The Used Live And Acoustic at The Palace

Guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny is one of the most successful jazz musicians in the world. He is the only artist to win 20 Grammy Awards in 10 different categories. A consummate stylist and risk-taker, his musical signature melds a singular, euphoric sense of harmony with Afro-Latin and Brazilian sounds, rock, funk, global folk musics, and jazz. His 1976 debut, Bright Size Life, and the self-titled Pat Metheny Group two years later resonated with audiences and critics for its euphoric lyricism, dynamics, and rhythmic ideas.

With 1970's Workingman's Dead, the Grateful Dead went through an overnight metamorphosis, turning abruptly from tripped-out free-form rock toward sublime acoustic folk and Americana. Taking notes on vocal harmonies from friends Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Dead used the softer statements of their fourth studio album as a subtle but moving reflection on the turmoil, heaviness, and hope America's youth was facing as the idealistic '60s ended. American Beauty was recorded just a few months after its predecessor, both expanding and improving on the bluegrass, folk, and psychedelic country explorations of Workingman's Dead with some of the band's most brilliant compositions. The songs here have a noticeably more relaxed and joyous feel.

A release containing performances of musical fragments by Viola Torros, arranged and performed by Catherine Lamb and Johnny Chang.

Saxophonist long met with Laurent De Wilde for eclectic and electric experience, so electro-jazz fusion, has since refocused on the composition and much more acoustic jazz. In this new adventure, Horellou enlisted the services of a saxophonist Abraham Burton emeritus colleague, former student of Jackie McLean soloists and orchestras Roy Haynes, Louis Hayes, Art Taylor … Recorded live in January 2013 at the Duke Lombards, the album was created by Dominique "Dume" Poutet (Laurent de Wilde, Guillaume Perret, DTP Records, …) and celebrates the meeting of these two saxophonists exalted. The repertoire was composed in homage to the masters Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Rollins.

Michael: The last studio I worked in was a supertech palace in upstate New York and it was minus ten outside. So here I am in a shed with a sod roof, annoying wildlife and helicopters in the warmth of a Cornish spring and miles from my comfort zone. We are so different, the two of us: a perfectionist and a gambler, a planner and a chancer. We might need a referee. This record has been meticulously planned, but I haven’t even heard the songs. I like it that way. The precision and sophistication of the writing and playing blows me away. I am so glad to be involved.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the long overdue release of an expanded 2CD remastered edition of the classic 1978 live album Alive & Well Recorded In Paris by the celebrated Jazz and Rock group Soft Machine. The album was the band ‘s third for EMI's Harvest label and featured a line-up of KARL Jenkins (Piano, Electric Keyboards, Synthesiser), John Marshall (Drums), John Etheridge (Acoustic and Electric Guitars) and new members Steve Cook (Bass Guitar) and Ric Sanders (Violin). The final live recordings to be released by the band during their lifetime, Alive & Well was the product of several nights of excellent concerts at Le Palace Theatre in Monmartre, Paris in July 1978. The album was initially released as a single album, although the discovery of multi-track masters of a concert in the archives has resulted in this expanded edition with a CD of additional material recorded in July 1978…