Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd were born about 44 years and miles apart. Several decades later after the two forged their own path in music and the blues, it seemed like an idea that had been waiting to happen. For over 100 years, blues music has inspired, comforted and spoken to the truth. Young Fashioned Ways has managed to accomplish all of that and more. Shepherd notes, “Once Bobby and I got together, it felt like going home," with Rush adding, "I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come knocking.” Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a multi-platinum recording artist with five Grammy nominations, several Blues Music awards, among many other awards and accolades. Bobby Rush is a 3x Grammy winner and Blues Hall of Famer with his most recent Grammy win for his last album All My Love For You.”

An electronic tribute album to Pink Floyd isn't a bad idea, since the head-swimming quality of the group's music is so often a prime mover in electronica. However, the talent assembled for this Vitamin production is too often relies on a restatement of the original song to achieve bliss, without employing available electronic trickery to suggest anything new. Alex Xenophon is the main offender here, offering two versions of "Comfortably Numb" (slow and fast, natch), and a take on "The Wall." Only Motor Industries rises to the task, giving "Is There Anybody Out There?" a cool, retooled, new wave groove. The collective also renders "Time" as a drifting cocktail of 10cc and dub, referencing the clouds in Pink Floyd's head while creating a few of its own.

Composed for the Carnival season in Verona in 1735, Bajazet is a ‘pasticcio’ opera based on the familiar story of the eponymous Turkish sultan’s imprisonment at the hands of the Tartar tyrant Tamerlane. As such, it openly uses arias by other composers, including Hasse, Broschi and Giacomelli, as well as re-cycled pieces from Vivaldi’s own operas (L’Olimpiade, Giustino, Farnace, Semiramide and Montezuma among them). But this is no mere patchwork of recycled numbers. All the ‘borrowed’ arias are expertly placed within the dramatic fabric of the work and are held together with richly composed recitatives. What we end up with is the best of the best in terms of Neapolitan-style opera – tuneful, virtuosic and passionate. Virtually every number in this recording is a highlight. What really lifts the recording is the quality of the performances. There are no holes or flaws among the experienced cast.

The J.S. Bach Foundation has embarked on a remarkable undertaking: over a period of some 25 years, the Foundation will perform the complete vocal works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Each month, one of the over 200 Bach cantatas is performed in the idyllic town of Trogen in Appenzell, Switzerland. With a rhythm of 12 cantatas per year, the project is estimated to conclude in the year 2030. All introductory workshops, concerts and reflection lectures on the cantata texts are recorded; the texts of the lectures are published in a continually expanding Bach Anthology.

Henri IV of France married Maria de' Medici in 1600. A new art-form - opera - played an important role in the wedding celebrations in Florence, with Jacopo Peri's L'Euridice being performed on 6 October at the Palazzo Pitti. Giulio Caccini, however, was clearly in some opposition to his illustrious colleague and beat him to publication; his own version of the same Rinuccini libretto appeared in print in December of the same year. Caccini's lyricism, emotion and skilled vocal writing show clearly that his L'Euridice is the true forerunner of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. Ricercar now proudly presents this world premiere recording of Caccini's masterpiece.