Given that Sergei Prokofiev's 'Visions fugitives' are central to this recording, Visions is a fitting title for a CD devoted to works that differ greatly in style, atmosphere and artistic intent. The works include the stately court music of Henry Purcell, the elegantly classical world of Maddalena Lombardini, the exalted passions of Guillaume Lekeu, the existential fears of Elizabeth Maconchy, the controlled romanticism of Mendelssohn and the musical iconoclasm of Stravinsky.

This sensational disc has served as a reference edition for both concertos since it was first issued back in the late 1980s. The Sibelius concerto is distinguished by the tension between Lin’s passionate and virtuosic account of the solo part and Salonen’s remarkable precision at the head of the orchestra. Listen, for example, to the remarkable rhythmic clarity at the opening of the finale, and to the way this serves to “float” Lin’s daredevil pyrotechnics up above. It’s just marvellous. The same holds true of the Nielsen–there is no finer account of this neglected concerto. It’s a rarity because in the finale Nielsen subordinates flash and dazzle to the work’s overall emotional arc, progressing from anger to contentment. That doesn’t mean the music isn’t excellent, or that Lin and Salonen’s performances aren’t gripping from first note to last. They tear into the opening movement with apt ferocity and find the necessary emotional resolution in the work’s amiable conclusion. The detailed, well-balanced sound ideally suits the interpretations. Essential.

The sophomore effort from Georgia-raised, Britain-based vocalist Kristina Train, 2012's Dark Black is a brooding, atmospheric collection of slow-burn pop songs that put her burnished, sultry croon at the fore. Picking up where 2009's Spilt Milk left off, Dark Black finds Train once again working with British singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt, as well as songwriter/producer Martin Craft. Together, they've come up with an album that builds upon Train's twangy Southern roots layered with a baroque, cinematic aesthetic. Train's vocals are often drenched in an echo-chamber sound, often backed with boomy, resonant percussion, languid piano parts, eerie orchestral sections, shimmering baritone guitar lines, and even some light electronic flourishes. In that sense, the album brings to mind the work of such similarly minded contemporaries as singer/guitarist Richard Hawley and neo-soft rock singer Rumer as much as it does the classic soul-inflected '60s sound of Dusty Springfield.

In 1964 John Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. It's one of most influential and imposing jazz suites ever written, and on this debut CD for the Palmetto label, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, featuring Wynton Marsalis, adapts Coltrane's immortal composition to the big band. Not to be outdone by his brother Branford's quartet version of this material recorded live on DVD, Wynton and company skillfully extend and elaborate on the Coltrane's work, and preserve the soul-searching spirit of the four-part suite, which deals with the blues, 4/4 swing, Afro-Latin rhythms, and ballads. Pulsed by Carlos Henriquez's sure-footed basslines, Herlin Riley's spiritual syncopations and Earl Lewis's profound pianisms, saxophonist Wess "Warmdaddy" Anderson's Tranish cries, and the leader's triumphant trumpet tones are as fluent and fierce as ever. Collectively, this brilliant orchestra goes where no large ensemble has gone before.

Big Youth's debut full-length album, 1972's Gussie Clark-produced Screaming Target, was an instant classic, showcasing Youth's uncanny ability to transfer the vitality and energy of Jamaica's dancehall sound to the studio setting. But Youth did more than that. Recognizing that if one is given the chance to say something, then one ought to have something useful to say, he lifted the art of DJ toasting to the level of art by intelligently incorporating bits of Rastafarian wisdom, pop-culture references (frequently connected to the world of cinema), children's rhymes and key lines from traditional Jamaican mento folk tunes into his toasts to create a music that both drew from and added to the classic island rhythms he used, ultimately creating a template that allowed constructive cultural themes to be reintroduced into the frequently slack dancehall scene. An essential Jamaican album in its original ten-song incarnation, Trojan has here reissued it with fourteen bonus tracks that include the original vocal cuts Youth used for his versions, along with some marvelous dub versions.

On Shelter, 2014's precursor to Kodama, Alcest sounded like they had finally abandoned metal for dreamy indie pop. While the direction wasn't new - founder /multi-instrumentalist Neige had been incorporating shoegaze elements with post- and black metal since the very beginning - it seemed he and drummer Winterhalter had finally surrendered to them wholly. Apparently, two years makes a difference. Here, Neige has rediscovered dynamics and his love for metal without sacrificing his deeply aesthetic lyricism.
The title Kodama is a Japanese word meaning "tree spirit" or "echo." And true to form, this date is a conceptual offering heavily inspired by animator Hayao Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke, which explores the interrelationship of mankind and nature and their imbalance in post-industrial society…

The Genius of Ray Charles is a 1959 album by Ray Charles. In 2003, the album was ranked number 263 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Some players from Ray Charles' big band are joined by many ringers from the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands for the first half of this program, featuring Charles belting out six songs arranged by Quincy Jones. "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Deed I Do" are highlights, and there are solos by tenorman David "Fathead" Newman, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, and (on "Two Years of Torture") tenor Paul Gonsalves. The remaining six numbers are ballads, with Charles backed by a string orchestra arranged by Ralph Burns. Charles' voice is heard throughout in peak form, giving soul to even the veteran standards.

If your Latin jazz collection centers mainly around styles from Cuba and Brazil, pianist Edward Simon would like you to consider expanding your library to include musical influences from a culturally diverse land geographically situated between those two countries – namely Venezuela, where he was born and lived until the age of 12. Simon is an acclaimed post-bop and modern creative jazz pianist in his adopted country of the United States, and while Latin American elements have certainly seasoned his recorded output to date, this 2014 Sunnyside release finds him focusing more intently than ever on the nexus between creative jazz and the folk music of his home country. The album's title is derived from "Venezuelan Suite," whose four parts fill over 28 minutes of the disc's concise 38-minute duration. Simon composed the suite for his Ensemble Venezuela, and the ten-member version of the group heard here – including musicians from the U.S., Venezuela, and Colombia – is wonderfully vibrant, ably fulfilling the pianist's creative intent. Chamber Music America commissioned Simon to write this work, and he rose to the challenge with music that is suitably rich with timbral and textural variety.

Joe Pass did the near-impossible. He was able to play up-tempo versions of bop tunes such as "Cherokee" and "How High the Moon" unaccompanied on the guitar. Unlike Stanley Jordan, Pass used conventional (but superb) technique, and his Virtuoso series on Pablo still sounds remarkable decades later.
Tony Rizzi was a prolific Hollywood guitarist who started recording in the mid-1940s with bands led by Boyd Raeburn, Les Brown and Harry James. By the early '50s, Rizzi also was on many small-group sessions that included the Dave Pell Octet and Paul Smith Quartet. Rizzi had a confident, swinging technique and superb taste, as evidenced on his small number of leadership albums. There were just four in all - two are superb while the latter two are sticky pop efforts and largely forgettable.

Nonesuch Records releases The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece.

Released right before the group called it quits, Abbiamo Tutti I Suoi Problemi is a must-have for fans of complex avant-prog rock and Rock in Opposition, and it can also seduce open-minded fans of Italian progressive rock. The young musicians of Picchio dal Pozzo here manage to carve out a unique sound, resolutely attuned to the most progressive elements in Italian and British progressive rock, yet entirely personal and never matched afterward. Abbiamo Tutti I Suoi Problemi shares strong similarities with Unrest-era Henry Cow in the complex metrics, use of wind instruments, and overall chamber ensemble feel of pieces like "I Problemi di Ferdinando P." and "Mettiamo il Caso Che." Other reference points include Gentle Giant for the contrapuntal writing, Grand Wazoo-era Frank Zappa for the melody and guitar work in "Moderno Ballibile," Premiata Forneria Marconi for Aldo De Scalzi's vocals…