Vinyl LP pressing. With his 2026 album Nothing Left Behind, Danny Bryant opens the most personal chapter of his career to date. The British guitarist and singer-songwriter - a fixture of the European blues-rock scene for more than twenty years - presents a record that marks both a fresh start and a natural progression, musically as much as personally.

VERSCHWIEGENE LIEDER

Intakt Records is thrilled to release this first collaboration with pianist Alexis Marcelo - a mesmerizing solo debut! A contagious exuberance of playing, energetic explosive improvisations, and an openness to jazz tradition and experimentation combine on this album to create an impressive musical statement. "Almost everything he plays affirms his history and culture as a first-generation American, the son of a Panamanian mother and a Dominican father. Growing up in the Bronx and in Queens during hip hop's first years - the first jazz he heard were samples - hearing salsa and merengue at home, attending Latino evangelical churches, and - yes - studying classical music at the Harlem School of the Arts shaped Marcelo's identification as an African Latino with an inclusive sensibility(...)Once artists establish a strong identity, they can draw outside the lines, smudge them, even erase them, without diluting or diminishing that identity. That is what Alexis Marcelo has done with Solo Piano", writes Bill Shoemaker in the liner notes.

Albert Nadeau - I am Black Born in 1952, Albert Nadeau was a French-Caribbean singer, organist and songwriter from Martinique, known for blending local Caribbean rhythms with funk, soul and reggae inflections. After fronting the local group Les Leopards, he recorded a small but potent set of tracks in the late 1970s that showcased his raw, emotive voice and taste for groove-driven arrangements. At the heart of that period stands "I Am Black" from his 1977 solo LP. The track is a slow-burning tropical-funk/reggae cut built around a loping groove, organ-based chords and Nadeau's gritty, passionate lead vocal. Musically it sits between biguine-tinged island rhythm and 1970s funk/soul. Though it never entered the mainstream charts, 'I Am Black' - admired for the way it bridges Caribbean musical tradition with the Black Power and soul currents of it's era - has in recent years become one of the most sought-after Caribbean songs. Brother Mudada - Forward Ever Brother Mudada, born Alan Fortune, is a veteran Trinidad & Tobago calypsonian who began his career in 1961. He is known for socially conscious music that reflects calypso's tradition of political and cultural commentary. Over the decades, he earned major recognition in the Caribbean, including winning the Calypso Monarch title in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 2004 and later receiving a national honor, the Hummingbird Silver Award, for his contribution to music and culture. One of his most influential songs is "Forward Ever", a calypso anthem centered on perseverance, resilience, and collective struggle. The lyrics encourage listeners to "struggle on," using patience, wisdom, and understanding like weapons in life's battles, and remind them to help others along the way. The song's message and Mudada's delivery have helped solidify his standing as a cultural voice for determination and unity within Caribbean society.

As genre conventions continue to morph and blur, there's a wealth of stunning new music being made wherever groups of musicians have the imagination and ingenuity to transcend the old boundaries and just play whatever comes naturally. Sun Speak are such a group and their album Probiotic Orchestrations is full of music that's urgent, powerful, accessible and humorous, pulling together sounds and textures from the worlds of rock, jazz, electronica, Americana and the outer reaches of progressive music into compelling whole. Guitarist Matt Gold and drummer Nate Friedman first came together as Sun Speak ten years ago amid the white heat of the Chicago experimental scene, where they'd worked with such luminaries as Makaya McCraven and Patricia Barber. On this, their sixth release, they continue to develop their own distinctive sonic world with the aid of fellow Chicagoan Daniel Pierson who joined as engineer/sound sculptor and now increasingly takes a collaborative role as a third member of the band on keyboards. Now the trio are dispersed and live in different corners of the USA, but in 2024 they came together in a remote seaside cabin in New Hampshire, writing and recording every day in an intense undisturbed whirlwind of creativity. Probiotic Orchestrations is the result - a dazzling mix of improvisation and composition, exploring rhythm, colour and texture with the directness of rock and the fearless improvisatory flair of jazz.

The twin trombone frontline is an esoteric but noble tradition in jazz, harking back to the famed 1950s recordings of Kai Windings and JJ Johnson. While respecting the tradition, the internationally renowned trombonists Paul Dunlea (from Cork) and Trevor Mires (from London) are not traditionalists, and their collaborative project Silfra showcases their thoroughly contemporary skills as composers and arrangers to create a fascinatingly diverse set of trombone led music. Silfra is the name of a place in Iceland where the tectonic plates of Europe and America meet and rub together. "I scuba-dived between the two plates and touched them both at the same time," says Dunlea, and the album presents a true transatlantic meeting of talent. The project was conceived after Paul and Trevor worked together on a project at London's famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, and the music was recorded at the legendary New York studio of Rudy Van Gelder with a specially assembled band of their favorite US musicians. For the drum chair, Trevor chose Billy Kilson, famed for his long association with Dave Holland, while Paul selected bassist Ike Sturm (Donny McCaslin) and pianist Jim Ridl (Kurt Elling, Joe Locke). Ryan Keberle contributes a third trombone to some of the sections to create a full, lush sound. The result is a stunning album that combines influences from both the leaders' multi-faceted careers, Paul's Irish heritage, and their deep love of the jazz tradition. Silfra is a beautifully realised album from two master musicians completely at ease in their surroundings

DIGNITY

STILLE

THIS WORLD

The Rhine hymned by women's voices A major source of inspiration for writers and painters (Hugo, Nerval, Heine, Eichendorff, Turner) and above all composers throughout Romantic Europe, the legends of the Rhine still enthral our imaginations even today. The Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon invite us on a fantastic voyage through famous works (including Wagner) and others, much more rarely recorded, that are absolute gems of the repertory for female voices.

Whirlwind debut from Estonian pianist and vocalist Britta Virves. Joined by her regular trio partners Jon Henriksson on bass and Jonas Backman on drums, and a captivating guest appearance from Artadi, she's created a set of sparklingly fresh original music that is at once accessible and outgoing, yet still deeply personal. Drawing from her constant searching for her own unique sound she filters her love of rhythm and groove through her Nordic sensibility to create an accessible, compelling blend of excitement and introspection. Growing up on the island of Saaremaa in her native Estonia, Britta Virves was a keen piano student playing a strictly classical repertoire. A chance encounter introduced her to jazz: "I wanted to learn guitar. So I went to my teacher Tit Paulus, and he told me to stay with piano, and introduced me to Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans - my mind was blown - a new world opened up." Britta immersed herself in the music and her talent soon attracted attention. Moving to Sweden to further her studies, she was soon touring Europe with the acclaimed Norrbotten Big Band, under the direction of Joakim Milder, working closely with featured guest vocalist Genevieve Artadi and accompanying Artadi on a duo tour opening for Louis Cole. Each tune on the album draws inspiration from an aspect of Britta's own life. "Simple Things" has the directness of a pop song married to the depth of jazz, as Genevieve Artadi's ethereal vocals float over an insistent backbeat that supports limpid depths of harmony. Other tracks include "Bravery", which showcases the subtlety and dynamic control of the rhythm team

Recorded Live in Albert Cummings Home Town Williamstown MA

Marion Rampal's Song for Abbey is a tribute to Abbey Lincoln-singer, composer, poet, activist, actress-whose art reshaped jazz through voice, writing, and stance. Lincoln rejected convention and built a body of work that joined poetry, melody, and moral clarity. Her late career revealed a powerful catalogue of original songs, deeply personal and still rarely covered. Rampal approaches Lincoln as a living influence rather than a distant monument. The album revisits key works from Lincoln's repertoire and sets them alongside pieces that illuminate her roots and affinities-Oscar Brown Jr., Bob Dylan, standards such as Skylark-mapping the sources that nourished her imagination. Songs such as Caged Bird, Learning How to Listen, and The Music Is the Magic are treated as present tense, not archival objects. Guest appearances from Bill Frisell and Archie Shepp mark continuity rather than nostalgia. Frisell's guitar brings lyric economy. Shepp, once close to Lincoln, joins Rampal in newly created music, linking memory with current creation. The arrangements avoid imitation. They search for the structural core of each song-speech rhythm, dramatic line, silence as active element. Rampal's vocal approach privileges articulation, text, timbre, and narrative clarity, drawing on jazz, blues, and folk without display. The result is not pastiche but reactivation: Lincoln's questions about self, freedom, and responsibility in sound are carried forward. Song for Abbey also presents Lincoln as an artist who resisted constraint-industry pressures, gendered expectations, racial projections-not through manifesto but through work. Independence is audible in the songs themselves: direct language, exact phrasing, demanding listening. The album acts as remembrance and renewal, lively rather than reverential, combining melody with free, untamed passages. It conveys the force of an artist who understood jazz as a medium for shaping voice and character.

STILLE

In 1786, Haydn composed The Seven Last Words of Christ for orchestra. Ten years later he produced a stunning choral version, which Justin Doyle and the RIAS Chamber Choir and Konzerthausorchester Berlin now invite us to rediscover. Together with four exceptional soloists, they reveal all the dramatic power of the work, it's expressive intensity and liturgical fervour.

For Robin Trower, stage and studio are two sides of the same coin. If you've followed the seven-decade career of the award-winning British bluesman, you'll know every song on One Moment In Time: Live In The USA. But unless you've pushed your way to the front of his sell-out shows, you've never heard them like this before. "I'm a different player on the stage," considers the 80-year-old. "It's almost impossible to get to that point in the studio. It's the sound of the guitar, it's the volume, it's the crowd. For what I do, it takes one hundred per cent commitment for it to work. But if you do it well, it's life-affirming."

Packed with eclectic songs, supercharged guitar and emotional heat, Albert Cummings' sixth album No Regrets kicks open a new creative door for the six-string virtuoso who's so far made his bones in the blues. With the new album, Cummings has delivered a release that poignantly captures the core of his influences, displaying the impact that R&B, Rock, Soul, Country and the Blues have had on both his playing and writing. "This album is really who I am, as an artist and a man," says Cummings. "It's a return to my true musical roots and the first step in really defining my identity as a mature artist. I approached this with one intent, deliver a collection of great songs that I'll be proud to perform for the rest of my life without feeling confined to a specific genre. I am a Blues man, and I will always be one, but inevitably that foundation now reveals a couple of other floors being constructed as the house rises."

BEING

Whoever has seen them, Mounia and Areski, rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile or elsewhere, a little eternal hat for him, a gavroche cap for her, quickly grasps the content of their bond. Between the actress-author and the mythical composer, the sun has been shining for a long time. "With Areski, we have been fraternizing for a few years, we can say that we are celebrating our decade, she smiles between two runs, and much more besides since we met in 2013. And it is almost halfway through this relationship that I approached him for a joint project aimed at nourishing our friendship and making it grow, I thought we needed to work together. I proposed to him a theatrical and musical show for which he would do all the music. It gave Les Momes Porteurs and this album is the original soundtrack or more exactly it was imagined, dreamed like a sound film. For all that, after twenty-three albums, most of them with his wife and partner Brigitte Fontaine, the score that Areski delivers here is once again particularly inspired, he himself rightly recognizes it's "rock dimension, trance and uppercut".

Blast Off! By Duke Robillard and His All Star Band - BLAST OFF! #on an out of this world musical odyssey covering a variety of material from blues to jazz to funky R&B. For his new album, Blast Off! #with Duke Robillard and His All-Star Band, the guitar maestro has assembled a varied but mostly very traditional collection of many of the styles he's known for, including blues, swing, jazz, and R&B. This diversity represents his multi-faceted career and devotion to preserving these roots music styles. The twelve-track album contains three originals, including two instrumentals and an exciting piece concurrently historic and new, the first recording of a blues composition written by Robillard at the age of 17. He is joined on the project by Chris Cote on guitar and vocals, Bruce Bears on keyboards, bassist Marty Ballou and drummer Mark Teixeira. Doug James and Mark Earley are on sax, Jeff "Doc" Chanonhouse, trumpet on "You Rascal You," with special guest Billy Novick on clarinet and alto sax.

Jeremy Pelt's latest recording is one of his most culturally aware and musically astute projects yet. Pelt observes in his liner notes that the social realities "in these United States all but force you to constantly examine the virtues and contributions of your own community, if only for the sake of positive reinforcement... and the music I've produced herein for the world to hear seeks to be a part of that positive reinforcement." That perspective, echoed in his multi-volume book series "Griot: Examining the Lives of Jazz's Great Storytellers," anchors a program that balances cultural heritage with musical innovation. Pelt's compositions flow effortlessly across straight-ahead neo-bop, spacious ballads, post-impressionist color, and the tasteful integration of electronics. Legendary bassist Buster Williams and acclaimed drummer Lenny White bring deep authority and experience, giving the album it's solid grounding, while pianist Orrin Evans supplies a modern harmonic foundation that keeps the music vibrant and alive, as Lasse Corson sprinkles in subtle electronic colors. The result is a thrilling, forward-looking statement from a trumpeter and composer whose voice continues to grow with purpose, presence, and unmistakable personality.

The Arundel Choirbook is one of the most significant surviving collections of English polyphony from the early 16th century. As well as containing invaluable sources for masses by Robert Fayrfax and Nicholas Ludford, it also contains many works by lesser known and anonymous composers of the period. The Arundel or Lambeth Choirbook is celebrating it's 500th anniversary (Arundel College in Sussex was founded in 1380 and dissolved in 1544), and it is fitting that the Iken Scholars has selected a sequence of pieces by anonymous composers (known as the Lambeth Anonymous) that are receiving their world premiere recordings. The pieces are a selection of Magnificat settings, settings of Salve Regina, Ave dei patris, Ave mundi spes Maria, Vidi aquam egredientem and Gaude flore virginali. The seven Lambeth Anonymous settings are nestled between mass settings by Ludford and Fayrfax in the choirbook. This recording was made in the chapel at Lambeth Palace where the manuscripts have been housed since the early 17th century

ESSENTIAL RAY BRYANT: TRIO & SOLO ALBUMS 1956-59

This complete recording of the a cappella choral works of Francis Poulenc marks the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Ensemble Aedes and brings to a close a cycle initiated in 2009. Francis Poulenc's a cappella choral compositions form a unique ensemble, revealing a fragile interiority suffused with profound humanity. For him there was no sense of division between the secular and the sacred in his choral works: he appears to have considered them as a single entity, stemming from the same inspiration. From the Chanson a boire (1922) to the Laudes de saint Antoine de Padoue (1957), all of his compositions show the same fervor, clarity, and depth of feeling.

Philip Glass's science fiction music drama, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, premiered in 1988 at the Vienna International Airport (Hangar No.3). This one-act melodrama contains a text by renowned playwright and frequent Glass collaborator, David Henry Hwang, and originally featured set designs and projections by Jerome Sirlin. When Virgin records released the piece in 1989, the very curious decision was made to totally omit the Hwang text. The original score by Glass, was presented without the context of the drama. Following Third Angle New Music's 2023 staged production at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum - directly beneath Howard Hughes' infamous "Spruce Goose" - they endeavored to record this rarely-staged work. As the original recording was largely misunderstood, it is presented here for the first time with both the music and drama as one would hear it in the theater, alongside an additional music-only experience. Volume 1 includes the complete music drama with Hwang's text performed by Ithica Tell as M, and the sound design used in their staged production. Volume 2 presents the entire musical experience including vocals, but without the text and theatrical elements. The beautiful package design by Madeline Sorenson is a play on the formats of old science fiction trade paperbacks.