Twirls

Over the past few years, concert patrons have stopped the musician Carlos Niño after gigs to ask two simple questions: “Are you a shaman?” “I hear the medicine in your music, can I come to your next ceremony?” The queries are fair enough: Looking at Niño, a tall man with a wild beard and kind eyes, one would think he’s from some faraway time and could maybe cast spells. Once you get to know him, you find that he’s just an incredibly sweet guy with a laid-back demeanor, and that he isn’t some guru claiming to have an all-access pass to the otherworld.

Compiled and annotated by R&B and rock & roll authority Dave Penny, the 3CD set In The Shadow Of Sun is a mighty 101-track survey of the rockin’ records released on indie labels in Memphis and environs in the wake of the success of Sun Records.

Vocal gymnastics and Christmas songs are not often thought of as a compatible combination, but on "Merry Christmas", Mariah Carey jumps, climbs, crawls, twirls, and dashes her way through both traditional fare and original Christmas songs. She shifts through styles, offering fans from all musical camps a gift of their own. There is even a "Joy to the World" medley mixing the old and the new: the traditional Christmas song and the Three Dog Night hit. And, as usual, her gospel-voiced background singers are out in full force. There are two ways to enjoy this album. One is to sit back and revel in Carey's vocal fireworks, and the other is to pour yourself a glass of eggnog, get cozy by the tree, and have yourself a Merry Christmas.

Miriam Klein is a Swiss jazz singer. Miriam Klein gained fame for the first time, when she appeared on the scene in Paris with Pierre Michelot, Don Byas and Art Simmons in the 1950s. After education at the music school in Vienna, she went back to Switzerland and has sung in the group of her husband Oscar Klein since 1963. In 1960s and 1970s, she gained international fame as a singer. In 1973, her famous album "Lady Like" was published. The album was dedicated to Billie Holiday. In the album, she performed with the musicians Roy Eldridge, Dexter Gordon and Slide Hampton.

Lee Chang-dong‘s Burning moves at a pace all its own, telling a tale of mystery and obsession with no easy answers. Hypnotic, haunting, and featuring an incredible performance from Steven Yuen, Burning is one of the year’s best movies.

Newgrass guitarist Tony Rice's work for Rounder Records is showcased on the mesmerizing Devlin. Pulling the best new acoustic tracks from his 1980 album, Mar West, and 1981's Still Inside, this compilation highlights Rice's fluid playing and progressive composition as he is backed by players like Sam Bush, Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips, John Reischman, and others. Alternately warm and crisp, comforting and energizing, his startlingly clean playing twirls and waltzes with the other instruments one stepping out while another comes to the spotlight, often culminating in tightly locked passages with interwoven harmonies. These 15 instrumentals are lyrical without words, poetic without stanzas, and a brilliant glimpse into the soul of one of progressive bluegrass' most inventive players.

On February 11, we will have the pleasure of discovering Psyché, the first solo album by the young and talented mezzo-soprano Ambroisine Bré. For this first opus, which will be released by 440Hz, she surrounds herself with the fine flower of young French musicians: pianist Ismaël Margain, flautist Mathilde Calderini, harpist Anaïs Gaudemard, tenor Julien Dran and the Hanson Quartet. Without forgetting the participation of Gérard Depardieu!