Angelo Berardi (Sant’Agata Feltria, Urbino, 1630 – Rome, 1694) was a pupil of Giovan Vincenzo Sarti and Marco Scacchi, of the Roman school, the latter a fundamental figure in his training. Committed supporter of the Seconda Prattica, Berardi maintained that modern music had reached “greater perfection compared to the past” and that the practice of music was more important than theory. He asserted, moreover, that a good composition should also elevate the soul to virtuous thoughts.

Norah Jones took liberty with her blockbuster success to set out on a musical walkabout, spending a good portion of the decade following 2004's Feels Like Home experimenting, either on her own albums or on a variety of collaborations. Day Breaks, released four years after the atmospheric adult alternative pop of the Danger Mouse-produced Little Broken Hearts, finds Jones returning home to an extent: it, like her 2002 debut Come Away with Me, is a singer/songwriter album with roots in pop and jazz, divided between originals and sharply selected covers.

The famous oboist Heinz Holliger and the legendary musical ensemble recorded for the posterity one of the most pyramidal musical documents in the second half of the past Century. There's no any flaw. Every single bar is perfect. Holliger dominates not only the variegated tonal possibilities of the instrument, but he gives to each score the expected degree of expressiveness and feverish lyricism.

The debut album by the Crickets and the only one featuring Buddy Holly released during his lifetime, The "Chirping" Crickets contains the group's number one single "That'll Be the Day" and its Top Ten hit "Oh, Boy!." Other Crickets classics include "Not Fade Away," "Maybe Baby," and "I'm Looking for Someone to Love." The rest of the 12 tracks are not up to the standard set by those five, but those five are among the best rock & roll songs of the 1950s or ever, making this one of the most significant album debuts in rock & roll history, ranking with Elvis Presley and Meet the Beatles.

Although Rosemary Clooney had a major part in the famous film White Christmas back in 1954, this was her first full Christmas album and it was a big seller when it was released late in 1996. From the jazz standpoint, there is not much here, as Clooney is accompanied by a huge orchestra conducted and mostly arranged by Peter Matz. Although there are a few brief solos from altoist Gary Foster, tenor saxophonist Dan Higgins, trombonist Chauncey Welsch and trumpeter Warren Luening, the music is essentially nostalgic middle-of-the-road pop with Clooney joined on several numbers by the Earl Brown Singers (who also take brief a cappella versions of some veteran Christmas tunes); one tune apiece features appearances by Michael Feinstein and Rosemary's brother Nick Clooney. But jazz content aside, Rosemary Clooney is in good voice, and the heartfelt emotions that she expresses on these Yuletide favorites communicate quite well.

Revered purveyors of emotive doom, My Silent Wake, have returned, bearing with them their twelfth full length album, "Lost In Memories, Lost In Grief". Despite featuring some of the heaviest, most intense music that the band have ever recorded, this new testament to their enduring creative powers also draws upon the strange magic that has infused their recent acoustic, folkloric albums - adding something richly organic and steeped in a sense of history to its entrancing elixir of sound. The result is an album which burns with a new, vibrant energy beneath the customary mantle of melancholic majesty, an album that shows My Silent Wake still forging ahead and crafting some of the most affecting and dramatic music imaginable…

Bone Against Steel is the ninth studio album by the southern rock band 38 Special, released in 1991. It was their last album until their 1996 comeback and the last album to feature the vocalist and keyboard player Max Carl. The album itself was a modest commercial success and only reached #170 on the Billboard 200 album chart. However, the single "The Sound of Your Voice", was a major hit, and one of three songs co-written by Survivor's Jim Peterik for the album. The song, with a vocal hook in the chorus very reminiscent of Survivor's "I Can't Hold Back", reached #2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the second of the three Peterik songs, "Rebel to Rebel", only reached #30 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.

The Scorpions' two previous releases, Blackout and Love at First Sting, were mostly successful due to the band's ability to adjust with the times; with Blackout, they used the classic power rock introduced by bands like Van Halen, and for Sting they used similar melodies, but with a harder, tighter sound akin to the work of such bands as Dokken and REO Speedwagon. With Savage Amusement, the group's first studio recording in almost four years, the Scorpions experimented with more polished pop melodies that Def Leppard and the like had made popular. The end result is polished and often predictable music that, while good, on the whole fails to be as infectious as the music on their previous albums. Die-hard fans will certainly find their share of worthwhile songs, such as "Don't Stop at the Top" and "Believe in Love," but they still may find Savage Amusement to be incomparable to its predecessors.

The popularity of Earth, Wind & Fire's biggest hits - 'September', 'Boogie Wonderland', 'Let's Groove', 'Got To Get You Into My Life', 'Fantasy' and 'After The Love Has Gone' - will never diminish! Formed in Chicago in 1969 by Maurice White, with a blend of soul, funk, R&B, pop, rock, jazz and ultimately disco, they had hits in the US and UK through the '70s and '80s. Aside from the unique combination of White's baritone and Philip Bailey's falsetto vocals, the ensemble also featured the tightest horn section ever, playing the most exciting arrangements. The band won six Grammys, and sold over 90 million records. This 45-track compilation contains their 17 UK hits and 38 US hits, and features extended 12" versions of 'Boogie Wonderland' and 'Let's Groove'.

Total: From Joy Division to New Order is a compilation album of material from Joy Division and New Order. It was released in the United Kingdom on 6 June 2011 by Rhino Entertainment and is the first album to feature songs from both bands in one album. It features five Joy Division tracks, including "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and thirteen New Order tracks, including a previously unreleased track, "Hellbent".

The Game is the eighth studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 30 June 1980 by EMI Records in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. The Game features a different sound than its predecessor, Jazz (1978). The Game was the first Queen album to use a synthesizer (an Oberheim OB-X). A critical and commercial success,The Game became the only Queen album to reach No. 1 in the US, and became their best-selling studio album in the US, with four million copies sold to date, tying News of the World's US sales tally. It is estimated to have sold a further 4 million copies in other countries. Notable songs on the album include the bass-driven "Another One Bites the Dust" and the rockabilly "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", both of which reached No. 1 in the US. The Game was the first Queen album to be recorded digitally.

Esoteric Recordings is proud to announce the release of a new 2 CD set anthologising all the recordings made by the legendary STRAY for Pye Records and its imprint Dawn Records between 1975 & 1976. After five remarkable albums and tours with some legendary names in rock such as Black Sabbath, The Groundhogs, Status Quo and Ten Years After, Stray signed to the Pye Records label in 1975. During sessions for their first album for the label, “Stand Up and Be Counted”, Steve Gadd departed the band. Second guitarist Pete Dyer joined Stray and Del Bromham, the band’s main song writer, now handled lead vocal duties.

Ernestine Anderson's first official Concord recording (which was predated by part of Live From Concord to London) launched her "comeback" after years of neglect (and a decade off of records). Accompanied by pianist Hank Jones, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jimmie Smith, Anderson mixes together veteran standards (such as "Yes Sir That's My Baby," "It Don't Mean a Thing" and "Tain't Nobody's Bizness") with more recent songs from Johnny Mandel, Stevie Wonder ("Bird of Beauty"), Ray Brown ("Soft Shoe") and even "Send In the Clowns" on this CD reissue. The singer's enthusiasm comes across throughout this fine studio set.

Recorded for Calliope between 1975 and 1991, André Isoir’s version of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach was an exceptional undertaking that received unanimous acclaim from press and public alike. La Dolce Volta here reissues this set, unavailable since 2008, on 15 CDs at a highly attractive price. These interpretations which have achieved legendary status for their magical touch and ornamentation, their supremely elegant and inward sculpting of phrases, are now enhanced by stylish new presentation (remastered sound, luxury packaging, recent interview with the artist, full details of the instruments).