Mendelssohn was not like Beethoven or Verdi–his second thoughts were not always better than his first. In fact, not one of the changes he made in his 1834 revision to the Italian Symphony–recorded here for the first time, alongside the original version of 1833–strikes me as an improvement; indeed, the later effort sounds more like a first draft, thinner, more repetitive, melodically less engaging. Nonetheless, it's good to have the composer's refashioning of the score on disc, especially when it's performed as confidently as here, if only to give us a renewed appreciation of what he achieved the first time around. For the familiar version of the Italian Symphony is certainly a masterpiece. And the performance it receives here from the Vienna Philharmonic and John Eliot Gardiner is one of the best currently available: polished and energetic, with plenty of the elegance one expects in Mendelssohn, even when he's at his most animated.

Don’t take the title of James Taylor’s One Man Band literally—this 2007 concert recording may be stripped-down but it’s not just James and a guitar, he’s supported by keyboardist Larry Goldings, whom Taylor dubs his “one-man band” in the liner notes, as that’s all the backing band he has here. Fair enough. But this isn’t just a question of clever semantics: as it turns out, Goldings has quite a presence on this intimate album, recorded at a three-night stint at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA, during July 2007. During this 19-song set, Taylor gives Goldings plenty of space to grace the songs with solos that show up his jazz chops.

Legendary guitarist Steve Hackett is pleased to announce "Genesis Revisited Live: Seconds Out & More", the document of his 2021 UK tour celebrating the classic 1977 Genesis live album. It sees Steve and his band perform "Seconds Out" in full and in sequence, as well as a selection of solo material including tracks from his most recent studio album "Surrender of Silence".

An Opera Revival – Three Centuries Later. In 2016, almost three hundred years after the composition of Georg Caspar Schürmann's Die getreue Alceste, barockwerk hamburg presented a semi-scenic performance of this opera in the atrium of the Hamburg State and University Library. The abridged version on this CD contains the most important elements of the action as well as the musical highlights of the work. In his text the booklet author Jürgen Neubacher guides us through the action with a synopsis and explanatory inserts.

The titular pun of Sinematic cuts both ways. Robbie Robertson drew inspiration from his work for the silver screen – in particular, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, which resulted in the Van Morrison duet "I Hear You Paint Houses," whose title is pulled from the title of the Frank Sheeran memoir that serves as the basis for the Scorsese film – but Sinematic also feels distinctly like a collection of aural short films. Throughout the album, Robertson relies on atmosphere, a vibe he builds with swathes of synthesizers, half-spoken, half-sung vocals, in the pocket rhythms, and plenty of tasty licks. Such studio precision has been a hallmark of Robertson's solo work, but Sinematic largely dispenses with darkness, at least sonically speaking.

The Japanese instrumental duo Gontiti fuse smooth jazz, easy listening and subtle Eastern influences into a lounge music style that has enjoyed lasting popularity at home while also finding an international audience. Their 1988 album In the Garden begins on a high note with "Andersen's Garden," in which melodic acoustic guitar figures play over a light bossa nova beat. The sound is something out of time and space - it could have been recorded anywhere, at any time in the last 40 years. Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn't as distinctive as that and gravitates toward slick, Western-style smooth jazz with synthesizers, drum machines, and burping fretless bass guitars. Gonzalez Mikami and Titi Matsumura's acoustic guitars dominate "Ferris Wheel" and the harmonics-laden "Acoustic Eel," but other songs, such as "Bandit in the Midnight" and "Homemade Grief," mix horns, strings and electric drums into rhythmic smooth jazz confections…

LSD: Love, Sensuality and Devotion gathers over a decade's worth of Enigma's definitive tracks, including the song that started it all, "Sadeness, Pt. 1." "Return to Innocence," "Beyond the Invisible," and "Cross of Changes" are all featured as well, and though the collection ranges from the rock-tinged "I'll Love You…I'll Kill You" to atmospheric, electronic fare like "Shadows in Silence," since it's all essentially Michael Crétu's vision, it flows surprisingly well. Since Enigma's sound has varied fairly drastically over the years, LSD: Love, Sensuality and Devotion is the perfect starting point for anyone curious about Crétu's music, and the only Enigma album that casual fans might need.

The brief career of this artist, one of four different horn players in jazz named Joe Thomas, can be basically described as symposium on funky flute. He was certainly not the only flautist huffing and puffing over strong backbeats in the '70s and '80s, the era's popular players in this style including Herbie Mann, Jeremy Steig, and Hubert Laws. Thomas' masterwork in this genre might be considered to be "Funky Fever," more than ten minutes of jamming that has been described as "jazzy disco funk boogie," complete with a vocal chorus that chants "I've got this funky, funky fever."