VA This Is Chillout Jazz (cool Jazzy Sounds in a Lounge Mood) (2014)

Asako Toki's new album, which marks her 10th anniversary this year since her solo debut in 2004, is the fourth in the "STANDARDS" series, which has been long awaited by her fans for the first time in nine years! Just like her time, this is a jazz standards album produced by her father, Japan's leading saxophonist Hidefumi Toki. In addition to standard songs such as “In a Sentimental Mood,” “Round Midnight,” “Smile,” “Stardust,” “The Look of Love,” “Misty,” and “Cheek to Cheek,” an original song “Lady Traveler” with English lyrics written based on the works of Eiji Toki "After Dark" is also included. She also covered Red Hot Chili Peppers' ``Californication'' as a surprising song choice. Asako Toki's favorite jazz singer Blossom Dearie's Christmas song "Christmas in the City" is a duet with her beloved Haruomi Hosono! This is a new jazz standard album full of "songs that only Asako Toki can sing today" to be delivered on the anniversary year!

"After Hours" has become a widespread calling card for the area between midnight and twilight, when all the city falls asleep except for a collective of nocturnal beings. A whole new range of attitudes - diverse styles, open perception. After Hours is when the machine turns off -and when the mind turns on. In musical terms, it is the region outside categorization, the music that slips beyond the average stream of beats. It's not based on any beat pattern. After Hours is not ambient; nor is it acid-jazz, it's the area that exists in the gray area between them. Too quirky to hold any cliches too tightly; too loose for any grand agendas. After Hours eases the mind, softens the palette and opens the door to a new day.

This Is Smooth Jazz: The Box Set features a whopping three discs of music, all of it firmly anchored in the smooth jazz idiom. With such a wide scope of performances – a grand total of 36 songs and few repeat performers – This Is Smooth Jazz functions as an excellent introduction to the style. And if you're already acquainted with the laid-back sounds of smooth jazz, this album will at the least enlighten you to some of the many different approaches to the genre. There's no shortage of variety here. Some of the many performers featured on This Is Smooth Jazz include Duncan Millar, Fredrik Karlsson, Yada Yada, Chris Standring, Modern Tribe, Act of Faith, and many more. As mentioned, this collection serves as a wonderful starting point for the neophyte while simultaneously offering a checklist of sorts for seasoned smooth jazz listeners.

The This Is the Blues series from Eagle Records (there are four volumes thus far) features players from the late-'60s/early-'70s golden age of classic British blues-rock covering, for the most part, songs by Willie Dixon and John Lee Hooker, all drawn from a series of tribute albums originally produced by Peter Brown. The fact that everything on these volumes was overseen by the same producer means that there’s an unusual unity of sound throughout the series, and listening to these collections feels a bit like listening to concert recordings at some super all-star British blues festival. The lineup is impressive, including the likes of Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Rory Gallagher, Jack Bruce, former members of Foghat (Lonesome Dave Peverett, Rod Price), and Peter Green, who has several of his own songs also covered in the series…

Exotic and Latin albums were big deals in the 1950s and early '60s, and singers as diverse as Dean Martin, Lena Horne, and Peggy Lee were recording with castanets and bongo drums. Peggy Lee was so successful at the style that she cut two albums of light pseudo-Latin jazz in 1960. Like Peggy Lee, Julie London combined a restrained vocal approach with jazz phrasing and a cool attitude with icy sex appeal. But while London had Lee's stripped-down musical approach, she just didn't share her unrelenting rhythmic vocal drive or her innate feeling for exotic rhythms. It doesn't help that London is paired with arranger Ernie Freeman, who was usually better at crafting Nashville and soft rock style charts than Latin jazz arrangements. This isn't a bad album - London sounds casual and confident throughout - but it is a rather bland one, and isn't blandness what these types of exotica albums are supposed to be fighting against…