For a long time, bassist David Ambrosio has been a vital part of the jazz scene in New York City and his playing has been documented on many releases, including the wonderful trio recordings by pianist Eri Yamamoto. In 2014, a new chapter began in Ambrosio's story when he released his first album as a leader on Fresh Sound New Talent: Gone. Here, he was in the good company of alto saxophonist Loren Stillman and drummer Russ Meissner. Both of them return on Ambrosio's second release in his own name, Moments in Time, with Meissner as the co-leader of the project.

One of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century, as well as a legendary musician and producer within country music. Without Chet Atkins, country music may never have crossed over into the pop charts in the '50s and '60s. Although he recorded hundreds of solo records, Atkins' largest influence came as a session musician and a record producer. During the '50s and '60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonks. And as a guitarist, he was without parallel.

Spinnin’ is my fifth album as a leader, the first within the jazz piano trio idiom. For this recording, I called a drummer with whom I played quite a bit during my past years in NY – currently with tenor Joe Lovano – the young Otis Brown III, and the bass player everybody digs (Dianne Reeves, Joshua Redman, Charles Lloyd…), Reuben Rogers. ~ Laurent Coq.

This classic recording has a beautiful balance of African aesthetics meet American soul, jazz, funk, rock and pop. The songs have a vintage sound that could only have been made by a South African playing American music in 1971. Along these lines, the album cover is the perfect visual representation of the music. While having a 1970's sound, "Hugh Masekela & the Union of South Africa" is by no means outdated, nor will it ever. The disc has an enjoyable mix of slow ballads, township infused instrumentals and fast funk. The song writing is superb, the musical improvisation is good and the voices soar.

If you've ever heard the Berlin guitarist Arne Jansen, you'll know how difficult it is to forget his special sound. That passionate rummaging around in the warm diversity of the electric guitar, where bashful understatement mixes with playful sensuality. The humaneness become sound that always searches for what is special in the commonplace, exudes serenity and yet never itself comes to rest because its quest never ceases.

Behavior was a retreat from the deep dance textures of Introspective, as it picked up on the carefully constructed pop of Actually. In fact, Behavior functions as the Pet Shop Boys' bid for mainstream credibility, as much of the album relies more on popcraft than rhythmic variations. Although its a subtle maneuver, it would have been rather disastrous if the results weren't so captivating. Tennant takes this approach seriously, singing the lyrics instead of speaking them. That doesn't necessarily give the album added emotional baggage - all of the distance and detachment in the duo's music is not a hindrance, it's part of the concept - but it does result in an ambitious and breathtaking pop album, which manages to include everything from the spiteful "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" to the wistful "Being Boring."

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was perhaps the very first free-lance composer in history. Being born in Thionville in Lorraine as the son of a confectioner, he went to Perpignan in 1713 and established himself there as a collector for the Royal Tobacco Excise Office, a position he held the next ten years. He must have received some musical training, though, since in 1721 a drinking song by a 'M. Boismortier de Metz' was published. His musical activities increased and he went to Paris, where he received his first permission to publish music in 1724. He published duos for transverse flute and cantatas, which was the start of a career as France's most prolific composer in the 18th century, whose oeuvre consists of more than 100 opus numbers with instrumental music, and in addition to that cantatas, motets and some stage works. He also was active as a theorist, writing treatises on the transverse flute and the 'pardessus de viole'.

Benny Carter had already been a major jazz musician for nearly 30 years when he recorded this particularly strong septet session for Contemporary. With notable contributions from tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, trombonist Frank Rosolino and guitarist Barney Kessel, Carter (who plays a bit of trumpet on "How Can You Lose") is in superb form on a set of five standards and two of his originals. This timeless music is beyond the simple categories of "swing" or "bop" and should just be called "classic."

"The road was our school. It gave us a sense of survival; it taught us everything we know and out of respect, we don't want to drive it into the ground…or maybe it's just superstition but the road has taken a lot of the great ones. It's a goddam impossible way of life" - Robbie Robertson, from the movie The Last Waltz, quoted in the box set…

This collection is one with which a love/hate relationship is nearly inevitable. To really listen to this music requires energic concentration - you'll be emotionally exhausted. On the other hand, other than the first piece "In croce", you may put the music on and continue about your other work - treating it almost as ambience. While Gubaidulina has obviously been influence by chromaticism, and her choice of instruments, bayan, reflects her background Turkic Russian, she writes with a firm independence. The cello, bayan and strings are used in a way that make you think this is exactly the correct instrumentation - even after reading that "In croce" originally used an organ.

Flesh + Blood suggested that Roxy Music were at the end of the line, but they regrouped and recorded the lovely Avalon, one of their finest albums. Certainly, the lush, elegant soundscapes of Avalon are far removed from the edgy avant-pop of their early records, yet it represents another landmark in their career…

Con questo Vol. I d'una Opera Omnia ancora in corso, arriviamo subito alla piena maturità dell'importante musicista finlandese, ma anche forse del Meta4, importante quartetto connazionale: direi che si son fatti un regalo reciproco con questa produzione, ovviamente Ondine. Seppure resta per me sospeso il giudizio se queste possano essere delle interpretazioni di riferimento.

Some 30-plus years after his death and the popularity, the influence, and – more than anything – the iconoclastic status of reggae legend Bob Marley were still growing, so much so that his face on a t-shirt had become ubiquitous on college campuses, surpassing Che Guevara on posters and canvas banners as well. Marley, the documentary film and its accompanying soundtrack, aim to keep the man not only an icon, but a historical figure too by filling in his backstory with interviews, historical news footage, and that sweet, sweet reggae music that brought the man such a huge following…

This two disc 40 track compilation features some of the biggest Rock hits recorded by some of the most famous artists of all time, many of them taken from the esteemed EMI catalog.
Queen, Pink Floyd, Phil Collins, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Foreigner, The Pretenders, Genesis, Mike Oldfield and many more.