Leon Russell was born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1941. He studied classical piano as a boy and took up trumpet in his teens. Not too many years later, he was on the road as a sideman to Jerry Lee Lewis and Ronnie Hawkins and ended-up on the west coast.

Legendary vocalist Johnny Mathis will release his new album, „Johnny Mathis Sings The Great New American Songbook“. The eagerly awaited album features 11 inspired Mathis interpretations of prevailing current songs that comprise the modern great American songbook, all imbued with the iconic vocalist's indelible touch.

Roll With The Punches – Van Morrison’s 37th studio album - sees him simultaneously hand-picking a selection of rhythm and blues classics (by the likes of Bo Diddley, Mose Allison, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Lightnin’ Hopkins among others) and recording a set of new self-written songs. It’s an album that features raw, intimate interpretations of some of the cornerstones of Rock’n’Roll alongside five new numbers by one of our most consistently brilliant recording artists.

In its history, Bosnia has been part of many empires: Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian… each has left its imprint and its religion - Catholic, Orthodox, Islam, Sephardic Jews, expelled from Spain, arrive in the 16th century. Sarajevo becomes the city of four religions, ”Jerusalem of the Balkans”, and a metaphor for a peaceful cohabitation and also the horror of hate. From Sarajevo come the greatest number of children born of mixed marriages in ex-Yugoslavia, the First World War started in Sarajevo, in the Second World War the Muslims of Sarajevo hid the Jewish families from common enemy, images of the greatest horror dating from the recent war in Bosnia come from Sarajevo…

Recorded in 1972 and released in 1973 with Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke, and Jack DeJohnette, Joe Farrell's Moon Germs was a foray into the electric side of jazz. On the opener, "Great George," Farrell leads off with the hint of a melody before careening into legato streams of thought along striated intervallic paths. DeJohnette is like a machine gun, quadruple-timing the band as Clarke moves against the grain in a series of fours and eights, and Hancock's attempts to keep the entire thing anchored are almost for naught. On the title track there is more of a funk backdrop, but the complex, angular runs and insane harmonic reaches Farrell attempts on his soprano, crack, falter, and ultimately turn into something else; the sheer busy-ness of the track is dazzling.

The third album from Jacques Brel, Au printemps was released in 1958 following a period of fame and success that Brel enjoyed with his previous album. Considered understated and underrated by critics, this version contains three songs not included on the original release.

For their first recording, Bruno Philippe and Tanguy de Williencourt have chosen three masterpieces of Romantic chamber music. Throughout this programme, the piano carries on a dialogue with the full, warm sound of the cello in a fascinating polyphony.

Patchwork is a chance to join Eastern-European composers of the XXth century. Sonatas for flute and piano from Prokofiev, Enescu, Schulhoff and Muczynski show the strong personalities of the universal Masters. Those vibrant musics are made up with dancing & scintillating rhythms. The soul of the Slavic culture is being displayed here, on the model of warm and coloured mosaics of fabrics. Poetic dream-like and tender worlds are then arising, that enhance the unique musical sound of this duo.

Celebrated international pianist Peter Donohoe continues his series of Shostakovich releases with the contrasting pairs of Piano Concertos and Piano Sonatas, works covering some four decades of the composer's creative life.

Irish pianist Finghin Collins presents a programme of solo piano music by Chopin on this release for Claves. Including two nocturnes, a mazurka, a polonaise, a prelude, and a ballade, this collection offers up a curated insight into Chopin's unique contribution to these significant Romantic genres, sensitively portrayed in Collins's delicate performances.

Like many singer-songwriters, Jessica Lea Mayfield depends on vocal demeanor to bring out the emotional nuances in her writing. She's got quite a range: She can sound spacey and serene, or distant and suspicious, or fiercely sure of herself. Her raw fourth album, Sorry Is Gone, has a series of songs about escape from damaging relationships, and each is conveyed through its own weather system. There are outbreaks of snarling bitterness followed by moments of calm, and times when inner turmoil is masked under a coating of honeyed pop exuberance.

“…..Pressler has played Mozart’s piano concertos with such frequency that they can be reckoned among the works that have occupied him the most in his life. Fortunately, a wish that Pressler and the musicians of the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra had been having for many years finally came true: in May and December 2016, Pressler performed as a soloist in his home town. In May he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B Flat Major K595, and in December he played the Piano Concerto in A Major K488. On the subject of Mozart, he remarks: “In Mozart there are no ‘empty’ passages.

Wolf Alice coming with their Sophomore album entitled Visions Of A Life, which is set for release September 29th, 2017 via Dirty Hit/RCA Records. Their previous single "Moaning Lisa Smile" was nominated for a 2016 GRAMMY Award Nomination for Best Rock Performance and was a Top 10 single at Alternative radio. Wolf Alice has been named one of Billboard Magazine's Artists to Watch, as well as one of Rolling Stone's 10 New Artists You Need to Know.

Charles Pasi, forbidden to be a good-looking French-Italian, straight in his thirties, has a voice as an old master, writes down-to-the-minute jazz / blues songs with the stuff of the classic and collaborates with colleagues from Carla Bruni to Archie Shepp. Now Blue Note can be proud of him: his label debut "Bricks" is a musical fortune and the starting shot to a wonderful career. You should not miss it live, because Charles Pasi is not only a convincing songwriter, but also a captivating charming singer and a very accomplished harmonica player.

The duo album has tremendous lineage throughout Jazz history and on Chesky Records. The Deep adds another timeless pairing with Shelly Berg and David Finck complimenting each other on fourteen stunning new cuts, many of which were improvised on the spot. We are hearing them react to each other and create in real time with no discussion other than with their instruments, showcasing a lifetime of masterfully honed skill and experience. That this improvised material works so well with the standards they chose is further testament to the musicianship of Berg and Finck.