The series of timeless Chill tunes selected by the spiritual guide of the Chillout genre, Mr. José Padilla. Straight from his endless collection, José serves up a strictly personal selection of tracks, riding times and seasons and evoking positive feelings in a blend of various musical styles ranging from classic to contemporary sounds.
Jose Padilla, Cirque Du Soleil, Christophe Goze, Joao Gilberto, Orange Blossom, Sergio Mendes & Brazil '77, Chris Montez, Nina Simone, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole Feat. Bebel Gilberto and many more.

Badfinger completed their best album in 1975, then had it pulled from the shelves in a haze of managerial misdeals and contractual screw-ups. They were good soldiers, at least for a while, heading into the studio (without Joey Molland, who bailed at the last minute) to bash out another album for Warner, completing it in two weeks. Warner rejected the effort, lead songwriter Pete Ham committed suicide not long afterward, and the album sat in the vaults until late 2000, when Artisan/Snapper released Head First as a double-disc set (the second disc consisting of demos and outtakes). Head First confirms that Badfinger had settled into a groove with Wish You Were Here, finding an effective middle ground between their pop gifts and hard rock inclinations, with both Ham and Tom Evans contributing equally strong works.

On the day that the second live album of Sting's illustrious solo career (and third if you count the Police's 1995 Live! set) was to be recorded in Tuscany, Italy, the widely respected singer/songwriter/bassist was beset with one of the world's worst horrors of all time. The show was to be recorded and broadcast live on the Web on September 11, 2001, the day of the World Trade Center tragedy. Instead of canceling it altogether, Sting went on with the recording (although the Web broadcast was scrapped except for a single song), resulting in the release of the 15-song All This Time, just two short months later. Featured are a trio of Police-era classics inventively rearranged ("Roxanne," "Don't Stand So Close to Me," and "Every Breath You Take") and renditions of many solo selections: an expansive "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," "Brand New Day," "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You," and the poignant folk-like ballad "Fields of Gold."

It may be far too obvious to even mention that Norah Jones' follow-up to her 18-million-unit-selling, eight-Grammy-winning, genre-bending, super-smash album Come Away with Me has perhaps a bit too much to live up to. But that's probably the biggest conundrum for Jones: having to follow up the phenomenal success of an album that was never designed to be so hugely popular in the first place. Come Away with Me was a little album by an unknown pianist/vocalist who attempted to mix jazz, country, and folk in an acoustic setting – who knew? Feels Like Home could be seen as "Come Away with Me Again" if not for that fact that it's actually better.

Fiction is the eighth studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band, Dark Tranquillity. The album was released by Napalm Records on April 19, 2007, and by Century Media in the UK on April 23, and in the US on April 24. An expanded edition containing two bonus tracks previously released in Australia and Japan, two previously unreleased tracks and two tracks taken from the band's live performance in Summer Breeze Festival in 2007.

French pianist Martial Solal is joined by American trumpeter Dave Douglas for this inspired duo session. Solal has long been one of Europe's top pianists, while he has made occasional trips to the U.S. to perform, while Douglas has become a favorite of critics for his diverse recordings. The 35-year age difference between the musicians means nothing, as they react like old friends who have played together countless times. The session is staged in an unusual fashion, alternating between originals by each player over the first six tracks, followed by several timeless standards. Douglas begins on muted horn for Solal's quirky "July Shower," stimulated by the pianist's unpredictable accompaniment that focuses on the lower half of the keyboard.

RanestRane is an Italian prog band from Rome that was formed in 1996. The aim of the musicians involved in this project was to compose and perform a rock-opera, so they chose a famous Werner Herzog's film, "Nosferatu The Vampyre", and commented it with music and original lyrics. They started their live activity in 2000 and conceived their shows as a "cineconcerto", with the images of the Herzog's film flowing in the background. In 2007 they released their rock-opera on a self-produced studio album, a double CD called "Nosferatu il Vampiro", and they have continued with works based on "The Shining" and "2001: A Space Odyssey". Among their musical influences you can find bands like Goblin, PFM, BMS, Genesis, and Marillion, to name a few. Incidentally, the band makes up a large part of the reorganized Il Rovescio della Medaglia.

It's always great to encounter the recording that can "crack" a composer open, making his or her music accessible to a general listening public. And it's all the better when such a recording comes from beyond the usual quarters, as, for example, with this American recording of Renaissance polyphony. Nicolas Gombert was a Flemish Renaissance composer, a successor (and possibly a student) of Josquin who entered the service of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His music, especially in his masses, tends to present itself as a dense, unbroken flow of polyphony. Gombert is one of the composers music history students tend to slog through in hopes of getting to the good stuff. One noted Renaissance scholar used to refer to him, Adrian Willaert, and Giaches de Wert as "the Ert brothers." All that could change with this disc of Gombert motets and chansons. These works are less dense than his masses, but not by much, and they are considerably less limpid than Josquin's pieces in the same genres. But here it is the performances that clarify them. The Massachusetts ensemble Capella Alamire (the name is a pun on an aspect of an old solmization system) under director Peter Urquhart, recording in a church in Portsmouth, NH, slows the motets down slightly and addresses them with a group of eight singers – the black belt of choral singing.

One of the most obscure albums Covay cut, Funky Yo Yo slipped out in 1977 on the tiny Versatile label, with such little notice that it's even escaped getting listed in some discographies. It's a strange record, too, with production so sparse (and some dull muffle to the sound fidelity, though it's not a serious impediment) that one suspects these might be demos, or perhaps not even 1977 recordings. Yet in a way that very rootsy, stripped-down feel makes it appealing, particularly as it was appearing at a time when many fellow soul greats of Covay's generation were issuing bloated, hopeless attempts to jump on the disco bandwagon. Far from emulating Barry White, Covay sounds rather like Van Morrison on much of this material, though the similarity's probably coincidental. Particularly on the more bare-bones arrangements, these actually have a cool intimate feel, as if they're songwriter demos intended for pitches to '60s Atlantic recording artists.

Focusing on all-original material, pianist Enrico Pieranunzi's Dream Dance proves that when there's the right chemistry, a group can retain it throughout the years, even if reconvening only occasionally. While not a regular working unit like Keith Jarrett's enduring Standards Trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette, Pieranunzi's trio with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron has been together almost as long.

Jason Robinson - The Two Faces Of Janus (2010) {Cuneiform Records RUNE311 rec 2009}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 470 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 182 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 12 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 Cuneiform Records / Jason Robinson | RUNE 311
Jazz / Experimental Jazz / Modern Jazz / Saxophone

Currently serving as Assistant Professor of Music at Amherst College in Massachusetts, multi-reedist Jason Robinson originally obtained his Ph.D. in music from the University of California. A promising new arrival to the East Coast scene, Robinson's academic background imbues his episodic writing with an organically cohesive sensibility, while his years spent co-leading the longstanding bicoastal ensembles Cosmologic and the Cross Border Trio lend his focused improvisations a warm, economical lyricism.

Many of the top Cuban jazz musicians have played in Irakere during the past several decades, including altoist Paquito D'Rivera and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (before both individually defected). Pianist Chucho Valdes has been the orchestra's longtime leader, and its music ranges from Latin jazz and bop to Cuban folk melodies, with an emphasis on infectious rhythms and advanced improvisations. Several of Irakere's records have been made available domestically (including sets for Columbia and Jazz House).