Jazz master Chick Corea's unconventional vision of a classical performance shines through in his interaction with the Orchestra da Camera Della Sardegna, turning the acclaimed chamber orchestra into a large-scale jazz ensemble. His unorthodox approach adds a touch of playfulness to the Mozart & Gershwin pieces performed while upholding Corea's obvious reverence for their music. His joyous fusion sets the tone for the musicians and the audience, creating a truly captivating and boundary- pushing experience. The recording captures the essence of Corea's musical vision, his appreciation for classical traditions, and his undeniable genius as a performer and improviser. It stands as a testament to his lasting influence and his eternal quest to push the boundaries of music. Through his work as a composer and a performer, he sought to bridge the gap between genres, embracing the universality and enduring power of classical music. Corea realized this ambition fully during this live performance as was eager to release the recording as an album that would inspire jazz and classical music lovers equally.

23 year old singer/pianist Jamie Cullum is the new and genuinely exciting face in the jazz scene, "crossing over" like no male jazz singer since Harry Connick Jr.. He has been described as "the youngest swinger in town" (The Times) and "Sinatra in sneakers" (The Guardian), while Jazzwise Magazine notes "Cullum's mellifluous tone, clarity of diction, exciting pianism - clearly mark him out as a young artist with immense potential." This refreshingly hip debut album features jazz standards and covers of contemporary hits such as Radiohead's "High and Dry." It also showcases his superb originals, the title track and "I Want to Be a Popstar."

Rare Mingus tracks unavailable for decades, reassembled as a stand-alone album The sequel to Incarnations, which charted in the CIMS Top 40 in 2023.

Rare Mingus tracks unavailable on vinyl for decades, reassembled as a stand-alone album The sequel to Incarnations, which charted in the CIMS Top 40 for RSD Black Friday 2023 180g vinyl remastered by Bernie Grundman

SPANN OTIS / WALKING THE BLUES Perhaps best known for his long association with the legendary Muddy Waters, Otis Spann is largely recognized as one of the greatest blues pianists of all time, if not the greatest. Although Spann made a name for himself in Chicago by the mid 1940s, it wasn't until 1960 that he got the opportunity to record an album of his own. The sessions Spann did with Candid Records co-founder Nat Hentoff that year resulted in the legendary album Otis Spann Is The Blues. (Incidentally, this was also the first album ever recorded for the fledgling New York City based label.) The tracks on Walking The Blues were recorded during those same sessions in August of 1960 in New York City. Left on the cutting room floor, they would not be officially released until 1972, two years after Spann's untimely death. Robert Lockwood Jr., also from Muddy Water's group, accompanies Spann on guitar here as he does on the Is The Blues album. But Walking The Blues also features Spann's close friend, veteran singer and composer James Oden, better known to blues fans as St. Louis Jimmy. Stripped down to just the these musicians, this magnificently performed and produced set showcases Spann's voice as well as piano. Spann stretches out with his pulsing two-handed rhythmic attack, and brings the barrelhouse piano style of his youth in line with the modern Chicago style he embodied.

Paquito D'Rivera's - NEA Jazz Master, multiple Gramm winner, Downbeat Hall of Fame Inductee - gained worldwide attention as member of the Grammy Award winning Cuban group Irakere, a revolutionary ensemble co-founded with Chucho Vald�s in the early 1970s. Blending Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz, the band was a seminal force and marked a new era in Cuban music. His defection to the United States in 1980 was a turning point, as he became an ambassador of Latin jazz around the world, fusing cultures and genres effortlessly. A decade into his new status, D'Rivera entered a New York studio to record an homage to Bebop. He enlisted Grammy award winner and Dizzy Gillespie alum James Moody, distinguished straight ahead jazzers Mark Morganelli, Harvey Swartz and Al Foster, and major Latin-jazz players of the day Claudio Roditi, Danilo Perez, and Pedrito Lopez. While his intentions may have been to make an album like "Monk, Bird, and Dizzy" as he states in the liner notes, the results here are undeniably in D'Rivera's signature style. The album features a mix of original compositions from featured players, alongside the ensembles take on Coltrane's "Giant Steps", and Monks "I Mean You," all delivered with D'Rivera's unique perspective and deep understanding of traditional jazz and Latin music traditions. Originally released in 1992, the album has been remastered and is being released on vinyl for the first time ever as a double disc LP set. Remastered by Alex McOllough at True East Mastering. Vinyl cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl.

A decade into his new status, D'Rivera entered a New York studio to record an homage to Bebop. He enlisted Grammy award winner and Dizzy Gillespie alum James Moody, distinguished straight ahead jazzers Mark Morganelli, Harvey Swartz and Al Foster, and major Latin-jazz players of the day Claudio Roditi, Danilo Perez, and Pedrito Lopez. While his intentions may have been to make an album like "Monk, Bird, and Dizzy" as he states in the liner notes, the results here are undeniably in D'Rivera's signature style. - The album features a mix of original compositions from featured players, alongside the ensembles take on Coltrane's "Giant Steps", and Monks "I Mean You," all delivered with D'Rivera's unique perspective and deep understanding of traditional jazz and Latin music traditions.

Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. Is one of finest saxophonists of his generation. His resume includes long associations with Terrance Blanchard and Art Blakey throughout the 1980s. But the foundation of Harrison's music, and it's the soul of his music, comes from his lifelong participation in the culture of New Orleans, his home town. Here he pays tribute to that rich culture, and accompanied by non other than the legendary Dr. John. Both artists, the embodiment of New Orleans' music in their own right. The album features a mix of original compositions and jazz standards, all infused with the spirit and energy of New Orleans. Featuring the Mardi Gras Indian chants of The Guardians Of The Flame, this recording captures the magic of heritage New Orleans Mardi Gras music and wraps it all up in one package. Originally recorded at BMG Studios in New York City, May of 1991. Remastered by Bernie Grumman.

Beneath the Mask marks a return to the more commercially viable jazz-funk of the Chick Corea Elektric Band's earlier albums, and marks the end of the first stage in the band's history, which began five years earlier with the group's self-titled debut. Energy meets craft on this superlative outing, which finds the five virtuoso musicians (Chick Corea, drummer Dave Weckl, bassist John Patitucci, guitarist Frank Gamble, and saxophonist Eric Marienthal) engaging in a highly sophisticated yet accessible set of music. Massive in the scale of the influences it contains, the album travels from the heavy grooving funk-fusion of the title track "Beneath the Mask," to the lively West African township jive of "One of Us Over 40." to the mellow smooth jazz of "A Wave Goodbye," and the grandiose '70s style prog-rock/fusion of "Charged Particles." Originally released on GRP Records in 1991, the album reflects the innovative spirit of The Elektric Band, pushing boundaries and creating a unique sonic landscape that captivates listeners.

ELEMENTS OF LIGHT

THE MUSIC OF CHICK COREA'S LEGENDARY GROUP, RETURN TO FOREVER... REIMAGINED THE LATEST COLLABORATION BETWEEN MULTIPLE GRAMMY�- WINNER BEASLEY & THE TWICE-NOMINATED FRANKFURT RADIO BIG BAND "Chick gave me his blessings and offered his original handwritten charts. He asked me to share my arrangements with him. I was amazed by how open-minded he was." -JOHN BEASLEY As a pianist/keyboardist, arranger, composer, conductor, record producer, music director, and educator, John Beasley has contributed to countless memorable, critically-acclaimed projects. Returning To Forever, with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, is a standout achievement in his illustrious career. Return To Forever, led by Chick Corea and featuring bassist Stanley Clarke, was one of the great fusion bands of the 1970s. Now, Beasley has rearranged and reimagined RTF's music for the GRAMMY�-nominated Frankfurt Radio Big Band. Before starting the project, Beasley reached out to Corea for his blessing. Excited by the idea, Chick sent Beasley handwritten charts, but passed away before he could hear where Beasley and the Big Band would take them. With a dozen Grammy� nominations and two wins, Returning To Forever is the latest milestone in Beasley's career. In his twenties, he worked as a keyboardist with both Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. He has had a long-time association with Dianne Reeves and has collaborated with Christian McBride, Chaka Khan, Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Steely Dan, Queen Latifah, Somi, and Chucho Vald�s, among others. He's worked behind the scenes on countless film & TV scores and released over a dozen albums as a leader. The Frankfurt Radio Big Band (aka hr-Bigband) is a 17-piece jazz orchestra currently led by 12-time Grammy�-nominee Jay McNeely. 1. Captain Sen~or Mouse 2. Space Circus 3. No Mystery 4. Vulcan Worlds 5. Medieval Overture 6. You're Everything / La Fiesta 7. Return to Forever

For The Elektric Band's fourth outing, Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - decided to push the envelope even further than on previous albums. Writing for the band's individual strengths, Corea went full throttle on Inside Out. Here we find the Elektric Band engaging in uptempo burners, prog-rock fantasia, Latin-tinged grooves and the kind of complex and characteristic tight harmonies and unisons that characterized Corea's earlier compositions of the 1970s. There is are highly orchestrated aesthetic pieces like "Make a Wish, Part 1," "Stretch It, Part 1," the driving, Latinesque swinger of "Make a Wish, Part 2," the intricate stop-time vehicle "Kicker" and the epic 20-minute, four part suite, "Tales of Daring." Notably one of Corea's most complex and demanding compositions. Originally released on GRP Records in 1990, the album reflects the innovative spirit of The Elektric Band, pushing boundaries and creating a unique sonic landscape that captivates listeners.

A Singular Blend of Dynamic Post- Pop & Electronic Production Featuring The Vibraphonist's Remarkable Quartet Special Guests Gerald Clayton and Marquis Hill Named One Of Downbeat's 25 For The Future "His music is fresh, it speaks to everyone. Never heard anyone play vibes like that before." - Herbie Hancock "Best vibes player I've heard..." - Quincy Jones In discussing Elements of Light, his fifth album as a leader, the vibraphonist- composer Simon Moullier often returns to a specific term: unfolding. "This is an important word - the unfolding of a song," says Moullier, who was born in France and lives in New York. "It's something I'm very attached to, and something I'm always working on." Even the most serious intellectual musical concepts are rendered with a directness, a simplicity that can captivate a general audience. "For me, no matter how complex an idea can get," he says, "clarity is always key." That's a mature, evolved outlook for a millennial jazz musician to embrace, and it's shared among Moullier's youthful quartet featuring pianist Lex Korten, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jongkuk "JK" Kim. What's more, these musicians of astonishing technical facility interact with the selflessness and good taste that Moullier's song- focused music requires; to say it another way, they use their virtuosity to make the bandleader's compositions sound as human and affecting as possible - never to preen.

By the time Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - went into Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles to record the third album with his Elektric Band, the lineup had been solidified through constant touring the previous year. Dedicated to his father Armando, a trumpeter who led a Dixieland band in Boston in the 1930s and 1940s, Eye of the Beholder reflected a tightening of the ensemble playing and a greater showcasing of the individual solo prowess of these consummate musicians. With this fresh sounding five-star recording, it is clear that Corea was more open to showcasing this band's collective muscle and individual virtuosity. The group rips, in no uncertain terms, on showcases like "Cascade, Part II," "Trance Dance," and the staggering "Amnesia." There are experimental excursions into the kind of atmospheric, ambient music realms that Brian Eno pioneered on "Cascade, Part 1" and may be the most profound musical statement of the collection, on par with past Corea high points, "Beauty." Originally released on GRP Records in 1988, the album is a high-water mark for Corea and his Elektric Bandmates.

The music Charles Mingus and his group recorded during his landmark 1960 sessions for Candid Records produced three of the most revered jazz albums of the era. INCARNATIONS is a new masterpiece thoughtfully assembled from rare and unreleased material from those sessions that stands proudly in the Mingus canon of masterworks. All but one of the tracks here are from the November 11th, 1960 sessions Mingus and producer Nate Hentoff put together. The date was split into two halves: one a pure Mingus-led date, featuring a six-piece band that expanded into an octet for two additional tunes, and another, a partial reunion of a collective that had assembled in opposition against George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival that past July. (That collective, calling themselves The Jazz Artist Guild, would release the album Newport Rebels, on Candid in 1961.) Of special note here is the one track recorded during the Mingus October 20th 1960 sessions. It is a previously unreleased track titled "All The Things You Are (All.)" Found on a tape that contained material from both of these fall 1960 dates, the piece has it's roots in an Art Tatum rendition of "All the Things You Are," which Mingus had recorded before in various settings. Featuring Booker Ervin, Eric Dolphy, Charles McPherson, Ted Curson Lonnie Hillyer, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Knepper, Britt Woodman, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Bley, Dannie Richmond and Jo Jones. With audio restored and remastered by Bernie Grundman, and liner notes by Pitchfork and New York Times contributor Hank Shteamer, this album is a must have for any Mingus fan. A1. Bugs (Take 3) A2. R&R (Take 1) B1. All The Things You Are (All) *Previously Unreleased B2. Reincarnation Of A Love Bird (2nd Version, Take 1) B3. Body And Soul (Take 6)