ALL THE DREAMS

POETICA

BALLADS & STANDARDS

FIELDS OF PANNONIA

LIFE IN REAL TIME

CLARITY

SAYAT-NOVA: SONGS OF MY ANCESTORS

EVOKE

SIGNATURE TIME

TWO BY 2

ORACLE'S DESSTINY

LONGING

FLY AWAY LITTLE BIRD

Pianist Jacky Treason's album Gouache is an eclectic, playful, and often beautiful album that showcases the pianist's lithe, technically adept Jazz skills alongside a handful of guest artists. Jazz pianists reworking modern pop songs has become de rigueur in 21st century Jazz circles, and so Treason's choice to cover Lennon, as well as such radio hits as Justin Bieber's "Baby" and Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," isn't in-and-of-itself unique. However, with his painterly, impressionistic style that often brings to mind a mix of such influences as Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, Treason is an interesting match for this kind of pop repurposing, and his reinventions never sound anything but clever and inspired. To these ends, he turns "Baby" into a jaunty sleigh ride of song, with a euphoric '70 's R&B ballad midsection. He also gives "Rehab" a slow, Horace Silver-sounding Jazz-Funk treatment that finds him moving from piano to Fender Rhodes.

JE SAIS NAGER

JOUE BRASSENS: AU BOIS DE MON COEUR

SAME AS IT NEVER WAS BEFORE

TRAILS OF TEARS

Here's the beloved French pop singer (and movie star) in the last two years of the '40s, accompanied on most tracks by Bob Castella et ses Rhythms featuring wonderful guitarist Henri Crolla. He sings C'est Si Bon; Et Lat Fete Continue; Feuilles Mortes; Champion du Monde; Clementine, and more!

This 2-CD set was recorded on October 31, 1970 in a single, sleepless night, the fleeting space of a session that took place almost undetected and in a sort of urgent calm. The first CD includes the America Masters previously released on vinyl only. The second CD includes all the alternate takes and comments and directions by Charles Mingus during the sessiontakes. It's fascinating piece of Jazz history.

CRITICAL MASS is the new album from the Dave Holland Quintet featuring all of the original members with the addition of drummer Nate Smith and features 4 new holland compositions as well as one from each of the 4 remaining band members.

VIA BRASIL 1

Here we present three interpretations of Mingus's music by three different repertory bands: 1. The Mingus Big Band, which just completed a fourteen-year tenure of Thursday nights at Manhattan's Fez under the Time Cafe, 2. The Mingus Orchestra, distinguished form it's older sibling by it's more exotic instrumentation that includes bassoon, bass clarinet and French horn as well as guitar and 3. The 7-piece Mingus Dynasty, the original repertory band formed in 1979. This album features wonderful compositions from Mingus Big Band and Orchestra Dynasty.

ENCORE ENCORE ENCORE

Drummer of deconstructionist jazz outfit, the Bad Plus, David King, releases his side-project Happy Apple's debut album THE PEACE BETWEEN OUR COMPANIES. Though no less innovative and irreverent than the Bad Plus, this album has more of a rock vibe happening. There's too much of a true jazz sensiblity running through this disc to land it in that territory. The instrumentation is a kind of classic jazz trio with roots in such venerable innovators as Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman and more recently, Joe Lovano.