The Staples' story goes all the way back to 1915 in Winona, Mississippi, when patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples entered the world. A contemporary and familiar of Charley Patton's, Roebuck quickly became adept as a solo blues guitarist, entertaining at local dances and picnics. He was also drawn to the church, and by 1937 he was singing and playing guitar with the Golden Trumpets, a spiritual group based out of Drew, Mississippi. Moving to Chicago four years later, he continued playing gospel music with the Windy City's Trumpet Jubilees. A decade later Pops Staples (as he had become known) presented two of his daughters, Cleotha and Mavis, and his one son, Pervis, in front of a church audience, and the Staple Singers were born.

Fittingly named after the Mississippi town in which Cody and Luther Dickinson and Chris Chew all grew up, „Hernando“ is the roadhouse trio's most personal record. It's also their finest. Recorded at their own Zebra studios (aka "The Barn") by Cody and Luther's father, legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson, and released on their own label, Songs of the South Records, the album has a warmth and earthiness that suggest comfort in their own skin and surroundings.

Kaddish is Leonard Bernstein's third symphony. The 1963 symphony is a dramatic work written for a large orchestra, a full choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist and a narrator. The name of the piece, Kaddish, refers to the Jewish prayer that is chanted at every synagogue service for the dead but never mentions "death."

Goran Filipec recent laureate of the Grand Prix du Disque of the Ferenc Liszt Society of Budapest for his 2016 recording of Liszt’s Paganini Studies (Naxos 8573458), was born in Rijeka (Croatia) in 1981, and studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne and the Zagreb Academy of Music. He is a prize-winner of several piano competitions including the Premio Mario Zanfi ‘Franz Liszt’, Concurso de Parnassos, the José Iturbi International Music Competition and the Gabala International Piano Competition. He performs regularly in Europe, the United States, South America and Japan.

Lars Karlsson was born in 1953 on Åland, an archipelago in the Baltic Sea which forms part of Finland although its population is Swedish-speaking. He soon moved to Helsinki, however, in order to study at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara. Since 1976, he has himself been teaching at the Academy.

Following her Carnegie Hall recital debut, The Strad hailed Serbian-French cellist Maja Bogdanovic for an "outstanding performance of exceptional tonal beauty and great maturity of interpretation." She has since built an extensive career and an enviable reputation as one of today's leading young cellists, most recently stepping in for Mischa Maisky for a performance of Yusupov's Cello Concerto, with the composer himself conducting.

For the second time, the violinist and jack-of-all-trades Igor Malinovsky releases an album on GENUIN. His previous brilliant production of Russian violin sonatas is now followed by a marvelous classic of the concertante violin repertoire: Vivaldi's most famous concerts, the Four Seasons. Malinovsky's violin merges with the instruments of the Dresden Residence Orchestra, which he founded, to form an incredible unity. Everything sounds historically informed, but not dry, musical, but not romanticized. A recording as fresh as a spring rain! Igor Malinovsky was a child prodigy who studied with Vladimir Milstein in Russia’s Yekaterinsburg from the age of six.

1944 saw the premiere of the ballet Fancy Free, 25-year old Leonard Bernstein’s first major composition as well as the first in a string of scores for the stage and film. In order to celebrate the centennial of Bernstein’s birth in 1918, Christian Lindberg has gathered music from five different productions spanning a period of 13 years – from Fancy Free to the iconic musical West Side Story, premiered in 1957. The disc is bookended by the sparkling and witty Overture to Candide and Three Dance Episodes from the musical On the Town.

France’s new jazz stars join forces in a multifaceted chamber-jazz duo paying tribute to the grand jazz and folk music history of their home country and transporting it into here and now.

A little while ago, the British 'Guardian' wrote that ACT was on a mission to sign the best European pianists to its label. Creative virtuosos like Yaron Herman, Leszek Mozdzer and Gwilym Simcock bear witness to the fact that these pianists do not have to come from Scandinavia. And that they don't have to be young is now proven by the Emil Viklicky ACT debut 'Together Again'. The 65 year-old Czech national has perhaps stayed too down-to-earth for us to have discovered him earlier for what he is: the 'patriarch of Czech jazz piano', as the London Evening Standard put it. And 'one of the best contemporary pianists, whose touch, voicing and chords have a lot in common with the grand masters of taste the likes of Tommy Flanagan and Jimmy Rowles,' as the American periodical Jazz Time wrote of him in 2004.

With Offering, acclaimed vocalist Charenee Wade presents her unique take on the revolutionary work of the powerful musical and political collaboration between Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson. The first woman artist to produce a full-length album of the duo's work, Wade brings her own soulful interpretation to these numbers through her new arrangements and vocal prowess.

A worthy cause moves Springsteen and the E Street Band to pause recording of their new album to perform at the No Nukes benefit concerts in New York. Though a few tracks were later featured in the resulting live album and film, No Nukes ’79 presents Bruce’s complete sets from September 21 and 22, including the world premiere of “The River,” plus “Sherry Darling,” “Prove It All Night,” “Thunder Road” “Detroit Medley,” “Quarter to Three,” “Jungleland,” “Rave On” and “Stay” featuring Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and Rosemary Butler. $2 from each sale will be donated to Musicians United For Safe Energy.