Filmed live at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House in 1981, this staging of Camille Saint-Saens's opera takes on one of the Bible's most famous tales. After trying to force the Hebrews to worship his god, the Philistine ruler meets an untimely end at the hands of the prodigiously powerful Samson (Jon Vickers), who leads the Hebrews in a revolt. But beautiful Philistine Dalila (Shirley Verrett) uses her seductive wiles to weaken the strapping hero.

No one can denies that The Doors is one of the essentials bands in the history of rock. With tons of charisma (let's not forget that -at the time- Jim Morrison was referred by the press as "the american Mick Jagger"), a very personal sound and with an incredible catalog, The Doors have become not only a key band of the genre, but also a source of inspiration for countless artists. In this triple album, 'The Many Faces Of The Doors' we get into the secret world of the band, with hard-to-find tracks, side projects by its members, remakes and also, their roots. With a great cover art, a selection of songs that took a couple of years of work to secure, a remastered sound and liner notes, The Many Faces Of The Doors is a unique album, which is already being praised by many fans of the band.

Under the leadership of Paul Van Nevel, Belgium's Huelgas Ensemble continue their journey into medieval music on Perusio, a distinguished and imaginative collection of performances including "Helas Avril," "Ave Sancta Mundi Salus," "Gloria spiritus et alme" and "Laurea Martiri – Conlaudanda est."

The New York Trio consists of pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Bill Stewart, though it exists solely as a studio band for the Japanese label Venus, as Charlap's regular trio includes Peter Washington and Kenny Washington. Even though this band only meets occasionally in the studio to record yet another release in their prolific series for the Japanese jazz market, there is plenty of chemistry between the three veterans, while the nine songs from the vast Cole Porter songbook were likely to have been a part of each musician's repertoire long before these 2005 sessions. Charlap's lyrical piano style is quite effective, capturing the nuances of Porter's humor (even though none of his lyrics are heard), while the rhythm section gels nicely with the pianist. Highlights include a jaunty "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," a dreamy "Begin the Beguine," and a snappy "From This Moment On."

Warning: this is not your average progressive rock album. Discus could almost be described as the Indonesian Mr. Bungle - almost. They are not that frantic in terms of style-surfing and they don't have a singer as mad as Mike Patton, but they sure match Mr. Bungle in terms of virtuosity, eclecticism, and heavy rocking. This eight-piece group (a luxury in prog rock, where there's hardly a dollar to be made for a trio), with five lead singers, hops around between heavy metal, fusion jazz, contemporary classical, symphonic progressive rock, and traditional Indonesian music, usually touching all these bases within a single ten-minute song. The vocal parts are intricate, combining male and female vocals, several singers trading the lead and occasionally joining in complex polyphonic segments…

Jimmy Thackery created a distinctively raw, powerful guitar style and established a reputation as a spectacular soloist who is widely considered to be one of the finest guitar players of his generation. These newly re-mastered recordings chosen from three long out of print albums dating from 1992 to 1998 represent one of the most creative periods of his illustrious career.

Frank Peter Zimmermann, one of today’s most highly regarded violinists, here performs works by two Central European composers that also exemplify various currents in classical music during the period 1920-1950. Although it only received its first performance in 1973, Bohuslav Martinů’s Violin Concerto No. 1 had been composed 40 years earlier in the neo-classical idiom championed by Stravinsky. In contrast, the composer’s Second Violin Concerto (1943) is written in a more lyrical vein, partly to suit the playing style of Mischa Elman, the violinist who commissioned it. In both works Zimmermann is partnered by Bamberger Symphoniker under the orchestra’s chief conductor Jakub Hrůša, one of the leading Martinů conductors of today.

Werner Müller (1920-1998) was an orchestra conductor and popular music arranger during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1946 Müller joined the orchestra of Kurt Widmann, one of the most successful bands in Berlin. In 1949 Müller, age 30, started his musical activities in radio at the RIAS Berlin. He was concertmaster for RIAS radio and of Hans-Georg Arlt Tanzorchesters with 18 radio channels. After almost two decades in Berlin, he moved to Cologne, where he conducted performances of the WDR orchestra on radio and television.
He also contributed numerous albums to London's Phase Four label, the longest-running of the Space Age Bachelor Pad series.

A group from Genoa, Italy, starting as a totally improvisational band in 2002, led by Alessandro Vernetti (guitar) and Carlo Barreca (aka zerothehero) (bass, Chapman stick).After numerous line-up changes the band moved on to more structured compositions and in 2004 they recorded the album ''Careful!''.This was not released before 2006 on Mellow Records, at a time when the participating members Cinzia Bernardi and Vittoria Mezzano (female vocals) and drummer William Bettucchi had already left Fungus…

Eddie Higgins started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music. An elegant and sophisticated pianist, his encyclopedic harmonic approach and wide range of his repertory made him one of the most distinctive jazz pianists to come out of Chicago, gaining the respect of local and visiting musicians for his notable mastery of the instrument. Higgins also had the unusual ability to sound equally persuasive in a broad span of music, whether he was playing traditional swing, exciting bebop or reflexive ballads, providing the tone and stylistic flavor of each styles, as both a soloist and as accompanist…

Many people have thought many things about Grand Funk Railroad, but chances are, no one ever thought they were politically conscious, despite songs like "People Let's Stop the War," "Save the Land," and "Freedom Is for Children." That's only one of the reasons why the double-disc Bosnia seems so odd: it's hard to believe that the band had even heard of Bosnia, much less care about what was happening there…

Nostalgic reveries can offer a life-line after a year such as we’ve endured. If you’re needing a little pick-me-up to inspire better times, be they from the past or yet to arrive in the future, these “Halcyon Hymns” offer just the ticket. Featuring a soundtrack as lush and colorful as the Roger Dean cover art, this fourth collection from the Downes Braide Association finds the duo at the top of their game…