2020 |

CD1: 1-2 Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 15th march 1967; 3 CBC TV Studio, Toronto, 14th September 1967; 4-5 CBS TV Studios, LA (Ed Sullivan Show) 17th September 1967; 6-7 CBS TV Studio (Jonathan Winters Show) 27th December 1967; 8-9 Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, 4th December 1968; 10-15 Critique TV Show, recorded 28th April 1968; CD2: Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden 20th September 1968; CD3: Cobo Arena, ~Detroit, 8th May 1970, FM Radio Broadcast; CD4: Center Coliseum, Seattle, 5th June 1970, FM Radio Broadcast; CD5: PNE Coliseum Vancouver, 6th June 1970, FM Radio Broadcast 4th July 1992; CD6: Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, 21th July 1972, FM Radio Broadcast.

Two classic easy-listening albums by famous French orchestra leader/arranger/composer Paul Mauriat, originally released in 1976 and 1973 on the Philips label, together on one CD and remastered from the original analogue stereo tapes for Vocalion's trademark crystal-clear sound.

Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutist Thomas Dunford illuminate aspects of the elusive amalgamation that is the 17th-century English notion of melancholy. The inconsolable 'Mad Lover' of the album title is reimagined as a character from the reign of Charles II. This tale is told through music from the pen of such violin virtuosos as the prodigiously gifted Nicola Matteis. Heightened by the exuberance and abandon common to those musicians transplanted from Italy, the beguiling nuances of this language of yearning and loss continue to echo in the popular music of our time.

René Thomas (1927-1975) was considered the best European jazz guitarist of his generation by fellow musicians and critics, but his career was marred by the pervasive skepticism of jazz fans. Despite trying hard to carve his own space, he never obtained the recognition he deserved for his immense talent, perhaps because of his introverted character and prolonged withdrawals from the scene.

On "Lockdown Releases" you follow the path of Wolfgang Lackerschmid's creative and varied musical history from the late seventies till 2020. All these tracks were either digitally remastered, finally completed or even recorded during the lockdown in spring 2020.

Décalé. and Bongo Joe Records present an all new compilation placing the spotlight on the Swiss experimental and electronic scene of the ‘80s and the early ‘90s. The compilation Intenta assembles under-appreciated gems, sought-after titles and newly mixed versions. It places leftfield synth-pop next to otherworldly jazz, and joins the dots between lyrical post-punk excursions and proto-house experimentation.

A few years after the success of her album crossing Baroque music with folk, Love I Obey (ALPHA538), the Franco-American singer Rosemary Standley visits Schubert, this time with the complicity of the Ensemble Contraste: ‘We all have a few notes of Schubert buried deep inside us’ say the artists, who have got together around his music and brought to it an original sound texture, the result of their varied influences – classical, pop, jazz, folk.

Soul Jazz Records new ‘Apala: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70’ is the first ever collection of Apala music to be released outside of Nigeria. The album focusses on a wide selection of recordings made in Nigeria in the 1960s, a time when Apala music was at the height of its popularity. Apala is a deeply rhythmical, hypnotic and powerful musical style that combines the striking nasal-style vocals and traditions of Islamic music, the Agidigbo (thumb piano), and the equally powerful drumming and percussion rhythms and techniques of the Yoruba of Nigeria.