WORDS UNSPOKEN

For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that "strings could touch people in a special way." That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point-it was the point. Ra framed it "a study in ignorance." The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive.In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings "saturated in mystery."

Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment.

The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as "World's Approaching," the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, "Strings Strange." A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as "Strange Strange," a title which has been used in this edition.

All In Good Time is the latest step in Monika Herzig's ongoing mission to elevate women composers, players and bandleaders. This fourth outing under the banner Sheroes, an all-female band spearheaded by pianist, prolific composer and arranger Herzig, is simultaneously a celebration of the group's 10th anniversary and a salute to their perseverance. "This group has pushed quite a few boundaries and inspired similar formations and initiatives," said Herzig. "However, change takes time and we're seeing small steps forward in those 10 years, but we remain patient." - Back in 2014, her idea was to bring together fellow women jazz musicians with the goal of presenting powerful role models on stage as a way of breaking some lingering stereotypes; a path initially paved by Sherri Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra in the '90s. That groups like Artemis and others have followed the trail that Sheroes helped blaze is proof of efforts paying off. On All In Good Time, Herzig is once again joined by Sheroes charter members Jamie Baum on flute, Reut Regev on trombone and Leni Stern on guitar. Drummer Rosa Avila returns from her appearances on 2018's Sheroes and 2020's Eternal Dance, while newcomers Camille Thurman on tenor sax and vocals (a former member of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra) and bassist-composer Gina Schwarz fill out this current potent lineup. Together their chemistry is undeniable, as they skillfully navigate the demanding originals by Herzig and Schwarz - and one surprising cover - while delivering impassioned improvisations along the way. They open with the elaborate title track, full of intricate counterpoint between flute and trombone and fueled by drummer Avila's grooving backbeat and indelible hookup with Schwarz's deep, syncopated bass lines. Composed by Herzig shortly after Chick Corea's passing in February 2021, it finds the leader outlining the moving harmony on Fender Rhodes electric piano.

MUSINGS OF A BAHAMIAN SON: POEMS & OTHER WORDS

STEALING MOMENTS

FOUR CLASSIC ALBUMS PLUS

FOREST FOR THE TREES

Passacaglia is a multi-colored musical dialogue between two unique characters who are leading figures in European jazz and contemporary music, Adam Baldych and Leszek Mozdzer. The repertoire ranges from free improvisations over works co-written by the musicians themselves to their very personal interpretations of themes by Erik Satie, Josquin des Prez and others. - The album features a highly unusual combination of instruments: a Renaissance violin, two grand pianos - one tuned to 442 Hz and the other 432 Hz - and a prepared upright piano. This setup allows an infinitely varied palette of musical expression, which defies styles, genres and even tonal and harmonic convention. - The world that Baldych and Mozdzer create is one of well-balanced beauty, expressed in the noble form of chamber music, but it is also one of turbulent and intensely emotional improvisation. Like all great art, it draws you in and leaves you intrigued at the same time - and also makes you want to come back and explore it all over again.

I LOVE SAMBA

Limited Edition - Includes 16-page booklet. Presented here is the complete original album Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook, by the Oscar Peterson trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen. Recorded in 1959, this was Peterson's second attempt to produce a Porter songbook. For this extended edition, further Porter compositions recorded by Peterson on various occasions have been added, including all of the songs from the first Cole Porter songbook he had made in 1952 with Ray Brown on bass and Barney Kessel on guitar. THE COMPLETE ALBUM + 14 BONUS TRACKS - 2LPs ON 1 CD - CD EDITION - 26 TRACKS - TT: 77:40 - LIMITED EDITION - INCLUDES 16-PAGE BOOKLET

Limited Edtion - Includes 16-page booklet. Little Girl Blue was Nina Simone's debut album and first studio recording ever. Recorded when she was 25 years old, it was a tremendous success and led to a fabulous career that would produce more than 80 studio sessions. It contains such perennial classics as "I Loves You Porgy" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me". THE COMPLETE ALBUM + 9 BONUS TRACKS - CD EDITION - 20 TRACKS - TT: 74:26 - LIMITED EDITION - INCLUDES 16-PAGE BOOKLET

Billie Holiday - Lady Day's great recordings from the late 1950s. Her strongest and most famous performances. Lady Sings The Blues (1956) - Body And Soul (1957) - Songs For Distingu� Lovers (1957) - Stay With Me (1958) - All Or Nothing At All (1958)

Limited Edition - Includes 16-page booklet. This release presents all of the master takes produced during the celebrated quintet sessions co-led by Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster and originally issued on Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster. The first six tracks included here constitute the complete original album, which received a five-star rating in Down Beat magazine. THE COMPLETE ALBUM + 5 BONUS TRACKS - CD EDITION - 11 TRACKS - TT: 77:10 - LIMITED EDITION - INCLUDES 16-PAGE BOOKLET

Reissue. Life Enigma is a 2001 album by French jazz fusion artist Jean-Luc Ponty.

HERE FOR A WHILE

The chromatic harmonica may look like a simple toy or a novelty but it is actually one of the most difficult of all instruments to play. Stating a bebop melody with the ease of a saxophonist has only been achieved by a small handful of jazz harmonica players, most notably Toots Thielemans and Hendrik Meurkens. For his new project 'The Jazz Meurkengers', Meurkens decided that a new swinging jazz album was long overdue so he contacted pianist Steve Ash, bassist Chris Berger and drummer Andy Watson to help him deliver the hard-bop groove of Winton Kelly, Jimmy Cobb and Wes Montgomery. The album features four standards, five Meurkens originals and special guests Ed Cherry and Nick Hampton.

CAREER ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1 1923-28

FORWARD

Dave Brubeck Quartet - The Classic 1950s Albums / This superb 4-CD collection brings together eight original albums that Dave and the quartet released during the 1950s, the era generally considered to be the great man's golden years. Serving as both a wonderful starting point for those new to Brubeck's music, and as a divine reminder of his finest work for the rest of us, this set remains a must-have collection for just about anyone who has been blessed with ears and a love of music.

Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings is the first official release of the 'Saxophone Colossus' Sonny Rollins' European tour in 1959 with bassist Henry Grimes, and drummers Pete La Roca, Kenny Clarke and Joe Harris. Freedom Weaver includes an elaborate booklet with rare photos by Ed van der Elsken, Jean-Pierre Leloir, Bob Parent and many others; lead liners by jazz scholar Bob Blumenthal, and new interviews with Rollins himself, Branford Marsalis, James Carter, Joe Lovano, James Brandon Lewis and Peter Br�tzmann. Mastered by the legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.

Verve Records releases the latest editions in it's breakout Great Women of Song series, which pays homage to the ground-breaking work and lasting impact of some of the greatest female vocalists of all time. Like her idol Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae could own a ballad and make it all her own. She could also swing every bit as hard as her other main influence, Ella Fitzgerald. Coming up during the bebop era and under the musical sway of Thelonious Monk, Carmen made a series of recordings for the Decca label that would cement her reputation and launch a career that close to 50 years. Whether in small groups or backed by a studio orchestra, Carmen McRae recorded definitive versions of songs that make up the backbones of jazz and the Great American Songbook.

CAREER ANTHOLOGY VOL. 2 1929-40

MY SHINING HOUR

Jordina Mill�/Barry Guy - "Live In Munich" / Verve Label Group; ECM; Jazz This concert recording from Munich's Schwere Reiter performance space features improvisation with an expanded palette of possibilities. "To work with these colors is a great challenge and joy!" says bassist Barry Guy of the glowing and ever-changing tints, timbres and tones radiating from Jordina Mill�'s freely associative piano. Like Guy, Mill� is both a player of prodigious technical capacity and a fearless improvisational explorer, and her highly creative use of the piano interior opens up new sonic territory, to fascinating result.

Released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of these sessions and the 75th anniversary of Prestige Records, "Miles '54" brings together 20 tracks recorded by the trumpet legend in 1954. Including cuts from albums released that year, it features Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk and more. Included are new liner notes by GRAMMY Award-winning music historian Ashley Kahn and session notes by Dan Morgenstern, with mastering by Paul Blakemore. 2 CD set.