At the time this album was recorded, Jefferson Airplane had expanded from a rock group into something of a San Francisco collective of musicians and launched its own record label, Grunt, necessitating a flow of product. As a result, there was a flurry of releases by the Airplane itself and several offshoots, with each of these records featuring several members of the loose aggregation informally dubbed PERRO (the Planet Earth Rock 'N' Roll Orchestra). Papa John Creach, violinist for the Airplane and its spin-off group, Hot Tuna, was the leader on this set, which featured members of the Airplane (Grace Slick, for example, duets with Creach on the lead-off track, "The Janitor Drives a Cadillac"), Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Grateful Dead. The result sounds like the Airplane records of the period, with a bit more of Creach's electric violin soaring over the proceedings.

Today, with Rhino's surprise release of From The Mars Hotel: The Angel's Share, the Grateful Dead vaults have once again been opened. Featuring 16 newly unearthed session recordings, the digital collection brings listeners directly into San Francisco's Coast Recorders during the spring of 1974, revealing the band's real-time process as they crafted such eternal staples as "Scarlet Begonias," "Ship Of Fools," "China Doll," "U.S. Blues," "Unbroken Chain" and more that would make up their classic From The Mars Hotel LP. The evolution of all of those songs and other album highlights is charted throughout this fourth edition of the band's fan-favorite Angel's Share series. Like previous installments that accompanied milestone reissues of Workingman's Dead, American Beauty and Wake Of The Flood, From The Mars Hotel: The Angel's Share brings together hours of expertly-curated outtakes, alternate versions, acoustic mixes, ​​unexpected moments and revelations that have never been heard or available on DSPs until now.

Early in 1935, the American violinist Louis Krasner suggested to Berg that he write a violin concerto, but Berg, involved with the orchestration of his opera Lulu, was not then interested in a new project. However, the death from poliomelytis of his young friend Manon Gropius, daughter of Mahler’s widow, that spring so saddened him that he decided to compose a concerto as a memorial to her. Te score was finished on August 11, 1935 – record time for the slow-working, meticulous Berg. Dedicated ‘to the memory of an angel’ the Violin Concerto was to be his last completed work, for on December 24 he died of septicemia of the age of fifty. Krasner gave the world premiere on April 19, 1936, in Barcelona, under Hermann Scherchen.

Two classic piano quintets from two centuries — Brahms and Shostakovich — are given superb renditions by acclaimed pianist Olga Kern and the Dalí Quartet.

The last two of the six String Quartets written by the composer of The Miraculous Mandarin, bringing together the most perfectly balanced between its two night musics, framed by three pillars of an arc built with ‘country’ material as authentic as it is violent (5th), and finally, the distressed, funereal farewell of the 6th with its sad (‘mesto’) ritornello.

The Doric String Quartet is firmly established as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics around the globe. Following their acclaimed recordings of Mendelssohn’s string quartets, here the quartet is joined by leading violist Timothy Ridout for an album of Mendelssohn’s two string quintets. These were written at the beginning and end of his short but remarkable compositional life.

"Masa," you're trying to break through the musical space and break into a new realm….The talent of an outstanding violinist named Masatsugu Shinozaki gave birth to one miracle!

Taken from his new CD ‘Evolution’ that hit the streets earlier this week, ‘Everything You’re Looking For’ is the latest single from the Emmy award winning producer, composer and smooth pianist LaShawn D Gary.

Female vocalists have forever been celebrated by audiophiles and music lovers alike. Whether the delivery is delicate or bombastic, a great female vocal well-recorded is just so sensuous. It's the genre that most often typifies the potential of hi-fi and what it can do to engage our emotions. It's no wonder the hallways of any hi-fi show will be resonating with the sounds of sparsely-arranged recordings of great women singers. It's the genre that best shows off the systems that manufacturers and dealers are trying to sell. Now, you can have all of those best demo tracks on one album. Show stoppers by Julie London, Diana Krall, Rickie Lee Jones, Nina Simone, Janis Ian, Phoebe Snow, Jennifer Warnes, Dusty Springfield, Shelby Lynne and many more. Every single track is an audiophile demo classic.

Face The Music is the new album from Sinne Eeg. Sinne is one of the strongest new female vocalists from the Scandinavian jazz scene. With 5 albums Sinne Eeg has established herself as a Danish jazz singer with international potential. Sinne’s distinctive vocals have earned her a loyal and ever growing fan base around the world as well as in her native country. As a singer she is influenced by Nancy Wilson, Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan, but with her personal touch of soft darkness, Sinne keeps the Scandinavian melancholy settled in her music.

Although he had initially declined the commission, Delius was persuaded to write the incidental music for Hassan by the actor and director Basil Dean, in July 1920, for performances he was planning for His Majesty’s Theatre, London, the following year.

Guido Bardi, the son of the Duke of Florence, kneels before Bianca, the wife of the rich merchant Simone, and holds her hands. Simone enters the room, having returned early from a business trip. - The very beginning of Alexander Zemlinsky's one-act opera based on Oscar Wilde's "A Florentine Tragedy" in the German translation by Max Meyerfeld shows the conflict from which the tragedy arises.

‘The air de cour has been with me for almost as long as I’ve been playing the flute… For me, it is one of the finest creations of French art. I have assembled these airs from the second half́ of the seventeenth century to complete the exploration begun with Et la fleur vole (early seventeenth century,

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, film/record producer, satirist, and author. He is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts, and polka medleys of several popular songs, featuring his favored instrument, the accordion. His works have earned him four Grammy Awards and a further eleven nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. This Hi-Res collection includes all of his studio albums.

Guitar legend Eric Johnson released a heavy rock masterwork with his classic "Ah Via Musicom". Johnson explores sounds of rock, pop, blues, jazz and country. His third studio recording featured one of his most popular songs, “Cliffs of Dover,” which was listed as one of the “100 Greatest Guitar Solos” by Guitar World magazine. The riveting track would win the GRAMMY Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Other standouts include “Trademark”, “High Landrons” and “Righteous”. This stunning recording has remained a staple with the guitar community.