The Hep series of Teddy Wilson recordings has been largely superseded by the more complete Classics program. This release has 16 titles from Wilson's first four recording sessions as a leader of all-star bands (skipping his solo piano records). Since Billie Holiday has vocals on 14 of the 16 songs (every one except "Sweet Lorraine" and "Sugar Plum"); this material has been reissued numerous times, but the performances do contain their fair share of classics.

The end of the 60s was an important period in jazz, as well as rock music, in Poland and the rest of the world, with the development of many styles and trends in popular music. In 1970 the jazz rock fusion band, Laboratorium was formed in Kraków. Their music soon developed in jazz rock fusion, and so were pioneers in this music in Poland. In their first years, Laboratorium's music was acoustic, cleverly avoiding any limiting definitions. At the beginning of the 70's there was very limited access to Western recordings but this did not prove an obstacle for the band, because of the musicians searching and experimenting in the field. On the contrary and because of their relative isolation, Laboratorium developed an unique sound which was often noted in various critical reviews…

If the afterworld includes a red-light district, Erotic Rhythms from Earth would qualify as its soundtrack. The third recording from Austin, Texas programmer/multi-instrumentalist Shane O'Madden beckons you into an off-focus world of amorphous boundaries, one that hovers somewhere between eternity and soft-core carnality. Offering an assortment of quirky temptations too intriguing to resist, O'Madden blurs Middle Eastern textures (principally generated via violin) and ambient electronic wayfaring with sultry, unhurried trip-hop textures, subtle female cooing, and understated rhythms. It all combines to exude a beguiling mood of faint danger and fashionable decadence, where the final destination is a bazaar of hidden, delicious pleasures. If the disc's arresting cover image speaks to you, so, too, will this exotic, oddly accessible slice of imaginative trip-hop…