Veteran jazz pianist Amina Figarova embarks on a bold new step with her genre-bending Persistence, creating a new sound for the pianist with music that produces an electric-influenced groove mixing funk-jazz, jazz fusion, hip-hop, classical and R&B rhythms found on this new exploratory album. After two decades leading an acoustic sextet, her new quintet ensemble, Edition 113 (named after the block where she and her and husband, flautist Bart Platteau make their home) was assembled specifically to perform the eclectic new music experienced here.

The Grammy award-winning pianist Daniel Barenboim, long known for his Mozart interpretations, turns his attention to Mozart’s piano sonatas, a body of work that, while forming the core of the pianist’s repertory, is not often heard in the concert hall. These sonatas showcase Mozart’s genius for the small-scale, and truly shine in Barenboim’s masterful rendering.

Le monde qui vit aujourd’hui le Temps comme une ligne droite, a oublié qu’il fut vécu comme un cercle dans un lointain passé, celui des sociétés traditionnelles. La sphère illustrait alors à merveille la présence de la Transcendance. En ce temps-là, la Création n’avait ni commencement ni fin. Dans le monde d’aujourd’hui si difficile à vivre, où règnent le conformisme, la démagogie et l’imposture, d’où le Sacré a été écarté au profit d’une rationalité toute puissante, demeure néanmoins un double miracle : l’amour de la Musique et l’amour de l’Autre. Sans la présence de ce double mystère, la vie n’a pas de Sens.

Billy Taylor - Billy Taylor Trio with Earl May & Percy Brice (1954-1955) {Prestige PRCD 24285-2 rel 2003}
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© 1954-55, 2003 Prestige Records / Fantasy | PRCD 24285-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano Trio

Billy Taylor has become a jazz institution, with his multi-faceted role as a leading jazz musician, and jazz educator and spokesman, as well as serving several stretches in hosting both local and syndicated radio programs. Still going strong at 82, when this Prestige reissue CD became available in the fall of 2003, many of his longtime fans will finally get their first opportunity to hear some of his long unavailable early recordings. This compilation combines two trio dates with bassist Earl May and drummer Percy Brice: his 1954 Town Hall concert, and a studio session from the following year.

Le saxophoniste Michel Fernandez reprend son bâton de pèlerin avec un nouvel album « Sans Frontière » enregistré en mars 2020 avec ses fidèles compagnons Benoît Thévenot (piano), François Gallix (contrebasse), Nicolas Serret (batterie).

The Flaming Lips - American Head (2020) {Warner 093624893035}
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© 2020 The Flaming Lips / Warner Records | 09362489303
Rock / Alternative / Experimental Rock / Neo-Psychedelia

On American Head, the Flaming Lips use their storytelling skills to their fullest, combining some of their purest moods and most beautiful melodies with some of their most overtly autobiographical songwriting. Drawn from Wayne Coyne's memories of growing up in early '70s Oklahoma with his freewheeling brothers and their biker friends – as well as his imagined version of Mudcrutch, the precursor to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers that honed their chops in Tulsa around that time – the album's concept is one of the band's richest in some time. At the time of American Head's release, the band compared it to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and The Soft Bulletin, and it's true that the album's scope and depth of feeling put it on that level.

Sloth Metropolis is a musical mythology & ongoing sloth-themed rock opera told in prog, psych, folk and paper mache. In the EP ‘Move’, the Sloth of the Metropolis was forced to go flat hunting and found a mysterious manuscript whilst clearing out his old house. In ‘Origins’, the Sloth opened up the manuscript and read the story of Aengus Rudach - a Scottish bard and Alchemist from the 17th century who sailed to a mysterious island in the Atlantic after being accused of witchcraft. Aengus put together an alchemical experiment, aiming to combine the superhuman powers of the Island’s two inhabitants, the ‘Master of Matter’ and the ‘Master of Mind’. Instead of the perfection he hoped for, Aengus found himself transformed into a blissfully static sloth…

Don Elliott - Double Trumpet Doings (1955) {Jazzland OJCCD-1925-2 rel 1999}
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© 1955, 1999 Jazzland Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-1925-2
Jazz / Cool / Mainstream Jazz / Trumpet

Originally issued under the slightly more esoteric title “New Counterpoint for Six Valves” this is a disc dominated mainly by the frequent dialogues between its two principle soloists. Elliott and Dedrick make a disparate pair and their contrasting sounds are prime reason for the program’s more interesting outcomes. Elliott was a follower of bebop and renowned more for his talents as a vibraphonist than as a brassman. A collaborator at various times with the likes of George Shearing, Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich his artistic enterprises also moved beyond the realms of jazz into Broadway musicals and novelty tunes. Dedrick was more the product of a swing upbringing and his tone is shaped by a mellower, less overtly complicated approach.

Jarringly highfalutin name aside, Chameleons Of The White Shadow deserves better than the reception it will inevitably receive. The latest album by Egyptian-Australian musician Joseph Tawadros, Chameleons… will almost certainly be embraced by jazz and world music listeners alike as a masterful piece of work. Unfortunately, it will almost as certainly be ignored by everyone not immediately concerned with those genres. Which is unfortunate. Not because jazz and world music are deserving of a broader audience, either. Simply because Chameleons Of The White Shadow is a truly excellent album, regardless of genre.

The Buddy Johnson Orchestra was one of the few big bands that were able to stay together during the second half of the 1940s. They did that by featuring the vocals of Ella Johnson and Arthur Prysock, leaning towards R&B at times and hinting at (but not outright playing) bebop. This CD has the music from Johnson's last three sessions of 1947 and his three 1949 dates; the 1948 recording strike caused a gap. There were no major soloists in the band, but the musicianship was high, the vocalists (heard along with Buddy Johnson himself on all but four numbers) were excellent and there was plenty of spirit.