In the course of his creative life, Beethoven brought the concise form of the variation to its zenith, opening up a whole new field of possibilities.

Founded at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, Switzerland, Philon Trio is a chamber ensemble consisting of David Dias da Silva on clarinet, Adam Newman on viola, and Camilla Köhnken on piano. It’s in the context of a residency at Canada’s Banff Center for Arts and Creativity that they recorded the excellent work 8 Pieces, Op. 83 by the German composer Max Bruch. Bruch was 72 in 1910 when he composed Acht Stücke Op. 83 for his son, Max Felix, already a professional clarinetist. Written in a late but conservative Romantic style, far removed from the language of Bruch’s contemporaries Stravinsky, Bartók, and Schoenberg, this work is deep, intense, passionate and intimate.

In Le monde d’hier, bassonist Mathieu Lussier and pianist Francis Perron explore French and English repertoire for bassoon written at beginning of the 20th century.

This new release features rare cello music by contemporary composers from Nothern Holland performed by Wytske Holtrop. In 2018, Wytske Holtrop graduated cum laude for her master’s degree at the Haute École de Musique de Genève (Geneva University of Music), where she studied with professor François Guye. She obtained a highly distinguished bachelor’s degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium of Brussels (Royal Conservatoire of Brussels) with professor Jeroen Reuling. As of the 2019 - 2020 concert season, Wytske will be playing with the Konzerthausorchesterin Berlin, as a member of the Kurt Sanderling orchestra academy.

With Ninna Nanna the haunting tones, dramatic intensity and richly characterized singing of Pino De Vittorio once again grace a recording project led by Franco Pavan. Call it Wiegenlied, berceuse, nana, ninna nanna – or countless other terms from around the world – the lullaby, with the rocking of the child’s cradle, is possessed of a captivating charm, all neatly captured in this new collection with the lulling of De Vittorio’s hypnotic voice.

Calvaire, Kalvarienberg – Sinnbild von Resignation und Hoffnung. Zwei expressive zeitgenössische Kompositionen illustrieren und interpretieren das Geschehen von Golgotha und der damit verbundenen Extreme menschlichen Lebens und Handelns in musikalischen Bildern. Helmut Vogel und Bjarne Hersbo haben in ihren Calvaire-Vertonungen den Phänomenen der Koinzidenz von Resignation und Hoffnung, Raum und Zeit in ihren individuellen Tonsprachen nachgespürt. Kompositionen des späten 19. und des 20.

Essential: a masterpiece of rock music
If you claim to have any love for sixties psych and prog its roots, you simply can’t ignore this great second album Spooky Tooth.

Digitally remastered edition of this 1969 album from the Queen of R&B. On the aptly titled Black Is Brown And Brown Is Beautiful, she puts her strong voice to soulful covers of 'Yesterday', 'Please Send Me Someone to Love' (Mayfield) and own songs such as 'Miss Brown's Blues'. This material is closer to Soul than to Jazz, and it is full of joy and, of course, rhythm. Discover a truly glorious singer and a R&B legend.

For several decades, the Dutch Swing College Band was one of Europe's top regular groups, able to play both Dixieland and swing with equal skill. This LP contains some full band selections (including a Dixieland-ish "Riverboat Shuffle"), combo numbers with the band's two clarinetists, solos, and features for pianist Teddy Wilson with the rhythm section. This celebratory occasion (thus far only available on LP) resulted in some highly enjoyable music that deserves to be reissued on CD.

ZZ Top closed out their tenure with London Records in late 1977 with The Best of ZZ Top, a basic but terrific ten-song retrospective of highlights from their first five albums (well, four, actually, since the underwhelming Tejas is ignored).

Earl Hines is accompanied by Ralph Carmichael's orchestra as he revisits a dozen standards and originals which he had recorded earlier in his career. In spite of the liner-note praise from both Nat King Cole and Stan Kenton (both of whom were also Capitol artists at the time), Carmichael's rather bland, unadventurous arrangements do not seem to inspire Hines very much, as his playing takes on a conservative, easy listening sound that isn't generally associated with him. Hines is in full steam tackling his landmark composition "Rosetta" and shows off a taste of his tremendous chops in "Little Girl," but these tracks ends up being the exception rather than the rule. The music is pleasant for background listening, but serious fans of Earl Hines are advised to get the pianist's own big band recordings or his solo and small-group dates as a leader, as these 1963 sessions for Capitol will doubtlessly disappoint most jazz fans.

Blessed with their first full-fledged hit album, ZZ Top followed it up with Fandango!, a record split between a side of live tracks and a side of new studio cuts.

Tres Hombres is the record that brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process.

This budget LP just contains ten short selections and does not give personnel or exact recording dates. Recorded in London during 1936-37, the brief program does contain more than its share of rewarding moments, most notably the debut recording of Carter's "When Lights Are Low," the advanced "Waltzin' the Blues" (performed at a time when jazz waltzes were unheard of), the atmospheric "Nightfall," "Just a Mood" and a fine version of "Royal Garden Blues." Carter is heard throughout, switching between alto, clarinet, tenor and trumpet.

The album jacket of this budget LP contains many mistakes (Cedar "Watton" on piano?) and the recording quality of the live (bootleg?) session is erratic but trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was at the peak of his powers in the early '70s, making this set worth picking up by his true fans. Hubbard stretches out on long versions of "Intrepid Fox" and "Pensativa" with his quintet (which includes Junior Cook on tenor, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Wayne Dockery and drummer Billy Hayes) and the rhythm section led by Watton, uhh Walton gets The Beatles' "Yesterday" as a feature.