With her flexible, slender but dark-timbred mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato is the star guest at Sir Simon Rattle’s side during the New Year’s Eve Concert, singing Richard Strauss’s lavishly beautiful orchestral songs. The programme also includes works by Dvořák, Stravinsky, Bernstein and Shostakovich and will create the perfect atmosphere for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

The 7th annual collection for Blind Raccoon (third in partnership with Nola Blue) has been a favorite with DJs and attendees at the International Blues Challenge, with funds raised to benefit The Blues Foundation's HART Fund. The Blind Raccoon and Nola Blue Collection Volume III contains 32 compositions. An array of Blind Raccoon clients, including both independent and label artists, are represented as noted in the song credits.

A Yorkshire-based unit MATERIALEYES were founded by Dave WESTMORELAND (voices, keyboards, guitars) and Will LAWERY (guitars, voices). After a short while a multi-instrumentalist Martyn HOWES (guitars, keyboards, saxophone, bass, drums, voices) joined the project. They released their debut album "Strange Road" in the spring of 2018 via their own label Davwilmar Music. In the following year in collaboration with a couple of musicians like Billy LONGTHORNE (drums), Bill MOSEY (bass), or Dianne HOWES (flute, voices) their second creation titled "In Focus" was launched. Three Of A Kind is their third album.

Daniil Trifinov's, Silver Age, recorded w/ Valery Gergiev & the Mariinsky Orchestra, recalls a time when Russia's composers, poets, & artists were among the most original anywhere in the world. It illustrates the artistic audacity & brilliance of a turbulent era in the country's history w/ works by 3 of its most pioneering composers: Scriabin's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F sharp minor Op.20, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor Op.16, & Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka.

In 1966 two R & B bands local to Oldham (UK) merged to form a blues outfit THE BLUES KEEPERS. With sponsorship from a local businessman (also their manager) they rented an 18th century farmhouse where they practised extensively, gradually moving towards a progressive rock style then beginning to emerge…

Throughout his career, Femi Kuti, eldest son of Fela, has sought to establish his own musical identity while being the torchbearer (along with his younger brother Seun) of his late father's legacy. That truth can be easily envisaged on the cover of No Place for My Dream, where a woman is walking with a basket on her head through an enormous field of garbage. Recorded in Paris, the album sticks close to the heart of Afro-beat, but Kuti, infuses the music with Latin, African-American, and Caribbean sounds as well. The message is the message. Kuti has no choice but to deliver it song after song - "Nothing to Show for It," "No Work No Job No Money," "Politics Na Big Business," etc. all speak truth to the power of oppression The righteous indignation is everywhere, presented in beautifully written tunes orchestrated by himself and Positive Force's bandleader/guitarist Opeyemi Awomolo.

Long before Ted Nugent made his name as a mighty crossbow hunter, there was this heavy Detroit band in which he was content to play lead guitar, something he does very well and with much less threat to the Midwest's deer population. The Nuge shouldn't try to take all the credit for this band, because the other members such as vocalist John Drake and rhythm guitarist Steve Farmer contributed with great aplomb, the latter writing much of the material on the second side's ambitious suite as well as co-writing the title hit with Nugent. This is some hard-hitting, well-done psychedelic music, recorded with taste by a producer known much more for his work with mainstream jazz artists, Bob Shad…

Although Mozart purists may not appreciate the irreverant interpretations by Glenn Gould, it certianly provides new insight into these well worn pieces. In many places, his performances completely change the conception of the music. That alone makes this worth having - it isn't another faithful run through, but a rethinking of these works by Mozart. Surely, his lack of fondness for Mozart shows, but I think it contributes to the excellence of these performances. This is Mozart as composer equal with performer. These are good.

To state the truth, Williams' second effort for Blue Note, Spring (Blue Note, 1965), often overshadows Life Time in part due to its accessibility and firm roots in structured post-bop. That's not to say that Life Time lacks musical vision, in fact, the album itself is an overlooked classic that boasts a sense of adventure and space that's absent on Spring. The music on Life Time is always moving, surveying every facet of each composition, extracting colors, emotions, and vibrations; it's unfettered from the claws of tradition and, when played from start to end, galvanizes the listener's imagination.

Geppo il folle is a 1978 Italian musical-comedy film written, directed and starred by Adriano Celentano…