Sonny Rollins -"Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums" - Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums combines legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins' two studio albums for Lester Koenig's Contemporary Records (Way Out West, Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders) with a third disc, Contemporary Alternate Takes. Featuring remastered audio by Bernie Grundman, the 3 CD set includes an expanded booklet with new liner notes and an interview by GRAMMY Award-winning music historian Ashley Kahn.

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), younger sister of the more famous Nadia Boulanger, was a brilliant and precocious French composer who dazzled the world of European music at the beginning of the 20th century. At age 19, Lili Boulanger became the first woman to win France's Prix de Rome. In her short career, Boulanger advanced the impressionism of her era, finding her own voice in music that's expressive and luminous, moving and enchanting. Debussy descriptively described her music as "undulating with grace."

To place Boulanger's music in context, the CD offers songs by prominent French composers who had a connection to her music: Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, Messiaen, and Honegger.

Track Listing
1. Song After Sundown - Stan Getz/Arthur Fiedler
2. Bridge, The - Sonny Rollins
3. Runnin' Wild - Benny Goodman Quartet
4. Evans - Art Blakey
5. Blood Count - Duke Ellington
6. Ill Wind - Paul Desmond
7. Salt Peanuts - Bud Powell
8. Figurine - Johnny Hodges
9. Swinging 'Till the Girls Come - Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan
10. Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud - Shorty Rogers
11. Stratusphunk - J.J. Johnson
12. As You Make Your Bed - The Sextet of Orchestra U.S.A.
13. Tijuana Gift Shop - Charles Mingus
14. Just a Mood - Red Norvo

A good cross-section of material, but only for those who wouldn't normally purchase any solo releases or boxed sets. ~ Ron Wynn

Gypseas of Infinity is a sonic ceremony, a collection of songs reimagined from sacred circles and brought to life in the studio. Each track invites listeners into a space of connection, meaning, and beauty. These songs serve as musical medicine for a world in need of healing-a reminder of what happens when spirit and sound become one.

SPECTRAL FICTION

OVER THE WALL

BRITTEN WAR REQUIEM

BRYN TERFEL / SEA SONGS - Bryn Terfel's new album 'Sea Songs' presents a rich and diverse repertory of traditional music with sea shanties, spirited sailor songs and maritime folk tunes in brand new arrangements. Featuring guest stars Sting, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Fisherman's Friends and Calan.

Decca signed an exclusive contract with the Wiener Oktett (Vienna Octet) in the summer of 1948 as a commercially motivated move: a sweetener to the deal that also poached the Philharmonic Orchestra from EMI. The ensemble had been formed only a year or so previously around the Boskovsky brothers, violinist Willi and clarinetist Alfred. Soon enough, audiences at home as well as in concert were enjoying the sound of a quintessentially Viennese ensemble, it's members drawn from the ranks of the Philharmonic, in Classical-era music that could have been written for them, starting with the Septet by Beethoven and the Octet by Schubert. The sweet, silvery tone of the Octet and the easy give-and-go of it's phrasing established the Octet as the latest in a line of distinguished Viennese chamber ensembles, from the Ros� Quartet of Mahler's era to the Barylli Quartet documented by the Westminster label. The Vienna Octet enjoyed the advantage of Decca's top-of-the-range engineering, and they continued to set down classic interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert through the course of the 1950s, for the new LP format and then for stereo. In 1956 their Decca albums began to reflect the diversity of their concert programs, with the Octet written for them by the Belgian composer Marcel Poot. While they continued to enjoy free-spirited partnerships on record with the likes of Clifford Curzon and the Viennese pianist Walter Panhofer in Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, they also recorded lesser-known Romantics such as Spohr, Kreutzer and Berwald, and modern repertoire by Britten, Hindemith and Egon Wellesz. By the time of the Vienna Octet's final recording in November 1972, only two members of it's original lineup were left, including clarinetist Alfred Boskovsky, but critics and record buyers had continued to recognize that, especially in the central repertoire, an unselfconscious authenticity set the ensemble apart from it's rivals.

COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

It's tempting to imagine that this is how the music might have sounded four centuries ago in the glorious surroundings of St Mark's. Certainly, any comparisons are unlikely to be to the disadvantage of these exceptional young singers from The London Oratory Schola Cantorum who excel in this repertoire.

French love songs from three centuries, interspersed with reflective lute solos, constitute an Idylle for mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and lutenist Thomas Dunford. As they explain: "The emotions of love are explored in different forms - languor, desire, fascination, happiness." The word 'idyll', evoking a blissful, tranquil experience, derives from Ancient Greece and poetry on a pastoral theme. Desandre and Dunford spin a thematic and musical thread between eras and styles, starting with a sequence of 10 airs de cour from the 17th century. Spanning the era from the 1860s to the 1920s are arias and songs by Offenbach, Debussy, Hahn and Messager, and the album then fast-forwards to the 1960s and two iconic French chanteuses, Barbara and Fran�oise Hardy. Dunford supplies instrumental interludes in the form of two dances by Robert de Vis�e, a court musician for both Louis XIV and Louis XV, and Erik Satie's Gymnop�die No 1 and Gnossienne No 1.

SPACE CUBE JAZZ

STEMBELLS

DUO

Charles Chen - Charles, Play! / Charles, Play! Showcases the joy of creation and the fun of play with a stellar band composed of Ralph Moore, Peter Washington and Kenny Washington. - Charles, Play! #is pianist Chen's debut album. The album represents how Charles approaches play: both very serious and very fun. Listeners will hear catchy compositions, danceable arrangements, & dynamic solos. Charles, Play! Showcases the joy of creation and the fun of play. The stellar band is composed of Ralph Moore on tenor saxophone, Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums.

GABRIEL FAURE

Apocalyptic walls of sound cascade around the Gothic vaults of Saint-Eustache in Paris as Stephen Layton and David Briggs unleash, respectively, the full power of a top-notch Trinity Choir and the mighty van den Heuvel organ of 1989.

INNO DELLE NAZIONI / QUATRO PEZZI SACRI

SIBELIUS / PROKOFIEV: VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Brian Ho Trio Featuring Paul Bollenback And Byron Wookie Landham - Bridges This is Brian Ho's second full length recording. It features two thirds of Joey Defrancesco's original trio, Paul Bollenback and Byron "Wookie" Landham. As Brian was sitting on the B subway train coming back from recording this CD in Brooklyn, he crossed the Manhattan Bridge. He remembered all the "Bridges" he's crossed to becoming a "top call B3 organist," (Pat Bianchi, 2024.) As a second generation Chinese American whose parents do not play any instruments, he has dedicated countless hours to learning the rich history of the Hammond Organ on and off the bandstand, while simultaneously adding his own voice and influences into the music. Ho has recorded or played with incredible musicians like Azar Lawrence, Billy Hart, Troy Roberts and Gary Bartz, and featured in jazz clubs and festivals all over the world. This album showcases four of his original compositions along with six other "standards" that are reworked or arranged by Brian.

NADINE SIERRA & PRETTY YENDE IN CONCERT

MEMENTO

FIRE WALTZ

Cory Weeds & Champian Fulton - Every Now And Then (live At Ocl Studios) - Cory Weeds and Champian Fulton travelled to OCL Studios in Calgary to record a new live, duo album in front of a rapt audience. In February of 2023 close friends, Cory Weeds and Champian Fulton traveled to OCL Studios just outside Calgary to record a new live, duo album in front of a rapt audience. Their special bond was evident as pianist and vocalist Fulton delivered sophisticated, swinging turns across a set of beautiful tunes, in conversation with Weeds at his expressive best.