Schumann’s String Quartets have been waiting for a talented young group to bring a fresh voice to the few familiar ones already in the catalog. The Eroica Quartet isn’t exactly young anymore (the group started in 1993), but it certainly brings a new perspective to these works. The Melos on DG (in a two-disc box with the Brahms Quartets) and the Quartetto Itialiano on Philips have been the benchmarks for years, but this recording definitely can be placed alongside them. The players of Eroica are period performance enthusiasts, and their clear, vibrant sound certainly revitalizes the music–which represents a burst of creative energy from Schumann. He wrote these pieces within weeks of his beloved Clara’s return from a long tour, and his joy (and the mental stability she provided him) is evident throughout.

An Indigenous Australian from the Gumatj clan, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was already a veteran multi-instrumentalist before releasing his 2008 solo debut as Gurrumul. Born blind, he had learned guitar from a young age, wielding a right-handed guitar upside down to play it left-handed—a practice he maintained throughout his life. After joining the part-Indigenous ensemble Yothu Yindi at age 18 and playing on their landmark 1991 album Tribal Voice, Yunupingu later founded the similarly genre-blending Saltwater Band.

Gurrumul’s posthumous fourth LP springs to life like a new dawn breaking over his Elcho Island birthplace. The late Indigenous singer/songwriter worked on this beautiful, cinematic album for four years, completing it just prior to his passing in 2017. Recorded with members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Gurrumul’s melodies tower above a dense, hypnotic orchestral backdrop that recalls the minimalist compositions of Philip Glass. The late artist’s final work leaves a powerful legacy, gracefully passing down the stories of his culture and traditional Yolngu life.

Already established as consistent hit-makers and dynamic live performers, Atlantic Starr – formed in 1976 in upstate New York, with a nucleus of three brothers, Jonathan, David and Wayne Lewis – were riding the quest of a wave of success in 1986 with the pop/R&B single “Secret Lovers” from the certified-gold LP “As The Band Turns” for A&M Records. The record’s success occurred just as the group – slimmed down from its original nine-member line-up to a quintet included the Lewis brothers, longtime member Joseph ‘Joey’ Phillips and new female lead singer, Barbara Weathers – had negotiated a new recording contract with Warner Brothers Records.

When Aerosmith got wind that their then-former record label, Columbia, was going to release a follow-up to the lifeless Classics Live!, the band wisely decided to get more involved this time around. The result is arguably the band's finest live album, even though it may be a bit short (not even 39 minutes in length)…

One of several Classics discs chronicling Waller's vast amount of Bluebird combo sides from the '30s and '40s, this roundup of some of the pianist's 1935 offerings includes many fine cuts but doesn't quite rank with the maestro's best work. Featuring Waller's longstanding Fats Waller & His Rhythm band, the 22 numbers may not include any original material, but there is still more than enough in the way of indelible performances. This is especially true for a wonderful "Lulu's Back in Town," the Coots and Gillespie rarity "Whose Honey Are You?," and "Rosetta."

Instinct has a reputation for presenting fine compilations highlighting the best of more obscure labels worldwide. This first chapter in their future jazz series heralded styles and categories that have since become adopted into the electronica vernacular. Licensed from Germany's stalwart Compost label, home to many artists eking out their own singular takes on downtempo trip-hop and drum-and-bass, Volume 1 includes contributions from Rephlex's Gentle People (the Casio-squelched lullabies of "Journey"), and Max 404, who uses the gurgling opening synth riff of Gary Numan's "Cars" to devastating effect on the interstellar overdrive "Quiddity." Fauna Flash offers the sultry drum-and-bass sulk of "Sexual Attraction," and there are other outstanding contributions from Patrick Pulsinger, Shantel, Chaser, and Turntable Terranova. The Future Sound Of Jazz is rare groove funk for space critters across the universe.

Baroque violinist Kreeta-Maria Kentala and harpsichordist Tea Polso's new album ""Polska Pandolfi"". According to the musicians playing on the album, the release combines early Baroque music of Pandolfi Mealli with virtuoso and peculiarly sharp twists to South Ostrobothnian polskas that are almost as intricate and the musical hooks of both are guaranteed to get the blood circulating and your feet tapping the beat. The three-time Emma Award-winning Kreeta-Maria Kentala has studied violin at the Sibelius Academy, the Edsberg Music Institute in Stockholm as well as Baroque violin at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in the Netherlands, Hilversum. She works as a freelance artist, leading orchestras and performing as a chamber musician and soloist.

Universal's 2018 set The Studio Albums Vinyl Collection 1971-2016 isn't the first time the Rolling Stones] post-Decca catalog has been boxed up. Back in 2010, all the albums up to 2015 (which means it didn't include 2016's blues record Blue & Lonesome) were offered in a set that was a companion to the similarly limited-edition box The Rolling Stones 1964-1969. In a sense, the 2018 set functions as a cousin to ABKCO's The Rolling Stones in Mono – a 2016 box containing mono mixes of all the material the Stones officially released on Decca – but where that set was issued on both CD and LP, The Studio Albums Vinyl Collection 1971-2016 is, as its title suggests, explicitly designed as a vinyl package…

Jean-Jacques Kantorow follows his critically acclaimed recording of music by Édouard Lalo with a second disc featuring two further works that were originally intended for Sarasate, the brief Fantaisie-ballet on themes from Lalo’s ballet Namouna, and the large-scale Concerto russe. The Concerto russe borrows themes from two wedding songs included by Rimsky-Korsakov in his collection 100 Russian Folk Songs.

“Love Makes a Woman” has been nominated for the 2019 Blues Music Award for Souls Blues Album of the Year! Also Thornetta Davis, a vocalist on the recording, has been nominated for Soul Blues Female Artist of the year. Love Makes a Woman is The Knickerbocker All-Stars 4th recording. When two phenomenal vocalists such as Darcel Wilson and Thornetta Davis get together for a session, it’s going to be special. Love Makes a Woman was inspired by the great female soul and R&B singers who popularized the genre. These carefully selected tunes barely scratch the surface of the sacred music of early Soul and R&B. This recording spans a wide range of emotional and musical content including an instrumental that allows the band to let loose.

Skinningrove Bay is a musical kaleidoscope of memories, observations, and wry comments as gleaned through the eyes of Jack Lancaster, who lived a colourful youth amid the last Iron and Whaling communities of Whitby and Skinningrove Bay in the North East of England. To tell his story, Jack, once a Blodwyn Pig, and now a notable solo artist and highly regarded session musician in his own right, gathered together a matchless group of artistes and musicians including such illustrious names as Phil Collins, Gary Moore, Rod Argent, Clive Bunker, Mick Rogers, and Robin Lumley, whose talents surely need not be referred to further…

2011 is the sixth album the Smithereens have released since 2007, but it's the first in a while that hasn't seemed like the product of a band just making busy work. After two albums of Beatles covers, one devoted to an edited version of the Who's Tommy, a Christmas album, and a live disc, 2011 finds the Smithereens finally recording a full set of new and original material for the first time since 1999's God Save the Smithereens, and it represents a return to form in more ways than on…

David Hazeltine is one of a handful of contemporary pianists who has mastered all of the major musical skills, from improvisation and technique, to accompaniment, arranging, and composition. Even more impressive, David is the rare artist able to innovate in each category. The mark of a true artist, David's style appeals to a wide range of musical tastes and levels of sophistication. His melodies and harmonies are beautifully complex and memorable. As a composer and instrumentalist, he has developed a signature style that is readily recognizable. Hazeltine has worked with some of the world's most respected jazz legends including James Moody, Eddie Harris, Jon Faddis, Joe Henderson, Pepper Adams, Jon Hendricks, and Marlena Shaw.