Anthony Braxton was first documented as a player in 1967 on Muhal Richard Abrams' Levels and Degrees of Light (DMK 413) Nine months of gestation produced this, his first recording as a leader. Braxton the player/composer/constructor is here at full length. In retrospect he was a much more developed and confident musician than he may have seemed at the time.

Winner of the coveted 2002 Grawemeyer Award and one of the youngest composers ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Aaron Jay Kernis is among the most distinguished musical figures of his generation. Conceived as a concerto for toy piano and orchestra, and with touches of Indonesian gamelan, French lyricism and jazz, Three Flavors appears here in it's final version, adapted by soloist and long- term collaborator Andrew Russo. Commissioned for renowned violinist James Ehnes, the introspective Two Movements (with Bells) is a memorial to the composer's father with echoes of blues singing and improvisatory impetuousness, while the virtuoso Superstar Etude No. 3 is his homage to Gershwin and the blues. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960) studied composition with American heavyweights John Adams, Jacob Druckman, Morton Subotnik and Charles Wuorinen. He has developed a truly eclectic musical language over time, initially rigorous but evolving toward a new transparency and emotional eloquence. He incorporates influences of Latin rhythms, jazz and rap into his work as willingly as the harmonic worlds of the Romantic masters, the Renaissance and Hildegard von Bingen.

On his third Criss Cross leader date, Mike Moreno convenes drummer Kendrick Scott, who played on his fellow Houstonian's prior Criss Cross outings (Third Wish and First In Mind) and bassist Doug Weiss, who played on Third Wish. They frame the 39-year-old guitarist's sui generis tonal on a program culled from the corpuses of a multigenerational cohort of heroes: jazz songs by Charlie Parker("Perhaps'), Wayne Shorter ("The Big Push"), Joe Henderson ("Serenity") and Mulgrew Miller ("For Those Who Do"); Songbook gems by Michel Legrand "You Must Believe In Spring"), Johnny Mandel ("A Time For Love") and Vernon Duke ("April In Paris"); plus one apiece by Radiohead ("Glass Eyes") and Lo Borges ("Clube Da Esquina M.1").

Around forty artists from the ACT Family make this anniversary album a celebration of the breadth, openness and inclusive power of jazz. The core of the album consists of recordings made at a summer 2022 studio session lasting several days. In reality, it is only Nils Landgren and Siggi Loch who could have brought this panorama of musical Europe into being. The influences here range from jazz, popular song and folk to classical and contemporary music, and much more. Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label "in the Spirit of Jazz".

This recording, the first devoted entirely to the music of Paul Fetler, features Ann Arbor poet and attorney Thomas H. Blaske as narrator in the evocative Three Poems by Walt Whitman, written to commemorate the American Bicentennial in 1976.

AN AUDIO-ONLY DVD. David Chesky's newest compositions of modern orchestra examines spritual crisis. Recorded with the Deutsches Filmorchester Bablesberg and conducted by Stephen Somary, "Three Psalms" is an emotina listening experience that will move lovers of modern romantic music.

Elena Denisova is recognised as one of the most charismatic personalities of the international violin elite and sees herself as an ambassador of the magic of sound. She realises this as a passionate motto in all her interpretations of classical and 21st century works. It also applies to Bach's three sonatas for solo violin, which she performs here entirely in this spirit.

Beethoven's three Sonatas Op. 10, written between 1796 and 1798, mark a decisive step from the Classical clarity of Haydn and Mozart toward a bolder, more individual language. Each sonata displays a distinct character: the C minor No. 1 combines tragic urgency with structural concentration; the F major No. 2 reveals Beethoven's emerging humor and rhythmic invention; and the expansive D major No. 3 unfolds an unprecedented emotional and architectural scale, crowned by the visionary Largo e mesto. The unifying rhythmic motif of "short-long" pulses through the set, foreshadowing the composer's later dramas. Performed on an 1820 Conrad Graf fortepiano, Roberto Prosseda's interpretation restores the music's raw contrasts, speaking timbres, and anti-rhetorical gestures that modern pianos often smooth away. In his personal note, Prosseda explains how returning to these works on a historical instrument transformed his understanding of Beethoven's expression. The fortepiano's transparency, differentiated registers, and responsive mechanism invite a freer phrasing and more rhetorical, speech-like delivery. He aims not for novelty but sincerity-seeking to rediscover familiar music through it's original sound world. Prosseda is one of Italy's leading pianists with a distinguished career, celebrated for his complete Mendelssohn and Mozart recordings and for reviving the pedal piano. This Beethoven Op. 10 album follows his acclaimed Op. 2 set for Challenge Classics, continuing his exploration of early Beethoven on period instruments.

2018 release. Trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson's 3 Times Round is his first release since the widely-lauded Moving Still, which was named one of the top albums of 2016 by the New York Times and the best release of the year by PopMatters, who called it "clean and cool while still ripping with adventure." Among the most admired young musicians on the scene, Finlayson is the first-call of innovative musicians seeking a trumpeter who is able to negotiate the most complex musical material yet still bring his own sense of individuality and verve. These includes a stunning list of cutting-edge artist such as Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Lehman, Mary Halvorson and, of course, Steve Coleman, with whom Finlayson has played with for the last 18 years. Finlayson is joined on 3 Times Round by the alto and tenor saxophones of Steve Lehman and Brian Settles, which he intertwines with his own horn with fluidity and grace. The inventive pieces leave plenty of room to showcase each musician's distinctive improvisational personalities, yet still convey an overarching sense of narrative mystery. It's another purposeful step forward for a young artist on the rise.

For three decades Alexandre Tharaud and Jean-Guihen Queyras have shared their rich and rare musical friendship with harmonia mundi. From Marin Marais to Debussy and Berg via Schuber, this anniversary double-album brings together some of their finest recordings. For the occasion they have also recorded several new pieces, including the Britten Sonata, Faure's Elegie, and Weill's Youkali.