Ana Mandieta

In the year that sees Ana Popovic celebrating 20 years as a touring musician, the award winning guitar player, singer and songwriter releases 'Live for LIVE', an exciting, versatile CD demonstrating why she's proudly looking back at a career of thousands of shows worldwide. This high-energy concert showcases not only Ana's mesmerizing guitar skills but also her fabulous band, successfully merging musical styles. Ana's passion on stage is so evident that the title sums it up, this is what she lives for!

Flautist Ana de la Vega’s fourth PENTATONE album My Paris is a declaration of love to the glorious French capital and its rich flute history, as well as a trip down memory lane, featuring some of the greatest gems of French music history, including works by Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Satie, Poulenc, Mozart, Chaminade, Lili Boulanger, Von Paradis, as well as Bizet. De la Vega plays these pieces with verve and charm, full of reverence to centuries-old French flute-teaching traditions to which she still feels deeply connected and absorbed. She performs them together with the esteemed pianist Paul Rivinius.

Trilogy is the seventh solo studio album by the United States-based blues guitarist and singer from Serbia, Ana Popović. It was released on May 20, 2016. Popović wrote or co-wrote the majority of the songs on the triple album, fifteen of the twenty-three songs. She enlisted the help of many top industry guest artists, such as guitarist Joe Bonamassa, lap steel guitarist Robert Randolph, rapper Al Kapone, and drummers Bernard Purdie and North Mississippi Allstars's Cody Dickinson. She also got some impressive support behind the scenes, with Tom Hambridge and Delfeayo Marsalis among others producing songs for the album. When interviewed by Guitar World, Popović explained that she has always had a mix of styles on her albums, blues, jazz and funk. Some fans told her how they separated out the styles, making compositions of one style or the other, which intrigued Popović.

A superior Brazilian jazz singer, Ana Caram takes a slight detour on this CD, stretching her repertoire while mostly still performing in a style influenced by bossa nova. One does not get to hear such songs as "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," "Smile," and "As Time Goes By" in a bossa nova setting that often. Also unusual is that Michel Freidenson plays all of the instruments other than the reeds (which are performed by Lawrence Feldman), and most of his electronic instruments sound real enough not to be an issue. The focus throughout is on Caram's lovely voice and she excels on this material, showing that it really is not what you sing but how you sing it. Recommended.