AMOR TIRANNO – Italian Love Songs of the 17th century, from the Lobkowicz Collection in Bohemia
ARTA, F10159     8595017415920

Ivana Bilej Brouková: soprano, Markéta Cukrová: mezzo-soprano, Jan Krejča: theorbo, guitar, lute, Miloslav Študent: archlute, guitar, lute, Petr Wagner: viola da gamba, Tomáš Reindl: percussion

YOUN SUN NAH – VOYAGE
ACT 9019     614427901927

Youn Sun Nah – vocals, Ulf Wakenius – guitar, Lars Danielsson – acoustic bass, cello, melodica, Xavier Desandre-Navarre – percussion, Mathias Eick – trumpet

A wonderfully clear voice, with superb melismatic control and dynamic poise. A welcome new presence on the international jazz scene.” JAZZWISE (UK)
KOREAN MUSIC AWARD
„Record of the Month“ JAZZMAN (FR)

Ida Sand - vocals, grand piano, wurlizer, Ola Gustafsson - guitars, Mattias Torell - guitars, Peter Forss - electric & upright bass, violin, Per Lindvall - drums, percussion

& guests: Peter Asplund - trumpet, flugelhorn, Magnus Lindgren - flute, bassclarinet, Ingela Olson - background vocals, André De Lang - background vocals

“A very classy offering from this soulful singer, pianist and songwriter” THE JAZZMAN ONLINE (UK)

Jan Lundgren - grand piano, fender rhodes, Mattias Svensson - bass, Zoltan Csörsz Jr. - drums, percussion

It is not just the convincing and surprising repertoire that makes this project stand out from other similar set ups; above all it is Lundgren’s amazing ability to masterfully shape the original material into a homogeneous, perfectly flowing, coherent album.

ANDY SHEPPARD QUINTET - MOVEMENTS IN COLOUR
ECM 2062     060251795042(9)

Andy Sheppard: saxophones, John Parricelli: guitars, Eivind Aarset: guitar, electronics, Arild Andersen: double-bass, electronics, Kuljit Bhamra: tabla and percussion

Although Andy Sheppard has been featured on a dozen albums with Carla Bley for WATT, this is his first album for ECM proper. The British saxophonist heads an international quintet in a programme of self-penned pieces, all buoyant and strongly melodic. Sheppard’s elegant saxophone and the strongly-contrasting guitars of Parricelli and Aarset are lifted up by the rhythmic drive of Arild Andersen’s muscular bass and the crisp, dynamic tabla of Kuljit Bhamra, a musician well known in the UK as a key figure in the Asian pop and bhangra movements.

LOUIS SCLAVIS - LOST ON THE WAY
ECM 2098     60251798497(4)

Louis Sclavis: clarinets, soprano saxophone, Matthieu Metzger: soprano and alto saxophones, Olivier Lété: double-bass, Maxime Delpierre: guitar, François Merville: drums

A new year, a new Sclavis quintet - this one born out of the wish to continue the work begun back in 2005 with "L'imparfait des langues" (and retaining guitarist Delpierre and drummer Merville from that project) and to invent new musics in which to lose oneself. To uncover fragments of memory by chance, while chiseling at new ideas. Track titles allude to the voyages of Ulysses. Sclavis: “I wanted to travel somewhere unknown, letting myself be blown from Scylla to Charybdis by mastering the winds and the torrents of return to re-evoke a history” - along the way looking at aspects of jazz, rock and modern composition from unfamiliar perspectives.

HEINZ HOLLIGER / CLARA SCHUMANN - ROMANCENDRES
ECM 2055     02894763225(2)

Clara Schumann: Romanzen / Heinz Holliger: Romancendres
Christoph Richter: cello, Dénes Várjon: piano

Heinz Holliger: Gesänge der Frühe
SWR Vokalensemble, Sinfonieorchester des SWR, conducted by Heinz Holliger

A fascinating concept album circling around the fragility of artistic sensibilities in German musical and literary romanticism. Two important pieces by Swiss composer Heinz Holliger (born 1939), both of them inspired by Robert Schumann, are combined with a chamber work by Clara Schumann. They all intersect in the year 1853, when 20-year-old Johannes Brahms first visited the Schumann couple in Düsseldorf. The initial piece, Clara’s three wonderfully melodic romances for cello and piano, is followed by Holliger’s imaginative and multi-faceted hommage to Robert’s “Romances” in the same scoring. Much to Brahms’ approbation they were burnt by Clara in 1893 as she feared her late husband’s reputation could suffer if compositions from the onset of his mental illness would be publicised. All that survives is a vivid description by violinist Joseph Joachim. Holliger takes this verbal account as a starting point for a music that subtly meditates upon the double character of love and death, music and silence, romances and cinders. “Gesänge der Frühe” first performed in 1988 is scored for choir, orchestra and tape. Schumann’s last piano work of the same title from 1853 is superimposed in a most visionary way with texts from the late period of Friedrich Hölderlin – another romantic genius who fell prey to mental illness.

Nejnovější album trumpetisty Randyho Breckera natočené s brazilskými hudebníky získalo Grammy 2009 v kategorii současného jazzu. Na albu jsou vedle Breckerových skladeb i kompozice slavných brazilských autorů Djavana, Gila, Bosca a dalších.

Čerstvá novinka indického virtuoza na perkuse a bicí Triloka Gurtu natočená za pomoci vynikajících evropských a indických hudebníků. Na saxofon hostuje Jan Garbarek, dále hrají např. baskytarista Kay Eckhardt, klávesista Carlo Cantinu, Nitin Shankar hraje na klávesy a různé indické nástroje, zpěvem vypomáhá Sabine Kabongo. Hudba alba Massical se pohybuje na pomezí jazzu a world music.

V jedinečné sérii Evolution of an Artist vychází vynikající kompilace nahrávek Thelonia Monka. Ke slyšení jsou všechny jeho slavné jazzové standardy: Monk´s Dream, Round Midnight, In Walked Bud, Misterioso, Blue Monk a mnoho dalších.

THE LAST DVD – THE SPIRIT LIVES
He was one of the greatest jazz artists of all time: Joe Zawinul. Shortly after wrapping up his summer tour with his band "The Zawinul Syndicate", the Austrian artist died on September 11, 2007. On July 7, 2007, at the Lugano Jazz Festival, Joe Zawinul and his band played at his 75th birthday, cutting what was to be the last multi-track recordings. Each and every track makes you feel the devotion and soul, the melodic and harmonic ideas, the inner drive and a boundless lust for life of this man. On August 2, 2007, the last but one concert ever played by Zawinul saw the reunion of two longtime musical companions: Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, the stars of Weather Report. The 14-minute duet "In a silent way" contained here is pure magic created by two artists in full harmony. A rarity! This DVD with an expensive packaging will gain immediate cult status! Incl. 100 minutes Show, Bonus Track, Photo Gallery

Joe Zawinul: keyboards, vocoder; Sabine Kabongo: vocals, percussion; Alegre Correa: guitar, vocals, berimbau; Linley Marthe: bass; Paco Sery: drums, kalimba, vocals, Jorge Bezerra: percussion, vocals; Aziz Sahmaoui: perussion, vocals,
special guest : WAYNE SHORTER