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.

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.

SYMPHONIZED

SILK AND SAND

180 gram Black Virgin Vinyl with a free Download Code included! Svensson in a setting other than that of the trio: Intimate, concentrated and completely one with himself. The recordings for HOME.S. were made only a few weeks before Esbj�rn Svensson's sudden death on June 14th, 2008. Svensson recorded the music in his Swedish home. For almost ten years afterward, the album rested untouched in his wife Eva's personal archive. She says: "When the solo piano recordings were found at our home it felt like "getting a message smuggled over the border". A message of love, space, eternity and infinite creation. But also a message encouraging to continue the creation and to find ways for the music to meet the listener. More wanted to be explored, and today we can tell the whole story of HOME.S."

LET THEM COOK

BIRD LIVES

LES METANUITS

Remembrance, a new double album out May 10, serves as a moving final document of the profound creative and personal rapport that banjoist B�la Fleck and pianist Chick Corea first showcased at album length with 2007's Latin Grammy-winning The Enchantment. It's also a crucial addendum to Corea's legacy, featuring three previously unreleased Corea compositions as well as five short free improvisations, or impromptus, that Fleck has infused with written music. "We pushed this duo to a new place before we ran out of time," says Fleck, who produced Remembrance. "We have here another cool look at Chick Corea, at the different ways that he can play that we wouldn't have had. There's a lot of great Chick Corea out there, and this is different."

Vinyl LP pressing. Whenever it's time to wait for Santa, decorate the tree or get together at Christmas parties: You can be sure that Bear Family puts together the perfect soundtrack for the holiday season every year. Our 2024 Christmas compilation focuses exclusively on classic blues and R&B material and is available in two formats to ensure everyone gets their money's worth. The vinyl album delivers fourteen festive songs ranging from favorites like Clyde McPhatter's Drifters, B.B. King and Charles Brown to obscure highlights from the Jackson Trio, blues guitarist Ralph Willis and Bay Area keyboardist Lonnie Hewitt, whose You've Been A Bad Little Girl is a Christmas revelation. The ultimate gift. When the record is placed under the Christmas tree, every R&B fan will be delighted.

-Second album with more great recordings from the earliest sessions (1951 and 1952) featuring Chester Burnett aka The Howlin' Wolf. -The recordings were made by Sam Phillips at his Memphis Recording Service. -At the time, these recordings remained unreleased! -These masters and alternate versions were discovered decades later. -Howlin' Wolf is one of the giants of the blues with his hard electric blues style and his unique voice that is just bursting with power. -Guitarist Willie Johnson - one of the first to get such brutal sounds out of an amp in the blues... luckily the amp barely survived those sessions. -Digitally copied from the original sources and currently remastered for the vinyl edition using state-of-the-art studio technology: both 10" albums sound fantastic! -The liner notes and discographical details in the illustrated booklet are by British blues expert and music historian Martin Hawkins. -Also available: 'Boy, You Got The Blues There!' (BAF14031) with another 10 originally unreleased early Memphis recordings. This and the recently released 10" vinyl LP 'Boy You Got The Blues There!' (BAF14031) provide radically remastered early recordings that already reflect the later Chicago blues style of one of the most important exponents of the blues ever! Captured between May 1951 and early 1953 at the Memphis Recording Service by producer and engineer Sam Phillips, these very first recordings of Chester Burnett aka The Howlin' Wolf were made when the singer, guitarist and harmonica player was already over forty years old. A true Methuselah among fellow bluesmen, his modest reputation at the time was an insignificant local radio show across the Mississippi River at KWEM in West Memphis. It was Sam Phillips who first saw the man's potential. He had never heard a voice like that, that power, that manliness. That very spring of 1951, Phillips sold his Wolf recordings to Chess Records in Chicago.

Studio recordings, most of which had been posthumously released on now long deleted CDs on the small Watch Dog label. Including a previously unreleased recording with Luke 'Long Gone' Miles. Compiled by producer and harmonica player Bob Corritore, who also wrote the liner notes. Carefully remastered by Tom Meyer and pressed by Optimal media, 180-gram edition in a gatefold sleeve, limited to 1.000 copies After some tough early years in which he managed to stay afloat with mostly poorly paid gigs in small clubs and only occasionally came out of Los Angeles or Southern California, William Clarke (March 21, 1951 - November 2, 1996) signed with the famous Alligator Records label. With his debut album 'Blowin' Like Hell' for the Chicago blues factory, the West Coast's blues secret became an endlessly touring international star of the scene! With 'Heavy Hittin' West Coast Harp' we pay tribute and respect to one of the greatest harmonica stylists. As an instrumentalist William Clarke was strongly influenced by George 'Harmonica' Smith, a Chicago contemporary of Little Walter and Walter Horton. Smith came to Los Angeles for a recording session in 1956 and settled on the West Coast. Similar to his iconic idol Smith, from whom he learned a lot of tricks in countless joint appearances, Clarke was equally at home on the cross harmonica as on the chromatic. The combination of Chicago-style harmonica and the cool groove and swing of West Coast blues and jazz met the open ears of blues fans all over the world. On his first album 'Hittin' Heavy' he is accompanied by Hollywood Fats on guitar, later recording sessions include Ronnie Earl, Junior Watson, Rick Holmstrom and Alex Schultz a.m.o. Bob Corritore, for many years a prolific blues musician and first-class harp player, producer and influencer, has compiled this album and written the liner notes for Bear Family.

Duke Ellington Presents, recorded for Bethlehem in 1956, is unusual in that it consists mainly of standards. On it, Duke Ellington and key soloists work wonders on such chestnuts as "My Funny Valentine," "Summertime," "Laura," and the Rosetta Stone of be-bop, "I Can't Get Started," plus a few choice Ellington originals. Duke Ellington Presents is an accessible entry point for newcomers, as well as an overlooked gem for Duke fans. Remastered 96 kHz/24 bit audio pressed on 180 gram vinyl LP at Precision Record Pressing in Canada.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' Hard Drive is a classic album from the hard bop era. The seven track collection was recorded in New York City in October of 1957 and released on the Bethlehem label in December of that same year. It finds drummer/leader Blakey flanked by the likes of Bill Hardman (trumpet), Johnny Griffin (tenor saxophone), Junior Mance/Sam Dockery (piano) and Spanky DeBrest (bass). Remastered 96 kHz/24 bit audio pressed on 180 gram vinyl LP at Precision Record Pressing in Canada.

Vinyl LP pressing. John Williams - famed composer of Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Jaws and winner of five Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven BAFTAs and 25 Grammys - first made his mark through his jazz recordings captured in 1957 on Bethlehem Records. BMG is proud to reissue the long-out-print album World on a String on vinyl, which sees the young Williams perform arrangements from the Harold Arlen songbook - including favorites such as "Over the Rainbow," "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "Stormy Weather."