Jazz harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens began his career in Germany playing vibes. In 1992, a trip to California led to his signing with the prestigious Concord label and established him as the first major new voice on the harmonica since Toots Thielemans. His 28 CDs have received rave reviews and strong airplay and he has been listed repeatedly in the Downbeat and Jazziz Polls.

Jazz from The Pacific Northwest combines two previously unissued concert recordings from one of the greatest jazz drummers of all-time, Shelly Manne. The first recording features Monty Budwig on bass, Russ Freeman on piano, Stu Williamson on trumpet, and Herb Geller on flute and alto saxophone recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival on October 4, 1958. The second recording features Hampton Hawes on piano, Frank Strozier on flute and alto saxophone, Conte Condoli on trumpet and guest vocalist Ruth Price on two tracks recorded at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle on September 7 and 15, 1966.

Born in Detroit in 1932, Dorothy Ashby can be easily recognized as the woman who gave the harp a jazz voice. In her hands, the harp, an originally classical instrument which seemed to just scare people, became a highly versatile swinging voice able to drive a whole jazz rhythm section. Recorded in 1958 by master Rudy Van Gelder and originally released on the Prestige label, Hip Harp is a perfect example of Ashby's artistry. At the head of a fine quartet featuring the great Frank Wess on flute, Herman Wright on bass, and master Art Taylor on drums, Ashby creates a unique combination of deeply jazz elements expressed through a totally new sound.

With Frames, Antoine Karacostas delivers an album of seven compositions and an arrangement of rebetiko, the band's signature sound. In this opus, he drew his inspiration from painting and pictorial as well as musical impressionism, from French composers such as Emmanuel Chabrier. This album is also a reflection on the notion of framework, both the one we find ourselves in and the one we wish to go beyond, in our personal quest for freedom.

This superior three-LP box set reissues all of altoist Art Pepper's small-group dates for the Pacific Jazz label. Virtually all of the music has since been reissued on CD (part of it as The Artistry of Pepper and part of it under trumpeter Chet Baker's name), but the Mosaic box, which has an attractive booklet, is the definitive treatment of this chapter in Pepper's musical story. The great altoist is heard in a sextet with Baker and tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca, on a version of "Tenderly" with Chet Baker's big band, with Baker and tenor Phil Urso in a different sextet, sharing the spotlight with tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins in a quintet, and heading a nonet playing arrangements by Shorty Rogers. The music is very much in the cool/bop tradition, but Pepper is instantly recognizable (he never sounded that much like Charlie Parker) and even at this early stage, he was at the top of his form. All 26 performances are quite enjoyable and swinging, making this hard-to-find set worth the search.

Real groups like Empirical are a rarity in contemporary jazz, where musicians so often come together for single projects then disperse again once they are done: groups that endure for fifteen years, without slackening in their quest for the new and the fresh, are all but unheard of.

Recorded live at the Black Hawk, San Francisco in September 1959, “At The Blackhawk, Vol 1” is the first of 4 volumes released in 1960. Featuring six cuts, Manne (drums), is joined by Joe Gordon (trumpet), Richie Kamuca (tenor sax), Victor Feldman (piano) and Monty Budwig (bass). This new edition features remastered hi-res audio from the original tapes.

Paolo, Marco and Dino celebrate the myth of Chet Baker with original tunes and some of his favorite standards. "Tempo Di Chet" is also and especially the intimate and delicate soundtrack of a play dedicated to the legendary Chet Baker.

The theme for “Quiet as the Moon” was composed for a Peanuts television series, “This is America, Charlie Brown,” in which the Peanuts characters flew to the moon on a NASA space ship. Later, I set for chorus words by my wife, Iola, that describe the exquisite harmony of the universe, and acknowledges the interrelationships of mankind and the stars, earth, and moon. She based her lyrics on something Astronomer Don Brownlee wrote: “The atoms in our bodies have all resided inside stars. Most of these atoms were actually produced inside stars in the distant past. These atoms…four and a half billion years ago formed into our present solar system…. We are quite literally made from stardust.”

Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) is a set of never-before-released recordings of jazz piano icon Bill Evans, taped with excellent sound quality either live or in Danish TV and Radio studios in the mid-to-late 1960s. Treasures is truly a ’holy grail’ discovery culled from the private collection of Danish jazz musician Ole Matthiessen and being released for the very first time as a deluxe 2-CD set (a limited edition 180-gram 3-LP set)

Juno Award winning saxophonist Mike Murley co-leads his latest release with veteran Toronto pianist Mark Eisenman. The internationally renowned rhythm section of bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Terry Clarke complete the quartet. Murley and Eisenman perform four duo tracks, featuring music from Monk, Strayhorn and two standard tunes. The quartet takes on seven Murley/Eisenman compositions, reflecting the co-leaders’ shared interest in writing new melodies on standard chord progressions (contrafacts). Recent History is mainstream jazz at its best, capturing four of Canada’s most respected jazz artists in top form.

“Rome has something to say.” This is the message trumpeter Francesco Fratini delivers on his sensual, cool-as-can-be debut EP Homemade that dropped on March 11, 2022. The Italian native cut his teeth during a years-long residency in New York, returning to his hometown Rome with a deep love for Black American music, and a desire to lead the way in building up his city’s jazz scene. Working as a collective with longtime friends Giuseppe Romagnoli (bass) and Matteo Bultrini (drums), Fratini has created a set of originals that melds elements of cool jazz, bebop, and hip hop, mixing in a few timeless classics for good measure. It is a debut that puts the rest of the world, New York included, on notice.

Dave Brubeck's defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. It was a risky move – Brubeck's record company wasn't keen on releasing such an arty project, and many critics initially roasted him for tampering with jazz's rhythmic foundation. But for once, public taste was more advanced than that of the critics. Buoyed by a hit single in altoist Paul Desmond's ubiquitous "Take Five," Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever. That's a testament to Brubeck and Desmond's abilities as composers, because Time Out is full of challenges both subtle and overt – it's just that they're not jarring.

Radiant personalities of the European jazz scene, the French trumpeter David Enhco and the Swiss pianist Marc Perrenoud pay tribute to the great jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. With a selection of emblematic jazz standards, David and Marc trace the musical journey and tragic fate of Chet Baker, made of poetry and light.

On his new album After Hours (2023), Nobel emphasizes the so-called 'American jazz standards' for the first time. His inspiration for this was the 40th anniversary of the Chet Baker Trio's album My Prince Will Come (1983). The line-up of trumpet, guitar and double bass corresponds to the line-up on Chet Baker's album. This combination of instruments invites the tranquil and melancholic sounds that connoisseurs of Baker will recognize. But Nobel, Langedijk and Pol also make plenty of room for swinging jazz.