Art Pepper, one of the major bop altoists to emerge during the '50s, started his comeback with this excellent set, Living Legend. After 15 years filled with prison time and fighting drug addiction, Pepper was finally ready to return to jazz. Accompanied by three of his old friends (pianist Hampton Hawes, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Shelly Manne), Pepper displays a more explorative and darker style than he had previously. He also shows a greater emotional depth in his improvisations and was open to some of the innovations of the avant-garde in his search for greater self-expression. Although this recording would be topped by the ones to come, the music (five Pepper originals and an intense version of "Here's That Rainy Day") is quite rewarding.

Rhino chips away at more rock nostalgia of the surface variety. This time out, both the '70s and '80 are pilfered for chart-toppers by Foreigner, Foghat, the Romantics, Bad Company, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Knack. Thankfully, despite the agitprop cover art, one is spared any overriding theme here, save for a virtual romp through an '80s mods (read: new wavers) and rockers party. And there's even a bit of hip-hop by Tone-Loc, and some proto-lounge swing from Buster Poindexter to bolster the mix. But, the bulk here will be best enjoyed by muscle-car driving heshers who don't mind hearing their favorite Frampton or Joe Walsh cut yet one more time.

The big task for Alice in Chains on their 2009 comeback Black Gives Way to Blue was to prove they could carry on battered and bruised, missing Layne Staley but still in touch with their core. They had to demonstrate the band had a reason to exist, and Black Gives Way to Blue achieved this goal, paving the way for another record just like it. Enter The Devil Put the Dinosaurs Here, a record that is pretty close to identical to Black Gives Way to Blue in its sound, attack, and feel. Where it differs is in the latter, as the overall album feels lighter and, at times, the individual songs do, too. "Scalpel" flirts with the acoustic bones of Jar of Flies and also has perhaps the richest melody here, working as a song, not a grind. That said, there is an appeal to that monochromatic churn, the kind AIC created on Dirt and haven't let go of since…

The funeral of Louis XIV mirrored his reign: grandiose and filled with pathos. Raphaël Pichon has chosen the setting of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles, built ‘for the use’ of the Sun King, to present a musical reconstruction of the event, with chiaroscuro lighting designs by Bertrand Couderc. Solemn grands motets like the De profundis and Dies irae of Michel-Richard de Lalande and the poignant Marche funèbre pour le Convoy du Roy by André Danican Philidor are juxtaposed with rarely heard music by Jean Colin, Louis Chein and Charles d’Helfer. An outstanding performance by Pygmalion, filmed on the occasion of the tercentenary of the event, in November 2015.

Following their acclaimed collaboration in Percy Graingers Folk Music, soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn turn to the Lyric Music of Edvard Grieg, an apt sequel as the elder composer befriended Grainger- who idolized the Norwegians folkloric idiom- immediately on their first encounter in London in 1906. Interspersing intimate vocal miniatures with lyrical solo piano pieces, Claire and Christopher mirror many of the programmes that Grieg and his wife Nina performed on their many recital tours together. Each of the works on Lyric Music tells a story as does the album as a whole ranging in mood from bright, youthful innocence to shades of autumnal twilight. Sung in the original Norwegian, Claires and Christophers performances are as evocative as Norways varied landscape.

“Phenomenally good … Dreisig’s voice [is] youthful yet assured, agile yet fluid, and powerful through its entire range … We can certainly expect much more to come from this singer,” wrote BBC Music Magazine in its five-star review of Miroir(s), Elsa Dreisig’s debut album of operatic arias and scenes. It was subsequently nominated for two top awards, Gramophone and Opus Klassik.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of the classic 1973 Progressive rock album The Alchemist by Home. The band featured a line up of Mick Stubbs (guitar, piano, lead vocals), Laurie Wisefield (lead guitar, vocals), Cliff Williams (bass, vocals) and Mick Cook (drums) and had recorded two previous albums in a more conventional style before recording an album cited by many as a lost classic of the Progressive genre.
The music integrates some British folkiness with blends of proficient versatile guitar, then-futuristic keyboard sounds, and passages that range in mood from the pastoral to the verging-on-bombastic…