Tetsuo Sakurai (born November 13, 1957 in Tokyo) is a Japanese musician. He started playing bass when he was 13 years old. He was a member of the jazz fusion band Casiopea in 1976-1989 and Jimsaku with Akira Jimbo in 1990-1998. He has released a total of 37 albums as members of Casiopea and Jimsaku as well as solo. He also made 3 instructional videos. Now, he is composing and playing his own music as a solo artist with domestic and foreign musicians.

Over the Hills and Far Away is the first EP by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released in 2001 through both Spinefarm Records and Drakkar Records. Bassist Sami Vänskä would leave the band after the recording of this CD, due to musical differences between him and Tuomas Holopainen, to be replaced by the current bassist and male vocalist, Marco Hietala…

Recorded live on three different continents (Europe, America, and Asia) from 2002-2004, Beyond the Sound Barrier finds Wayne Shorter leading the same acoustic-oriented post-bop quartet he led on his 2001 recording, Footprints Live!; the veteran tenor and soprano saxophonist is joined by pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade. But if Beyond the Sound Barrier should be considered a sequel to Footprints Live!, it is far from a carbon copy. While Footprints Live! contained several Shorter pieces that have become jazz standards (including "Atlantis," "Footprints," and "Juju" ), Beyond the Sound Barrier places more emphasis on new material.

It is a pity that this 1998 CD reissue (which includes the original liner notes) says nothing about what ever happened to Earl Anderza. The date (which has its original eight selections augmented by "I'll Be Around" and two previously unheard alternate takes) was the altoist's only one as a leader, and he has been little heard from since. Anderza's style, while influenced to an extent by Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean, was also touched a little by Eric Dolphy. Standards mix with originals; the oddest aspect of the set is that pianist Jack Wilson switches to harpsichord (not a good move!) on a couple of the numbers. The support by either George Morrow or Jimmy Bond on bass, plus drummer Donald Dean, is subtle and swinging. Earl Anderza clearly deserved better than the total obscurity he found.

The early '80s were a confusing time for many a jazz musician. The temptation to dabble in such waters as disco, funk, and rock was a risky proposition: pull it off and you were a genius, fail and you were the laughing stock of the industry. Falling somewhere in the large grey area between those two poles, the Brecker Brothers started the decade with Straphangin', a seven-song excursion into all sorts of fusion and AOR-like territories.

A keen advocate of the works of Antonio Salieri, Christophe Rousset continues his exploration of the composer's works, having unearthed the manuscript of another masterpiece. The three-act opera Armida, first performed on June 2, 1771 in Vienna, presents a perfect synthesis of the Italian and French styles. Salieri was just twenty when he turned to the difficult opera seria genre. He chose to tackle a well-known subject: that of the love affair between the Christian Crusader Rinaldo and the Saracen sorceress Armida, borrowed from Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata. A very dense plot focuses on an intense drama involving just four characters. The fluidity, originality and brio of his compositional style were to ensure Salieri's lasting reputation throughout Europe.

This album portraits the Finnish composer Sebastian Hilli, born in 1990 and thus one of the youngest composers ever to be featured on a KAIROS release. Hilli's works have in common the composer's fascination with structure, dynamism and carefully crafted details. Throughout, his music is characterized by complex woven textures and nuanced sonorities, long-span processes and a flair for extra-musical topics. The Uusinta Ensemble performs a diverse selection of three of Hilli's works - this is certainly a composer to watch!

André Ceccarelli has long been one of Europe's premiere jazz drummers and since the new century began he is getting additional opportunities to showcase his talent as a bandleader and composer/arranger as well. His band includes the brilliant pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, veteran bassist Hein Van De Geyn and the promising tenor saxophonist David El-Malek. Ceccarelli excels at driving a band and is equally at home in driving post-bop numbers like the pianist's "Five Plus Five," his own angular "Free Three" and his solo feature "1er Novembre." Van De Geyn contributed the haunting ballad "Though Dreamers Die," which features El-Malek's emotional solo. Vocalist Elisabeth Kontomanou is added for "Golden Land" (which she co-wrote with the leader, while it is also heard in instrumental form) and the standard "I'm Through with Love." This rewarding session will easily stand the test of time.

With North Star, Viking Metal pioneers EINHERJER release their eighth studio album on February 26, 2021, proving their status as the pioneers of blending Nordic Black Metal and Folk Metal genres once again. The album marks the band’s return to Napalm Records after 25 years, and their release of the legendary Dragons Of The North album (1996). The Norwegian metal outfit remains musically true to themselves and reinforces their exceptional position. North Star was recorded in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic at the in-house Studio Borealis, owned by founding member and mastermind Frode Glesnes. The raw production ties in seamlessly with its predecessor Norrøne Spor and makes North Star probably the most powerful EINHERJER album to date! North Star is EINHERJER's musical mission towards something bigger - the search for guidance by the North Star in a constantly changing world that is searching for stability. Founded in Norway in 1993, the band has significantly influenced the way of Viking Metal in the following years with Dragons Of The North - 25 years later, EINHERJER are stronger than ever and are bursting with energy on North Star!

This release by hard rock favorites UFO is actually a two-disc set. The first disc consists of new material while disc two is a live album. The new studio material finds many of the old UFO sounds and trademarks, but is perhaps a bit rawer, both in terms of production and performance. In many ways, the new tracks feel a lot like they might have been leftovers from the previous CD, the brilliant Walk on Water. This one should certainly please longtime fans of the band, but probably is not a good introduction to the group. The lineup this time out is veteran drummer Aynsley Dunbar, guitar hero Michael Schenker, and vocalist Phil Mogg.

Harry Lime, the charming but dastardly anti-hero in the classic 1949 film noir The Third Man, famously dissed Switzerland saying "they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." The renegade Swiss quintet Le Rex isn’t making up for lost time, but there’s an urgency and creative ferocity to their music that would make Lime reconsider his unfair denigration. Featuring four expert horn players and drums, the band is a rising force on the European music scene, with an irresistibly grooving sound honed on the street and designed for maximum impact in clubs and concert halls.
Le Rex’s fourth album 'Escape of the Fire Ants' is the band’s most confident and cohesive, marked by consistently compelling compositions, careening melodies and thick, lapidary harmonies…

Refined big band compositions and Nordic throat singing. Yet again this big band shows its capabilities to surprise with something new every time. It is immediately recognisable through its unconventional, absorbing yet unambiguous approach. Their leader is absolutely uncompromising. Norwegian Geir Lysne, born in 1965, manages to create a uniquely radical sound and yet with his pieces still remains very accessible. It’s like a solved paradox. On his new CD "Boahjenásti – The North Star" you can hear a continuously unexpected but satisfying mix comprising everything from various electronic elements through jew’s harp to traditional Norwegian singing.

"Ascanio in Alba" K. 111 came about through the good offices of Count Firmian, who had shared the Milan audience's enthusiasm for "Mitridate" and exerted his influence on the Empress in Vienna. He suggested entrusting the young Mozart with the composition of a festa teatrale for the wedding of the Empress's son, Archduke Ferdinand, and Maria Beatrice d'Este of Modena. Mozart began working on the score in late August 1771.