Seasick Steve has been playing music all his life although he didn't start making a living at it until he was in his early sixties. He was born in Oakland, and took guitar lessons from K.C. Douglas who wrote the standard "Mercury Blues." He traveled the world busking, played as a session guitarist, and was befriended by Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell in the '60s. In the '80s, he produced the first Modest Mouse album This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About. He moved to Norway with his wife and family in 2001, and started recording his quirky blues tunes on an old four-track tape machine. After a heart attack, he got serious about his career and cut Dog House Music, which sold over 200,000 copies with little promotion…

An exclusive 8-CD box set containing albums and rare recordings made by the Czech jazzrock legend Martin Kratochvíl! The box set includes albums not previously released on CD or unavailable for many years, as well as studio recordings with a hallmark of surprise from the repertoire of Martin Kratochvíl’s Jazz Q. The compilation has been put together by the band’s front man and supplemented by an interesting memoir of his colleague Tony Ackermann.
From the introductory “Pozorovatelna” (Observatory) to the concluding bonus “Co se na desky nevešlo” (Outtakes), the listener is presented with first-class pieces performed by superlative instrumentalists and vocalists. Besides the keyboard wizard Kratochvíl, you will hear Francl, Padrůněk, Vrbovec and Dugganová, and, as time went by, other of his permanent or occasional musical partners…

Hyperion is delighted to present a tour de force from the supreme mezzo-soprano of today, Alice Coote, accompanied by The English Concert and Harry Bicket, making their Hyperion debut. Coote performs a selection of Handel’s greatest arias from opera and oratorio, employing an extraordinary range of vocal and dramatic colour, tone and emotion to produce triumphant and moving interpretations of these masterpieces.

Klaus Schulze is a founding member of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, two seminal bands in the evolution of synthesizer-based electronic music. The title "Moonlake" refers to Schulze's love of the Austrian Moonlake and the monumental fascination radiated by this lake and its surrounding landscape. All of this is perfectly reflected in the intensity and power of this album. "Moonlake" is nevertheless a typical Klaus Schulze album, one that in the words of Schulze "unites tradition and vision". There is a noticeable focus on percussion on "Moonlake", which hasn't been found on Schulze's albums for some time. While rhythm was often used as an element to supplement the music on his earlier albums, it takes on a more dominant role on "Moonlake".

Acclaimed soprano Carolyn Sampson, partnered by Robert King and The King's Consort,with whom she has been associated throughout her professional career, turns her talents to Handel's two most dramatic cantatas, linked by the theme of abandoned women.

Avec ‘Christmas in Europe’, Thomas Hengelbrock et son célèbre chœur Balthasar Neumann nous emporte dans un voyage musical unique à la découverte de la période de Noël à travers l’Europe. Cet album rassemble ainsi des chants de Noël en 16 langues différentes - de l'italien, du portugais et du catalan au danois, au polonais et à l'islandais – de quoi s'émerveiller devant la variété des chants de Noël et de profiter de la beauté des différentes traditions et des racines communes en Europe.

U2‘s tenth studio album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, is being reissued next month to celebrate 20 years since the original release.

The Hallé completes its highly regarded Ring cycle, with the live recording of its acclaimed Bridgewater Hall performance under Sir Mark Elder. Roaring jubilation and radiant beauty from Elder and the Halle. Elder is a superb Wagnerian, acutely conscious of the complex relationship between tempo and pace, and immaculate in his judgment both of the span of each act and the ebb and flow of detail within it. Thrilling climaxes alternated with moments of astonishing beauty and quiet, almost exquisite terror. (The Guardian on the Halles performance of Siegfried) The third element of Wagners Ring cycle contains humor, drama and a concluding ecstasy as the eponymous hero meets his heroine Brünnhilde, setting up the explosive finale of the concluding opera.

"Tug of War" is the 3rd solo studio album by Paul McCartney, discounting the seven studio albums with Wings, released in April 1982. It was McCartney's first album released after the dissolution of Wings in April 1981. The album was produced by former Beatles producer George Martin and was a number #1 in numerous countries.

"Pipes of Peace" is the 4th solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney, released in 1983. As the follow-up to the popular "Tug of War", the album came close to matching the commercial success of its predecessor in Britain but peaked only at #15 on America's Billboard 200 albums chart. While "Pipes of Peace" was the source of international hit singles such as "Say Say Say" (recorded with Michael Jackson) and the title track, the critical response to the album was less favourable than that afforded to "Tug of War".

As with many of the other English beat groups of the '60s, Alvin Lee cut his musical teeth in Hamburg, Germany in a band called the Jaybirds. By 1966, back in England, he had changed the name of his band to Ten Years After and was rapidly becoming a major attraction because of the virtuosity of his solo work…

The first sound on Back in Black is the deep, ominous drone of church bells – or "Hell's Bells," as it were, opening the album and AC/DC's next era with a fanfare while ringing a fond farewell to Bon Scott, their late lead singer who partied himself straight to hell…

Every one of the six volumes of Café Zimmermann's recordings of Bach's "Concerts avec plusiers instruments" is absolutely excellent. The music is all magnificent and played with a freshness combined with depth of understanding which is a real joy. You may like to know that they have now been issued as a set J.S. Bach: Concertos with Several Instruments Complete Works Vol. I-VI which I recommend in the strongest possible terms.

After the success of last year’s Baby Please Come Home Jimmie’s new label decided to re-release two earlier albums in the same style. 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites (CD1), the sequel Plays More Blues, Ballads and Favorites (CD2) coming a year later, but both albums are out of print and difficult to find, so this double CD package is most welcome. The personnel across the two discs is fairly consistent: the rhythm section throughout is George Rains on drums and Ronnie James on bass, Billy Pitman adds rhythm guitar to several tracks; Greg Piccolo is on tenor sax throughout, supported by Kaz Kazanoff on baritone and Ephrahim Owens on trumpet on CD1, Doug James taking over on baritone on CD2. Long-time keyboard player Bill Willis passed away before the first album was released but is heard on B3 on a few tracks and handles vocals on one song; there are no keyboards at all on CD2. Jimmie is on lead guitar and vocals throughout, Lou Ann Barton adding vocals to six cuts on CD1 and four on CD2.

A culmination of influences from an illustrious career spanning 25-plus years, Departure is the latest studio recording from pianist Dan Siegel. He brilliantly blends his melodic and rhythmic pop sensibilities with his traditional jazz roots and offers up an amazing acoustic vision of original compositions. This CD is graceful, noble, and reflective, since it transcends categorization as it speaks to earlier times of adult instrumental acoustic music with classic themes that were influenced by the song, its melodies, and its virtuosic musicians.