Already protagonist of the inauguration of Crossroads 2017, just at Casalgrande, Paolo Fresu returns with his Devil Quartet to kick off also this new season of the traveling festival. But in the meantime the band's music program has been completely renewed, thanks to the tracks of the new recording project Carpe Diem, composed for the most part by the members of the group and from which transpires a particular attraction for the cantability of the ballads. But there is also a dedication to the Rolling Stones. A breakthrough and acoustic turning point for this wonderful band, that explores new roads, from soap opera to Rimbaud…a crazy journey for this evil quartet.

After two ECM albums with the cooperative trio Third Reel, Swiss reedman Nicolas Masson presents a quartet for which he is the sole composer. The group has existed for a decade with unchanged personnel, touring as Nicolas Massons Parallels, and the leaders writing for it always encourages creative responses from the players. Amid the changing musical landscapes in which these travelers move, you will encounter some of Colin Vallons prettiest ballad playing, richly melodic bass from Patrice Moret, and subtle drum commentary from Lionel Friedli. Plus, of course, plenty of Massons pure-toned saxophone and elegant clarinet. Travelers was recorded at Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano in April 2017, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Andy Sheppards quartet extends the musical explorations begun on the 2015 release Surrounded By Sea, an album praised by Télérama for its poignant serenity. In this new program of compositions by Sheppard (plus the title track by Brazilian singer-songwriter Renato Teixeira), the drones and washes of Eivind Aarsets guitar and electronics aided by the generous acoustics of Luganos Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI help to establish a climate in which improvisation can take place. Theres a highly atmospheric, ambient drift to the music which Sheppard clearly finds liberating, as do Michel Benita and Seb Rochford, free to move in and out of conventional rhythm section roles and to make impassioned statements of their own. Romaria was recorded in April 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

An ECM debut for a unique Japanese-French-German trio, with a lyrical sound of its own. Drummer-leader Shinya Fukumori, also the principal composer for the band, is an imaginative melodist at several levels, and the attention to timbre and detail and space which distinguishes his drumming is also reflected in the color-fields of his free-floating ballads. The spaciousness of the music leaves room for expression to tenorist Matthieu Bordenave and pianist Walter Lang. Bordenave has a deceptively fragile tenor tone, of considerable emotional impact, and Lang, one of Lee Konitzs chosen duo partners in recent years, is a subtle player, patiently shoring up the whole context.

There are a million songs dressed in white t-shirts and American denim, songs that drift through open spaces in some busted sedan, over lost highways that become tributaries to eventual static, crawling traffic and stifling density. There are a million more songs about being wild and green in the cities and outside them: a song about love for every person on this earth. Another Age , the debut album from Robert Earl Thomas, avoids inhabiting these clichés even as it embraces their personal influence: this is an album about small moments with big emotional footprints, told humbly and honestly.

A creative journey into the world of cinema with new arrangements - by Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier - of music by Nino Rota, Michel Legrand, William Walton, Bernard Herrmann, and Ennio Morricone for the movies of Scorsese, Godard, Wenders, Jewison, Zeffirelli, Olivier and more. Several of the arrangements incorporate new words by Norma Winstone who, in addition to being one of the great jazz singers, has long been a sensitive lyricist. For this project, her acclaimed trio with Gesing and Venier is augmented by two special guests: Norwegian improvising percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken and Italian classical cellist Mario Brunello.

For her third album on Alpha, Patricia Kopatchinskaja is joined by a highly talented pianist whose approach to music is as extremist as hers, Polina Leschenko. Together they explore pieces that have many points in common. The Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi, grandniece of Joseph Joachim, was a "muse" to both Bartók and Ravel. In 1922 and 1923, she premiered the two Bartók sonatas for violin and piano and Ravel dedicated Tzigane to her.

Empowerment anthems have had a good run since the early aughts, during which time we grew accustomed to hearing powerhouse pop singers turn downtrodden verses into launching pads for triumphant hooks.

Handel’s focus in his three Concerti a due cori was on lively rhythms, arresting dialogue and vibrant colours, so his slow movements take something of a back seat, except here where he returned to Esther for a long, lilting siciliana in which the reedy oboes add a poignant edge to the movement’s lingering minor-key melancholy. This prepares the way perfectly for the finest movement of the work, which proudly revives a ground bass Handel had first used in his Birthday Ode for Queen Anne in 1713.

Laurie Anderson has teamed up with the Kronos Quartet for a new album. Landfall is out February 16 via Nonesuch. The piece, inspired by Anderson’s experience during Hurricane Sandy, has been performed multiple times at festivals.

On her fourth (and tellingly self-titled) album as The Weather Station, Tamara Lindeman reinvents, and more deeply roots, her extraordinary, acclaimed songcraft, framing her precisely detailed, exquisitely wrought prose-poem narratives in bolder and more cinematic musical settings. The result is her most sonically direct and emotionally candid statement to date. The most fully realized statement to date from Toronto songwriter Tamara Lindeman. Self-titled and self-produced, the album unearths a vital new energy from Lindeman's acclaimed songwriting practice, marrying it to a bold new sense of confidence.

Wax Tailor announces his return this coming fall with a 5th album, conceptualized during his last US tour. Designed like a road trip, this "call of the wild" musical rewrite, leads us on a fabled road where blues, psychedelic rock, soul funk and hip-hop collide. Many guests (including Tricky & Ghostface Killah) will take part in this album, to be released on October 14th, the prelude to a worldwide tour which will begin in November in France.

Swing Journal Gold Disc. Nobody would argue that Bill Charlap is one of the most preeminent jazz pianists of his generation. His encyclopedic knowledge of the American Songbook is second to none, and his beautiful touch, amazing skills and imagination make it a pleasure to listen to him at all times. As some of you already know, Charlap has recorded a number of great albums for Venus Records of Japan with his great New York Trio (with Jay Leonhart and Bill Stewart). For this, latest release, he decided to take a slightly different direction with a drum-less trio with guitarist Peter Bernstein and bassist Peter Washington.