V. A. Jazz 2024

It has been 25 years since the first Café del Mar Volume was released. To celebrate this milestone we have carefully selected a mix of classics & brand new tracks to reflect the essence of Café del Mar. The double CD release features brand new tracks & remixes by Quantic, The Cinematic Orchestra, Zero 7, Peggu Gou, BadBadNotGood and timeless classics by Chicane, A Man Called Adam, Trio Mocoto, Planet Funk, just to name but a few.

Shelly Manne scored big with a jazz version of the Peter Gunn soundtrack in the 50s - and he does it again in this 60s version of Henry Mancini's music for the full-length Gunn movie! The style here is a bit more far-reaching and looser than before - showing not just Manne's development as an artist, but also his ear for some of the best styles of the younger generation - as evidenced by his inclusion of Frank Strozier on alto and flute, and Mike Wofford on piano - alongside more familiar faces Monte Budwig on bass and Conte Candoli on trumpet.

Hailed by Jazziz magazine as the "voice of her generation" and a "national treasure," Chicago-born, Durham, North Carolina-based Dr Lenora Zenzalai Helm is a jazz vocal musician, composer, lyricist, bandleader, and a dedicated educator at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Helm encompasses all of the inventions and dimensions of jazz and the African Diaspora on her new recording, Journeywoman, featuring her Tribe Jazz Orchestra Nonet. Helm's new CD, her eighth as a leader, is a compelling 65-minute, multi-movement 12-track work, where she sings about the life of an allegorical woman named Journey, and her struggles with abuse, birth, death, self-definition and her victories through self-love, perseverance, and affirmation.

This is the fourth compilation sampling the blues roster of Alligator Records as it existed in its earliest incarnation. The style varies greatly from the blues/rock of The Kinsey Report, to the country blues of Elvin Bishop, to the jazz of Charles Brown. The album is the best of the 'HouseRockin' series and offers a link to the various artists of the Alligator label at that stage. The many highlights include Lonnie Mack, Delbert McClinton, Kenny Neal, Tinsley Ellis, Lucky Peterson and William Clarke.