Frescobaldi must be accounted one of the most important keyboard composers of the first half of the 17th century. He was born in Ferrara, where the musical tastes of the ruling duke, Alfonso II d’Este, attracted musicians of great distinction. Moving to Rome at the beginning of the new century, he was under the patronage of Guido Bentivoglio, who took him in 1607 to Brussels, an important centre of keyboard music in the northern European tradition. In 1608 he became organist at St Peter’s in Rome, where he remained until his death (with a brief absence for promised employment in Mantua in 1615 and a subsequent period of six years spent serving the Medici in Florence).

When Ritchie Blackmore departed Deep Purple in the mid-'70s and formed Rainbow (which featured Ronnie James Dio), his replacement was Tommy Bolin. To be sure, Blackmore was a darn tough act to follow, but Bolin proved himself to be a fine guitarist in his own right on Come Taste the Band, his first album with Deep Purple. But unfortunately, Bolin didn't have exceptional material to work with - decent and likable, but hardly exceptional. While sweaty yet melodic cuts like "Dealer," "Lady Luck," and "You Keep on Moving" are far from bad, nothing here is in a class with "Smoke on the Water" or "Highway Star." Deep Purple's more hardcore devotees will want this album, though it's far from the best representation of their '70s work.

In many respects, you could call Hound Dog Taylor a cult artist. Respected by bluesmen and critics alike, he built a small, devoted following across America simply by constently touring. There were no hits and very few covers of hs songs, but his rowdy concerts and incendiary records on Alligator convinced any who heard him. In the process, he put Alligator Records on the blues map, so it only makes sense that the label return the favor with Hound Dog Taylor: A Tribute, one of the few blues tributes that really works. Taylor's wild, careening slide guitar became one of more influential sounds in contemporary blues, as evidenced by this quality-packed record…

Many great jazz artists have recorded, with great success, a live album at the Olympia in Paris while they visited or lived on Paris. Among these greats is Rhoda Scott. Her vast discography on Barclay is more or less still in the master tapes vaults but the "Live At The Olympia" CD, reissued on the Jazz In Paris CD program, is very good pick in the vaults. Supporting Scott playing the Hammond B3, the trio are Joe Thomas on flute/tenor saxophone and Cees Kranenburg on drums. Scott has always had great nose for mixing musical genres and tunes on her records, and "Live At The Olympia" is no exception . The trio treats the standards Bluesette", "I Hear Music", "Wade In The Water", "Equinox" and "People" with great musical inventiveness and interplay - they really tells us a new story on known themes.

To mark Crises' 30th anniversary, Mike Oldfield's eighth studio album appears as a 3CD + 2DVD Box Set Edition comprising the 13-track digitally remastered CD album which includes eight bonus tracks and a 12-track 'Crisis Tour' double CD recorded live at Wembley Arena on 22nd July 1983.
Following a long-established production pattern, Mike Oldfield assembled some relatively simple pop- and rock-flavored numbers following one long introductory piece on his 1983 Disky release, Crisis. The 20-minute opening title-track is a quintessential Oldfield texture study that consists of sparkling synth washes with edgier material weaving in and out. A fine setup, this track cleanses the aural pallet, preparing the listener nicely for the tunes that follow. Yes fans who can adjust to the sugary highlight "In High Places" will enjoy Jon Anderson's springy vocal work on the track…

Surfacing is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. Surfacing was released in July 1997, coinciding with the start of McLachlan's Lilith Fair tour. The album was a commercial success worldwide, reached the top position on the Canadian RPM 100 Albums chart and number two on the US Billboard 200. Critical reviews were mixed; some of the more positive reviews praised the songwriting, while the album's detractors criticized it as banal and slow. The album spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-five hits, "Adia" and "Angel", the top-15 hit "Building a Mystery", and the top-30 hit "Sweet Surrender".

Curated by DJ/production duo Blank & Jones, the So80s ("So Eighties") series compiles 12" versions and rare B-sides of artists who had their heyday in the '80s. This collection features classic extended mixes of some of OMD's biggest tracks including 'If You Leave', 'Telegraph', 'Dreaming', 'So in Love', 'Tesla Girls' and many others. While the tracks were selected by Blank & Jones, none of the titles were mixed by them.

The world was hardly clamoring for another recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos, but the Australian Chamber Orchestra has evolved into one of the world's top concert attractions, and it's natural that their fans would want to hear them in this ubiquitous work. Violin soloist Richard Tognetti plays a 1743 Guarneri instrument with a powerfully flashy tone, and he gets a large variety of sounds from it. These are complemented by the inclusion in the booklet of the four sonnets included by Vivaldi in the score (and possibly written by the composer himself).