Itv Gary Barlow: Journey To Afghanistan (2013)

Hasretim (“My Longing”) is a multi-media exploration of musical roots, and a musical search for cultural identity. In 2009, Guitarist and composer Marc Sinan embarked on an unusual journey, its route leading from the Black Sea coast, where his grandparents lived, to the Armenian border. En route he located and filmed traditional musicians, players whose craft is dying today, capturing a music that speaks of restlessness and temperament, and bears the footprints of Anatolia’s cultural and ethnic diversity. In Hasretim, Marc Sinan’s musical findings are integrated into his own contemporary music for mixed ensemble (orchestrated and arranged by Andrea Molino) with Turkish and Armenian guests.

Gary Barlow returns with his first solo album since 2013's double platinum Since I Saw You Last. Music Played By Humans sees Gary add a contemporary take to the orchestral and big band music he fell in love with as a child with an album of original compositions. The record leads with the latin inspired single 'Elita' with Michael Bublé and Colombian star Sebastián Yatra and includes songs recorded with an 80-piece orchestra. Further collaborations on the album include Beverly Knight, Alesha Dixon, Chilly Gonzales and James Corden.

Gary Barlow’s first-ever Christmas album - ‘The Dream Of Christmas’. Featuring brand new original songs and beautifully orchestrated Christmas classics, ‘The Dream Of Christmas’ is a glorious, sleigh-belled, snow-filled magical ride through the sound of Christmas and the perfect musical accompaniment to the festive season. The album is brimming with festive cheer and Christmas spirit and Gary’s contemporary compositions, in which he sings of warm Christmas memories, sit perfectly alongside timeless classics well-known and loved by many.

The “Somewhere” in which the ‘Standards’ trio find themselves is Lucerne, Switzerland with a performance both exploratory and in-the-tradition. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung headlined its review of the show “kontrollierte Ekstase” – controlled ecstasy – an apt metaphor for a set that begins in improvisational “Deep Space” modulates into Miles Davis’ “Solar”, soars through the standards “Stars Fell On Alabama” and “Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea” and climaxes with an extended romp through West Side Story, as Bernstein’s “Somewhere” and “Tonight” are bridged by the freely associative Jarrett original “Everywhere”.

“Azure” features beautiful duets by two great improvisers whose compatibility was proven long ago. Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell made outstanding music together in Marilyn’s trio with the late Paul Motian, on ECM albums including “Nothing ever was, anyway” and “Amaryllis”, but their duo project also has an extensive history, until now undocumented on disc. With their shared sense of lyricism, their individual compositional styles and their profound background in free playing, Peacock and Crispell are exceptional musical partners. The album, recorded in upstate New York, home territory for both musicians, contains pieces written by Peacock (“Lullaby”, “The Lea”, “Puppets”) and by Crispell (“Patterns”, “Goodbye”, “Waltz after David M”), duo improvisations (“Azure”, “Blue”, “Leapfrog”) and highly inventive piano and bass solos.

On its sophomore offering for Mack Avenue Records, the New Gary Burton Quartet reveals the musical maturity that naturally occurs when a disparate but extremely gifted group of players locks in as a band. Vibraphonist Burton, guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Antonio Sanchez made their debut with 2012's Common Ground, a date steeped in fine originals from all the players, as well as a few covers. That blend is no different here, though the emphasis changes a bit. For starters, Burton, who is notoriously reticent as a composer, actually contributes two pieces to this set. The first is a revisit of "Remembering Tano," a tango written for the late Astor Piazzolla (featuring gorgeous arco work from Colley), and the lithe swing that makes up the backbone of "Jane Fonda Called Again"…