Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

On Bright Dawn, his 21st recording as a leader, Harvie S reaffirms why he remains one of the most expressive and sought-after bass voices in modern jazz. Long celebrated for bass lines that function "like the deep roots of a tree," Harvie uses this session to explore the full sonic and emotional range of the instrument, shaping music that is at once grounded, lyrical, and quietly adventurous. His original compositions-thoughtful, rhythmically alive, and rich with harmonic implication-sit naturally alongside inspired interpretations of Chick Corea's "Humpty Dumpty" and Bob Dorough's wry classic "Devil May Care," creating a program that feels both personal and expansive. Surrounded by Peter Bernstein's warm, articulate guitar, Miki Hayama's elegant and probing piano, and Matt Wilson's ever-responsive drums, Harvie leaves generous space for interaction, nuance, and collective discovery. The result is a recording that breathes, melodies unfolding organically and grooves emerging with unforced authority, all anchored by the unmistakable sound of a master bassist whose imagination and touch continue to evolve. "The bassist's horn-like, bebop-based phrasing is as engaging as it is inventive, leaving no doubts about his stature as one of the preeminent bass voices..." All About Jazz " a fecund mind that is continually searching for new horizons towards which to stretch, taking with him a bass violin that sings with almost limitless possibilities." Raul da Gama

Respected jazz veteran Jaimee Paul returns with a captivating new project: The Richard Rodgers Songbook. The latest collaboration between Green Hill and Burton Avenue, this album highlights Paul's rich artistry and the elegance of timeless classics. After years singing behind music's biggest names, Jaimee steps forward once again with a sound that's all her own.

The Rhine hymned by women's voices A major source of inspiration for writers and painters (Hugo, Nerval, Heine, Eichendorff, Turner) and above all composers throughout Romantic Europe, the legends of the Rhine still enthral our imaginations even today. The Ensemble Pygmalion and Rapha�l Pichon invite us on a fantastic voyage through famous works (including Wagner) and others, much more rarely recorded, that are absolute gems of the repertory for female voices.

Isobel Waller-Bridge, composer and musician returns with Objects. Where her 2022 album VIII articulated a tormented mind's undoing, Objects is an act of radical stillness. It confers beauty on things the pace of our lives has taught us to ignore, inviting us to listen not as an objective experience, but as a personal and mysterious response to the world.

It is often the case that the creation successful art comes down to basic factors. For jazz music, talent and creativity are obvious essentials. But what usually drives music further is trust between performers and a sense of spontaneity in performance. Keyboard master Gary Versace aimed to harness all these elements on his new recording, Three Track Mind, a vibrant collection of fresh arrangements of standards and favorites by a fledging trio, featuring bassist Fran�ois Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston. Versace has long been admired for his incredible touch on piano, organ, and accordion, appearing alongside a tremendous and eclectic of collaborators. His playing has adorned the work of artists as diverse as John Scofield, Maria Schneider, John Hollenbeck, and Madeleine Peyroux. Versace is also an accomplished composer and educator. In his catholic approach to musical collaboration, Versace has been fortunate to perform with some incredible musicians, including Fran�ois Moutin and Rudy Royston. Though, opportunities came often to appear on stage with both, the trio had never played all together. Versace first met Royston in performance with the dearly departed trumpeter Ron Miles in Colorado. Once Royston relocated to New York City, the two began performing more and more, including Versace as accordionist in Royston's Flatbed Buggy. Versace and Moutin regularly found themselves on the bandstand, especially behind vocalists. Versace knew that the two would be ideal in trio, as their musicality and energy were ideal for his style of playing. It was with this in mind that Versace invited Moutin and Royston to a two-day session at Chris Sulit's Trading 8s Studio in July of 2024. Versace wanted to create an environment that replicated the feeling of a live set, just interpreting standards and tunes in an open way to provide fresh takes and opportunity for improvisation, delivering a true sense of the music being able to go anywhere. The pieces the trio played were not planned. Versace would introduce the piece and Moutin and Royston would join in as they recognized it. As fantastic individual orchestrators, Moutin and Royston were able to help Versace make incredible, instantaneous arrangements. With all the takes being so different, Versace provided two takes of Joseph Kosma's standard, "Autumn Leaves," to show just how vastly different the trio could play them. Finding just the perfect balance of elements, Gary Versace brings to fore an openminded and expressive trio with Fran�ois Moutin and Rudy Royston. Together they present, Three Track Mind, an intimate and explorative recording of a trio that should not be missed.

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

Grammy Award-winning Contemporary Jazz/R&B superstar Norman Brown has sold over 5 million albums in his extraordinary career and virtually lives at the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz sales and radio charts. Having headlined with with virtually every Contemporary Jazz superstar from Boney James to Dave Koz to Gerald Albright, Norman's non-stop touring has electrified audiences from coast to coast! Authentically Norman has Norman Brown's hit-making talents on full display. Highlights include the uber-funky "Home Stretch," the romantic "Valentine," the joyful "Chillax'" and much more.

Vocalist and composer Chenxi Pan introduces herself as a thoughtful new voice in contemporary jazz through this set of all original music. Unfolding as a series of reflections drawn from lived experience, emotions are rendered through a fluid blend of poetry, song, and instrumental writing, often using the voice as an expressive instrument within the ensemble as she dissolves the line between sung narrative and pure sound. Born and raised in China, her path shifted from literature to music during her early studies, eventually leading her to pursue jazz in New York City at the New School. Her writing reflects that lineage: lyrical yet searching, precise yet open to spontaneity. Produced by master drummer Matt Wilson, This Very Moment was recorded soon after her 2024 debut as a bandleader at The Stone NYC. Balancing intimacy with collective interplay, Pan allows each composition to breathe and evolve. Her emergence as a musical voice signals an artist attuned to nuance, collaboration, and storytelling-one who invites the listener not toward spectacle, but into a shared, resonant present.

NEW TROMBONE

When Leopold of Anhalt-C�then died in 1728, his former Kapellmeister had not forgotten the five brilliant years he had spent in the prince's service. He dedicated to his memory a mourning cantata almost entirely based on the music of two major works of the mid-1720s, the Trauer-Ode and the St Matthew Passion. Although the score is lost, the wordbook and other sources of information have now made it possible to reconstruct the work. Rapha�l Pichon's first recording for harmonia mundi was voted recording of the year at the 2015 Victoires de la Musique Classique awards.

Captured at the peak of her powers, this historic collection features the definitive recordings Billie Holiday made for the independent Commodore label between 1939 and 1944. The album is anchored by the haunting, revolutionary protest song "Strange Fruit" and showcases her emotive mastery across essential jazz standards like "I'll Be Seeing You" and "Fine and Mellow".

Commemorating the 270th anniversary of Mozart's birth in 2026, the "MOZART COLORS 100" collection by Deutsche Grammophon and Decca is a masterful fusion of high-fidelity audio and innovative visual curation. By organizing 94 essential recordings and six genre-specific masterpieces into a spectrum of 12 thematic colors, the series transforms the act of listening into a mood-based experience, allowing the "jacket color" to guide the listener through Mozart's immense versatility-from his precocious childhood works to his universally beloved classics. The technical presentation is equally impressive, featuring the SHM-CD format for superior sound resolution housed in elegant, color-coordinated cardboard sleeves that appeal to tactile collectors. With insightful new commentary by Mai Takano and approachable branding by Toshiyuki Hirata, this 100-title series successfully modernizes a historical legacy, making the 2026 anniversary both a luxury for audiophiles and a welcoming entry point for new fans of the "Wunderkind."

Betty Bryant is a Los Angeles treasure. The singer, pianist, and composer has been a regular on the Southern California jazz scene since 1955, when she moved from her hometown of Kansas City, MO, where she was mentored by the late, great Jay McShann. Now, at the remarkable age of 96, Bryant is releasing NOTHIN' BETTER TO DO, her 15th album. Dubbed "Cool Miss B" by her producer and saxophonist Robert Kyle, her blues-based piano and vocal stylings have garnered a legion of fans at numerous jazz clubs and night spots up and down the West Coast and beyond. NOTHIN' BETTER TO DO features three original tunes (one by Bryant, one by Bryant and Kyle, and one by Kyle) as well as several tracks that are off the beaten path. With Bryant and Kyle out front, the music swings with an appealing bluesy, lilting quality. The arrangements are mostly by Bryant and Kyle, with string arrangements on two tracks by Jim McMillen.

HAMMER & CHISEL

ACAPULCO 22

Composer Anthony Branker unveils a powerful new chapter in his ongoing exploration of music as cultural narrative, social inquiry, and collective expression. Leading his newly formed ensemble Other Ways of Knowing, Branker brings together an exceptional group of improvisers-saxophonist Steve Wilson, guitarist Pete McCann, pianist Simona Premazzi, bassist John H'bert, drummer Rudy Royston, and vocalist Aim'e Allen-for a program that is as rhythmically vital as it is conceptually resonant. Drawing inspiration from histories and lived experiences within the African and Indigenous diasporas, these expansive compositions balance cinematic scope with deeply personal storytelling. Like Branker's acclaimed earlier work, praised for it's ability to unite musical beauty with intellectual depth, Manifestations of a Diasporic Groove & Spirit stands as a compelling statement-one that invites listening not only as an aesthetic experience, but as a way of knowing, remembering, and bearing witness. "Musical beauty in the service of thought, or perhaps the reverse" Paris-Move "a sweeping opus with sociopolitical and poetic content woven into a musical tapestry at once cerebral, emotive and viscerally exciting." DownBeat

TRUMPET TALES

A focused portrait of Britten alongside a little-known but significant British contemporary, marking both the 50th anniversary of Britten's death and the centenary year of Arthur Oldham's birth. Under Michael Waldron, the London Choral Sinfonia pairs Britten with the one composer he privately mentored: Arthur Oldham. The program brings together familiar works by Britten with a substantial selection of Oldham's choral music, placing the two composers in direct conversation. At the center is Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, a cycle of nocturnal poetry (Tennyson, Blake, Keats and others) framed by the horn's natural harmonics in the Prologue and Epilogue. Horn soloist Annemarie Federle and Tenor Nick Pritchard trace it's shifting atmosphere, with string accompaniment from the London Choral Sinfonia. Britten's Te Deum in C appears in the rarely heard orchestrated version for strings and harp, presented here as a world premiere recording. Oldham's music completes the program: the cantata Laudes Creaturarum on the text of St Francis of Assisi (with Carolyn Sampson), the carol Remember, O thou man, and the ceremonial Sacerdos et Pontifex for chorus and organ - also recorded here for the first time.

HAMMER & CHISEL