'S Make It, recorded in 1964 and released the following year on Limelight, captures drummer Art Blakey leading a transitional edition of his Jazz Messengers. At the time, Blakey was navigating the departure of several key members and searching for a new configuration, resulting in a distinctive short-lived lineup within the band's long history. The sextet featured Lee Morgan (trumpet,) Curtis Fuller (trombone,) John Gilmore (tenor saxophone,) John Hicks (piano,) and Victor Sproles (bass.) Together, they delivered a hard-driving program that reflects both Blakey's established hard-bop intensity and the shifting personnel landscape of the mid-1960s Messengers. Blakey's drumming anchors the session throughout with the galvanic rhythmic command that defined his leadership across decades. The Verve Vault Series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Classical meets Christmas in this latest offering from the Burning River Brass. Beautifully arranged Christmas favorites from this tremendous group of brass and percussion! Since 1996, Burning River Brass has been dazzling audiences from Alaska to Taiwan with "power and virtuosity," "harmonious blend," and "consistently stirring performances." Composed of twelve of the finest brass and percussion players in the country, Burning River Brass is an ensemble on fire! The original inspiration behind Burning River Brass was to give great players who were also good friends a chance to play together on a consistent basis. Soon after the first rehearsal in May 1996, BRB began to grow rapidly. The ensemble made its debut in September of 1996 in Tremont, Ohio under the auspices of Arts Renaissance Tremont and by 1998 was touring nationally.

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REVIEW:

The centerpiece is Burning River Nutcracker, swinging arrangements of six selections from the ballet. I admit to curmudgeonly skepticism when it comes to this sort of thing, but these readings won me over with lively, skillful, and tasteful playing.

– American Record Guide

Cellist Nicholas Canellakis and pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown curate an eclectic playlist that is close to their hearts. Anchored by five Romances, the album features rarely heard gems alongside their own compositions and arrangements. Ranging from soulful to virtuosic to just plain fun, Romance celebrates 15 years of being affectionate, brutally honest, and creatively connected best friends and artistic collaborators.

Winner of the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Piano Competition, pianist Helen Sung makes her SteepleChase debut here with her “Rolls-Royce” rhythm section consisting of Peter Washington on bass and Lewis Nash on drums to showcase her original and adept sense of (re) concepting jazz standards and beyond.

During his Berlin visit in 1998, the Siberian sound shaman Spiridon Shishigin made recordings for his first solo CD, "Soul of Yakutia". Khomus - instrument of seduction with spiritual and healing effects. The area around Lake Baikal is not only the home of the Turks, of the Mongolian and Tartar people, but also the original home of the mouth harp. From here the instrument has spread almost all over the world. The Sakha people say that the khomus (mouth harp) has been their means of expression, central to their existence, for at least three thousand years.

... Feeling, Taste & Science... : The Viola da Gamba Music of Carl Frederick Abel presents Richard Boothby and Fretwork exploring the work of Carl Friedrich Abel, the German-born composer and viola da gamba player who became a central figure in London's musical life from 1759 until his death in 1787. The programme draws on solo works from the Drexel Manuscript, three sonatas with harpsichord, and a fugue believed to have been composed for Abel's close friend Thomas Gainsborough. Countertenor Iestyn Davies joins for Abel's only known aria. Two of the three sonatas included are recorded here for the first time, having been discovered in a castle in Poland.

Can a performer make a composition sound better than it really is? Peter Serkin is one who surely can. He’s a marvellous pianist, and plays everything on this disc with an uncanny sensitivity to tone, nuance and overall shaping. He is also an enthusiastic champion of living composers. All these nine works were written for Serkin, seven for a 1989-90 recital tour consisting entirely of specially commissioned compositions. Other pieces by Peter Lieberson frame the present collection, while the work he wrote for the tour occupies the central position; this American composer has long been the pianist’s close friend. Breeze of Delight, from Lieberson’s Fantasy Pieces, works minor miracles with the sorts of gestures and harmonic language familiar from John Ireland. Other compositions – including some of Lieberson’s – still end up seeming more the result of craft and occasionally remarkable ingenuity exacted on tired, if generally dissonant, materials and borrowed forms than the product of compulsive invention: Oliver Knussen’s Variations, for example, or Alexander Goehr’s … in real time I, which gives the disc its title. Leon Kirchner’s often turbulent, cunning Interlude suggests the hand of an underrated master. But even in this case, the responsibility for turning prose into poetry could, as elsewhere, have really been Serkin’s astonishing talent.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5)

-- Keith Potter, BBC Music Magazine

Erased Tapes rounds off a jubilant year of tenth anniversary celebrations with a very special release, 1+1=X, a set of exclusive music from every artist on the label. Featuring never before heard tracks from Nils Frahm, Kiasmos and A Winged Victory For The Sullen, 1+1=X sees Erased Tapes artists come together to make an album as a collective. Sharing the same space, instruments and each others capabilities during a residency at Vox-Ton studio in Berlin, they recorded 20 songs to mark the label's 10-year history. Previously only available as a limited vinyl box set for Record Store Day, 1+1=X produced by label curator Robert Raths will be now be available as a 3-LP set on August 17th to accompany the 2CD box set and digital download to be released on 29th June 2018.

Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori (1663 - 1745), "Maestro di capella amenissimo, bravo sonatore di violino", worked predominantly in his hometown of Lucca. His main work, 10 Concerti Opus 2, is an almost visionary achievement, in particular because he expressly called for a powerful orchestral sonority. Each Concerto has it's own varied and multifaceted character. The solo passages of both violins are but short interludes. The accent is on the lively orchestral idiom and it's many surprises; previously unheard of combinations of string instruments are as thrilling as the transparent and lively dialogues within the orchestra. Alessandro Stradella (1644-1682) was constantly involved in love affairs and other incidents: the last ended in his murder on the Piazza Bianchi in Genoa. This did not deter from the quality of his compositions. In many ways his works still appear modern, thanks to his gift for combining different orchestral timbres and volumes, and involving the players in inspiring exchanges and mutual imitations.

In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.

This 4-CD set pays tribute to the French poet Jacques Prevert. He is generally considered as the 20th century’s greatest writer. For his words are simple. They are intended for those they describe. The tragic aspect is never absolute for Prevert – the last word is always with humour. Prevert was an author for commoners, an aristocrat of the streets. Each of the CDs is dedicated to a particular topic (childhood, love, music, freedom) and features a selection of Prevert’s texts read by the author himself or by great actors, his friends (radio archives) – including interviews of his contemporaries. In French..