Jowee Omicil is a jazz artist unlike any you've heard before. He brings a novel and distinctly Afro-Haitian perspective to his music. Omicil's melodic storytelling blends flavors from his Creole roots with gospel, soul, hip-hop and folk, not to mention nods to the masters - from Charlie Parker to Ornette Coleman. Let's BasH!, Omicil's fourth album, is both a cry of war and a declaration of love - but above all, it's a symbol of his mission to expand the popularity of jazz.

One of the most popular jazz musicians in Japan today, Nicki Parrott's latest release from Venus Records is a gorgeous collection of romantic standards. The star-studded band includes her frequent collaborators–Harry Allen on tenor sax, her sister Lisa on alto sax, John Di Martino on piano–and, this time, Chuck Redd on vibraphone who adds a distinctive tonal color to the collective sound.

Following a first recording on Alpha devoted to Brahms which garnered much praise real duo playing said Gramophone, while Classica discerned shared music making . . . a world full of nuances and subtlety, boundless sonic imagination (Marie-Elisabeth Hecker), playing of rare intelligence (Martin Helmchen) and awarded the disc a Choc the duo is reunited.

George Maharis is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66. Maharis also recorded numerous pop music albums at the height of his fame, and later starred in the short-lived TV series The Most Deadly Game.

Although there are numerous recordings featuring the Oscar Peterson Trio (with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis), the discovery of another previously unreleased date such as this one is welcome news to his fans. This concert, recorded in the summer of 1958 at the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver, Canada, finds the group in top form, beginning with the simmering treatment of 'Alone Together.' In addition to other familiar favorites (such as a gallop through 'The Surrey With the Fringe on Top' and a pristine take of 'My Funny Valentine'), the trio delves into rarely heard original material, including Peterson's lovely 'Music Box Suite' (also known as 'Daisy's Dream') and a pair of works by Ellis, the wide-ranging solo feature called 'Patricia' and 'Pogo,' a turbocharged bop line focusing on Ellis and Brown, with a deliberately delayed entrance by the leader. The consistent high quality of the performances and the opportunity to hear less well-known songs make this CD an essential purchase for fans of Oscar Peterson.

John Coltrane arrived in Seattle on September 30, 1965 with his classic quartet pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones plus a couple of friends he'd run into in San Francisco a few days earlier. Seemingly on sudden impulse, Coltrane added to the band free-honking tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and multi-instrumentalist devotee of Eastern religions Donald Rafael Garrett. They were there to play a gig at the Penthouse, a jazz club at the corner of First and Cherry. The album that resulted, Live in Seattle, is such a relentlessly raw and abrasive document of late-period Coltrane that it can be a challenge to listen to the whole thing.

"Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5" is the debut studio album from Gary, Indiana-based soul family band the Jackson 5, released on the Motown label in December 1969. Less than two weeks before the 1960s were left to be deciphered in the history books, Motown unleashed Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 (1969) and in doing so fittingly marked the beginning of a new era in crossover pop and soul. For all intents and purposes, this dozen-song disc introduced the world to the sibling talents of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and most significantly of all, a prepubescent powerhouse named Michael Jackson.

Marking the 40th anniversary of Maria Callas’ death (16th September 1977), Maria Callas Live captures the legendary soprano in action on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Thanks to new audio remastering from the best available sources, this 45-disc set reveals Callas’ compelling genius as a singing actress with a new truthfulness and immediacy. Containing 20 complete operas – including 12 works she never recorded in the studio – and five complete filmed recitals (with two different stagings of Act 2 of Tosca) on Blu-ray, Maria Callas Live is the indispensable complement to Callas Remastered, Warner Classics’ landmark collection of her studio recordings.

When it comes to the boundary-stretching spirit that has become so widespread among many of today's leading jazz musicians, drummer Mark Guiliana deserves credit for being one of the most enthusiastic embodiments of this attitude. He has a longstanding passion for electronic music, as heard especially on the releases on his own Beat Music label (2014's My Life Starts Now and Beat Music: The Los Angeles Improvisations).