Gaia Cuatro is a reality that has already conquered half the world. Their music,full of charm, has a intensity and pleasantness that gets straight to the heart as it rarely happens. Listen to a concert or an album is a compelling experience. The union of two diametrically opposed cultures, that Argentinian and Japanese, creates to a sensational mix where the passion, warmth and rhythm of Latin music / American blend masterfully with the refined elegance of Asian musical tradition. The result is breathtaking. Haruka is further enhanced by the extraordinary participation of Paolo Fresu, who adds an additional note of class and expressiveness. Their previous work with Abeat (Udin, catalog Abeat 054) has had a great resonance between lovers audiophiles. Even that record will not betray the expectations of most demanding palates.Gaia Cuatro are :
Carlos Buschini : bass, doublebass
Gerardo Di Giusto : piano
Paolo Fresu : trumpet on tracks 3,8
Aska Kaneko : violin,vocals
Tomohiro Yahiro : drums, percussions
Harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite è l'emblema di ciò che noi chiamiamo bluesman: nato in Mississippi, cresciuto a Memphis ha fatto la propria gavetta e creato il proprio sound nella Souithside di Chicago. Dal 1967 la sua voce e la sua armonica sono sinonimo di blues. Ha registrato 30 albums in carriera, di cui tre dei più significativi su Alligator tra cui questo affascinante “The Well”, primo album di cui Charlie è autore o co-autore di tutti i brani interpretati che ha il sapore ed il profumo di un “ritorno a casa”. Posisamo quindi considerare The Well una bella produzione Losangelena fortemente autobiografica dove Musselwhite è accompagnato da musicisti importanti quali Dave Gonzalez (Paladins, Hacienda Brothers), chitarra, John Bazz (Blasters), contrabbasso, Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples) batteria. La produzione è di Chris Goldsmith (Ruthie Foster e Blind Boys of Alabama). Imperdibile e nominato ai Grammy 
Una Big Band di 12 musicisti (11 band+direttore) + special guest suona gli ARRANGIAMENTI ORIGINALI (unico progetto a farlo) trovati in casa Kramer in una vecchia valigia....e questo grazie alla fondazione Rivarolo Mantovano che mettendomi in contatto con Teresa e Laura Gorni, le due figlie del maestro che mi dissero che nonostante Kramer, come sovente accade a molti artisti, ha impiegato l'ultima parte della sua vita a disfrarsi delle proprie creazioni avevano il ricordo di una valigia abbandonata nella casa di campagna della famigia. Per me ciò ha significato la scoperta del leggendario tesoro del Capitan Flint 
The inspired bringing together of Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble has resulted in consistently inventive music making since 1993. It was the groundbreaking “Officium” album, with Garbarek’s saxophone as a free-ranging ‘fifth voice’ with the Ensemble, which gave the first indications of the musical scope and emotional power of this combination. “Mnemosyne”, 1998’s double album, took the story further, expanding the repertoire beyond ‘early music’ to embrace works both ancient and modern. 
Spirit Moves features Douglas alongside Vincent Chancey (French horn), Luis Bonilla (trombone), Marcus Rojas (tuba) and Nasheet Waits (drums) paying homage to the brass instrument with eight new original compositions and three arrangements of classics by such disparate artists as Otis Redding, Hank Williams and Rufus Wainwright. Over the past several years, Douglas has steadily honed his work with Brass Ecstasy with appearances at the 2008 Chicago Jazz Festival, which commissioned new music from the group, Willisau Festival, Reggio Calabria Jazz Festival, and The Festival of New Trumpet Music. Informed by the evolving spirit of brass music and by his multi-faceted career as the director of The Festival of New Trumpet Music, label head of Greenleaf Music, a renowned composer, artist, and record producer, Douglas pens an ambitious collection of lyrical songs with impressions of folk, pop and soul music.
Ralph Alessi was born in San Rafael, CA, the son of classical trumpeter Joe Alessi. But after taking degrees in jazz trumpet and bass—he studied under the legendary Charlie Haden at CalArts—he lit out for New York, where he swiftly became an ubiquitous presence on the downtown scene and a leading figure in jazz education.
The Hungarian composer and pianist Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer from the Serbian province of Vojvodina has written eight hymns in commemoration of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, an artist he has called a homo moralis whose remarkable visions cast a small but significant light on the tragic world of the previous century. The Georgian composer Giya Kancheli has written a silent prayer for two dear friends: the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and the violinist Gidon Kremer. The meditative emotionality of the hymns and the ascetic tranquility of the prayer are offset by César Franck‘s Piano Quintet in F minor like a premonition of Beethoven’s Appassionata, whose second movement, marked Lento, molto sentimento, in turn takes up the mood of the other two works. This combination does more than provide a superficial contrast: it is beholden to an intrinsic principle of the sort that the painter Paul Klee developed in his theory of harmony in the visual arts: any compositional harmony will gain character through dissonances, with the balance being restored by counterweights. (from the liner notes)
Of all the blues legends the great state of Texas has produced, none sounds quite like Smokin’ Joe Kubek and Bnois King. The two Lone Star guitarists—one a hard-edged, hard rocking blues player and the other a jazzy, elegant rhythm player who delivers raw, spontaneous solos-—have taken their dual guitar attack from the heart of Texas to fans around the globe. Kubek and King’s twin-frontman lineup is unparalleled on the blues scene. Backed by their rock-solid rhythm section, Kubek’s fiery fretwork is perfectly matched by King’s sophisticated rhythm playing and rough-edged, down-home soloing and his soulfully conversational vocals. For more than 20 years and thousands of live shows, the duo’s scorching blues and telepathic interplay has been thrilling fans all around the world. Their new CD (their second for Alligator and the 14th of their careers), Have Blues, Will Travel, is a collection of fresh original songs played with passion, taste and a white-hot intensity. Billboard said the band plays “hard-hitting, original blues. Kubek is one of the fiercest Texas blues guitarists…his fiery leads are complemented by King’s adroit rhythm guitar and classic vocals.” 
A young leader who has already conquered audiences across the world focuses on the most ambitious artistic project of his career. Herplay and an excellent technique for other undisputed talent in Europe. makes this record with the contribution of the young rising star Dino Rubino on piano and one of the most exciting, strong and creative Italian jazz rhythmic section: Paolino Dalla Porta ( double bass), has a story that really says a lot about his ability to bring inspiration and creativity. Again his personality gave harmony and elegance together with Stefano Bagnoli, ( the "Brushman" as people now call him), a drummer with an inte
Jobim, João Gilberto, Joyce – Brazil has given us so many brilliant composers, instrumentalists and vocalists. It is with great pride that Stunt Records releases this new recording by the revered Brazilian singer Joyce Moreno (previously known as Joyce), recorded in Rio last year with her own trio.
Elga Paoli è una raffinatissima compositrice cantante pianista che con questo nuovo lavoro "Profumo di jazz" ci regala un progetto a cavallo fra jazz e canzone d'autore dove accanto alla figura del "crooner" la Paoli reinterpreta il ruolo con sonorita' proprie del mediterraneo. La formazione è piu' che eccellente con i migliri musicisti della scena romana e italiana con Gian Piero Lo Piccolo al sax, Roberto Palermo alla fisarmonica, Stefano Nunzi al contrabbasso, Francesco Puglisi ospite al contrabbasso il molti pezzi, Alessandro Marzi e Marco Rovinelli che si alternano alla batteria. Infine, non certo per ordine di importanza, i bellissimi camei di Fabrizio Bosso. 
I don't remember if it was at the end of the '90 or at the beginning of the new Millenium, but in a midsummer day the postman delivered an envelope from Sweden, containing one of the many demos that got to my messy desk. Since I was late, as ususal, in listening to the demos, I didn't listen to it very quickly and I put the small package together with others waiting to have some spare time. Frankly I sometimes looked at it with curiosity knowing, by previous experience with groups in the 70's, that in Scandinavia technical skills and creativity of rock groups are not inferior to those of English and American groups. 
Omara Portuondo begins this album away from Cuba, saluting a genuine crooner avant la lettre, the Frenchman Henri Salvador, with “Yo vi”. Swami Jr’s subtle string arrangements bestow this delicate version with a metaphorical hint of what the singer has witnessed over the years, as indeed the title points out, and of the declaration stating that this album forms merely another rung in the ladder of her career. “O qué será” is clearly a song Omara has long wished to record. For this song the Cuban singer has joined forces with another genuine Brazilian music maestro, Chico Buarque, for a version that conveys an interplay between the languages of both singers, and indeed of all the musical traditions of everyone contributing.
“When you go to see Livingston Taylor perform on stage, he transforms love, joy and spirituality into something so tangible, that you can carry it home with you when the concert is over.”
The people who heard Steve Lacy’s final solo performance in 2003 at the “Unerhört” Festival in Zurich will not have forgotten the experience. This rollercoaster of emotions. It didn’t just go under the skin; it went straight to the heart. It was so moving to see and hear the love, serenity, trust and sense of adventure that the totally weak Lacy displayed for his music. This is what was so wonderful and magic about that grey, cold November afternoon: we all witnessed what it is like when a master of improvisation gets carried away by the power of music. He became one with the music, drawn to it like a magnet. How beautiful: sadness found joy. Coldness found warmth.
Michael Jaeger keeps looking in the quartet KEROUAC with the pianist Vincent Membrez, the bassist Luca Sisera and the drummer Norbert Pfammatter since 2005 persistently and with more and more success for the labile balance between selffulfillment and control. Between freedom and structure. Between individualism and the collective. Today KEROUAC is on such an advanced level of the collective consciousness, that the four can launch each other almost telepathically into creative spaces. More than that: the collective understanding generates such a pull that even the guests Greg Osby and Philipp Schaufelberger are integrated almost on the spot, almost as if they were members of the band for years.
“A blues hero goes country....the country of the seventies, before the homogenization of the Garth ages, the sound owes as much to Lynyrd Skynyrd as to Merle, Hank, and Waylon.”
Marco Detto was born in Milan in 1962. At first he studied cello, then he totally devoted himself, as a self taught musician, to the study of the pianoforte. He began his professional career in 1982, collaborating as a sideman in many different jazz bands. In 1987 he "gives birth" to his own first jazz group, carrying his name, favouring the trio, and he performs in many jazz clubs, In 1992 he recorded his first work of standard songs“Falling in jazz with love” , with Marco Ricci and Giorgio Di Tullio and with this ensemble the same year he recorded an original piece of work “I sogni di Dick”. In 1994 Marco Detto begins to collaborate with Palle Danielsson and Peter Erskine, with whom he recorded the “La Danza dei ricordi”. In 1998 with Marco Ricci and Stefano Bagnoli, he recorded “Altrove”, a piece of work consisting mainly of very original compositions. In 1999 he recorded with the same group “In The Air”. In 2000 Marco Detto receives an invitation by Eddie Gomez in person to perform three concerts with his band featuring L.White and J.Steig, as a replacement for McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea at the IV . International Festival of classical and jazz music (IV. Festival internazionale di musica classica e jazz) on Elba island. From this very lucky meeting a new Cd took life in 2001 entitled “What a Wonderful World” which was recorded in New York with E.Gomez and L.White and presented in Italy through a concert tour. In 2003 he recorded the Cd “Django”, excellently reviewed by japanese jazz magazine Sunny Side, remained in their charts for 2 months on second position. In 2004 he recorded “Da Lontano” (Massimo Manzi drums, Marco Ricci bass). In 2005 the japanese label Sound Hills reprinted “ What a Wonderful World”. In 2006 he recorded BlueStones (Mauro Beggio drums, Stefano Profeta bass, Kyle Gregory trumpet, Antonello Monni tenor sax, Guido Bombardieri clarinet). "Lasciarsi andare” one song of this album, has won Honorable Mention in the Jazz category in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). In 2006 he also published “ Ripples”, a piano solo album. He took part in many different radio broadcasts on Rai Radio Tre. He also took part in one theatrical project of a cultural association “NOEHMA Servi di Scena” directed by professor Teresa Pomodoro in the prisons of Opera and San Vittore, in theatre Strelher and at University La Statale of Milano. In parallel to such activities, that keep him busy as a leader, Marco Detto collaborates with historical guitarist Franco Cerri, with whome is recorded “Ieri e Oggi”, with singer Lorena Fontana, with whom he recorded “Guccini in jazz” and continues a collaboration with the saxophonist Antonello Monni, with whom he recorded “Friends”.
A Patch of Blue Sky, Kevin's newest CD is his first solo record since 2001's Millionaire. The album features 10 new songs, all written or co-written by Kevin. It is an ultimately hopeful journey from darkness to dawn.
Patchwork can refer to a collection of incongruous pieces, parts not necessarily united into a whole. But sometimes, in the hands of great craftsmen and women, those parts merge into a thing of beauty and warmth. Patchwork River weaves together the lyrical mastery of Robert Hunter and the songcraft of Grammy Award-winning artist Jim Lauderdale into something greater than the sum of its considerable parts.