ACROSS ... IN GRIEF AND DETAIL

Amazing jazz interpretations of songs of Nirvana, Klaus Doldinger, Grace Jones, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Grandbrothers, Dave Pike, Empire Of The Sun, Joe Jackson, Eurythmics, Kruder & Dorfmeister. WEB WEB is starting a new chapter with Kover Kover. For the first time in the band's ten-year history, the focus is not on original compositions, but exclusively on cover versions - a radical change of perspective that seems entirely consistent. The musicians' stylistic openness inevitably led to an intriguing question: what would songs by Talking Heads, Kruder & Dorfmeister or Joe Jackson sound like if they had originally been penned by WEB WEB? The answer was obvious - you just had to put these pieces through the distinctive WEB WEB cosmos. The idea: to interpret favorite songs from completely different musical worlds in such a way that they fit organically into one's own musical language. The amazing thing is that it wasn't particularly difficult. Because a really good song can be reduced to two essential components - a melody that you can sing along to and a harmonic structure that remains instantly recognisable even in it's simplest form.

Chet Baker showed with his music that little bit of dark substance that exists in the human being - the shadow side - just as very few other jazz musicians have been able to do. However, such a reading that looks for traces of anguish and self-destruction in every note - and which has also been translated into a couple of films - has ended up overshadowing something very important: namely, that Chet Baker was a top-notch jazz musician, the creator of a unique and personal poetics, an interpreter who did not wallow in his own torments but who also knew how to take less introspective paths, including a superfine and very lively swing. Chet Baker's music had characteristics of it's own. Of a bebop nature in the fast pieces, he had in solos that complex and pulsating way that characterized this style. He differed from it in the soft timbre of the trumpet, which rarely indulged in the "flare-ups" typical of the boppers, and above all for the insistent use of pauses. These were precisely one of the cornerstones of his musical language. In the ballads the trumpeter-singer expanded them to the point of absurdity (and so did with the notes), making them spaces charged of meaning, as can be seen in the somber I'm a Fool to Want You, made famous by Billie Holiday, and also in the serene In a Sentimental Mood. In this final phase of his career, Baker often liked to have groups without drums with him because, in addition to allowing him to maintain a muffled volume in his singing and trumpet playing, the drumless situation guaranteed him greater freedom. Only the double bass player was left to keep time, a role here entrusted to a solid Knauer. In Ferrara, a sensitive French pianist, Michel Graillier, took the stage; in those years he was looking for a synthesis between the energy of McCoy Tyner and the harmonic language of Bill Evans. Finally, the presence of a piano allowed Stilo to limit the use of the other harmonic instrument, the guitar, in favor of the flute.

RENEWAL

Born on the road in Japan, Jazz Messengers '70 is the only recorded document of a short-lived but powerful Messenger lineup. With Blakey at the helm, the band reclaims classic repertoire with urgency, fire, and a future-facing edge.

Cut in 1968, this session catches a trumpeter at the height of his command. Showing impact and restraint in equal measure, Don's playing here is focused, unforced, and powered by years of bandstands, studios, and broadcast work.

Long before bossa nova found it's way into the American ear, Lonnie Sattin was already there. Recorded in Brazil with it's master musicians and shaped by Sattin's unmatched versatility, this album captures a moment when worlds collide, revealing an artist whose vision, curiosity, and voice were always a few steps ahead of their time.

POLKA DOTS AND RAY BANS

'Big Shoulders, Big Sounds' is a raw, high-wire baritone sax trio album led by Jimmy Farace with Clark Sommers on bass and Dana Hall on drums. Rooted in the baritone lineage and the Chicago scene, the music balances tradition and risk-big sound, fearless improvisation, and deeply personal originals alongside respectful nods to the past.

Forged over years of touring, brotherhood, and hard-earned trust, George Coleman's Octet arrives fully realized. This is an explosive first statement from a band driven by experience, discipline, and fearless improvisation, capturing a moment when deep roots, shared legacy, and uncompromising fire collide at full volume.

Wellspring presents the arrival of a powerful new voice in creative music, unrelenting in passion and invention, while always transmitting a deeply empathic grace. Masterful composer-improviser DoYeon Kim is an unparalleled practitioner of the Korean gayageum (a silk-string zither), and is also in possession of a purposeful vocal intensity. This is her debut album as a bandleader, featuring fellow master musicians Tyshawn Sorey (drums), Mat Maneri (viola), Henry Fraser (bass). � Armed with an unlikely traditional instrument, flanked by three extraordinary improvisers, radiating a brash, acoustic strategy that simultaneously invokes folk universalism and a No Wave battle-stance, the Brooklyn-based virtuoso has dropped a volcanic sonic statement with grand humanist goals. Kim mingles Korean lullabies, fervent interactions between drums and strings, and pure instrumental expressions of musical self.�At times, she sounds like she can halt armies. Wellspring is a call for society to come together. � How the Seoul, South Korea-born 34-year-old came to be the centuries-old zither's leading (only?) practitioner of contemporary improvised music, reflects an expansive embrace of her own culture, her place in modern society, and her ascending recognition of music's liberatory power. � Kim has released works alongside Morris and Brandon Lopez. Her 2017 duo album GaPi with Chase Morrin garnered a Korean Grammy nomination. And she's shared stages with Kris Davis, Cooper-Moore and John H�bert, among many others. Now, Wellspring, is the recorded culmination of her growth period. It is a rumbling record, with wall-to-wall big sounds, all Kim compositions or group improvisations, built on immediacy and gusto. Even the aforementioned lullaby, "Walking in a Dream," which Kim performs with unrestrained vocal intensity, surrounded by Fraser's resonant bowing, Maneri's accompanying melody and counter figures, and Sorey adding atmospheric percussive touches-ends like a hurricane.��������� � Kim chose her accompanists not simply because of familiarity, but due to their emotionally unmediated relationship to the moment. "I don't want people thinking about their 'role' in the music" she says. "I want people free from their instrument, who are more about how they are making a sound and the relationship between our sounds." � That feeling and the album's humanist themes are well-displayed by Wellspring's two-part epic closer, the 20+-minute "Linear System"/"Calculus of the Soul." The instrumental "Linear Systems" is, according to Kim, constructed on the theme of the lifecycle, slowly building to a mass bowed drone, through a plucked and reactionary percussion section, before folding into the album's gentlest moment, and sliding into "Calculus of the Soul." "Please listen to this girl's story" the latter begins; then, with Maneri and Sorey flitting around her narration in noise-folk fashion, Kim speak-sings-then-screams of how between the sun's and the moon's daily arrival are countless formulas, and that the mystery of life is contained within those numbers. "That's how we live together!"

In this program, the DNSO let's you experience the fascinating world of John Williams' music in a concert that brings cinema to life. From the epic fanfares of Star Wars to the magical sounds of Harry Potter and E.T. to the touching melodies of Schindler's List, this program spans an impressive arc between adventure, fantasy, and deep emotion. An evening full of goosebumps, big emotions, and unforgettable film music that awakens memories and ignites new enthusiasm.

WALTON: SYMPHONIES NOS. 1 & 2; ORB AND SCEPTRE

Undreamed Shores brings together three major contemporary string quartets written for and performed by the Jupiter String Quartet, works the ensemble has lived with in performance over many years. In To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Michi Wiancko traces a sequence of vividly imagined musical scenes inspired by the natural world. Across seven concise movements, the music reflects on fragility, ecological loss, and kinship, gradually moving toward a quietly hopeful call for collective responsibility. Composed during the pandemic, Stephen Andrew Taylor's Chaconne/Labyrinth is built around a repeating harmonic cycle, using just intonation to evoke the tension of being caught between stasis and searching. Familiar material continually returns, reshaped by a sense of uncertainty before leading toward clarity. Completing the album, Kati Agocs's Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) unfolds as a continuous rhapsodic meditation. Musical ideas are repeatedly transformed, moving between darkness and light, and culminating in a serene, luminous conclusion. Together, these works form a thoughtful exploration of contemporary quartet writing, each offering space to reflect on our shared humanity and to find moments of hope and light in challenging times.

With his powerful voice and unmistakable stage presence, Anthony Clark Evans presents a dazzling panorama of the great 19th-century baritone repertoire on this recording. The program ranges from the passionate drama of Italian verismo to the elegance of French opera and the exalted sound world of Richard Wagner. Evans opens with Leoncavallo's famous Prologue from Pagliacci, a programmatic manifesto of verismo, and continues with Giordano's searing denunciation "Nemico della patria" from Andrea Ch�nier and Puccini's dark scene from Il Tabarro. Donizetti and Offenbach provide melodic refinement and brilliant color from the Italian and French traditions, while Thomas's drinking song from Hamlet adds charm and lightness. Particular highlights are the Wagner arias - the intimate "Song to the Evening Star" from Tannh�user and the great scene of the Dutchman - where Evans's voice reveals both lyrical depth and dramatic radiance. The program concludes with central Verdi roles, from Rigoletto to Il Trovatore and Luisa Miller, showcasing the full range of Italian bel canto drama.

From renowned bassist and composer Ben Wolfe comes Any Time After Now, a deeply expressive new album that brings together some of the most exciting voices in modern jazz. Featuring Joel Ross (vibraphone), Sullivan Fortner (piano), Chris Lewis (tenor saxophone), and Aaron Kimmel (drums), the album explores original compositions with elegance, swing, and a cinematic sense of storytelling. Wolfe's signature sound - lyrical, grounded, and harmonically rich - anchors a set of ten tracks that range from uptempo swingers and bluesy grooves to lyrical waltzes and a closing bossa nova. Any Time After Now is a journey through mood and melody, featuring standout soloing and deeply intuitive ensemble interplay. Perfect for fans of acoustic jazz, post-bop, and artists like Ron Carter, Christian McBride, and Bobby Hutcherson, this album blends tradition with a contemporary touch that feels timeless.

Annika Treutler & Aris Quartett - Sibelius: Piano Quintet & Miniatures / A true discovery: Annika Treutler and the Aris Quartett turn to Jean Sibelius's early Piano Quintet in G minor - a rarely performed gem seldom heard in the concert hall. Powerful, bold, and rich in expressive intensity, the work reveals a surprising side of the Finnish composer beyond his celebrated symphonies. Complemented by selected piano miniatures, the album unfolds a multifaceted portrait ranging from Nordic clarity to lyrical intimacy. This recording invites listeners to rediscover Sibelius - beyond the familiar repertoire and with a fresh perspective on his early chamber music.

Kenny Dorham's sublime 1956 live album, The Complete 'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia, features the trumpeter with J.R. Monterose, Kenny Burrell, Bobby Timmons, Sam Jones & Arthur Edgehill. This Blue Note Tone Poet Edition 2-CD set was produced by Joe Harley and remastered by Kevin Gray from the original tapes. Includes a booklet with never-before-seen photos by Francis Wolff and an essay by Syd Schwartz.

The Big Band of the Deutsche Oper Berlin is celebrating it's 20th anniversary and dedicating itself to French jazz. During the German occupation, it stood for freedom and resistance, and in the post-war period it became the soundtrack of existentialism and an expression of the attitude to life of an entire generation. In the nightclubs of Saint-Germain-des-Pr�s, musicians such as Miles Davis and Sidney Bechet met Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Boris Vian. For many jazz musicians from the USA, Paris became a place of longing beyond racial segregation and the McCarthy era. The Deutsche Oper Berlin Big Band celebrates the spirit of those years with music by Michel Legrand, Jacques Brel, Boris Vian, and Django Reinhardt.

ELEGIE: CHAUSSON BABAJANYAN RACHMANINOFF