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Drummer Winard Harper leads a fine hard bop quintet on Trap Dancer, which consists of five standards and a variety of obscure originals, including one song apiece from Gary Bartz and Jimmy Heath. Trumpeter Patrick Rickman, tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen, and pianist George Cables take consistently worthwhile solos, and although there are a couple brief percussion pieces ("Oamara" and "Allahu Akbra"), Harper does not feature himself all that much except in support of the lead voices…

While Judy Collins had been singing songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney ever since her mid-1960s albums, JUDY COLLINS SINGS LENNON AND MCCARTNEY was her first album-length collection of tunes by the pair…

Fans of AC/DC's original singer Bon Scott who pick up Livestock expecting to hear AC/DC redux will be rather surprised with this release. These cuts, recorded in 1971 with Scott's previous band, Fraternity, reveal a drastically different sound than the bluesy hard rock Scott made his name with. Fraternity veer all over the stylistic map, from the funky "Summerville" to the extended prog-rock epic "Raglan's Folly" (which wouldn't sound out of place on an early Genesis album). Only "Race" (both parts) and "Livestock" bear any resemblance to Scott's most famous band, and even then just barely, since they sound closer to the Doors or mid-'60s Rolling Stones. Part of the discrepancy is that, as the extensive liner notes explain, Scott had very little creative input in Fraternity, which was chiefly the vision of bassist Bruce Howe and guitarist Mick Jurd…

Zoot Money's Big Roll Band was one of the most popular and entertaining groups of the British R&B boom era. A charismatic personality, soulful singer and cool Hammond organist, Zoot was much loved by the Mods who flocked to his shows at London's In clubs like The Flamingo. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were among his greatest fans.

Inspired by the unique landscapes and lights from the Ligurian region, Serpentines & Valleys presents several months of collaborative work between composers and producers, Martin Nonstatic (Martin Van Rossum, Netherlands) and Esko Barba (Marcel Montel, Sweden) - under their portmanteau moniker - Eskostatic. This Road Trip album surfaces from pure Ambient Electronica to deliver undulating Downtempo, inviting curvy basslines and morphing cadences to meddle with crafty rhythms, airy pads and rich modular tweaks. Serpentines & Valleys is brimming with emotions, stirring melodies and lush soundscapes which reveal an inventive and mesmerizing tale. The artwork was created with argentic pictures by Kolkata based photographer Jayanta Roy.

Until 1750, Europe was under the spell of the Italian opera seria for about 70 years. Then the audience began to develop a taste for more drama: no more succession of arias that were loosely welded together by an overly familiar plot, but a story in which people could live with the main characters. The French, who had stubbornly refused to go along in the European mania for Italian opera seria and had developed their own national opera, could look forward to an increasing influence of French opera. This can be clearly observed in the operas of Christoph Willibald von Gluck, who has gone down in history as the great opera reformer of the 18th century. However, there were even more composers who had implemented innovations and one of them was Niccolò Jommeli (1714-74).

Fans of AC/DC's original singer Bon Scott who pick up Livestock expecting to hear AC/DC redux will be rather surprised with this release. These cuts, recorded in 1971 with Scott's previous band, Fraternity, reveal a drastically different sound than the bluesy hard rock Scott made his name with. Fraternity veer all over the stylistic map, from the funky "Summerville" to the extended prog-rock epic "Raglan's Folly" (which wouldn't sound out of place on an early Genesis album). Only "Race" (both parts) and "Livestock" bear any resemblance to Scott's most famous band, and even then just barely, since they sound closer to the Doors or mid-'60s Rolling Stones. Part of the discrepancy is that, as the extensive liner notes explain, Scott had very little creative input in Fraternity, which was chiefly the vision of bassist Bruce Howe and guitarist Mick Jurd…