Since bursting on to the UK Blues scene with their debut record ‘The Uprising EP’ in April 2019 followed by their second EP ‘Innocence Of Youth’ in May 2020, Grace and Aaron have been going from strength to strength. The British husband and wife duo have an ever-growing online fan base and have gained the attention of Cerys Matthews’ The Blues Show on BBC Radio 2. Their unique harmonic vocal-led approach to song writing, dirty electric guitar, slide resonator mandolin and fiddle create a unique distinctive and contemporary blues rock sound that echoes 1970s classic rock with hints of the 1930s blues that inspire them.

After eight years in New York and numerous travels around the world, her music degree in the pocket, the Californian singer Shola Adisa-Farrar anchored to Paris to give birth to this album: his personal exploration of jazz. At his side, the Parisian pianist Florian Pellissier, knewn for its authenticity and so personal way to live the legacy hard bop. Their collaboration began in the summer of 2013. "Florian's experience and vision typically French jazz coupled with my curiosity for jazz and many forms of music that inspired me the soul, reggae and African rhythms helped create an album at the crossroads of our two worlds, says Shola Adisa-Farrar.

Don Byas was one of the great tenor saxophonists of the 1940s, a Coleman Hawkins-influenced improviser who developed a complex style of his own. His permanent move to Europe in 1946 cut short any chance he had of fame, but Byas recorded many worthy performances during the two years before his departure. On Classics' first Don Byas CD (which contains his first 21 numbers as a leader), Byas matches wits and power with trumpeter Charlie Shavers on two heated sessions that include pianist Clyde Hart and bassist Slam Stewart. He also plays swing with trumpeter Joe Thomas and pianist Johnny Guarnieri in a 1945 quintet and leads a quartet that, on four of its eight numbers, welcomes the great blues guitarist/singer Big Bill Broonzy…

In the 250th Beethoven anniversary year, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has chosen this programme of works by contemporary composers to illuminate and contextualize Beethovens extraordinary output for piano. In his explanatory note for the album, the pianist writes: Just as a mountain peak is always surrounded by other perhaps less lofty but no less fascinating summits, the major works of Beethoven are not isolated rock formations rising from the desert, but, as it were, Himalayas, forming part of a range in which other mountains might be the best pieces by contemporaries such as Clementi, Hummel, Dussek, and Wölfl. These composers all knew Beethoven well and were in contact with one another.

The New Colony Six started out as one of the better garage bands to come out of the Midwest in the mid-'60s, playing tough British Invasion-style rock & roll (their "At the River's Edge" made it onto the Nuggets box set), and they later evolved into a surprisingly sophisticated and skillful pop group that scored nationwide hits with the singles "Love You So Much" and "Things I'd Like to Say." However, this collection of odds and ends doesn't quite play to either side of the band's personality; in fact, most of the 24 songs aren't actually by the New Colony Six, with 11 tunes by the Raymond John Michael Band (which featured three NC6 alumni, singer Ray Graffia, drummer Chick James, and keyboard man Craig Kemp) and one each by Junior and Graffia, both latter-day Ray Graffia projects…

Joe Lovano is part of a select group of established musicians who have been around for so long, achieved so much, and have such an instantly recognizable sound, that a new release is more or less guaranteed to be good. And so it is with Classic! Live at Newport – everybody knows what to expect but that doesn't in any way diminish the enjoyment of listening to it.

Le point de départ, c'est une commande de l'Opéra de Rouen Normandie : une œuvre pour un orchestre symphonique et le big band Tous Dehors, avec pour projet d'illustrer les différentes étapes de la vie, de la conception jusqu'à l'ultime souffle. Passé le stade de la création, il n'a pas été possible de rejouer la partition sur scène ni de faire un enregistrement avec l'effectif originel (une cinquantaine de musiciens). Laurent Dehors s'est donc remis à la tâche pour une version en effectif réduit : neuf musiciens, plus les deux solistes invités (Marc Ducret et Matthew Bourne) qui dialoguent avec l'orchestre. Le résultat est plus que convaincant de vitalité, de vivacité et de pertinence.

Pianist Peter Jablonski's second album on Ondine features a large selection of piano works by Alexey Stanchinsky (1888-1914), one of the most talented Russian composers of the early 20th Century. Stanchinsky was not only a talent but a genuine innovator who despite of his early death had a profound influence on the generation of composers to follow. Peter Jablonski is the perfect interpreter to these magnificent gems.

Sony Classical is proud to announce an unparalleled reissue of Pierre Monteux’s RCA Victor recordings. They are being issued together for the first time in a single original jacket collection of 40 CDs. Each and every recording in this new 40-CD set comes from the best source, including previous Living Stereo, SACD and XRCD reissues. Many others have been newly remastered from the original 78-rpm matrices or tapes.