Music From

Japanese progressive art rock band from Fukuoka active in the 80's.

Michael Kamen is a master at capturing nostalgia, especially when the age in question is the bittersweet "tie a yellow ribbon" landscape of World War II. For the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers, Kamen re-visits much of the same territory he explored with fellow sepia-tone junkie Roger Waters on Pink Floyd's The Wall and The Final Cut. Alternately tragic and uplifting, Band of Brothers is a raw, patriotic, and wistfully elegiac tome of swelling choirs, salvation army brass band, and melodious strings that compliment the series' balanced depiction of the horrors of war and the unpredictable sweetness of humanity.

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of The Band’s landmark debut album, Music From Big Pink is released in a limited edition of two pink vinyl LPs that feature a new stereo mix of the album, produced by Bob Clearmountain from the original four-track analog master…

The soundtrack to Woody Allen's 2011 Oscar-nominated romantic comedy Midnight in Paris features a variety of jazz tunes and popular songs that are all generally associated with the film's 1920s Paris setting. While Allen actually transports his movie's main character back to the '20s, most of the music here was recorded by contemporary artists who play in an old-school style. To these ends, we get such roiling and urbane Gypsy jazz tracks as Swing 41's "Je Suis Seul Ce Soir," Original Paris Swing's "Recado," and even several Cole Porter vocal numbers by Conal Fowkes – who appears as Porter in the film. Also featured are jaunty classic jazz cuts like Josephine Baker's conga dance number "La Conga Blicoti" and, of course, Sydney Bechet's "Si Tu Vois Ma Mère," which opens the film. Swooning and romantic in tone with a breezy, swinging jazz vibe throughout, the Midnight in Paris soundtrack is a must-have souvenir for traditional jazz lovers and any fan of the film.

In 17th and 18th century New England, transplanted Englishmen like Daniel Read, Abraham Wood, and especially William Billings were composing beautiful but rough-hewn and distinctly American vocal music for use in what were called "singing schools." Far to the west and south, in what was then called New Spain and would later be called Mexico, natives and transplanted Spaniards were composing liturgical music of a richness and complexity that was worthy of the greatest cathedrals of Europe – and teaching their native converts to do the same. This disc showcases the works of two of 18th century Mexico's finest composers: the Mexican-born Manuel de Zumaya and the transplanted European Ignacio de Jerusalem. The latter is represented by a polychoral Mass in D Minor, a responsory, and a gorgeous Dixit Dominus setting written in six sections; from the former listeners have a setting of Jeremiah's lamentations, a breathtakingly complex solfeggio composition titled Sol-fa de Pedro, and the polychoral Celebren, Publiquen.