Many tend to overlook the fact that there exists a cross between prog and soul – they have the point, when only a few get there as convincingly as Mike & The Mechanics. John Carson, the former singer with Arena, got it right having delivered this songs collection with a help of his friends who don’t include a drummer. Solemn “Entre Millenia”, a wonderful chorale-like intro, shows all the beauty of John’s voice to lead directly into “Millenia” – attacking here and soothing there. Off the prog and into soul for “Wounded” acoustic softness – that’s another world, George Michael would score a hit with this classy one.

This recording, comprised of two complete Art Ensemble of Chicago albums – Les Stances a Sophie with singer Fontella Bass from 1970 and People in Sorrow from 1969 – offers two very different sides of the group's sound from this key period in their development. Recorded in France and released on the Nessa label in the United States, the two discs show how much in command the AEC were of their strengths even at that early date, though for the record it should be noted that with the exception of Don Moye and Lester Bowie, the trio of Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and Malachi Favors had been playing together since 1965. Living in self-imposed exile in France, the band explored the complete historical continuum of jazz and moved the free jazz boundary further to the left.

Kazumi Watanabe is a jazz and jazz fusion guitarist, from Tokyo, Japan. Kazumi learned to play guitar from Sadanori Nakamure, one of Japan's grandmaster guitarists. Kazumi released his first recording in 1971, and quickly became a promising guitarist in his own right. In 1979, he formed an all-star band with some of Japan's leading studio musicians, and recorded the album Kylyn, which is considered a masterpiece in fusion music. During the eighties Watanabe released a considerable number of jazz-rock albums. To Chi Ka (1980), with its funk influences and bright sound, is probably the most famous early title.

Claudine Francois is a beautiful pianist, and we love her work on other records – but she sounds especially great here in the company of bassist Hubert Dupont and drummer Hamid Drake – both players who bring a heck of a lot of texture to the session! Dupont's bass is wonderful – often more melodic than rhythm, at a level that's also echoed by Drake's always-creative work on the drum kit – providing these shifting shapes, like different platforms in sound – from which Francois' piano lines take off boldly.

5 instrumental tracks from Agnes Obel's latest album Myopia, released on Februart 21, 2020 via DG.

The guitar can cross musical boundaries like no other instrument, its shape-shifting qualities conveying it instantly, from biting twang to gentle iridescence. A guitar quartet performing Australian contemporary works may seem one-dimensional on paper, but this is a truly thrilling and beautiful album. It helps, of course, that Guitar Trek’s skill and musicianship on each of their myriad instruments is staggering—Nigel Westlake’s cinematic 6 Fish shimmers on the group’s steel-stringed instruments, while Richard Charlton’s Guitar Quartet No. 8 “Five Tails in Cold Blood” inspires ensemble work of mesmerizing precision with fizzing, jazz-inspired licks. Phillip Houghton’s kaleidoscopic, emotive Opal explores every inch of the guitars’ musical potential. Ending the album, Elena Kats-Chernin’s “Bleached Memories” pays a lighthearted, ragtime homage to the guitar’s Baroque heritage.

City Folk Jazz quartet James Farm is an acoustic-based yet forward-thinking ensemble featuring saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland. Formed in 2009, the group toured for a year to work out material before recording. In 2011, they released their debut self-titled album on Nonesuch. James Farm returned in 2014 with their self-produced sophomore album, City Folk.

The Dangerous Age is a collaborative studio album by Australian recording artists Kate Ceberano, Steve Kilbey and Sean Sennett, released on 31 January 2020. Ceberano recorded the album with her co-producer Rod Bustos in Melbourne. Kilbey and Sennett added their parts in Sydney and Brisbane. The album was mixed by Jason Millhouse in Brisbane. In a statement, Sean Sennett said "working with Kate and Steve has been a thrill. Ceberano and Kilbey were big figures in the culture when I was growing up… To have sat with Kate in her studio jamming while we were writing 'Not the Loving Kind', or to be hitting lyric lines back and forth with Steve during the writing of 'Monument City Lights, 1973' was a fantastic experience for me". The cover portrait for The Dangerous Age was shot by Justine Walpole who is best known for her work with Prince.

Heavy metal always provides in our hour of need. The return of Sorcerer seems particularly timely, such is the Swedes' noted mastery of an epic, classic and utterly ageless strain of doom metal that can hardly fail to resonate in an age of widespread mourning. Perhaps more importantly, however, "Lamenting of the Innocent" is far more than just another exercise in sledgehammer sorrow. Metal's ability to inspire and uplift hardly needs restating here, but within seconds of first track proper "The Hammer of Witches", it's obvious that this is as much a celebration of heavy metal as it is a funeral march. Weirdly, there is much joy and reassurance lurking in these snail's-pace hymns to religious misdeeds and spiritual torment…

Only 21 years old, pianist Bernat Font has become one the latest revelations of catalan jazz since the release of a first album where he renews the precepts of traditional jazz. (…) Bernat Font's surprising skills, a pianist with a classic background, to suggest a new reading to the most traditional sounds of the genre make him an artist with a great future in present-day European scene. With a repertoire full of his own compositions, this musician combines the different piano schools that marked a great deal of the history of the 20th century and does so with a unique dexterity and from a personal perspective which is filled with energy.

With a sound that captures all the elegance, exuberance and flamboyance of the swinging ‘60s, Chaise Lounge delivers music that is high on style and sophistication. This Washington DC based ensemble of six accomplished musicians performs a groovy hybrid of pop-influenced jazz and swing that seems to both embody another era and belong to the present moment. Members playfully describe the group’s style as “ music that sounds like it was recorded at Capitol Recording Studios in 1962”, “early stereo” or “ perhaps lounge with a capital ‘L”.

Today marks the 70th birthday of one of the greatest drummers of this, or any generation; the remarkable Billy Cobham. From his earliest recordings with Horace Silver, Miles Davis and Milt Jackson, to his scintillating and seminal work with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, keyboardist George Duke, and his own groups, like Culture Mix, Asere and the Spectrum 40; Cobham has thrilled audiences around the world by bringing his incomparable talents as a composer, drummer, and producer to the forefront of jazz, rock, fusion and world music. His latest effort is the eagerly awaited "Tales from the Skeleton Coast", part 3 of a series dedicated to his Panamanian parents.

All members of of Obscured By Pink are influenced by Pink Floyd. The band plays the music in it’s purist form; not like some of the band’s that fake it electronically. Hence the name Obscured By Pink. The band captures the essence of Pink Floyd’s finest moments. They focus on what made Pink Floyd into the band it became both before and after their commercial success. Also, the music created by Floyd during these days has become timeless. It can be enjoyed by all people of varying age groups, not just those entrenched in the period of the bands’ commercial period. Obscured By Pink was chosen as the name for the band to show the public that they weren’t really a copy-group. The band changes things (as Floyd did in the early days). This band is not a mechanical representation of one of the greatest bands in history. The band stands on it’s own and prefers it that way.

Since his passing in 1987, Al Cohn has tended to be overlooked by jazz writers, though he developed a strong following among those who played with him, not only for his inventive tenor sax, but also his swinging originals and arrangements. This Avid two-CD set combines three of his albums in their entirety, a fourth where he appeared as a sideman with valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, and two bonus tracks. Mr. Music has been one of the harder releases to find, recorded over several days in late 1954, it features many of the top cool and swing stylists, including trumpeter Joe Newman, trombonist Billy Byers, alto saxophonists Gene Quill, Hal McKusick, guitarists Billy Bauer or Jimmy Raney, and two of the most in-demand rhythm section players, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Osie Johnson…