SOMM Recordings is delighted to build upon its critically acclaimed discography with violinist, Adrian Butterfield, and the London Handel Players in a new collaboration featuring the Op. 7 set of six Violin Concertos by the French violinist-composer, Jean-Marie Leclair. The London Handel Players, praised by the New York Times for their “soulful depth” and “consummate skill and musicianship,” have previously released five Handel discs with SOMM, along with recordings that celebrate Geminiani, J.S. Bach, and Telemann. The group’s co-founder and director, period-instrument violinist Adrian Butterfield, has been described as “a marvel” by Gramophone for his recordings of Leclair’s first three books of violin sonatas.

“In the dark night, amongst the trees, between moonlit leaves, is this super-secret, lovely lo-fi, raw, intimate, analogue album made in a cabin deep in the woods…”

Joe Bonamassa Announces B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100, A Landmark Tribute Album Featuring Dozens Of Music Stars To Celebrate The King Of Blues’ 100th Birthday.

How crazy must a band be to recompose and record the work of Jimi Hendrix – a man known for his blisteringly loud, amplified guitars – using only acoustic instruments in a serene church? And yet, it made complete sense to HOT (Het Orgel Trio) to go to church and let Berry van Berkun hit the pipe organ. For Jimi Hendrix wanted to literally feel the sound vibrations in his body, and the pipe organ does just that: being a roaring sound machine of unparalleled dimensions.

This compilation is a brilliant survey of some of the early recorded work showcasing Bob Corritore‘s dedication to recording the real-deal blues by it’s originators. The sixteen tracks were recorded between 1984 and 2007, and include many remixed and previously unreleased gems. Most of the artists featured on this album are no longer with us, but their recordings will live on forever. Bob always had his eye on the prize and took great artists into the studio whenever possible. Once he opened the Rhythm Room in 1991 he realized that there would be a pipeline of amazing artists coming through to play at his nightclub.

Washington, D.C.–based pianists—composer-performer Sam Post and his friend and colleague Ralitza Patcheva—have join forces to reimagine Bach’s iconic Well-Tempered Clavier. Their new recording, The Well-“Tampered” Clavier, Book 1, embraces the expressive possibilities of the modern piano and infuses the music with rhythmic vitality drawn from jazz, ragtime, folk, world music, and twentieth-century classical styles. In the Baroque era, improvising, ornamenting, and reshaping a composer’s original work was standard practice—much like jazz musicians do today. Post and Patcheva lean into that legacy, freely applying rhythmic variation without feeling constrained by the printed page. Post reflects, “Surely this is how Bach felt writing his music—every moment, every note a path chosen, leaving behind equally valid options, but together forming one coherent, human story.”

For over two decades, Matthew Schellhorn has championed the creativity of living composers through commissions and premières, bringing new music to a wider audience. This album draws together a selection of eclectic and captivating piano works united through shared interpretative insights and deep artistic connections.

A prolific, Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist, Michael Whalen's impressive career has spanned numerous genres and platforms, from albums of jazz, classical, varied electronic music, and new age music to work on film scores, television themes, audio books, and commercials. After devoting much of the 1990s to material for the screen and early solo recordings such as 1996’s acclaimed Nightscenes, a collection of ambient electronic vignettes, he increased focus on his own classical compositions. The 2000s brought continued work on television documentaries including the series Nature, as well as eclectic solo albums that traversed instrumental piano pieces, electronic music, and piano jazz.

Intrada announces the 30th anniversary, two-CD set of Hans Zimmer's score for the 1995 political-action thriller Crimson Tide. Zimmer was truly flying high in his career by the mid-1990s. He had successfully made the jump from London to Hollywood and had just won an Academy Award® for his score for The Lion King (1994). His sound was going through an evolution during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it was on Backdraft (1991) that Zimmer fully embraced meshing an orchestra with his trademark synthesizers. It was also the start of the “power anthem” for which Zimmer would become known. Crimson Tide marks the full maturing of this style that would continue to be heard most notably in The Rock (1996) and The Peacemaker (1997). Zimmer won a GRAMMY® for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television for Crimson Tide. The main theme of Crimson Tide is a signature power anthem that embodies heroism and bravura, and in this expanded presentation of the score one can fully appreciate how it’s used throughout the narrative. The score is a master class in tension building. Zimmer utilizes atmospheric sounds to build a sonic tomb around the characters. Sounds resembling sonar, metallic colors and puffing woodwinds create sustained tension that slowly rises.

Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote the book on Southern rock with their first album, so it only made sense that they followed it for their second album, aptly titled Second Helping. Sticking with producer Al Kooper (who, after all, discovered them), the group turned out a record that replicated all the strengths of the original, but was a little tighter and a little more professional. It also revealed that the band, under the direction of songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, was developing a truly original voice. Of course, the band had already developed their own musical voice, but it was enhanced considerably by Van Zant's writing, which was at turns plainly poetic, surprisingly clever, and always revealing. Though Second Helping isn't as hard a rock record as Pronounced, it's the songs that make the record…

Classic Hits 1938-52 is a five-disc, 123-track collection of Big Joe Turner's earliest recording sessions before finding stardom with his mid-'50s R&B sides. While this JSP set isn't extravagant, it's a luxury to have Turner's sides for National, Aladdin, Freedom, MGM, and Imperial remastered and together in one collection. The final disc also includes the Boss of the Blues' first recordings for Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic Records: "Chains of Love," "Sweet Sixteen," "Poor Lover's Blues," and "Still in Love (With You)." Turner tackles blues, swing, and fiery up-tempo jump blues, assisted by Pete Johnson, Wynonie Harris, Pee Wee Crayton, Budd Johnson, Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino, Joe Houstin, Albert Ammons, Don Byas, Art Tatum, and Hot Lips Page. While this is a collector's dream, the casual listener would do better with Big, Bad & Blue: The Big Joe Turner Anthology on Rhino.

This mid-'90s DCC Jazz edition of the John Coltrane (tenor sax)/Paul Quinichette (tenor sax) title Cattin' with Coltrane and Quinichette (1959) contains the same excellent remastering and bonus tracks as its standard silver pressing - without the superfluous expense of a 24-karat gold disc. Audiophile pressing or naught, what remains as the centerpiece are the selections that the co-leads cut during a mid-May 1957 session with Mal Waldron (piano), plus a rhythm section consisting of Julian Euell (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums). Waldron - who penned all the album's originals - proves why he is one of the best composer/arrangers for Coltrane. His stylish tickling of the 88s sets the pace with a stealthy and sinister platform for Coltrane's bluesy blowing, followed by Quinichette's exceedingly soulful solo…

Windom End is a progressive rock band from Falun/Stockholm Sweden.
The seed for what was to become Windom End was planted back in 2007. During a heated debate among a group of friends, Pierre Stam and Tomas Nyström bonded over the greatest questions mankind has ever pondered: Who is Actually the greatest guitar player of all time. ”Steve Rothery”, they both proclaimed in unison. Strangers up until that moment, their eyes instantly locked. After staring at each other in disbelief for a second their lips once again parted as they shouted: ”Best Friends!”. The very next day, the duo started writing music together.
Pierre was already involved in the progressive death metal band In Mourning, with whom he released four albums and toured Europe…

Doesn't the beginning of "The Step" sound like Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell"? Maybe. It does for a tic anyway, before vocalist Nic Offer starts emoting all cool over eight layers of bass, spidery guitar, horns, and drums that wait patiently for the break. And when that break finally arrives, it falls out of the verse like Franzia from silver Mylar. Party time, baby! Let's keep it going with the bass groove of "Hammerhead," or "KooKooKa Fuk-U"'s chattering cool-part-of-town disco. On this, their self-titled debut for Gold Standard Laboratories, !!! trash the axiom that says bands influenced by angular post-punk must be populated by dour misanthropes who sport wallet photos of Ian Curtis. "If you're looking for a friend/You can kiss my ass!" Offer declares on "KooKooKa Fuk-U," and encourages suicide for - wait for it - someone else…

Embark on a series of Voyages through the late solo piano music of Brahms with pianist Leopoldo Erice as your guide. Brahms has been Erice's treasured travelling companion throughout his life, from growing up in Spain to travelling as a musician. He has chosen to perform the music of Brahms at key moments in his life - from celebration to loss - and feels a particular kinship with these later works, which are increasingly recognised as miniature masterpieces for their extraordinary structural integration and harmonic subtlety. Erice refers to Brahms's late piano works as miniatures with a symphonic soul, explaining in the album booklet: It's as though in his later years he stripped away everything nonessential, committing only the purest essence of his music to the page. The album features the Seven Fantasies, Op. 116, the intimate Three Intermezzi, Op. 117, and the two sets of piano pieces Opp. 118 and 119. These are works that in their relatively brief duration distil the essence of late Brahms: at once forward-looking and valedictory, introspective and daring, reflecting his remarkable imagination in all its rich complexity.