La-La Land Records and MGM present a remastered and expanded CD re-issue of renowned composer Hans Zimmer’s original motion picture score to the acclaimed 1988 feature film RAIN MAN, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, and directed by Barry Levinson. Maestro Hans Zimmer’s first American studio score would prove to be a vital part of this acclaimed drama’s enduring success, earning the composer an Oscar nomination. Buoyant, dramatic and heartfelt, Zimmer’s early entry into big-league scoring is pitch perfect for this joyous and moving drama featuring unforgettable performances by the legendary Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The composer’s music for RAIN MAN has also stood the test of time, as undeniably demonstrated in this new score soundtrack re-issue.

“Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Musick. An ode wrote in honour of St. Cecilia” dates from 1736, a time when Handel was attempting to counter the dwindling interest in his Italian operas with oratorios in English. Indeed this work, which resembles an oratorio, found immediate popularity and was quickly counted alongside “Messiah” among his best-loved compositions. Only “Acis and Galatea” and “Messiah” were performed more frequently than “Alexander’s Feast” during Handel’s lifetime. This high-profile recording features the singers Miriam Feuersinger, Danial Johannsen and Matthias Helm, together with the Kammerchor Feldkirch and Concerto Stella Matutina under Benjamin Lack.

It was Christoph Graupner who was selected as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig after Johannes Kuhnau, and it was only the fact that Graupners patron in Darmstadt did not let him go that Johann Sebastian Bach got the job! In fact Graupner was the more famous and more modern composer during those years, yet history almost forgot him for more than two centuries even having composed five times as many cantatas as Bach. An important and highly praised step in the re-discovery or Graupners music was already presented by the soprano Miriam Feuersinger and her ECHO Klassik awarded debut release on Christophorus together with the Capricornus Consort Basel. She is now joined by countertenor Franz Vitzthum for a new album of duo cantatas. This is music of great depth, with the two voices blending so well that sometimes they seem just one.

The first recording of Rameau's sublime masterwork on CD for more than 20 years: Hugo Reyne and La Simphonie du Marais present this full and original version based on souces in the library of the Paris Opera. Hugo Reyne, Nicolas Sceaux and La Simphonie du Marais have made their own edition of this seminal work, recorded in concert and rehearsal in the Vienna Konzerthaus at the Rexonzanzen Festival in January 2013.

Influenced by Ray Brown and Ron Carter, standup bassist John Patitucci is best known for his time spent with Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter. Many of his most recent albums have been in configurations with drummer Brain Blade, and on Spirit Fall, the two team with tenor and soprano saxophonist Chris Potter as the John Patitucci Trio. Recorded in one day at Brooklyn's Bunker studio, this session is composed entirely of original Patitucci compositions with the exception of Shorter's "House of Jade." Trio formats allow for lots of soloing freedom for each player and on "Deluge on 7th Ave," Patitucci slides into the groove via a lengthy opening solo. Potter follows, playing the tune's winding midtempo melody while the ever-resourceful Blade adds tasteful cymbal, tom and snare work in the background. At the center of the track is Patitucci's fully absorbed solo playing, a skill that makes him one of the most recognizable bass voices today. The title track opens with Patitucci playing bass in its higher, guitar-like register before Potter enters on soprano saxophone, weaving a dexterous line where at times he's blowing hard and at other moments he's easing into long melodic lines.

This is one of the most "cult" experimental records in the entire history of jazz. Jo Jones, an immense drummer_a pioneering reformer with peerless technique_here gives us a complete demonstration of his art. CD 1 is devoted to drumming technique while CD 2 focuses on the great historical drummers in classical jazz. First released as two separate vinyl records in 1974, these titles were digitized, restored and reassembled in 2002 by Laurent Verdeaux, who also proposed extended versions. This is a vital set: it improves the quality of the listening-experience and increases the historic experimental value while enhancing the quality of the music. Drum-records, of course, but not just for drummers, whether they are amateurs or experts: this set is just as much for musicians, jazz fans, music historians and beat makers of all kinds. Augustin BONDOUX & Patrick FREMEAUX, 2017

John Coltrane appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival on five different occasions, the first in 1958 as a member of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue-era sextet. As a bandleader, Coltrane performed at the festival in 1961, 1963, 1965 and 1966, and it is the middle two sets that are combined here on this intriguing release. The 1963 band was a variation on Coltrane's classic quartet (Coltrane on tenor sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass) with veteran drummer Roy Haynes sitting in for Jones, who was unable to be in attendance. Jones was back in the drum chair for the 1965 appearance, while Coltrane's final Newport showing in 1966 found him working with an entirely different band that included his wife Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. Since Coltrane did lengthy versions of his signature arrangement of "My Favorite Things" in both 1963 and 1965 (he did it in 1966, as well), it's impossible not to compare the approach of the two different drummers.

Phil Collins' seemingly endless well of energy afforded him two careers: one as the drummer/vocalist in Genesis, and a second as a prolific session musician. It was in this second scenario that Collins hooked up with Percy Jones, John Goodsall, and Robin Lumley during sessions for Brian Eno, Eddie Howell, and Jack Lancaster. The quartet soon formed Brand X, a fusion jazz band that matched the prodigious rhythms of Collins and fretless bassist Jones with the atmospheric melodies of Goodsall and Lumley. Unorthodox Behaviour sets the stage for what would follow: music that plies the same sonic territory as Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the like, punctuated by the distinctive styles of individual members.

The Common People's only album is melancholy psychedelia, quirky but in a pretty forgettable way. The mood's set by the opening "Soon There'll Be Thunder," where an appealing two-chord melancholy melody is set to raindrop-falling haunting electric keyboard and sweeping, gloomy strings. It's a groove that's mined too often by the subsequent tracks, which are passably pleasing moody pop-psychedelia in limited doses, but too similar to each other when grouped so closely. The constant rain-cloud-hovering-over-a-hung-head ethos begins to turn sour rather than soothing after a few songs, even though the string arrangements used on just a few cuts have a nicely shivering, weepy quality. "They Didn't Even Go to the Funeral" is a most unfortunate departure into mock vaudeville humor, and while a couple other songs get dressed up with some peppy horns, it's hard to tell whether the embarrassing grunts in "This Life She Is Mine" are an attempt at funky soul or simulations of the moment of orgasm. The pace does get broken up by the hard but monotonous fuzz-guitar piano rock of "Go Every Way," as well as some more folk-rockish and melodically limited sullen stuff.

Although all members were born in the Heisei era, The Mercies are full of the spirit of early 1960s British Merseybeat.
Their dark soulful vocals and sweet chorus work have earned them the nickname of the female version of The Bodies, and they are now a girl group that is attracting a lot of attention. After giving a demo tape to MR.PAN (THE NEATBEATS), the group experienced recording at the vintage recording studio, GRAND-FROG STUDIO, when they were in high school. In June 2010, they released their first album, LET'S STOMP! TO THE MERCI BEAT. This time, they once again recorded in mono in one analog take at this vintage studio, which could be considered a ritual of inheriting the true rock and roll sound, and their second album, chock full of original Japanese songs and sophisticated cover songs, has an even more powerful sound than the previous album, which is hard to believe it is from the Heisei era.

Rain Dogs is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in September 1985 on Island Records. A loose concept album about "the urban dispossessed" of New York City, Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of a trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years. The album, which features guitarists Keith Richards and Marc Ribot, is noted for its broad spectrum of musical styles and genres, described by Arion Berger as merging "outsider influences – socialist decadence by way of Kurt Weill, pre-rock integrity from old dirty blues, the elegiac melancholy of New Orleans funeral brass – into a singularly idiosyncratic American style." The album peaked at number 29 on the UK charts and number 188 on the US Billboard Top 200. Rod Stewart had success with his cover of "Downtown Train", later included on some editions of his 1991 album Vagabond Heart. In 1989, it was ranked number 21 on the Rolling Stone list of the "100 greatest albums of the 1980s." In 2012, the album was ranked number 399 on the magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and at number 357 in 2020.

A new, twenty-track compilation entitled 'Let's Get Swinging: Modern Jazz in Belgium 1950-1970', released 7th April via Sdban/N.E.W.S. focuses on a twenty-year period of modern jazz in the little kingdom, and features the leading players from that era including guitarist Philip Catherine, saxophonist Jack Sels, multi-instrumentalist Jacques Pelzer and vibraphone player, percussionist and vocalist 'Fats' Sadi Lallemand. Pre-1950s, Belgian jazz lovers had been starved of jazz music when it was banned from public life, going underground during the German occupation of WWII. However, jazz would soon go through a radical change when US jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk developed a new style called bebop or modern jazz.

This second album of early 19th century bassoon concertos by Jaakko Luoma and Tapiola Sinfonietta includes four delightful concerto gems written for Frans Carl Preumayr (1782-1853), proficient and talented bassoonist who moved to Stockholm in 1802. Probably the best-known of the works were written by his Finnish father-in-law Bernhard Henrik Crusell and Franz Berwald, Sweden's most famous composer of the Romantic period. However, the impressive bassoon concerto by the Swiss-born Edouard Du Puy has been very rarely heard. Also the German-born composer Eduard Brendler has been largely forgotten by music history. All four works are powerful, interesting, and demanding solo compositions which offer a thrilling journey into the musical life in one of the Nordic music capitals 200 years ago.

Originally released in 2004. Includes OBI and 36x36 cm poster with several photos. The album is scheduled to be released on December 6, 2024 by the band and will be exclusively distributed by Voice Music in Brazil.After almost a year of songwriting, arranging, pre-production, recording, mixing and mastering, Angras fifth full length studio album is finally ready. Temple Of Shadows is definitely the bands most mature, creative and daring effort to date. Its a refreshing record, even though the group has not given up embracing the melodic metal that has always been its trademark. Temple Of Shadows is a concept album. Its story was created by guitarist Rafael Bittencourt and tells the saga of The Shadow Hunter, an 11th century crusader soldier who questions the Catholic Church ideals. The series of events since his first questioning to the way it affects his whole life is narrated along 13 tracks that show the band in its prime form. Several heavy metal genres and sub-genres are portrayed in the album, masterly crafted by the talents of Edu Falaschi (vocals), Kiko Loureiro (guitars), Rafael Bittencourt (guitars), Felipe Andreoli (bass) and Aquiles Priester (drums).

U.K. is the self-titled debut album by the progressive rock supergroup U.K., released in May 1978 through E.G. Records and Polydor Records. It features John Wetton, Eddie Jobson, Bill Bruford, and Allan Holdsworth. "In the Dead of Night" and "Mental Medication" were both edited for single release. The album was well received by FM album rock radio and by the public during the summer of 1978. In 2015 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the 30th best progressive rock album of all time.