The multicolored strands of influence – personal and creative – that converged on composer Sergei Prokofiev lent to his musical career a strange richness and duality. Prokofiev's musical development evolved in the constant shadow of multiple and often paradoxical circumstances. Raised and trained in the culture of waning imperial Russia, he would nonetheless emerge as one of the brightest stars in the Soviet Union's world of stringent artistic doctrines. Though hailed early on as a "bad boy" modernist, simplicity, urged by Soviet strictures, became Prokofiev's ultimate goal. Still, he steadfastly continued to employ those aspects – novel and unexpected harmonic turns, melodic athleticism, and a prodigious handling of rhythm – which from the outset marked the uniqueness of his style.

The Cantigas de Santa Maria come from the imposing collection of the court of Alfonso X el Sabio, which offers us one of the most precious sources of mediaeval Spanish music. The Cantigas take us to the end of the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula and to the very heart of the culture where Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions mingle.

The 6th edition of the celebrated concert series live from the Berlin Philharmonie: Earthy blues from Norway, jazz and folk: this high-calibre celtic-nordic connection is aware of its roots and creates its very distinct and new musical cosmos. The concert series “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” has set itself the ambition to reflect current developments and shifts in jazz, and in European jazz in particular, ever since it started. A new configuration of musicians is assembled for each concert, the focus is placed on a different theme, and the results have invariably been truly memorable one-off concerts. At the beginning, this approach might have seemed something of a risk, but the idea has evolved to the point where it has been described by Berlin’s respected regional broadcaster RBB as “a successful formula for delivering very great concerts.” “Celtic Roots” was another in this line of triumphs; success has evidently now become a matter of habit.

There is a synonym for the words diversity, curiosity and zeal: Nils Landgren. “Mr. Red Horn” swings brilliantly from one perspective to the next, also because he needs this constant change. Landgren embodies not one but two souls: When the audience sees him with his “Funk Unit”, the Swede shows himself from his masculine and distinct, relentlessly grooving side and acts the jazz action hero. However, there is also a gentle melancholic, highly sentimental Nils Landgren. He can be seen during Advent time, for example, when the instrumentalist and singer celebrates “Christmas With My Friends” or in his ballad projects, in which he intones on the trombone with incomparable smoothness and his highly individual, fragile voice touches the heart and the soul with a remarkable sensibility.

ACT is proud to mark this milestone with a “Jubilee Album”. However, the label has taken care to steer well clear of the predictable. Except three tracks everything on the album is being released for the first time. The result is a newly crafted summation of the kind of music for which ACT exists: music that can touch the heart, stir the soul and lift the spirit of the listener. It is a kaleidoscope of magical musical moments by artists with an openness of mind to all genres and styles.

The French jazz scene has a vitality, an originality and a do-it- all and do-it-anyway mentality about it right now. It is French musicians who are blazing the new trails for contemporary European jazz. There is a wonderful open-mindedness towards all musical cultures, genres and tendencies; and yet French musicians also give off the sense of having a proper grounding in their own tradition. A musician who represents all of these tendencies ‘par excellence’ is saxophonist Emile Parisien. Born in Cahors in the wine-growing region of the Lot, he is a jazz visionary. He may have one foot in that ancient soil, but his gaze is firmly fixed on the future. The leading French newspaper Le Monde has called him “the best new thing that has happened in European jazz for a long time,” while the Hamburg radio station NDR made the point of telling its listeners to give Parisien their “undivided attention.”

She is the new vocal-jazz sensation in a Parisian scene already jam-packed with impressive names. Now at the age of 29 years, Lou Tavano is bringing out her first album, an oeuvre that will attract the same attention as her trade-mark shock of fiery-red hair. Every song on “For You” is its own little cosmos that reveals Tavano’s extraordinary talent for creating a musical universe in which words carry just as much weight as the notes.

The London Haydn Quartet’s recordings of their namesake continue to win universal plaudits, consistently delivering—in the words of The Guardian—‘too many pleasures to enumerate. Try for yourself.’

Kalle Kalima puts the Western back into country and western. High Noon: Wind scrapes across the empty streets… timorous townsfolk peek through closed shutters… as three figures head into town: a guitar-toting Finn from Berlin, Kalle Kalima, a veteran American bassist, Greg Cohen from way out west in Los Angeles, and a young gun from Germany, drummer Max Andrzejewski…

With 'Love Comes To Town' German singer and guitarist Torsten Goods exceeds all expectations - as a composer and musician. Funky summernicght-soundtrack meets smoky jazzclub-swing.

“I always went my own road and on my own legs where I had a mind to go.” This quote from the 1899 short novel “Heart of Darkness” by Polish writer Joseph Conrad could also be Natalia Mateo’s philosophy of life. The 31 year-old vocalist is a wanderer between the worlds - musically and in real life. Born in Poland, raised in Austria and now living in Germany, she has absorbed the most varied of impressions and cultures into her being. She draws from the Slavic ballad tradition, from American jazz and singer-songwriters ranging from Joni Mitchell to Amy Macdonald, and from contemporary pop and rock music.

Caecilie Norby and Lars Danielsson are the dream couple of jazz – in the truest sense of the word. Being a couple also in “real life”, two of the most popular and recognized musicians in European jazz now present their first duo album ever. An intimate touching musical statement with voice and strings.

This release owes its original inspiration to a book published in 2013 entitled 'Nachtmeerfahrten' (Sea Journeys by Night), which takes the reader over to the dark side of romanticism, to a world of fantasy, of eerie shadows, and things that go bump in the night. Producer Siggi Loch edited the 'Meer' (sea) part out of the title, which therefore became 'Nachtfahrten' (Night Journeys), which suits this pianist, who is a creature of the nocturnal realm. He feels very much at home in a world of grey cats and blurred outlines, where the contrasting emotions of the moment can leave all rational expectations behind; this is a backdrop which is alive with possibility, but also with trepidation.

Spirituals, blues, soul and roots music form the creative foundation for 'Thank You Baby!' 'This kind of music was familiar to me as a young lad. When Siggi Loch suggested devoting my new album to this music, I immediately was really keen. I didn't want to wallow in nostalgia though, but express myself through it,' says Goods, referring to the preparations for the new album.

An award-winning film, television, and video game composer whose credits include The Tudors, The Borgias, Pillars of the Earth, and Vikings, Trevor Morris was born in London, Ontario. A student of the arts from a very young age, Morris' first foray into commissioned work was to compose a piece for his graduating class to perform in honor of the arrival of Pope John Paul II in Canada. He was 13 at the time and received 50 dollars. After graduating at the top of his class from Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology, Morris moved to Toronto, where he honed his skills in both production and composition, eventually shifting his focus solely on the latter.