The Six Recorder Sonatas by George Frideric Handel are a compendium of the recorders original literature, and have an exceptional position because of their beauty. Theyre typically Handelian in character, in that the upper voice is very vocal, like his operas. The melodies are truly captivating and remarkable for their simplicity which demands far more virtuosity than simply moving the fingers quickly. The goal of Stefan Temmingh, one of Germanys most renowned recorder players of the younger generation, is to come as close as possible to the greatest of all instruments the human voice. The bass line makes an equal counterpart to the recorder part; its opulent, virtuosic and full of variety much more than in comparable pieces. Its executed without cello only by harpsichord, performed in an outstanding way by Wiebke Weidanz.

Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená hasn't often sung Baroque music. Thus, it is all the more impressive that when she does, she devises really innovative programs with unusual music. Her enthusiasm for the project may be gauged by her comment here: "I could hardly imagine more passionate, savage, uninhibited yet loving and caressing companions for these desperate heroines than Vaclav Luks and the musicians of Collegium 1704." She's right about the musicians, yet the real spotlight is on Kožená herself. The program consists of secular cantatas from the first half of the 18th century; this genre has been neglected amidst the general rediscovery of Baroque opera.

Before Felix Mendelssohn produced his Octet for strings in 1825, only Louis Spohr had composed for a similar combination of instruments. Rather than an octet, however, Spohrs work was a double quartet written for two equal but independent string quartets. Mendelssohn, on the other hand, treated the eight instruments as a single unit, collaborating in symphonic orchestral style, as he himself put it. He was only sixteen when he composed the Octet, full of a youthful ardour that has made it one of his most popular works. It is a farewell to the Mozartian style that had characterized Mendelssohns early production and at the same time a first step on the way to Romanticism.

The McCoys enjoyed a massive international hit with their first shot in the big leagues - after producers Richard Gottehrer, Jerry Goldstein, and Bob Feldman discovered them when they shared the bill with the Strangeloves in Ohio, the McCoys landed a deal with Bang Records, and their first single for the label, "Hang on Sloopy," went all the way to number one. But the McCoys had grander musical ambitions than their patrons at Bang were willing to nurture, and in 1968 they signed with Mercury Records, where they were given complete creative freedom as they cut their final two albums, Infinite McCoys and Human Ball. The McCoys' musical approach took a 180-degree turn with these two albums, which blended psychedelic meanderings with jazz piano pieces, country melodies, sunny pop, extended blues workouts, and a few pieces that defy conventional explanation…

Given his place in the pantheon of American rock music, Gregg Allman's solo career away from the Allman Brothers Band has been generally disappointing. Perhaps that's why it took nearly a decade between his previous album, 1997's Searching for Simplicity (its title alone indicates his frustrations) and 1988's over-produced yet underwhelming Just Before the Bullets Fly. A whopping 14 years later, Allman joins forces with roots producer to the stars T-Bone Burnett, hoping that some of the latter's mojo can rub off on a singer who is one of the great white soul and blues vocalists in rock music. For the most part it does, as the duo choose 11 relatively obscure covers from classic artists such as Bobby "Blue" Bland, Junior Wells, and B.B. King that have clearly influenced Allman's musical approach…

Guitarist John Abercrombie was one of the stars of ECM in its early days. His playing on this trio set with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette is really beyond any simple categorization. Abercrombie's improvisations are sophisticated yet, because his sound is rockish and sometimes quite intense (particularly on the nearly 11-minute "Sorcery 1"), there is really no stylistic name for the music. Holland contributed four of the six originals while DeJohnette brought in the other two (one of which was co-written with Abercrombie). The interplay between the three musicians is quite impressive although listeners might find some of the music to be quite unsettling. It takes several listens for one to digest all that is going on, but it is worth the struggle.

Over four phenomenal extended tracks this 1973 major label debut for the German Krautrock group is an essential ride through space rock territory for fans of early Kraftwerk, Can, and Faust. "Africa Steals the Show," "Round Dance," "200 Clinches," and "Das Zwickmashinchen" are mind-boggling forays into avant-rock territory - recorded by the stripped-back Guru Guru incarnation. At this point in 1973, Guru Guru was a trio of Ax Genrich on guitar, Hans Hartmann replacing Uli Trepte on bass, and leader Mani Neumeier on drums and keyboards. Essential primitive guitar overload meets avant-rock experimentation results in a powerful album, to say the least.

Goes Classic is a Schulze's adaption of masterworks by the old classical masters, done with his usual cosmic flair. The arrangements of the pieces don't sound updated or original. Except for a very few novel sounds, the synthesizer patches sound like basic programs and samples found on many mid- level synthesizers of the early nineties. The recordings sound too much like a synthesizer trying to replicate an orchestra, rather than reinterpret. The innovative sounds that made the seventies Schulze albums enjoyable are nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, the album makes good background music. While the synthesis does not capture the excitement of a live orchestra, Schulze manages to keep the recording from sounding robotic.

A collection of unreleased demos recorded in 1969.

In the mid-1960s, the rigid and colourless British way of life was irrevocably transformed by the emergence of the underground movement, a loose collective of young radicals who introduced new social, sexual and aesthetic perspectives. Operating out of the heart of London, their various activities, from the newspaper the International Times, to the psychedelic club UFO, promoted alternative lifestyles and values and sparked a cultural revolution. The Underground drew its inspiration from America's Beat Poets; among them Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti; who espoused an impossibly attractive Bohemian culture - a hedonistic lifestyle of art and free love and all that went with it. The counterculture was also invigorated by the fearlessness of such pioneers of free jazz as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor; drawn, in its search for a ‘spiritual elixir’, to India and her classical music, embodied initially by Ravi Shankar. Then thrilled at the audacity of an international avant-garde - including such giants as György Ligeti, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio - which pushed courageously at the limits of sound itself and who, in turn, would propose to all mediums of popular art in Britain a new palette of musical colours and techniques to work with.

This is one of pianist-composer Thelonious Monk's greatest recordings and represents a high point in his career. Performing at Philharmonic Hall in New York, Monk is heard taking an unaccompanied solo on "Darkness on the Delta" and jamming with his quartet (which had Charlie Rouse on tenor, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Frank Dunlop) on fine versions of "Played Twice" and a previously unreleased rendition of "Misterioso." However, this two-CD set has its most memorable moments during the six full-length performances by a ten-piece group. Monk's quartet was joined by cornetist Thad Jones, trumpeter Nick Travis, Steve Lacy on soprano, altoist Phil Woods, baritonist Gene Allen, and trombonist Eddie Bert. Jones and Woods have plenty of solos and, although Lacy surprisingly does not have any individual spots, his soprano is a major part of some of the ensembles. Most remarkable is "Four in One," which after one of Monk's happiest (and very rhythmic) solos features the orchestra playing a Hall Overton transcription of a complex and rather exuberant Monk solo taken from his original record. This two-CD set is a gem and can be considered essential for all jazz collections.

Roxy Music followed up their stunning debut with ‘For Your Pleasure’, an album that’s come to be regarded by many as the ultimate musical expression of Roxy Music’s early period. For this record the band found the freedom to develop the songs along experimental lines in the studio, resulting in an immensely satisfying musical statement. Added to Bryan Ferry’s alternately seductive and dystopian imagery, Eno’s other-worldly synth sounds and tape loop effects were propelled by the virtuoso musical powerhouse of Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson. Ultimately, the sum of these parts continues to earn ‘For Your Pleasure’ a place in many ‘Best Albums Of All Time’ listings and its music is as timeless and fresh today as first heard back in 1973.

The Atlantic Jazz series continues with this slice of mostly '60s jazz-soul treats. Fittingly, the 11-track disc includes a side by one of the prime progenitors of soul, Ray Charles: He and MJQ vibraphonist, Milt Jackson, stretch out on the canonized "How Long Blues." Further expounding on the soul-jazz trajectory, the collection spotlights work by organist Shirley Scott (the Aretha Franklin hit "Think"), Les McCann and Eddie Harris (their classic Montreux Festival cut "Compared to What"), Yusef Lateef ("Russell and Elliot"), and Hank Crawford ("You're the One"). And there's even a bit of boogaloo-enhanced bossa, compliments of trumpeter Nat Adderley ("Jive Samba"). The soundtrack to your next retro-cool shindig.

La-La Land Records and Universal Pictures proudly present a remastered and expanded CD re-issue of legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith’s (PLANET OF THE APES, THE OMEN, GREMLINS) original motion picture score to the 1989 big screen cult comedy THE ‘BURBS, starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern and Carrie Fisher, and directed by Joe Dante. Continuing an exciting collaboration with filmmaker Joe Dante that launched with TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and blossomed with GREMLINS, EXPLORERS and INNER SPACE, composer Jerry Goldsmith unleashed another wildly creative and notable score for the director’s hilarious, knowing suburban romp, THE ’BURBS. Goldsmith expertly balances the film’s rambunctious comedy, dark satire, suspense, action - and its heart too - with a bold orchestral work that sounds better than ever in this remastered and expanded presentation.

Doug Sahm is one of the great figures in 20th century American music, which isn't quite the same thing as saying he's one of the best-known musicians. As the frontman of the Sir Douglas Quintet, he had a Top 20 hit with the garage rock classic "She's About a Mover" in 1966 and a Top 30 single with "Mendocino" three years later, but after that he settled into a small but intensely devoted cult following. Not that there weren't attempts to break him on a wider scale – after the Quintet broke up, Atlantic launched a publicity blitz for a pair of solo albums in 1973 – but they never quite clicked, probably because Sahm's music, no matter how brilliant it was, never was popular music. It was a wild, wooly blend of rock & roll, soul, country, blues, and Tex-Mex, as informed by the sunny vibes of hippiedom as it was by the rowdy spirit of garage rock. Sahm created this sound with the Sir Douglas Quintet in the late '60s and over the next three decades he never strayed from it, but those records that the band released between 1968 and 1971 (plus 1973's rarities round-up Rough Edges) remained at the core of his legacy, and for good reason: not only did they illustrate the breadth and depth of Sahm's ambition, they're simply dynamic rock & roll, truly visionary American roots music.