It is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin - and beyond: On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. In 2015, the orchestra has invited German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Together, they performed works by Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Ravel, Poulenc and Chabrier.

Following the highly acclaimed Volume I, dig further into the Wamono sound - the cream of the Japanese jazz, funk, soul, rare groove and disco music developed throughout the years since the end of the sixties in Japan!

They say that good things come in small packages, and this CD would seem to be the musical proof of that statement – certainly there are few more unassuming releases in Bernard Herrmann's output. Joy in the Morning is one of the more obscure movies ever scored by Herrmann and, as is pointed out in the notes by Christopher Husted, it was also the composer's last successfully completed major studio project, coming just ahead of the calamity that attended his work for Alfred Hitchcock on Torn Curtain. It has fallen between the cracks across the years, principally because the movie itself was a good deal less stellar than most of the Hitchcock projects (or, for that matter, the Ray Harryhausen projects) with which Herrmann distinguished himself in the early/mid-'60s. This CD is astonishingly good, however, being not only a close cousin to Herrmann's music for Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) but also containing thematic material in common with his clarinet quintet Souvenirs du Voyage, and string writing that also recalls his work for Vertigo and even Psycho, as well as writing for the reeds and winds that have echoes as far back as Beneath the 12-Mile Reef and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Deep, mystical, otherworldly, masterpieces soundscapes from Heavenchord is Out Now!

Dionne Warwick & the Voices of Christmas is the 30th studio album by American singer Dionne Warwick. It was released by Kind Music and BMG Rights Management on October 18, 2019. Featuring cover versions of Christmas standards and carols, Warwick collaborated with a variety of duet partners on the songs, including Eric Paslay, Aloe Blacc, Michael McDonald, Wanya Morris and duo Chloe x Halle. It debuted and peaked at number 48 on the US Top Holiday Albums.

UK jazz maestro Nat Birchall plays all the instruments - tenor & soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, Korg Minilogue synth, bass, drums, hand drums, bells, shaker - all sorts! The result is a sound you have never heard before. Prepared for an intense listening experience!

Paolo Fresu Quintet was founded in 1984 by the will of Paolo Fresu and Roberto Cipelli and today is rightfully part of the history of the modern Italian jazz, celebrating - with the same original training - thirty years of life, a very rare thing in'entire history of African American music.

The Original Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection 1971-73 (2012) {5CD Set, Sony Music}
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© 1971-73, 2012 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 88697 93034 2
Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Rock

The Mahavishnu Orchestra, in its original incarnation, lasted just four years, but in that brief time, the pioneering quintet set both the template and the high-water mark for fusion music. No band ever rocked as hard in a jazzy place as guitarist John McLaughlin’s charging ensemble. McLaughlin had already built a firm reputation in his native England as a keen improviser with blues and rock leanings when he was invited by drummer Tony Williams in early 1969 to join him in New York. Almost immediately, McLaughlin was swept up into the very epicenter of the burgeoning fusion movement, appearing on – in 1969 alone – three of the genre’s most significant recordings: Emergency! (by the newly-formed Tony Williams Lifetime) and In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, the epochal Miles Davis albums that kick started fusion.

Tenor saxophonist Charlie Ventura (born Charles Venturo) was a byproduct of the Chu Berry/Coleman Hawkins methodology of gutsy swing and early bop improvisation. The Classics Chronological Series did the world an enormous favor when they reissued Ventura's earliest recordings as a leader and followed suit with this fascinating second volume of rare material. Back in Los Angeles during the spring of 1946, Ventura - still billed on record as "Charlie Venturo" – paired up with master clarinetist Barney Bigard in front of a rhythm quartet anchored by bassist Red Callender. Two of the four sides waxed on this occasion feature an unidentified male vocalist who sings wistful ballads without doing too much damage…

This is the album to get immediatly if you are into Vital Information or fusion in general. Absolutly the best album from the band, totally mindblowing. Exceptional release. Perfect musicianship from all the guys in the band, Coster and Gambale above all the rest. Incredible jazz-fusion performances! Every track here is a marvel.

One of the most beautiful and definitive tracks in Max Richter's ever-growing body of work is "On the Nature of Daylight" from The Blue Notebooks, the album that brought him to the attention of many critics and fans. Since that breakthrough, he's developed a niche as a composer ready and willing to revamp the classics, as he did with Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, as well as a sensitive and versatile composer of scores for films ranging from looks at the not-so-tame secret lives of domesticated animals (Die Fremde) to dystopian sci-fi (Perfect Sense). Richter's music for Disconnect is an intersection of those career paths: the score uses "Daylight" as its emotional and musical focus, surrounding it with pieces that echo and complement it…

John Lewis - J.S.Bach - Preludes & Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (1998) {4CD Set, Philips PHCE-12001~04 rec 1984-1989}
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© 1984-89, 1998 Philips / Mercury Music Japan | PHCE-12001~04
Jazz / Classical / Cool / Baroque / Piano

When Wynton Marsalis made a splash as a jazz musician playing classical music, record companies sensed a winning formula. It's still nearly impossible to get an original jazz composition recorded, but all of a sudden jazz musicians have been offered the run of the Baroque and Classical repertory, ready or not. Amid the follow-the-leader frenzy, one of the more promising projects was an album of J. S. Bach pieces played by the Modern Jazz Quartet's pianist, John Lewis. Bach's contrapuntal thinking, and the strong sense that his compositions are frozen improvisations, have made him a consistent favorite of jazz composers, while the walking bass lines of many Bach pieces have encouraged jazz musicians through the years to ''swing'' Bach, an adaptation that often works surprisingly well.

The Distance represents a grand creative leap for bassist-composer Michael Formanek, following two widely lauded ECM releases featuring his quartet with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver. The new album showcases his texturally rich compositions for the dynamic 18-piece big band he has playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. The project saw some of the most distinctive musicians on the New York scene bonding to realize Formanek’s epic design, as he re-imagined what a big band can be. Channelling sounds from the classic to the modern, he also composed for individually expressive soloists in the Ellingtonian tradition. Along with the dark-hued romanticism of the title track, The Distance features the “Exoskeleton” suite – a kaleidoscopic musical experience in which Formanek’s bold, beautiful vision for 21st-century large-ensemble jazz comes vibrantly to life.

Charles Scott Boyer II was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Boyer was best known for co-founding the band Cowboy. Boyer was born Chenango, New York, and moved to Jacksonville, Florida in his youth. After high school, he played in the band the 31st of February. He co-founded Cowboy with songwriter Tommy Talton in 1969, which released four albums and supported the Allman Brothers Band on tour. Boyer's song "Please Be with Me" was later covered by Eric Clapton. After Cowboy's breakup, Boyer continued playing music. He moved to Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1988 and continued playing in a band called the Decoys until his death in 2018.

In 1968, six former choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge established the King’s Singers, later described by The Times as “the superlative vocal sextet”. The group has always comprised two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and over the years it has proved consistently exceptional for vocal distinction and breadth and diversity of repertoire. This celebratory collection of eight CDs focuses on Renaissance composers from Italy, England, France, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries.