Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, artist and co-founder of Los Angeles' artist collective The Echo Society, Rob Simonsen has contributed to almost a hundred film and television soundtracks in the two decades since he was first asked to provide piano solos to a movie made by high school friends.

Following the sell-out success of our landmark compilation, J Jazz: deep modern jazz from Japan 1969-1984, BBE Records is thrilled to present another exploration into the very finest Japanese modern jazz.

When singer/songwriter Lori Lieberman wrote the worldwide hit ‘Killing Me Softly’ in the early 70’s, her life changed forever. She became part of the renowned West Coast scene that also featured artists like The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, John Stewart which led to collaborations with Leonard Cohen amongst others. Her new album ‘The Girl And The Cat’ sees her working with the Matangi Quartet, a Dutch string quartet well known for their groundbreaking collaborations with other musicians, both classical and popular. For this album, besides writing her lyrics and songs, she also arranged the scores and orchestrated for the string instruments with Stefanie Fife. The album release will be accompanied by a show in Carnegie Hall, followed by a Dutch tour.

Following the widespread success of 26-year-old Ashley Henry’s Easter EP, the genre-blurring UK pianist returns in full force with his debut studio album Beautiful Vinyl Hunter, set for release in September on Sony Music. Offering a journey into the visionary mind of one of the UK’s most creative young talents, the highly anticipated 15-track album draws on a heady brew of influences from jazz, beats, hip-hop, punk and grime and features collaborations with an impressive collective of innovators including Makaya McCraven, Keyon Harrold, Ben Marc, Luke Flowers, MC Sparkz, Jaimie Branch, Binker Golding and Joshua Idehen.

Through his six recordings as a bandleader, tenor talent Eric Wyatt has basically been performing unspoken tributes to Sonny Rollins. Wyatt calls Rollins his actual/musical godfather and has a way of injecting his passion for bebop and affection for geniuses like Rollins, Charlie Parker, and Pharaoh Sanders, into virtually every note he plays. Wyatt’s latest, The Golden Rule: for Sonny, is his inimitable way of paying tribute to those strong boppers of the past, joined by talents that have been contributing valiantly to the vibrancy of today’s jazz scene—guitarist Russell Malone, pianist Benito Gonzalez, trombonist Clifton Anderson, tenor JD Allen, and emerging youth like Giveton Gelin on trumpet and pianist Sullivan Fortner. Together, the posse exudes both class and bold promise as well as dashes of melodic invention. It is in this alchemy—blending experience with youth, merging tradition with progress—that Wyatt does his greatest service to jazz.

Pianists and guitarists don't always mix well,"" Eric Legnini says. There can even be a kind of competition in the air between these two instrument worlds, these two mini orchestras on their own, these two popular technical tools that everyone has tasted at one time or another. However, it is far from being his case, says the Belgian: on his side, relations are rather good - even if, he confesses in a loud laugh, that he is only a ""poor guitarist"" who can only play ""three poor Brazilian chords"".

Hailed by Rolling Stone as a “stomping, swaggering rock & roll balancing act teetering between blinding light and total darkness,” Barns Courtney releases his newest album, 404, on September 6 by Capitol Records. Barns wrote and produced the 10-song collection with synth wiz and longtime friend Sam Battle. All in all, 404 is a commentary on his journey from awe struck naivety to the dark realization of adulthood. Barns Courtney has already surpassed a half billion cumulative streams globally and is currently touring with Elle King.

Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 with the BRSO under the conduction of Mariss Jansons. This is a live recording of a concert at Munich Philharmonie im Gasteig from 20./21.01.2005.

Margarita Höhenrieder writes of her new release: "After just a few notes on this exceptionally fine Pleyel grand piano in Kellinghusen, north of Hamburg, in a collection of Eric Feller’s, I found myself plunged into a different century. This pianoforte was built in Paris in about 1855 and professionally restored using historical materials and methods. It is absolutely uniform with the instrument that Chopin possessed, and is of typically French elegance – in sound as well as in appearance. It reflects the soul of the Romantic era.

Appearing the original hit Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Today I move to the 'Far West', heh, heh. Nothing less than the teacher-poet and the most influential country-rock singer of the last century: Bob Dylan.

John Wesley Harding suggested country with its textures and structures, but Nashville Skyline was a full-fledged country album, complete with steel guitars and brief, direct songs.

The term Romanticism is understood differently by everyone, and the composers of that epoch chose different approaches when setting a particular subject to music. In sacred music, of course, specific names and pieces immediately come to mind: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Anton Bruckner, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Max Reger, and others. But the period between 1789 and 1914 saw the emergence of a large number of composers who gave this epoch its face, and not only in Germany. With the album "Nightfall - Sacred Romantic Parts Songs," the Jugendchor Hochtaunus under the direction of its artistic director Tristan Meister presents 18 works by European Romantic composers.

“It’s very complicated to play with electricity,” Bob Dylan said in the summer of 1965. “You’re dealing with other people… Most people who don’t like rock & roll can’t relate to other people.”

If The Times They Are a-Changin’ isn’t a marked step forward from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, even if it is his first collection of all originals, it’s nevertheless a fine collection all the same.

The title of this album, Origins, is meaningful to us on many levels. It’s our debut album, recorded in Montreal where we first met in 2012. It reflects our Canadian origins by including music by two of our favourite Canadian composers. It is inspired by the heritage of our instruments, as the traditions of both flute and harp were greatly influenced by French music. And it marks the beginning of our journey towards more recording projects, repertoire commissions, and new collaborations. We hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as we loved making it.