Orange Mountain Music presents AFRICA SINGS, a probing celebration into African music, through classical music and jazz, through legacy and tradition. The recital begins with Angélique Kidjo singing Bella Bellow's Senye, segueing into the premiere recording of Philip Glass's orchestral song-cycle Three Ifé Songs, composed for Kidjo in 2014. The focus goes then to American music with Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige in Maurice Peress orchestral arrangement, before shifting to Europe and Alexander Zemlinsky's Symphonic Songs sung by Martin Achrainer which set, in translation into German, the poems of the great Harlem Renaissance poets Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Frank Horne. Kidjo joins the venerable Bruckner Orchester Linz and conductor Dennis Russell Davies who cruise through the Ellington before digging deep into the Zemlinsky with baritone Martin Achrainer in tour-de-force performances from beginning to end.

Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey, founder members of Pulp and DJs/record collectors/music lovers extraordinaire have said they will only ever do one mix album. Well, here it is. Meticulously researched and compiled, it's an amazing journey through power pop, expansive soundtracks, blues, alternative cover versions, junk shop breaks and genuinely unexpected musical nuggets. It's a genuine treat to listen to and, a rarity these days, a great introduction to some amazing, underexposed and obscure artistes and tracks.

Cynics might point out the reality that greatest-hits packages on artists who have left a label are a ploy to milk the consumer, but the consumers care more about a solid package full of their favorite songs from the artist. The new Acoustic Alchemy (with Miles Gilderdale replacing the late founding guitarist, Nick Webb, as Greg Carmichael's partner) is riding high on Higher Octave Music, but the material on this collection – part of a new GRP collection series – will always be, to the true Acoustic Alchemy fan, the real deal. AA's post-Webb sound is fancy and feisty, extremely soulful, and very attractive. Yet, there's something more intimate about the way Carmichael and Webb interacted; theirs was a union of true musical soul mates. This wonderful 16-track collection from their GRP and earlier MCA "Master Series" projects was chosen and sequenced by their manager, Stewart Coxhead, and he smartly picks all the crowd favorites: "Mr. Chow," "Catalina Kiss," "Same Road, Same Reason," and more. The range from pop to Latin to reggae is fun to experience again. There's obviously a poignancy to all this because of Webb's 1998 death, but it's more important to celebrate the legacy. As syndicated radio host and Catalina Island Jazz Trax festival promoter Art Good says simply in his liner notes, "These are good songs." More importantly, they speak of an innocent time, the early days of smooth jazz when even the gentlest of these could become radio hits. ~ Jonathan Widran

THE BOSWELL SISTERS The Boswell Sisters inauspiciously launched their recording career in New Orleans, their hometown, on March 22, 1925, but their first release, I’m Gonna Cry and Nights When I’m Lonely didn’t shake any rafters. Early local appearances featured Connie, the eldest, on cello, Helvetia (“Vet”) on violin, and Martha at the piano, but the city’s jazz environment made Connie and Vet switch to saxophone and banjo, respectively. At first, the singing was almost incidental, but it became their ticket to national attention five years later when they moved to New York and became a fixture on radio shows. The Boswell Sisters were notable for their tight harmony as well as their unique ability to modulate pitch and give familiar songs a new melodic twist. They were the cutting edge that inspired future groups, including The Andrews Sisters, who began their own career by emulating them, even down to their Southern accent. The exuberant sisters recorded a string of hits in the 1930s, sometimes teaming up with fellow vocalists, such as Bing Crosby and The Mills Brothers. Instrumental accompaniments are by some of the day’s most popular musicians and bands, including The Dorsey Brothers, Don Redman, Red Nichols, and Benny Goodman. Considering their popularity and impact, the sisters had a relatively brief run, disbanding in 1936 when Martha and Vel married outside of the music industry and decided to give priority to family life. Connie, however, continued and enjoyed a successful solo career. This boxed set contains the entire Boswell Sisters output of commercially released recordings—a remarkable set of performances that paved the way for the vocal trio genre.

Irrepressible, off-the-wall and utterly unique - the late ‘70s/early ‘80s Latin jazz-funk and leftfield electronic boogie of Japanese composer and pianist Izumi ‘Mimi’ Kobayashi collected for the first time. A luminous soul with an indefatigable love for music, few artists have had careers as varied and successful as Izumi ‘Mimi’ Kobayashi. One of Japan’s leading jazz-funk pianists, she wrote and recorded cult albums with fusion legends at home and abroad. Obsessed with new electronic instruments, she penned some of the country’s most well-known TV themes and pioneered the use of drum machines in anime soundtracks. A star in Japan, she moved to Europe to record global hits with Depeche Mode and Swing Out Sister, toured the world with the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra and made beats with Attica Blues’ Tony Nwachukwu. Now based in London, Mimi currently fronts Tokyo Riddim Band - the intergenerational live Japanese Reggae outfit born from Time Capsule’s acclaimed 2023 compilation of the same name - playing live shows and releasing a trio of recordings made at Prince Fatty’s studio.

Call it psycho-funk, call it Brit easy, call it downtempo abstract – whatever the case, it's all great! This second volume in one of our favorite all-time series is a stunner – and it comes up with a sparkling blend of very fresh grooves that we've only ever heard matched by a few other compilations over the past few years. The general vibe is rare soundtrack and sophisticated jazz funk material – and a huge amount of these cuts come from sources we've never seen before! Tracks include "The Rub" by Alan Tew, "Pretexte Indicatifs" by Guy Pederson, "Abstraction" by Projection, "Plummer Park" by Pete Jolly, "My Love For You & The Ugly" by Ed Green, "Beach Buggy" by Pierre Duchamp, "Beat Construction" by David Seeland Band, "Sour Soul" by Gentle Rain, "Night Is Blues" by Performance, "Name Of The Game" by Brian Bennet, and "Bass In Action #1" by Tonio Rubio. 19 cuts in all!

Brazil has always had its own brand of musical virtuosity, one that combined a distinctive and innate rhythmic swing with an effortless ability to turn seemingly abstract riffs into ridiculously catchy hooks. In the late '60s and '70s when these talented players in Rio and Sao Paolo turned their focus towards the North American funk scene and bands like Kool & the Gang, the Meters and the JBs, a new element was added to the mix. As the more polished sound exemplified by Quincy Jones and CTI Records took hold, Brazilian musicians red right back with their own distinct twist on the sound, one that inevitably revolved around a rhythm section laying down grooves that were both the tightest and the most supple imaginable. If that combination seems paradoxical, this collection will make the notion clear. Culled from the times no vocalist was claiming the spotlight, these instrumentals focus firmly on the rhythm section and its funky accompaniment, a journey through the '70s heyday of instrumental funk from Brazil from its rawest roots to refined boogie gems.

In the fall of 1983, a struggling singer from Ozone Park, Queens with audacious vintage style and a riot of candy-colored hair was about to go supernova in the new MTV-dominated music scene: Cyndi Lauper. She's So Unusual was just released and it blazed with a vivid kaleidoscope of styles including new wave, pop, post-punk, girl-group Motown and reggae. It was a perfect complement to Lauper's astonishingly supple voice and the irresistible vibrancy of the songs immediately endeared them to audiences all over the world.

For folk singer Willi Carlisle, singing is healing. And by singing together, he believes we can begin to reckon with the inevitability of human suffering and grow in love. On his latest album, Critterland, Carlisle invites audiences to join him: “If we allow ourselves to sing together, there's a release of sadness, maybe even a communal one. And so for me personally, singing, like the literal act of thinking through suffering, is really freeing,” he says.

Nowhere is the beat of a drum more symbolic of a culture than in Africa, where it’s forever been the heartbeat of daily life. From the trance percussion of South Sudan to the gnawagroove of Morocco, this is an exploration into a continent’s rhythmic life source.

Night is Alive proudly presents “This Christmas,” an extraordinary album that brings together the unparalleled talents of Teddy Horangic and Frank Lacy on vocals, accompanied by an exceptional lineup of musicians. Featuring the mesmerizing melodies of Xavier Davis on piano, the soulful saxophone tunes by Wayne Escoffery, the soaring trumpet sounds of Jeremy Pelt, the rich trombone tones of James Burton III, the groovy bass lines of Richie Goods, and the rhythmic beats of Quincy Davis on drums, this album is a masterpiece of musical collaboration and holiday cheer.

The group's follow-up to their comeback album is a major step forward, with more mature songs, more improvisation than the group had featured in their work since the early '70s, and more confidence than they'd shown since Brothers and Sisters. It's all here, from acoustic bottleneck playing ("Come on in My Kitchen") to jazz improvisation ("Kind of Bird"), with the most reflective songwriting ("Nobody Knows") in their history.

Deluxe two CD edition includes a bonus CD that contains the 3D60 version, which, as the name suggests, allows you to listen in glorious three-dimensional sound and comes enhanced with a weblink giving access to Push Entertainment technology, to buy a 15 min Ambient mix from the Metallic Spheres microsite. 2010 release, a collaboration between David Gilmour, the voice and guitar of Pink Floyd, and The Orb, the renowned British Ambient/House collective. Together, they created a two-part sonic mixture in a range of styles combining David's unique guitars and The Orb's crafted sound manipulations.

Two mid-'70s albums from ex-Traffic man Dave Mason. Both albums made the US Top 30 where Mason enjoyed a decade of success. Mason toured throughout the '80s and '90s, even joining Fleetwood Mac for a while in 1994. Digitally remastered and slipcased with new notes.

Capturing a homecoming gig for the conquering hero, Live at Grossman's 1994 finds blues-rocker Jeff Healey returning to a favorite club. Looking back, it’s easy to see that Healey was between stages: his most popular albums were just behind him and the years of him carving out a niche as a working bluesman who dabbled in jazz were ahead of him. Here, he was performing with the velocity and volume of a blues-rocker at his peak, invigorated by an intimate setting where he could just play, not worrying about throwing in “Angel Eyes” or “I Think I Love You Too Much.” The result is a set where he salutes his idols – Clapton, Elmore James, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, Hendrix, even the Beatles via an excellent “Yer Blues” – and it’s one of his purest and best records as a straight-ahead blues-rocker.