"Cruisin'" is a terrific new album by Chicago jazz singer extraordinaire, Amy Yassinger and one of the Midwest's top Big Bands, Shout Section Big Band. This Windy City team has created something truly special. The album features everything from Tin Pan Alley songs of the 1920's to a big band arrangement of 2012's biggest hit song. On this album the band features some of Chicago's top performers.

As a producer and sideman, Bombay-born percussionist and singer Trilok Gurtu has become something of a godfather to London's emerging Asian Underground movement (his relationship with Asian Dub Foundation having earned him particularly strong street credibility in recent years), but he's also been quietly releasing solo albums for the last decade. The latest finds him teamed up with bassist Kai Eckhardt de Camargo (good luck sorting out the ethnicity of that name), guitarist Jaya Deva, sitar player Ravi Cherry, and several high-profile guests (including Neneh Cherry, who sings a touching tribute to Ravi's and her late stepfather) for a program of cross-cultural jamming. Worldbeat fusion is always a dicey prospect, and while this album has many attractive moments, it never really comes into focus.

Hozier is the eponymous debut studio album from Irish singer-songwriter Hozier. The album was announced on September and is planned to be released on Island Records. The album is expected to contain many tracks from Hozier's previous two EPs, Take Me to Church and From Eden. You know the score here: Hozier’s splendid Take Me to Church got heat and is now pushing the nine-million-view mark on Youtube . A whisper turned to a scream as his talent got unfurled internationally and even an early endorsement from Taylor Swift couldn’t stall the momentum. His remarkable vocal is at the forefront here.

This is an originals only album. Our blend of gypsy jazz, jazz, eastern european music and classical music. All acoustic, and lots of improvisation.

The Wacken Open Air 2013 was a hot matter: Magnificent bands on seven stages, 75.000 fans - and sun, sun, sun. Metalheads from all countries celebrated the most legendary Metal party of the planet and made the small town Wacken in North Germany the Mecca of the scene again. "Live at Wacken 2013" offers on three DVDs recordings of master Alice Cooper, Nightwish play a celebrated set with the new singer Floor Jansen, Doro celebrated her 30 years stage anniversary with a brilliant show and Sabaton appealed to sing-along madness in the afternoon sun. With at least 30 degrees Motörhead dashed in a shortened concert among others 'Damage Case', 'Metropolis' and 'Over The Top', like only they can. Also Deep Purple don't disappoint the Metalheads - with popular tunes like "Lazy" the forefathers of Hard Rock really accelerate with their first Wacken appearance.

Guitarist, composer, and recording artist Geordie Kelly began playing guitar at age 12, and by age 15 he was playing in local rock bands. He was exposed to great music early in life because he grew up in a musically rich household hearing all the great soul and R&B artists such as Ray Charles in his father's record collection and everything from Bach to Dylan in his mother's record collection. He is a graduate of both East Carolina University (BM) and the University of Kentucky (MA) music programs where he pursued guitar and jazz studies to the fullest. His studies at UK culminated in a five-chapter thesis entitled Joe Pass…

137 is the second album of the British band The Pineapple Thief. The music can be described best as a blend of alternative, neo-progressive and indie rock. The best songs on 137 are Kid Chameleon and the epic piece PVS.

Different Shades Of Blue is Bonamassa's first studio album in two years and the first album of his career to feature all original material. The result is a record with more of an experimental edge than previous Bonamassa records. It s a blues record that explores the outer reaches and the many different sounds that shape the genre.

This budget-priced Billy Idol compilation pales in comparison to lengthier collections like 2008’s Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself and 2001’s Greatest Hits, but there are enough of the big hits here ("Eyes Without a Face," "White Wedding, Pt.1," "Rebel Yell," "Dancing with Myself") to warrant at least one thumb up.

This CD mostly brings back a middle-of-the-road pop date featuring the beautiful voice of Marlene Ver Planck backed by a string orchestra arranged by Billy Ver Planck. The charts are sometimes overblown and more suited to Barbra Streisand than to Ella Fitzgerald although Marlene generally carries it off. But the program (which includes "Go Away, Little Boy," "The Music That Makes Me Dance" and "Hopscotch") is not significant from a jazz standpoint. Much better are five selections recorded especially for this reissue in 1995 for they swing a bit and match Ver Planck with a combo that often includes either trumpeter Joe Wilder or tenor saxophonist Phil Thompson. Marlene had continued growing as a singer during the intervening 15 years and the latter date finds her in fine form; pity that it oculd not have been paired with a jazz-oriented session.

Marlene VerPlanck is a veteran singer who still has plenty to offer jazz fans after nearly a half century as a professional. Her vocals are consistently clear, mellow, and swinging in this program dominated by show tunes. But her choices aren't ones that have exactly been done to death at the start of the 21st century. She soars in the bright bossa nova scoring of "I Got Lost in His Arms," while her warmth is obvious in "Be Careful, It's My Heart." The singer's enthusiasm is contagious in "I Wanna Be in Love Again," while her playful scatting seems effortless in the buoyant "Love Looks Good on You." Her husband, Billy VerPlanck, contributed the arrangements and two originals, the lovely ballad "Cocktails at Dawn" and "It's How You Play the Game," the latter, unfortunately, stands out like a sore thumb due to the annoying (and unaccredited) electric keyboards. But the band is a superb one, featuring no fewer than six members of the exciting big band Diva: drummer Sherrie Maricle, alto saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Anat Cohen, pianist Chihiro Yamanaka, trumpeter Barbara Laronga, and bassist Norika Ueda.

He is the last great gentleman among the singers of the Republic and a musical phenomenon. Tom Gaebel makes music like no one else. A sound reminiscent of the days when men were real men, and stood in a suit and tie in front of the microphone. Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin, for example: in one hand and the whiskey in the other loose cigarette. True to the motto, Easy Living '.

The '90s were known for a brooding style of rock music, but also for several emerging and revisited genres such as trip hop or neo-swing. Following the eclectic path which characterized the later years of this decade, the series attempted to reunite memorable songs while meticulously avoiding overplayed clichés and filler tracks. The resulting playlist is a well-brewed tribute to Generation X.