music. Her range and acuity, her unique phrasing, and her rainbow of emotional colors are literally unmatched, and no matter the tune or arrangement, she employs most of them on these 16 cuts.

A native of Munich, Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963) was without a shadow of a doubt the greatest symphonist in the Central European tradition since Bruckner and Mahler. The sketches and early versions of six of his eight symphonies had their origins in one of the darkest periods in world history – from 1933 to 1945 – when the Nazis were in power and Hartmann gradually withdrew completely from public life. This period, which culminated in Hartmann’s own ‘Innere Emigration’ (inner emigration), represented a decisive turning point in his creative development…

At Ease is one of the most charming and attractive of the many albums Coleman Hawkins and Tommy Flanagan made together—a collection of ballads played with great affection for the melody. Hawkins could be fiercely aggressive in his playing. In this collection, he displays his tenderness. If ever there was a master of the ballad, it was Coleman Hawkins. His romantic style and sound caused one writer to say: "Hawk turned the saxophone into the sexophone." At Ease was done for the Moodsville series but while Hawkins, with the expert help of his pianist, Tommy Flanagan, sets a mood on eight standards, it is never merely mood music.