Claudio Abbado was undeniably the supreme Mahler conductor of our time. With his Lucerne Festival Orchestra he has set new standards in the field of classical music, especially in the interpretation of works by Gustav Mahler. The core of the orchestra is provided by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, itself an élite body of players. Soloists like violinist Kolja Blacher, clarinettist Sabine Meyer, oboist Albrecht Mayer, violist Wolfram Christ, cellist Natalia Gutman, the Hagen Quartet and members of the Alban Berg Quartet to name just a few, make the Lucerne Festival Orchestra a star-studded ensemble.

Ray Vega pays tribute to 13 fellow trumpeters on Boperation, offering Latin jazz interpretations of songs that were, in most cases, written by the trumpeters themselves. All of the trumpeters that Vega salutes became well known after World War II and made their mark playing bop, cool, or post-bop; the Puerto Rican New Yorker doesn't embrace anything by pre-bop icons like Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Harry James, but, rather, turns his attention to the works of post-swing improvisers ranging from Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer, and the Fats Navarro/Howard McGhee team to Clifford Brown and his admirers, including Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, and Donald Byrd…

Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Jack McDuff - Soul Summit (1961-62) {Prestige 00025218511827 rel 1992}
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© 1961-62, 1992 Prestige / Fantasy / Universal | 00025218511827
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone / Organ Hammond B-3

The two early-'60s LPs in the Soul Summit series featured some of the many collaborations of tenors Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, who are joined by organist Jack McDuff and drummer Charlie Persip. Their six performances are primarily riff tunes, with "When You Wish Upon a Star" taken at a medium pace and "Out in the Cold Again" the lone ballad. The second half of this CD, which features both volumes, features Ammons on two songs ("Love, I've Found You" and a swinging "Too Marvelous for Words") with a big band arranged by Oliver Nelson, jamming "Ballad for Baby" with a quintet, sitting out "Scram" (which stars McDuff and the tenor of Harold Vick), and backing singer Etta Jones on three numbers, of which "Cool, Cool Daddy" is the most memorable. Overall, this is an interesting and consistently swinging set that adds to the large quantity of recordings that the great Ammons did during the early '60s.

Queen were straining at the boundaries of hard rock and heavy metal on Sheer Heart Attack, but they broke down all the barricades on A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece…

John Lewis - Jazz Abstractions: John Lewis Presents Contemporary Music (1960) {2013 Japan Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series}
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© 1960, 2013 Atlantic / Warner Japan / WEA / Rhino | WPCR-27208 | Jazz Best Collection 1000 Series
Jazz / Cool / Third Stream

Features 24 bit remastering and comes with a mini-description. Although John Lewis is listed as the leader (this album's alternate title is "John Lewis Presents Contemporary Music"), the pianist does not actually appear on this record and only contributed one piece ("Django"). On what is very much a Gunther Schuller project, Schuller composed "Abstraction" and was responsible for the adventurous three-part "Variants on a Theme of John Lewis (Django)" and the four-part "Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (Criss-Cross)"; Jim Hall contributed "Piece for Guitar & Strings."

“The World Tonight” is the second track of the 1997 album “Flaming Pie“. From the album liner notes: The second song from Paul’s initial session (there were four in all) with Jeff Lynne took what had been an acoustic, folk-tinged demo and imbued it with a progressively heavier treatment. ‘The World Tonight’ was written while on vacation in America in 1995 – of the 14 songs on Flaming Pie only the title track, ‘Somedays’ and ‘Great Day’ were composed in England, for the muse tends to strike Paul most often while he’s on holiday.

Sonny Rollins - Love At First Sight (1980) {Milestone OJCCD-753-2 rel 1992}
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© 1980, 1992 Milestone / Fantasy / OJC | OJCCD-753-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Sonny Rollins has an all-star backup band on this 1980 release: keyboardist George Duke, bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Al Foster and on some selections percussionist Bill Summers. The music ranges from "The Very Thought of You" and a remake of "Strode Rode" to some more lightweight group originals. Decent music but nothing that memorable occurs.

Fellwarden was a concept forged by The Watcher (Fen, De Arma) back in 2014 to give voice to an epic, exultant form of black metal that nonetheless carries with it echoes of deep lamentation and remembrance."Wreathed in Mourncloud" is inspired by countless wanderings amongst the crags and fells of England’s Lake District, howls defiance, regret and remembrance to the bitter grey skies. The Watcher has spent the best part of three years painstakingly crafting the material that not only matches the power of its predecessor but takes every aspect of Fellwarden’s sound to the next level. Recorded at various points across 2017 – 2019. Vocals, guitars, bass and keys recorded and mixed at Shockwave Studios by The Watcher. Drums recorded and mixed at at Havenless studios by Havenless. Album mastering by Greg Chandler at Priory Studios.

On June 26th, Sweden’s Falconer will release their new album, From A Dying Ember, via Metal Blade Records. Mixed and mastered by Andy LaRocque, From A Dying Ember was also recorded at LaRocque’s Sonic Train Studio. Stefan concludes: “To sum the album up, we can say that ‘From A Dying Ember‘ has some things that really stand out from a usual Falconer album. A lot of things happening and more elements to the music than ever before!”