Released to highly positive reviews in 2007, Slope was the debut album from Steve Jansen (Japan / Rain Tree Crow). Exhibiting a bold combination of inventive rhythms, intricate programming and emotive vocal performances, the album features guest contributions from an impressive line-up including David Sylvian, Tim Elsenburg (Sweet Billy Pilgrim), Joan Wasser (Joan As Policewoman), Thomas Feiner, Anja Garbarek, Nina Kinert, and Theo Travis. As Jansen explains, "With Slope, I approached composition attempting to avoid chord and song structures and the usual familiar building blocks. Instead, in an attempt to deviate from my own trappings as a musician, I wanted to piece together unrelated sounds, music samples, rhythms and 'events'."

ABBA‘s deluxe edition reissue series continues with a CD+DVD 40th Anniversary Edition of 1974’s Waterloo. The format will be very familiar to fans who have bought previous deluxe editions. The eight bonus tracks on the CD include the usual foreign language versions of singles and this Waterloo deluxe adds a few single remixes. The DVD looks reasonably good with 13 TV appearances, most of them previously unreleased. As you would expect the Eurovision Song Contest performance of Waterloo is included and there is also an interview. The rather dull ‘International Sleeve Gallery’ contains to be a feature all of the ABBA deluxe editions. The booklet will contain an essay on the making of the album, with new insights from Björn and Benny.

Rare Wes Montgomery material is hard to come by. Not counting Willow Weep for Me, the posthumous LP Verve issued in 1968 not long after the guitarist's passing, there was Resonance's 2012 set Echoes of Indiana Avenue, which contained largely live performances from 1957 and 1958. In the Beginning, released three years after Echoes, draws from a similar well of unreleased recordings, offering a heavy dose of live material along with five sides produced by Quincy Jones at Columbia Studios in 1955, plus three tracks a session at Spire Records in Fresno, California in 1949.

Hot Rize is one of the most influential and pioneering bluegrass bands of the last 35 years. In 1978, Hot Rize began conjuring up their addicting brand of Colorado bluegrass that honors the traditional while embracing their own influences of blues, country, and celtic music. They have influenced a wide range of popular artists such as Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers, Steve Martin, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Dierks Bentley. The group disbanded in 1990 to pursue solo careers and it has been over 24 years since their last studio album and major tour together. Hot Rize is Tim O’Brien (lead vocals and mandolin), Nick Forster (bass and vocals), Pete Wernick (banjo and vocals) and newest member Bryan Sutton (guitar and vocals) who replaced the late Charley Sawtelle after his death in 1999. Their new studio album, When I’m Free captures a group of incredibly talented veterans making some of the best music of their careers.

Guitarist T-Bone Walker is one of the most influential musicians in musical history. The Texan was one of the pioneers of the electric guitar and his recordings, made in the early 1940s for Capitol, Rhumboogie, and Black & White, are some of the earliest defining moments for electric blues. His playing was influential upon others of his era: most notably B.B. King but also several jazz players and many rock greats. He made a lot of records throughout his later career, some of variable quality. The less ground-breaking albums have often been overlooked; one of the best is his 1969 Bluestime LP Every Day I Have The Blues . Producer Bob Thiele took him to Capitol studios, teamed him up with some of the best session musicians and made a crisp, slightly funky masterpiece. There are great vocal performances, such as on the title track and Sail On , and his guitar sounds amazing on For B.B. King . This album didn t sell well, is difficult to find and is largely forgotten. This is its first reissue, and is taken from original master tapes. As a bonus Ace have added two tracks that were recorded at a 1970 show at the Carnegie Hall, New York.

Cardboard sleeve reissue features 24bit digital remastering and SHM-CD format. Comes with original liner notes Japanese original release. A gem of a 70s session from pianist Richie Beirach – one that has him playing Fender Rhodes as well as piano – an instrument he uses with some really amazing styles! The outing's a trio date, but it's got a vibe that's quite different than both some of Beirach's American material from the time, and from some of the other Japanese piano trio sets of the period – a very open, creative approach that has Richie stepping out in all these really cool ways, especially on the Rhodes – styles that are angular, but never too free – rhythmic, but never funky at all – thanks to inventive performances from Frank Tusa on bass and Jeff Williams on percussion.

In a 2007 live review in the New York Times, Jon Pareles described the band: "Melding sustained organ chords with slow fingerpicked guitar, the Papercuts’ music merged Velvet Underground ballads with touches of the Byrds, while Jason Quever sang in a high, diffident voice about elusive love." A PopMatters review described Papercuts as "a marching band on Quaaludes" and "part atmospheric, part dream pop rock, always melodic, and never boring". A Houston Press review of Can't Go Back described the album as having a "warm, sunny sound, recalling northern California circa 1968", going on to describe the band as "a lo-fi version of The Byrds".

A monster – and one of the best jazz funk albums ever on Prestige! Rusty Bryant blows his top off on this one – taking his tenor stylings out of the more staid R&B mode of earlier years, working with some younger heavy funk jazz players to craft a brilliant album of long searing tunes that's forever been one of the must-haves of the early 70s jazz funk scene! Idris Muhammad's on drums, Wilbert Longmire's on guitar, and the organ work is split between Leon Spencer and Bill Mason, both monstrously great talents, with a propensity for open-stopped hard-wailing playing! Titles include "Fire Eater", "The Hooker", "Mister S", and "Free At Last".

Contralto & conductor Nathalie Stutzmann is an exciting new signing, having left Deutsche Grammophon/Universal to join the Erato roster. Considered to be one of the most outstanding musical personalities of our time, she has parallel careers as both a contralto and an orchestra conductor. She sings regularly with the world’s greatest conductors and orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the LSO and Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She currently is in residence with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP).

At first, Cordâme was a string trio, but Montreal bassist Jean-Félix Mailloux’s band keeps on growing in size. On Rêve éveillé, violin, cello and doublebass are joined by Guillaume Bourque’s clarinets, Annabelle Renzo’s harp, Isaiah Ceccarelli’s drumkit, and, most importantly, François Bourassa’s piano. Recorded live in March 2013, this new album features mostly new compositions (and the ones that were previously recorded have been rearranged). Mailloux’s music is growing closer and closer to John Zorn’s jazzier, mystical side: easy to listen to, hybridized with various world cultures, sensual, and rich from a deep artistic process. The match between Cordâme and Bourassa (one of Quebec’s top-rated jazz pianists) borders on perfection. Balm for the soul. – François Couture

Philippe Villa est un pianiste de jazz dont la réputation n’est plus à faire. Il se situe dans ce que l’on pourrait qualifier d’école « romantique » du piano jazz, celle qui va de Bill Evans à Keith Jarrett en passant par Paul Bley. Et comme les pianistes susnommés, il parfume son jazz d’effluves de Debussy, Ravel ou Satie. Pratiquant avec talent ce que Brad Meldhau appelle « the art of the trio », il joue une musique dont le swing n’est jamais absent, mais avec un sens aigu de la mélodie.

The founding of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the first of May in 1882, is annually celebrated with a concert in an European city of cultural significance. In 2014 the EUROPAKONZERT took again place in Berlin. The concert was conducted by a man who has been associated with the Berliner Philharmoniker for 50 years: Daniel Barenboim. Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, which received its premiere in Berlin in 1849, is based on William Shakespeare’s comedy of the same name, and its lively overture has long since secured a place on the concert stage. Also inspired by a Shakespearean comedy hero is Edward Elgar’s symphonic study Falstaff. We then turn from comedy to the tragic twists of fate: The Fifth Symphony of Pyotr Tchaikovsky is characterized by a sombre main theme that for the Russian composer symbolizes “a complete resignation before fate, which is the same as the inscrutable predestination of fate”.

Charivari Agreable perform a collection of overtures from the Italian Baroque Opera, best described by director Kah-Ming Ng as lucidly crafted for the purpose of turning heads. In a decadent era when the theatregoers antics were often as intriguing as the on-stage performances, these works were composed to thrill, beguile and engage a distracted audience. Charivari Agreable represent a new and very exciting phase of the early music revival, one that enriches the existing repertory and can bring us ever closer to the spirit of the original music.

Amenophis was founded in 1978 by Michael Roessman, Wolfgang Vollmuth, and Stefan Roessmann. The name was taken from an Egyptian Pharoah, and was meant to have international appeal.
Amenophis' self-titled 1983 debut is regarded by many as a masterpiece of symphonic prog. Its moody and mystical world enveloped the listener in a spell not broken until sometime after the last bonus track had reached homeopathic decibel levels. Unfortunately, the album achieved little sales success, and the band was only able to release a follow up if it met certain commercial standards, hence "You and I" from 1988, a decent pop prog album but with few of its predecessor's charms. It sold only a little better, and that was pretty much that, perhaps…

An invitation to experience music played in the court of Versailles – for Louis XIV and his successors. An imaginary story gives it its framework: A young provincial beauty comes to the court, is presented to the King and becomes his favourite, falls into disgrace through the intrigues of her rivals, but finally retrieves her honour.