Jazz at Massey Hall is an exhilarating live recording from one of, if not the finest quintets ever assembled. This legendary recording features performances by five of jazz’s leading players, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. The performance was listed on Guardian’s “50 Greatest Moments in Jazz”. Inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame, the jam session is widely considered the greatest jazz concert ever.

The Hi-Lo's were a vocal quartet formed in 1953, who achieved their greatest fame in the late 1950s and 1960s. The group's name is reportedly a reference to their extreme vocal and physical ranges (Bob Strasen and Bob Morse were tall, Gene Puerling and Clark Burroughs were short). This compilation is in fact a reissue of two albums of The Hi-Lo's, "I Presume" (1955) and "In Stereo" (1959). First one is in mono, second one in stereo. For obscure reasons, the tracklistings of both LP's have been put in reverse order. Strangely too, the last track of "I Presume", "Shoeless Joe" is not included on that reissue.

By 1963, Annie Ross had permanently moved back to England and had started working more as an actress than as a singer. This interesting set (reissued by DCC as an audiophile CD) features Ross backed by an orchestra arranged and conducted by Johnnie Spence. The obvious high point is one of the darkest and scariest versions of "Love For Sale" ever recorded; Ross' desperate-sounding rendition is haunting. Otherwise, she performs a variety of standards in lightly swinging fashion, not scatting or using vocalese but instead working on interpreting the lyrics. Other highlights include "All of You," "Nature Boy," "Like Someone in Love" and "Limehouse Blues." This worthy set was also put out on CD by the Fresh Sound label.

A larger-than-life performer best remembered for his 1960 R&B chart-topper "There Is Something on Your Mind," singer Bobby Marchan was born Oscar James Gibson in Youngstown, OH, on April 30, 1930. As a child he became fascinated by the female impersonators who appeared on the so-called "chitlin circuit" of black nightclubs, and began singing and performing comedy in drag while in his teens. In 1953 Marchan organized his own drag troupe, the Powder Box Revue; during a booking at New Orleans' Dew Drop Inn, he became enamored with the city, making it his home for the remainder of his life. There he accepted a job as MC at the Club Tijuana, where he was discovered by Aladdin Records president Eddie Meisner. Marchan cut his debut single, "Have Mercy," for producer Cosimo Matassa in 1954, but Aladdin dropped him soon after, and he landed at Dot for the follow-up, "Just a Little Ol' Wine."

Roni Alter exudes a unique sensitivity. Originally from Tel Aviv, she has lived in Paris for five years. Five years that nurtured her to compose her next album. Rich melodies, unique and airy voice, poetic and melancholy, it offers an inspiring and inspired universe, a journey that transports you from the first notes. Roni Alter brings to Europe a mix of pop, jazz, folk and electronics, fruit of collaborations with musicians of excellence.

In hindsight, it's possible to hear some of the profound loneliness of Liars' next album TFCF and the disorienting washes of Hemphill's subsequent work as Nonpareils in this score, and for that reason alone, 1/1 is more than just a commissioned work as much as any one release from this band could, it sums up their approach and points the way forward. In some ways, it feels like a more subdued, mostly instrumental version of Mess, one where they cycle through moods and shift textures but rarely heighten them beyond their initial parameters. Still: setting mood has always been one of Liars' strengths, even if 1/1 feels more like a curio than an essential part of the canon.

For a long time bahramji studied the doctrines of the sufi and also lived through the teachings. „i identify myself with my music – however not just only herewith. today i am a musician and tomorrow … a cook.“ and a good cook he is. bahramji continues to say: „i never commit myself to only one thing. i take life simply gratefully and with open heartily – just as it is. whatever may come, i take it like it is, because it is good as it is.“ bahram does not expect anything and this seems to be his secret. nevertheless is music of greatest importance in his life. „in the life of the sufi music is as important as air for breathing.

Bansal Band performs original compositions in the raaga tradition by Harpreet Bansal. In addition to Bansal on the violin, the band members are Andreas Bratlie (tablas, percussion), Adrian Myhr (bass), Vojtech Prochazka (piano) and Javid Afsari Rad (santur). The foundation of Bansal’s compositions is her upbringing in the North Indian classical musical tradition, with her father as her first tutor. The arrangements are a group effort under the guidance of producer Jan Martin Smørdal. The open form of the arrangements invite the musicians to utilize their respective musical backgrounds in improvisation and spontaneous music-making.