In their latest album, Safe Place, German jazz duo Roman and Julian Wasserfuhr craft an intimate refuge through music. This is not about a physical destination—it’s a state of mind, a sanctuary for reflection and focus amidst the noise of modern life. Joined by cellist Jörg Brinkmann and saxophonist Paul Heller, the brothers craft an intimate, heartfelt soundscape that celebrates genuine connection and invite the listener on a musical journey away from distractions, offering clarity and tranquility. It’s a celebration of friendships, authenticity, and the power of music to ground us in what truly matters.

Greenleaf Music is proud to announce the January 31, 2025 release of Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores, a wide-ranging, expansive new project celebrating the legacy of one of the great, original voices in contemporary jazz, Kenny Wheeler. Released to coincide with the publication of Wheeler’s highly anticipated biography on Equinox Publications, Some Days Are Better explores an undiscovered treasure of rarely-heard works by the iconic composer from a crucial and largely unknown period in his musical emergence. A transatlantic occasion, this project combines features the Royal Academy of Music Jazz Orchestra from the UK and University of Miami’s Frost Jazz Orchestra, and is augmented by a host of Wheeler fans, devotees and past colleagues such as Shelly Berg, Etienne Charles, James Copus, John Daversa, Ingrid Jensen, Brian Lynch, Evan Parket, Chris Potter, Nick Smart and Norma Winstone.

'Reunion Live' reunites three guitar giants for a sonic celebration that renews a tradition stretching back to 1996. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson inaugurated the G3 concept 28 years ago which put them on stage together for the first time ever. The G3 tour line up changed over the years, but in 2024, the original G3 reunited for a sold-out run of dates in the US. That experience is embodied in G3 'Reunion Live' (and much more than 'just' a live album). The format of the tour is mirrored here with a full set from each guitarist with their own band, followed by a full-on jam featuring all three. The individual repertoire is comprised of signature tunes from each guitarist such as Joe's 'Sahara', Steve's 'For the Love of God' and Eric's 'Cliffs of Dover'. The encore jam features covers from the likes of Hendrix and Clapton.

The NOW Yearbook series continues next month with 4CD and 3LP vinyl sets focussed on 1998

COLLECTION OF PREVIOUSLY UNEARTHED OBSCURITIES Formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, the members of Derek and The Dominos had previously played together in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, during and after Clapton's brief tenure with Blind Faith. Dave Mason supplied additional lead guitar on early studio sessions and played at their first live gig. Another participant at their first session as a band was George Harrison, the recording for whose All Things Must Pass marked the formation of Derek and the Dominos. Releasing only one studio album during their short time together as a group, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was produced by Tom Dowd and featured extensive contributions on lead and slide guitar from Duane Allman. A double album, Layla did not immediately enjoy strong sales or receive widespread radio play, but went on to earn huge critical acclaim. Although released in 1970 it was not until March 72 that the album's title track Layla made the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album is often considered to be the defining achievement of Clapton's career. While there have been a number of rare studio jams and live tracks released since, on reissues and other collector s items, the tracks now featured on this rarities collection remain previously unreleased. Including as it does rare outtakes from the sessions for the Dominos aborted second album, live obscurities and a range of other essential but not previously available cuts, this selection will prove a delight for Clapton/Dominos/Allman fans, acting as it will as a compilation to fill those annoying gaps in even the most complete collections.

Iconic British rock band The Who gracing us with their collection of rarities which put many a regular studio album to shame. Fans of the band's classic 1974 hard rock period who only own the proper albums really need to get 'Odds & Sods' to complete their collection. It's considered by many, the lost scrolls wrapped around the Golden Chalice. It is a fascinating mix of lost treasures, exciting misfires, and just plain weird Who artifacts. For instance their very first single, "I'm the Face," recorded in 1964 when the group were known as the High Numbers.

The Bolognese composer Giuseppe A. V. Aldrovandini is little known today, not least because of his short life, but he was a prominent figure in his time. Aldrovandini's trio sonatas have a simple form, strongly rooted in the formal structure of the church sonata, and a certain naivety in the solutions of the development of the chosen themes. These delightful works, which are the instrumental counterpart of Aldrovandini's lyrical production, are recorded here as a world premiere. Lorenzo Colitto, who leads the ensemble, enjoys a worldwide reputation as one of the best performers of early and baroque music and cooperates here with leading soloists such as Lisa Kawata Ferguson, Marcello Scandelli, João Janeiro, Chiara Tiboni and Francesco Romano.

Among the thirteen oratorios by Giovanni Paolo Colonna, more than half are connected, by their origin or at least by tradition, to the court of Francesco II d’Este. Although in the early modern period the sacredness of monarchy was indisputable, we cannot take it for granted that an oratorio – unlike an opera, as was usually the case – was offered to a monarch in order to praise him unconditionally.

An unrivalled collection of lesser-known 20th-century piano concertos in both Romantic and modern styles, in definitive recordings by Dutch artists. This survey of Dutch piano concertos actually begins in 1886, with the A minor work by Carl Smulders (1863-1934). Smulders sidesteps convention by opening not with a grand gesture but a slow, expectant build-up, breaking the template for A minor piano concertos established first by Schumann and then Grieg. The piano writing itself has a lyrically Griegian flavour, however, which Ivo Janssen brings out in this 1994 recording.

The first Roxy album to break the US Top 40 demonstrated that, four records in, the band were every bit as hungry, audacious and pioneering as on their debut two years earlier. Opening with the urgent, propulsive ‘The Thrill Of It All’, ‘Country Life’ effortlessly embraces avant-garde song structures, touching ballads, English nostalgia, visceral hard rock, European influences and even medieval Christian references without skipping a beat. The resulting album is yet another immensely satisfying musical experience. Compared to their peers, it’s almost frightening what sounds Roxy Music could perfect and make their own. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent.

Here you have a collection of great music by many of the finest singers ever to inhabit the world . Despite the album’s title, every song aboard is pure blues, but each and every one of the singers assembled here had the ability to turn even the cheesiest of ballads into something that dripped blues whenever they chose to heap up the required, highly personalised, emotion.

With two studio recordings under their belt (the 1972 Caricatures and the 1973 Le Cimetière des Arlequins), Ange struck artistic gold with Au-Delà du Délire. All the elements came together this time, producing France's best symphonic progressive rock album of the 1970s. Christian Decamps' medieval imagery (echoed in the music by occasional minstrel-type folk song structures) is assisted this time around by Biblical themes, something noticeable in the song titles. His voice is not the only center of attention anymore, as instrumental passages take more room and arrangements become more intricate. "Exode" actually takes off when the verse is over and the guitar and Mellotron start working on an instrumental crescendo.

Steppenwolf 7 is the fifth studio album by Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf. The album was released in November 1970, by Dunhill Records. It is the first Steppenwolf album with new bass player George Biondo. The album’s numerical title reflects the fact that it was the band’s seventh album release for ABC/Dunhill records (including the four preceding studio LP’s, as well as two live albums). While the album featured Steppenwolf's trademark rock and roll sounds, none of the songs were able to make the top 40. The album featured a cover of Hoyt Axton's "Snowblind Friend", their second cover of one of his antidrug songs (the first being "The Pusher").

Three Dog Night garnered three hits off of their 1974 release, Hard Labor, with material from John Hiatt, Allen Toussaint, and David Courtney/Leo Sayer. This time around they obtain their 21st and final Top 40 entry with a Dave Loggins song, "'Till the World Ends," and it is no "Pieces of April," the lovely composition from the same songwriter which landed in the Top 20 for the group two-and-a-half-years earlier. The problem with the song is the same dilemma faced by the album, Coming Down Your Way, the band seeking another genre to conquer while keeping their eye off of the precise and major Top 40 activity which was their bread and butter. Keyboard player for the Blues Image, Frank "Skip" Konte, joins Jimmy Greenspoon on the ivories with the Monkees/Barry Manilow bassist Dennis Belfield onboard as well.

Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suites are the least known of his orchestral works. Their rediscovery provides an insight into the composer’s stylistic resources, as he delves into the possibilities offered by a free form. From fugues to ancient dances, not to mention the use of Russian folk themes, Tchaikovsky’s stamp is always recognizable due to its particularity, diversity and his inexhaustible orchestral inventiveness.