In addition to its stated purpose of paying tribute, a tribute album presenting a variety of cover versions of songs associated with a major artist may also demonstrate the artist's influence on others and the quality of the artist's songs as performed in ways other than the original versions. The Putumayo World Music label has specialized in genre samplers of a given musical style as performed by various artists, but here changes its approach by having various artists from different styles perform the songs of "a reggae legend." Actually, "the reggae legend" is what the title should say, since, of course, the legend in question is Bob Marley. The artists are from Hawaii, the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, India, and Sierra Leone. For the most part, they succeed in paying tribute and demonstrating Marley's influence on them, but they do not show off his talent as a writer by performing his songs in different ways.

There is very little information about the singer herself. She is an American, this is her debut album, received very warmly, most likely due to the active participation of Lynne. She recorded her second disc 'Restless Nights' only in 2002. In 2003: her single 'Holding All My Love For You' was included in the soundtrack of the film "Open Space" with K. Kestner. In 2008, the album 'Dominoes' was released, sustained in a light pop-jazz spirit.

Winner of the Leeds Piano Competition at the age of just twenty, Rafael Orozco exemplified a new generation of virtuoso pianists who favoured musical expression over spectacular display. His Chopin interpretations were truly revelatory, finding poetry not only in the Préludes but also in the Études. Remastered from the original tapes in 24-bit/192kHz, this double album captures the rare occurrence of a Spanish pianist tackling two all-encompassing collections in which the essence of Romanticism is distilled - a precious souvenir of the impeccable artistry of a star of late twentieth-century pianism.

This is the third volume in Capriccio’s 18-disc Pancho Vladigerov Edition. After multi-disc sets that introduced his piano concertos and symphonies this one turns to his concertos for stringed instruments. These powerfully unreticent recordings were conducted by Alexander Vladigerov and by the composer (Bulgarian Dances) with the Bulgarian Chamber Orchestra and Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. As with the previous two sets, the recordings were produced in the 1970s in Bulgaria. The violin soloists are Georgi Badev, Dina Schneidermann and Emil Karmilarov and two cello works are led by Ventseslav Nikolov.

The London Symphony Orchestra's cycle of Brahms symphonies was Bernard Haitink's first set of recordings on the LSO Live label, originally released individually throughout 2004-05, and then as a boxed set in 2005. This collection of remastered recordings is now available on SACD, and digitally in spatial audio. Bernard Haitink's revelatory Brahms recordings with the LSO have demonstrated why fresh new interpretations of his major works are so important, and why the composer's music is still so relevant today. After struggling for years to come to terms with his fear of comparison to Beethoven, Brahms finally completed his First Symphony at the age of 43. It was hailed as a triumph and the remaining three symphonies followed relatively easily. His Symphony No.2 overflows with a relaxed, pastoral beauty, while the Third Symphony contains some of the most dramatic music Brahms was to compose. Finally, loaded with German Romanticism and including variations on a Bach cantata, Brahms' final symphony is a remarkable example of his mastery of symphonic composition. A rich, warm work that builds on a sense of movement and intensity right up to the final bars. Along with the symphonies, this release also includes Brahms' Double Concerto, Tragic Overture and Serenade No.2.

Was John Coprario taking credit for someone else’s work when, under his own name, he made transcriptions of more than fifty Italian madrigals for a consort of viols? Such an accusation would be based on false premises, as anything resembling copyright was unknown at the beginning of the seventeenth century and for long afterwards; the use of musical material by someone else was rather considered as a respectful examination of ideas that were so promising that one wanted to think them through further. When transcribing these Italian madrigals, Coprario was not only extending an established tradition but also transcending it. He did not simply omit the text in his madrigal fantasias as had been customary in the 16th century, but also took the polyphonic setting even further, enriching it with instrumental possibilities that voices alone could not match. He also rearranged certain parts so that the original vocal work is not always immediately recognisable. Coprario, besides being one of the first to give ensemble music an instrumental identity, was no musical parrot, but an ingenious parodist.

Japanese edition with Bonus track.
Since forming in 1997, alternative rock trio Muse have ambitiously created a sound of their own, mixing elements of glam, pop, and symphonic music into a rock hybrid. While British fans have praised Muse for years, it wasn't until 2003's Absolution that Americans discovered the band and gave them their rightful props. Whether or not you championed the grand dramatics of Absolution, it was obvious that Muse are a solid and unique band, and Black Holes and Revelations, the follow-up, confirms those strengths with a passion. Rich Costey joins Muse in the co-production of this 11-song set; together, they create the band's most realized and meticulous album to date…

Too Much Guitar shows two prolific guitarists at their best. Recorded live at The Cellar, Bill Coon and Oliver Gannon, both veterans of the Canadian jazz scene, are an imaginative duo who make their instruments sing in amazing new ways. Theirs is a conversation across the ages steeped in both the modernistic sounds of John Scofield and Bill Frisell as well as the traditional jazz sounds of Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery. Accompanied by "Darren Radtke" on bass and Dave Robbins on drums, the ensemble plays such rarely heard standards as "Chi Chi" by Charlie Parker, "Have You Met Miss Jones," and "Darn That Dream." Sharply tuned and harmonically pleasing, Too Much Guitar taps deep into the improvisational potential of the music without losing sight of its original structure…

La-La Land Records, Capitol Records and Paramount Pictures proudly present the expanded and remastered 2-CD SET of acclaimed composer Hans Zimmer's original score to the 1989 culture-clash cop/actioner BLACK RAIN, starring Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia and Ken Takakura, and directed by Ridley Scott. Zimmer's pulse-pounding score would become a sonic blueprint for action film scoring throughout the 90's and well into the present. Finally, as produced by Dan Goldwasser and mastered by Doug Schwartz, BLACK RAIN gets its much-deserved and expanded deluxe treatment, presenting Zimmer's film score on Disc 1 and the original, remastered 1989 album presentation on Disc 2, along with bonus tracks and alternate cues that include the main title version of the opening song "I'll Be Holdin' On." Tim Grieving's exclusive, in-depth liners take you behind the film and its iconic score.

After the success of Gladiator, it wasn't unusual to see director Ridley Scott turn to Hans Zimmer again for the score to Black Hawk Down, his fierce adaptation of Mark Bowden's account of the tragic 1993 American military intervention in Somalia. What was more surprising was the schedule Scott imposed on the German-born composer: 15 days to write, arrange, and record the film's nearly two hours of music. The results of Zimmer's miraculous two-week musical campaign not only belie those constraints; they instantly take their place alongside The Thin Red Line as some of the most compelling music he's produced. The gambit here is simple–portray the combatants as two warring tribes, with their native musics locked in a tense dance for domination.

A varied soundtrack album that manages to weave in a little variation from the traditional type of motion picture scoring indulged in here by Sakamoto. Part of the reason for the variation is that only twelve of the album's 21 tracks are by Sakamoto – several are source music, others were composed by Richard Horowitz. The diversity thus makes for a more interesting album than might have been had from variations on the main minor-key "Sheltering Sky" theme (presented here in orchestrated and piano-based versions.) It also breaks away from the sound of Sakamoto's recordings, strong material that suffers from a certain digital harshness in the strings. Horowitz' part in this is in stepping away from traditional Western scoring and using Middle Eastern elements for score structures – something that's very effective indeed on "Fever Ride" with its blend of Moroccan and Spanish elements. Where Sakamoto easily sketches panorama with his music, Horowitz sketches in mystery. The local source music, too, adds to this, giving the album a grounding in the real world that completes the overall structure. An excellent album that can easily be recommended for more than just soundtrack aficionados.

This album is magnificent. The music is beautiful. If you have enjoyed other work Hisaishi has done for Miyazaki films, more than likely this will be no different. It's peaceful and melodic; then suddenly, it attacks with dazzling turbulence.

Kritzerland is proud to present a world premiere CD release: "ODE TO BILLY JOE" Composed and Conducted by Michel Legrand. “Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”. In 1967, Billie Joe jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge was one of the hottest topics of that summer, all over the world. The fact that it all had to do with a surprise number one hit song shows the power of great storytelling. Everyone was conjecturing what it was that was thrown off the Tallahatchie Bridge and why Billie Joe had killed himself. It became part of popular culture almost instantly. The song garnered eight Grammy nominations, winning three for Gentry and one for arranger Jimmie Haskell. Nine years later, Warner Bros. decided to turn the song into a feature film and hired author Herman Raucher (Summer of ’42) to do so. Max Baer, Jr. directed and produced the film – he was, at the time, best known for playing Jethro Bodine on the hit TV series The Beverly Hillbillies. Young actors Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor were cast in the leads, along with Joan Hotchkiss, James Best (giving a sensitive and wonderful performance), and others. Raucher changed the spelling of Billie to Billy and his screenplay fleshed out the events of the song, and gave the audience the reason for Billy Joe’s jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

In 1827, when writing his Quartet in A minor, Op.13, the 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohn was especially interested in Beethovens late quartets at a time when these works were generally written off as confused fantasies of a deaf musician. Mendelssohn's debt to Beethoven is evident in the important role of polyphonic techniques, particularly in the focus on cyclical connections between movements. Ten years on, Mendelssohn composed the three quartets, Op. 44, the D major quartet that closes the present disc the last of these to be completed; on publication, however, Mendelssohn placed it first in the set. Besides the seven complete quartets, Mendelssohn also wrote four individual string quartet movements. These were gathered together and published posthumously as op. 81, and on this second volume of their complete Mendelssohn cycle the Escher Quartet perform two of these pieces, both conceived in August 1847, shortly before the composers death.

This CD contains the first recording of the complete Chorale Variations by Daniel Magnus Gronau, a master from 17th century Danzig, “the finest musical soul ever to have graced the city of Danzig” as his pupils said after his death. He wrote a treatise on transposition, and the Chorale Variations form one of the most extensive compendiums of organ registrations of late Baroque organ music in Germany. Organist Matteo Venturini is a winner of no less than 8 prestigious organ competitions, and wrote a thesis on the organ music of Gronau. He plays on a magnificent Ghilardi Organ in the Church of San Rocco, Larciano. Booklet includes liner note and artist biography in Italian and English. All organ specifications are also included.