This very well-recorded album features Ralph Towner playing 12-string and classical guitar on "Nardis," two pieces by John Abercrombie, and four of his own originals. The interpretations are typically sensitive, thoughtful, and often introspective, but also show off Towner's impressive technique.

A great album and the release that made Roberta Flack a major soul and R&B artist in the early '70s. She had a soft, compelling, alluring voice, and was able to convincingly switch gears and also convey anger, regret, hurt, or despair. Those who thought Flack was a one-hit wonder, or didn't think she could make the transition from doing mostly jazz to other styles, were convinced otherwise.

It's hard to believe that it's been more than five years since Ralph Towner issued his last solo guitar album, or any album under his own name, for that matter. Anthem was issued in 2000. Time Line is a return to the stark, spacious and lyrical explorations of that set. That's not to say this is any kind of direct replica. Towner's a restless artist, he pushes his boundaries on the classical and 12-string guitars. The set contains 14 new compositions and two fine covers that provide the real reason for Towner's not-so-secret inspiration here: George Gershwin's "My Man's Gone Now," and Harold Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine." The muse, of course, is Bill Evans. Evans has been forever associated with the former tune since his 1961 trio performance of it at the Village Vanguard; the latter is a tune he played live fairly often in the '60s and even the '70s.

An international summit meeting, Travel Guide features US guitarist Ralph Towner, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kazakhstan-born and Australia-raised guitarist Slava Grigoryan. The three musicians first came together in 2005, initially for concerts in Australia, and have since toured widely. A 2009 recording on Muthspiel’s Material Records label documented the group’s early progress. Ralph Towner subsequently brought the project to ECM and the trio recorded this album in Lugano in August 2012, with Manfred Eicher as producer. Towner has been a key ECM recording artist for more than 40 years, while Muthspiel and Grigoryan make label debuts here. Grigoryan is well known as the preeminent Australian classical guitarist of his generation, and Muthspiel’s been an important figure on the transatlantic jazz scene for two decades.

Big Boy Brass is an eight-piece brass band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They play energetic jazz based brass band music, that pulls inspiration from many of the brass bands that came before them as well as rock, pop, and funk influences. Adding variety to their shows, Big Boy Brass can often be found with different instrumentations, depending on the event and venue.

A Closer View is the successor to 1993's Oracle, a record described by Downbeat as "charming and thoughtful, conveying the familiarity and empathy of partners who have worked together for years. Towner and Peacock share a deep interest in Bill Evans' music, which manifests itself in the light touch, intricacy and sensitivity that pervade the session." Oracle was initiated as Peacock's project and featured primarily the bassist's compositions. A Closer View reverses the formula, highlighting Towner's pieces. There are seven new tunes from the guitarist and three off-the-cuff joint compositions in an album completed by one Peacock "classic", the song "Moor".

O Som Do Jazz features Rio de Janeiro singer Andrea Moraes Manson and a crew of experienced musicians from Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. performing Brazilian jazz, Bossa Nova, samba, Balanço, baião and MPB.

In 1957, Izumi "Mimi" Kobayashi was born and raised in the seaside city of Funabashi located in Chiba, Japan. Before Izumi launched her musical career she was mostly known as a prodigious piano player. While attending the Tokyo College of Music, Izumi formed a group called Asoca and won Yamaha’s prestigious Grand Prix songwriting contest in 1977, landing on a record contract in doing so. Going under the name Mimie-Chan Super Band, CBS Sony released her first EP (My Summer Samba). Just months later, Izumi would rebrand her group as the Izumi Kobayashi & Flying Mimi Band and release two wicked funk-influenced albums that showed Izumi’s own interest in latin and soul music…

The Rosenberg trio consists of the three cousins Nonnie, Nous'che and Stochelo Rosenberg. All three have been playing music since their childhood days. As Children, they have learnt by listening and watching their family members at celebrations and gatherings. Following the great gipsy musical traditioon, they were tought to play by ear, and to practice restlessly, playing the classics over and over again. Neither of the three can actually read or write music, but they are nonetheless one of today's most impressive jazz bands, and certainly the best around when it comes to "Gipsy Jazz".

Boston-based Chris Brokaw has made an indelible mark on rock music both on his own as well as with his iconic bands Codeine and Come, and as a collaborator with Thurston Moore, Evan Dando, Stephen O'Malley and many others. On End of the Night, he leads a group of renowned players to create an album of entrancing instrumentals. Featuring lush, indigo-tinged arrangements of horns and strings, the album expands on VDSQ's solo acoustic spirit, evoking a sublime jazz mood appearing as night passes into the early morning hours…

Eric Alexander can play the tenor saxophone. Armed with a love for the masters and the ability to take their sonic images into his own realm, he is reaching the goal of attaining a personal sound. His tone, ideas, and embellishments are straight-ahead and swinging…

From the start of his intermittent side career as a jazz pianist, esteemed conductor and composer Andre Previn has shown more feeling for the form than most classical artists who cross over. Going beyond a recreational involvement in improvised music, he has deepened his playing since skimming stylistic surfaces on his bestselling My Fair Lady album of nearly 50 years ago. Now 78, he gives us what may be his most satisfying jazz recording in Alone: Ballads for Solo Piano. The solo format allows him to reflect his debt to piano masters including Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, and Bud Powell in ways his work with trios and combos hasn't, while showing off his super-refined lyrical touch with its sophisticated sense of color.

Digitally re-mastered two CD collection containing the complete recordings by the Eric Dolphy Quintet with Booker Little made live at the Five Spot Café in 1961. This material originally appeared on three separate LPs (Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot Vols. 1 & 2 and Memorial Album) It has become legendary, not only for it's high musical quality, but also due to the fact that both talented horn men died at a tender age soon after. Booker Little passed away on October 5, 1961, at the age of 23, and Dolphy on June 29, 1964, at the age of 36.

The title, “Crazy Beats Big” is actually taken from a quote form Malcom in the Middle and has been our motto in recent years for the band. As the SSO has grown as a band, we've noticed how by using certain harmonies, rhythms, and soundscapes, we've been able to sound like a band more than twice our size. It's a high energy party with only five people up on stage.

Ralph Towner breaks out in more ways than one on City of Eyes. Despite his band Oregon's lagging creative slump and his own obsession with a synthesizer he is only beginning to learn how to "play," Towner cuts some new grooves on this set with an all-star cast. New to Towner's musical universe is drummer/percussionist Jerry Granelli and brass auteur Markus Stockhausen. Even Paul McCandless – who has spent the better part of the '80s making new age albums – doesn't muck things up this time out. The opener, "Jamaica Stopover," is Towner's freshest solo guitar piece in ages. It's slippery, has a groove, and is actually rooted in both the blues and gypsy swing. The first ensemble piece, "Cascades," sounds a little florid at the outset, but Granelli's percussive ambience is a cure for the rococo melody (it again reeks of Offramp-period Pat Metheny-ism).