Reality is the 23rd studio album by David Bowie. A contemporary review of the album by the BBC called the album "a proper album, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It's direct, warm, emotional honest, even and the surfeit of pleasingly deceptive musical simplicity allows the irony of the central concept – that there is no such thing as reality anymore – an opportunity to filter through. It's also rather lively and convincing". Bowie and Tony Visconti produced both the stereo and 5.1 mix in the studio as the album was recorded.

New York City is the center of many worlds, the jazz world being one of them. Musicians have always felt the pull of the Big Apple. The depth of talent, competition, and energy have made the City the epicenter of growth in the music. Vocalist Judy Niemack’s improvisation teacher Warne Marsh told her that she had to go and, once she did, she never looked back.

For longtime collaborators Denny Zeitlin and George Marsh much of their enthusiasm for music lies in exploration of new terrain. Their recording Expedition finds them continuing their journey into the worlds of sound and spontaneous composition. Pianist Denny Zeitlin has long been in the vanguard of musical innovation. His 1960s acoustic trio was one of the first to advance beyond the concepts of Bill Evans, and his genre defying electro-acoustic experiments were some of the most intriguing from a jazz musician.

It all began with a postcard. Drummer/composer Guilhem Flouzat was busy planning his next album of carefully crafted songs along the lines of his previous Sunnyside release, Portraits, when he received a letter from his longtime friend and collaborator, Laurent Coq: “Why don’t you record your trio with Sullivan? Just an informal session of standards and easy pieces? I’d love to listen to that.” This meant a complete gear shift. Instead of showcasing original compositions, Flouzat would bare himself in arrangements and preparation, picking songs that he loves and playing them with the two musicians he trusts the most. But how to create a standards album that one would really want to listen to among all the already existing totems of the genre?

Sometimes it is just a matter of timing and proximity that makes attractive collaborations possible. For years, singer/songwriter Rebecca Martin knew that she wanted to work with pianist/vocalist/composer Guillermo Klein. Klein’s recent relocation to upstate New York, where Martin had made her home, made the opportunity of making music together possible. The beautiful results of their work can be heard on their new recording, The Upstate Project.

Trust in Rock documents the last evening of an epic concert series held at Berkeley’s University Art Museum in November 1976, featuring an all-star ensemble of the Bay Area’s most unclassifiable musicians performing works by “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Peter Gordon. Tyranny’s cycle “No Job, No Warm, No Nothing” contains songs “concerned with influence, trust, self-reliance, and having to re-do what is true for you;” three songs by Gordon, with lyrics by Kathy Acker, are complimented by two earlier instrumental works. Their combined band crossed styles and institutions and time, and was assembled from the effervescence of the Bay Area scene in the 1970s.

Brothers Sebastian and Daniel Selke’s music can be likened to an exercise of memory retrieval. All of their four albums explore and pay tribute to their past; growing up in East Berlin in the final decade of the GDR. At its core, the duo’s music can be heard as a dialogue between siblings about their shared upbringings and experiences, a conversation given form through Sebastian’s cello and Daniel’s piano keys, in the fusion that becomes CEEYS. In 2017, the duo also founded Q3 AMBIENTFEST, a three-day happening for neoclassical and experimental music, which seeks to explore the cultural and musical impact of East German heritage.

Now in their 60th year of performing and recording, The Brothers Four continue to delight millions of fans worldwide with their smooth, musical sounds. Folk songs from America, Ireland, Scotland, Africa, Japan and China round out a repertoire of acoustic tunes old and new.

Silk Baroque presents a musical encounter between Wu Wei and Holland Baroque, performing a programme that ranges from Baroque greats such as Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and Rameau to Chinese traditional tunes, all tied together by the musicians’ openness to improvisation, experimentation and cultural exchange. Wu Wei plays the sheng, an extraordinary ancient Chinese mouth organ, which looks like a bundle of bamboo reeds cased in a metal bowl. It is a miracle of harmony, melody and rhythmic possibilities, and Wu Wei’s abilities fully bring out the sheng’s beauty: whispering, charming, and compelling. Age-old traditions come together in performances that sound fresh and contemporary. Silk Baroque carries listeners into a lively, enticing and fascinating sound world.

Die barocke Lust am Verwirrspiel der Geschlechterrollen auf der Opernbühne: Im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert war es auf der Opernbühne gängige Praxis, dass Frauen in sogenannten Hosenrollen sangen und vor allem die Kastraten etwa als Königinnen oder Prinzessinnen auftraten. Dieser barocken Lust am Verwirrspiel der Geschlechterrollen widmen jetzt die Mezzosopranistin Vivica Genaux, der Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo und die Lautten Compagney Berlin ihr erstes gemeinsames Programm.

Great artists can’t help but respond to the world around them, absorbing the tensions, angst and joys vibrating throughout society. At the same time, musicians provide energy for the necessary struggle, “washing away the dust of everyday life,” as drum legend Art Blakey said, describing jazz’s transformative power. This double duty is at the core of pianist Laszlo Gardony's new solo album Serious Play. He created most of the music spontaneously in the studio, with a few soulful reimaginations of beloved standards added, providing a potent reminder that the longtime Berklee College of Music professor is one of jazz’s most emotionally trenchant and melodically inventive solo piano practitioners. His 12th album and 9th recording for Sunnyside, Serious Play is slated for release on July 14, 2017.

Born around 1380 in the Duchy of Limburg, possibly in the little town of the same name, Johannes de Limburgia was active for a long time in Liège, then in Italy. We have evidence of his presence in Vicenza between 1431 and 1436, and several of his works refer explicitly to Vicenza, as well as to Venice and Padua, demonstrating a strong connection with northern Italy, where his music was compiled. His output – more than 45 works – is contained in three large manuscripts from the first half of the fifteenth century, alongside music by other composers from north of the Alps, such as Johannes Ciconia and Guillaume Dufay.

After Les Danaïdes and Les Horaces, Les Talens Lyriques concludes the group’s cycle of Antonio Salieri’s French operas with the world premiere recording of Tarare. Often unfairly overshadowed by his brilliant contemporary Mozart, Salieri here composed a genuine masterpiece on the only libretto ever written by Beaumarchais.

For over four years, the collective ensemble and de facto workshop known as Hush Point has been developing a unique approach to jazz performance. The quartet of trumpeter John McNeil, saxophonist Jeremy Udden, bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky and drummer Anthony Pinciotti have used rehearsal techniques to broaden their expression and develop a sort of group ESP. This work has produced brilliant compositions that require a high level of musicianship and group interplay. Hush Point’s evolution can be heard on their innovative third recording, Hush Point III.

The Andalusia region of Spain stands apart from the rest of the country. There is a certain essence within the breathtaking natural surroundings and the culture, with hints of its Arabic past, that makes the region distinctive. These elements have inspired musicians for generations. Unsurprisingly, guitarist/composer Diego Barber, a native of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, has long had an affinity for Andalusia, especially for the city of Granada; an affinity only made stronger by his regular visits there to be with his girlfriend.