ACAPELLA CHRISTMAS comprises ten carols from jazz vocalists The Manhattan Transfer, including "Winter Wonderland" and "White Christmas." Manhattan Transfer's stunningly tight-knit harmonies make a versatile palette for numerous styles of music. Since their emergence in the late 1960s the quartet has ...

"Never Lookin' Back," the opening track to Kenny Wayne Shepherd's first studio album in seven years, and his studio debut for Roadrunner, is a contradiction because he does exactly that, at least musically. Last time out, the guitarist experimented with ...

Track Listing: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; Santa Claus Is Coming To Town; Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm; Christmas Song, The; Little Drummer Boy, The; Frosty The ...

Rio, the double-disc solo concert recording by Keith Jarrett, marks his 40th anniversary as an ECM recording artist; coincidentally, Facing You, his debut for the label, was a solo piano recording, though cut in a studio. Many of Jarrett's improvised ...

Apparently, Etta James' musical career ends with The Dreamer. The legendary vocalist announced a few months back that this would be her final album; she's retiring from music in order to deal with serious medical issues. Co-produced by James, Josh ...

Richard Elliot's In the Zone picks up where 2009's Rock Steady left off. Where that album paid tribute to the saxophonist's R&B heroes, In the Zone, which marks Elliot's 25th anniversary as a recording artist, offers a thank-you to the ...

Liner Note Authors: Jack Jezzro; Beggie Adair. Recording information: Wildwood Recording. Personnel: Beggie Adair (piano); Chris Brown (drums). Audio Mixer: Brendan Harkin.

After years of exploring dance and electronic music, Paul Hardcastle moved to contemporary jazz fusion with his 1993 album, Jazzmasters I. Recorded in late 1990 and early 1991, the album features Hardcastle on the majority of the instruments -- everything ...

There's nothing particularly Appalachian about this set, other than the cover, really, but it is a graceful and balanced holiday album featuring Mark O'Connor's brilliant fiddle playing on several Christmas classics, along with friends and guests Renée Fleming, Alison Krauss, ...

Let's put the hook in right from the jump: Echoes of Indiana Avenue is perhaps the most significant release of previously unissued material by a major jazz artist since the The Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall ...

Organists have been an important part of Pat Martino's life since in the '60s. Along the way, the Philadelphia-born guitarist has played with a long list of skillful organists that includes Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Jack McDuff, Joey DeFrancesco, ...

2011 marked the 30th anniversary of Acoustic Alchemy; it was back in 1981 that Simon James and the late Nick Webb, Acoustic Alchemy's original co-leaders, started working together. These days, Acoustic Alchemy have two different co-leaders: Greg Carmichael and Miles ...

One of the challenges of being a mega-successful producer and artist whose talents run deeper and more diverse than what you're known for is trying to find a few spots to showcase that deeper soul in the midst of the ...

The 1963 Impulse! Records LP John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman helped to redefine the renowned jazz saxophonist by pairing him with a singer on a collection of standards, showing that Coltrane wasn't (or wasn't only) an avant-gardist bent on playing ...

When Jeff Lorber reignited the Jeff Lorber Fusion in 2010 with Now Is the Time, he sought to re-examine the very music he'd helped to establish: contemporary jazz. Its instrumental tracks were solid and satisfying, but the vocal cuts lacked, ...

This 34-track collection features a quality sampling of Herb Alpert's most sought-after tracks from the '60s to the '80s. Highlights include the original versions of "What Now My Love," "This Guys in Love with You," "Spanish Flea," and "Rise." Recommended ...

When guitarist Al DiMeola left Return to Forever (again) after their 2008 reunion tour, Chick Corea solicited the help of the band's original axeman, Bill Connors, to rejoin the band for another tour. He did. While he rehearsed with Corea, ...

Liner Note Author: Doug Ramsey. Recording information: Van Gelder Recording Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (03/22/2012). Personnel: Joey DeFrancesco (organ); Larry Coryell (guitar); Jimmy Cobb (drums). Audio Mixer: Rudy Van Gelder.

Bria Skonberg is a young trumpeter//vocalist from Canada. She has toured the world, playing major festivals and venues, while basing in New York City. Bringing the tradition of Louis Armstrong into the 21st Century, she writes compelling original tunes, plays ...

Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval's 2012 tribute to legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You) is a big-band Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz tour de force. Showcasing Sandoval's long-storied titan bop trumpet chops, Dear Diz frames the ...

Hot House is the seventh recording by the duo of pianist Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton. This time out, Corea and Burton picked pieces by some of their favorite composers -- mostly from the jazz world, of course -- ...

The Ink Spots were the first modern black vocal group, and although chiefly known for their wonderful harmonies, which bridged the gap between 1940s pop styles and the street corner doo wop styles of the 1950s, they were also a ...

Stepping away a bit from his signature rhumba flamenco guitar style on The Blue Guitar Sessions, his eighth studio album, new age guitarist Jesse Cook broadens his canvas with jazzy ballads, soft blues, and smooth, atmospheric instrumental pop to make ...

Recording information: Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA (04/02/2012-04/04/2012). Photographers: Bob Wolfenson; Alex Calleros. Personnel: Larry Koonse (guitar); David Piltch (acoustic bass); Jay Bellerose (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Helik Hadar.

Music for Lovers Only was first released in 1952 as a 10" LP with only eight songs. In 1953 it was released as an expanded 12" with eight more tracks. The Collectors Choice's Music for Lovers Only/Music to Make You ...