KARMA

JAZZPA�A is a showcase for the special compositional and arranging skills of Arif Mardin and Vince Mendoza, for the impeccable and dynamic section work of the WDR Big Band, for the exotic, and for the assured and articulate playing of top jazz guest players like Michael Brecker. Furthermore, JAZZPA�A reveals Vince Mendoza as a composer and arranger of immense talent and imagination.

RAW

Marius Neset combines Brecker's power and Jan Garbarek's tonal delicacy (The Guardian) and "makes his instrument dance like a gazelle and soar like an eagle, and he's an ingenious composer too." (Telegraph) Downbeat described him as "not only an impressive technician but also a formidable composer." On "Happy" Marius Neset draws for the first time on the pop, soul and funk of the 70s and 80s.

ENNIO

PASSACAGLIA

LET THEM COOK

BLOOM

TOUGH STUFF

Nils Landgren and Joe Sample have known each other for at least 20 years, from when Nils accidentally found himself in the middle of a recording session of The Crusaders in Los Angeles. Years later, Joe Sample invited Nils at the beginning of 2005 to join him on a major Japan tour - and thus Creole Love Call was sealed with a simple handshake.

DUO

Silent World is about the essentials of being human, a mes-sage which Haffner signals clearly with concise track titles such as "The Peace Inside", "Hope" or "Belief". Sometimes we're in the world of hymns, sometimes of dreams, but there is always a melody to be grasped and a pulse to be felt, and those points of reference give a basis for the listener to focus and to enjoy the music thoroughly.

When Bernard Purdie is not helping some big star the likes of Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, Donny Hathaway and B.B. King to create a fantastic studio sound, the drummer pursues his own projects such as "Soul to Jazz", two albums he recorded in 1996 and 1997. Released on CD back then (and now out of print), the two recordings have a cult factor today and sound as fresh as they did back then. Now both albums are released together for the first time as a 3-LP Set. These recordings are peppered with lots of prominent star guests from jazz and soul, from Eddie Harris, Michael Brecker and Nils Landgren to Hank Crawford, Stanley Turrentine and Cornell Dupree. Purdie's "Soul to Jazz" project takes two different approaches: The first part focuses on the renowned WDR Big Band led by Gil Goldstein. Soul classics such as Stevie Wonder's "Superstition", "When a Man Loves a Woman", Eddie Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance" and Lee Morgan's famous groove tune "Sidewinder" are interpreted in large-scale sound. One discovery of these recordings amidst all the renowned guest soloists is the New York-born singer Martin Moss. The great success of this first album released under "Soul to Jazz" led to "Soul to Jazz II", a more intimate record, but one that picks up where the first recording left off by exploring similar themes. Again Purdie has called together a notable band of kindred spirits, including saxophonists Hank Crawford (B.B. King, Ike & Tina Turner, Ray Charles), Stanley Turrentine (Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott) and Vincent Herring, as well as guitarist Cornell Dupree (King Curtis) to pianists Benny Green and Junior Mance. Bernard Purdie's "Soul to Jazz" is a timeless classic and a blueprint of the soul-jazz genre in all it's facets. Above all, it is a portrait of one of the most influential and best drummers in the world, who made jazz groove with his inimitable funky soul beat.

For Pianist Michael Wollny, songs are like ghosts. His new album "Ghosts" is a gathering of some of the ghosts that regularly haunt him. Typically for Wollny, they range from classics like Franz Schubert's "Erlk�nig" to jazz standards, film music, songs with a certain fragility by Nick Cave, say, or the band Timber Timbre, and also include his own darkly evocative original compositions.

SYMPHONIZED