Sue Foley pretty much sticks to her guns on New Used Car – her tenth album and second for Germany's Ruf Records – resisting the urge to go pure pop and turning out instead another set of blues-inflected roots rock originals that prominently feature her laser-guided electric guitar leads. This is certainly good news, and things get off to a great start with the spunky opener and title tune "New Used Car," which cooks along on Foley's guitar and sharp lyrics that are fully aware that a car is just a metaphor for getting where you want to go and that the back seat is full of all the baggage a life brings.

„An outstanding instrumental soloist who is also brilliant conductor is hard to come by. However, Christian Zacharias of Germany is one such exceptional talent – a well versed, intelligent pianist on the one hand and a conductor with a broad repertoire, including opera, on the other.“ (BZ Basel, Alfred Ziltener, 11 May 2015) With his distinctive combination of integrity, unique style, surpassing linguistic expressiveness, deep musical insight and assured artistic instinct paired with his charismatic and captivating personality, Christian Zacharias has made a name for himself not only as one of the world’s leading pianists and conductors, but also as a musical thinker.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields", a small, conductorless string group. The ASMF gave its first concert on 13 November 1959, in the church after which it was named. In 1988, the orchestra dropped the hyphens from its full name.

One of the early pioneers of the Baroque movement, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has been a leading ensemble in early music for more than half a century. They are one of the most recorded chamber orchestras of the industry, mostly under the baton of the legendary Sir Neville Marriner. This collection of their Vivaldi realisations includes the very popular version of the Gloria with Barbara Hendricks, and concertos with soloists Christopher Parkening, Maurice André, and Iona Brown.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields", a small, conductorless string group. The ASMF gave its first concert on 13 November 1959, in the church after which it was named. In 1988, the orchestra dropped the hyphens from its full name.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) is an English chamber orchestra, based in London. John Churchill, then Master of Music at the London church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Neville Marriner founded the orchestra as "The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields", a small, conductorless string group. The ASMF gave its first concert on 13 November 1959, in the church after which it was named. In 1988, the orchestra dropped the hyphens from its full name.

These 1964 sessions marked jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's recording debut as a leader. In spite of his choice of instrument, he was mainly influenced by bop musicians (especially saxophonists and trumpeters) rather than fellow Frenchmen, swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli. At this stage in his career, he chose mostly compositions by European musicians of his generation, along with tunes American jazz compositions that had stood the test of time. His angular playing in Martial Solal's "Une Nui Au Violon" contrasts with his later venture into jazz fusion, while his dash through Charlie Parker's "Au Privave" is almost immediately halted to first showcase drummer Daniel Humair then flautist Michel Portal before he takes center-stage with a blazing solo…

Esoteric Antenna are pleased to announce the release of the marvellous live album by Van Der Graaf Generator, "Merlin Atmos”. In June 2013, Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans took to the road in Europe to present a series of live concerts that featured a set list that excited devotees of Van Der Graaf Generator like no other for many years. The band had decided the time was right to present their epic classic piece "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” in its entirety on stage for the first time, along with Peter Hammill’s equally epic "Flight”.
As the centrepieces of the band’s live set, a series of wonderful concerts took place, drawing on the classic material from the band’s past, as well as their more recent albums such as "A Grounding in Numbers”…

Dream Sequence is an electronic wandering through this German band's most familiar instrumental endeavors. The two discs are made up of tracks stemming from such monumental albums as 1974's Phaedra and 1976's Stratosfear, merging right into some of their finest material from the early '80s. Fans of full-length Tangerine Dream tracks should take note that three of their most popular offerings are only excerpts, including "Rubycon Part One." The rest of the album is comprised of delightful synthesized washes that represent Tangerine Dream's mind-numbing electronic voyages, like the spaciousness of "Cloudburst Flight" or the finite complexity of "Logos Part One." Not all of their music basks in the coldness of keyboard machination though…

Not quite as definitive of their time as Brit-pop sensations like Elastica and Sleeper and not quite as inventive and enduring as Garbage, Republica made a splash on the charts with "Ready to Go" and then more or less faded away, for stateside audiences at least. The British retrospective Ready to Go: The Best of Republica may be somewhat surprising to casual fans of the group, who may not have been aware that Republica recorded a second album, 1998's Speed Ballads, which didn't receive distribution in the U.S. An even mix of highlights from the group's two albums, Ready to Go features two versions of the group's catchy, dance-meets-Brit-pop title hit, along with the follow-up single "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and notable tracks from the more complex, electronic Speed Ballads such as "From Rush Hour With Love" and "Fading of the Man." Indeed, the collection manages to gather most of both of Republica's albums, making it the only Republica release anyone curious about the band needs to own.

Speechless, Bruce Cockburn's first foray into completely instrumental territory, is proof in the pudding that you can teach an old dog new tricks. There are 15 tracks here, the vast majority of which are redos of tracks from Cockburn's catalog. But given their treatment – many of them done as solo guitar pieces – the dearth of new material doesn't even matter. In fact, one could venture to say that these feel like altogether new pieces. Cockburn is a master guitarist; he often interweaves jazz, blues, country, and folk styles into his cross-genre songs. Here he shines, pure and simple. "Train in the Rain" (anyone notice how many of his songs are about trains and travel?) touches on Leo Kottke and Peter Lang; "Water into Wine" utilizes flamenco stylings while crossing into Gypsy jazz chords à la Charlie Byrd. A new work, "Elegy," kisses the modalities of "Greensleeves" while creating itself as a piece that evokes both absence and memory. "Rouler Sa Bosse" from Salt, Sun and Time juxtaposes Cockburn's six-string against Jack Zaza's clarinet, and becomes a straight-up gently swinging jazz tune.

Why so much of what pianist/vocalist James Booker recorded in the 1970s didn't surface until the '90s is a mystery, but that's secondary compared to the greatness routinely presented on this CD. It contains nine Booker selections that he performed at the 1977 Boogie Woogie & Ragtime Piano Contest held in Zurich. His relentless, driving style, ability to switch from a hard-hitting tune to a light, soft one without skipping a beat, and his wild mix of sizzling keyboard licks and bemused, manic vocals are uniformly impressive. Piano Wizard a bit short for a CD at 37 minutes, but it has so much flamboyant music and singing that it shouldn't be missed.

The Peterson Brothers - keyboard player Ricky, bass player Billy, drummer / guitar player Paul and their nephew, saxophonist Jason - are true brothers in arms, Minneapolis institutions, members and survivors of that city's musical revolution. They lay the music out like an uptown groove buffet.