The singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist, born in Lisbon and raised by parents from Cape Verde, returns with "protected", a cocktail of rhythms from the islands, beautifully enhanced with elements of contemporary jazz and Afro-Latin music. The recording of this new work was carried out by Souza and his regular collaborator, the veteran percussionist, composer, producer and bass player Theo Pas'cal with a mobile studio in the spare time of their last international tour that took her to cities like Lisbon, London, Toronto, New York or Paris.

As part of the celebrations of the 40th Anniversary of ABBA wining the Eurovision Song Contest, Universal Music are proud to present a new 3CD 40th anniversary ABBA Gold release. Disc 1 and 2 is a comprehensive collection of ABBAs hits, including the likes of Waterloo, Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All; whilst disc 3 includes a selection of Golden rarities.

On 'Monk and the Time Machine', the sextet led by Italian pianist Franco D'Andrea presents an album dedicated to Thelonious Monk. It contains many interpretations of his songs (including "Light Blue", "Bright Mississippi", "Locomotive", "Blue Monk", "Brake's Sake", "Coming on the Hudson", "Epistrophy" and "Monk's Mood") and some original compositions by the group. D'Andrea is one Italy's leading jazz musicians and has recorded a large number of albums (around 200). He has worked with an array of jazz stars, including Gato Barbieri, Steve Lacy, Dave Liebman, John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, Phil Woods, Slide Hampton, Max Roach, Johnny Griffin, Han Bennink and Dave Douglas.

It’s splendid that these Nixa discs are once more back in the catalogue. I believe they saw some life back in the late 1980s with transfers by Mike Dutton but those have, in any case, long been unavailable. Scherchen takes on rather Stokowski-like repertoire here – Berlioz, Rimsky and Tchaikovsky and in the case of second composer, certainly, he proves a formidable guide. His Berlioz has divided critics for half a century and that’s not likely to change, however attractive the presentation – and it is extremely attractive with full colour artwork depicting the original LP sleeves, some excellent photographs and useful ancillary material in the form of critical commentary. This is one of Tahra’s increasingly valuable “book” sets – the four CDs and text and artwork housed in book form, ten inches tall.

'Then and Now' just about justifies its 4 star rating if only because of the unseen early band footage and all too rare Manfred Mann interviews, both then and now!
Not so much a career retrospective as flash back to the beginning of the Earth Band circa 72 and a flash forward to current times, 'Then and Now' has its moments but would have been bolstered with some bonus footage of both Chris Thompson and the late Steve Waller, who were important mainstays in the band; that said, there's an accompanying CD box set reviewed elsewhere.

Saint Vitus had successfully returned in 2003 after an 8 year absence, touring around the world, but had yet to release any new material until, finally, after a 17 year gap, the band released Lillie: F-65. Named after a drug, the record is as doomy and dark as Saint Vitus can get. A great return to the music scene, each song on the record is heavier, more pessimist and bleaker than the previous, making this a must have for 2012.

Maja S. K. Ratkje - River Mouth Echoes (2008) {Tzadik Composer Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 368 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 158 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 32 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Tzadik | Composer Series | TZ 8051
Jazz / Modern Creative / Fringes of Jazz / Chamber Music

Maja Ratkje is a remarkable vocalist and composer based in Norway. Her work ranges from orchestral and chamber works to electronics, improvisation and creative combinations of all of the above. This special collection of Maja’s work showcases several aspects of this composer’s unique and intense approach to sound and features two of her most personal chamber works along with electronic and electro-acoustic works for voice, saxophone and more.

Die vierte Staffel der erfolgreichen dhm Editionen. 10 herausragende Aufnahmen in einer hochwertigen Box mit Originalcover zu einem sensationell günstigen Preis..

This is a surprisingly laid back, almost dreamy album which has a lovely innocent quality which permeates through the majority of the tracks…Great stuff from one of the better, and most original bands from the 70's…it's been re-released…with three bonus tracks which make it worth buying if you already have the original crackly vinyl… A beauty of a buy if you like folky 70's rock.

For the first time ever, Thelonious Monk's complete trio performance at Newport 1958 (only an edited version of "Blue Monk" with overdubbed announcements had been previously released on the film Jazz on a Summer's Day). This CD also contains Monk's splendid and also unissued quartet concert at the same festival the following year. As a bonus, the only two existing tracks featuring Monk with the Duke Ellington band, recorded at Newport '62 and also appearing here for the first time.