Tango, Tango Nuevo and Cuban music mixed together by the quintett Las Sombras, enriched with German short stories from the Tango Cafe. “A delicious mélange of tango, jazz, classical and world music…You will enjoy it!” - Hugh Bebes. The artists write: “Our music tells what we heard. Typewriter, snapper, cajon provide the pulse, kalimba, mandolin and cymbal invite on a journey to countries far away. We have followed the tango, we are still on our way, and it may take some time until we are home again.”

Arthur Crudup may well have been Elvis Presley's favorite bluesman. The swivel-hipped rock god recorded no less than three of "Big Boy's" Victor classics during his seminal rockabilly heyday: "That's All Right Mama" (Elvis' Sun debut in 1954), "So Glad You're Mine," and "My Baby Left Me." Often lost in all the hubbub surrounding Presley's classic covers are Crudup's own contributions to the blues lexicon. He didn't sound much like anyone else, and that makes him an innovator, albeit a rather rudimentary guitarist (he didn't even pick up the instrument until he was 30 years old).

The Garden Tapes: The Song Remains The Same Concerts (Expanded And Revisited Collector's Edition) is Empress Valley's newest deluxe title collecting all available sources from July 27th to 29th, 1973 recorded during final thre nights of ninth US tour in New York…

Alpha is the second studio album by British rock band Asia, released in 1983. It was certified platinum in the United States, eventually selling close to two million copies…

Taken from recently discovered sources in The David Bowie Archive®, I’M ONLY DANCING (THE SOUL TOUR 74) was recorded mostly during David’s performance at the Michigan Palace, Detroit on 20th October, 1974, with the encores taken from the Municipal Auditorium, Nashville on 30th November, 1974. The only song missing from the full set on the 20th October performance is ‘Diamond Dogs’ which was unfortunately only recorded in part. To make up for that it was decided to include the encores from the 30th November performance which featured ‘Diamond Dogs’ but also enables a fuller representation of the set from The Soul Tour including such numbers as ‘Knock On Wood’ and the ‘Foot Stomping / I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate’ medley.

This impossible-to-find LP from the 1950s contains two fine selections featuring a quartet comprised of Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich but is most memorable for the other two numbers which add the great clarinetist Buddy DeFranco to the band. Their version of "It's Only a Paper Moon" is remarkably uptempo and really swings hard; Hampton challenges his fellow legends to some spectacular playing.

Tobias Picker, hailed as “a genuine creator” by The New Yorker, has written extensively for the stage and for symphonic forces, and these two approaches are represented in this album. The Encantadas (an older name for the Galápagos Islands) derives from a novella by Herman Melville. Picker has set it as a melodrama, exploring the enchanted isles in all their quietly menacing and spectacular beauty. In a radical new form, Picker’s Opera Without Words is set to a libretto by Irene Dische that has now been removed, allowing the music alone to bear the expressive richness and intensity of this “secret opera.”

Camargo Guarnieri’s catalogue of works represents a legacy of incalculable worth for Brazilian culture, as has his influence as a teacher on several generations of younger composers. His association with the poet and musicologist Mario de Andrade led to the birth of the Brazilian Nationalist School and the ideals of using traditional Brazilian music in classical forms. The series of seven Choros and the Seresta for Piano and Orchestra represent Guarnieri’s personal approach to the concerto form, with striking contrasts between potent rhythm and dense, emotionally charged soundscapes and melodies full of Brazilian inspiration.

Greek by parentage, Vasily Kalafati settled permanently in St Petersburg where he counted Rimsky-Korsakov among his teachers, and later included Igor Stravinsky among a distinguished roll-call of his own students. Kalafati's style incorporated elements of the Russian National School into traditional forms, as can be heard in the wide-ranging contrasts and Romantic lyricism of his only Symphony. The Polonaise has a celebratory character with exceptionally bright orchestration, while the ingenious Légende commemorates Schubert by transforming his themes into a colorful late-Romantic symphonic poem that earned Kalafati some well-deserved distinction at its premiere. Conductor Byron Fidetzis and the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra recently made a much-admired recording of works by Nikos Skalkottas, and Fidetzis has also recorded for the Naxos Greek Classics edition.

Four of Sweden and Irelands finest musicians have joined forces to create a Celtic/ Nordic Christmas album full of light, darkness, hope and reflection…