Apartment House

Jutta Hipp had a strangely brief career, dropping out of music altogether shortly after emigrating to the United States. She studied painting in Germany and played jazz during World War II. When the Soviets took over East Germany, she moved with her family to Munich. Hipp played locally and in 1952, recorded with Hans Koller. She led her own quintet in Frankfurt in 1953-1955 and recorded for several labels, including a session that was later released by Blue Note. Moving to New York in November 1955, Hipp played at the Hickory House for much of the first half of 1956, recording two trio albums for Blue Note. Although originally inspired by Lennie Tristano, she was criticized at the time for being too influenced by Horace Silver; however, a studio album from July 1956 with Zoot Sims finds her showing a fairly original style…

All I Got Left, the new solo album from internationally acclaimed guitarist, singer and songwriter Chris Bergson, is an intimate, stripped-down affair. Bergson’s “glorious guitar” (Blues Magazine) provides the only accompaniment for his “deeply soulful vocals.” (Blues in Britain.) Hailed as "the New York street poet with a blues soul” (MOJO) and "one of the most inventive songwriters in modern blues music" (All Music Guide), Bergson offers a collection of songs that speak to the shared experience of the past year through the universal lens of the blues. Born during lock down in New York City in 2020, the album includes original material – both new and reimagined - inspired by lived-in scenes of the pandemic, along with new interpretations of songs by Richard Julian (Norah Jones, Little Willies), Glenn Patscha (Ollabelle, Rosanne Cash), Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan.

An American Treasure, the first posthumous Tom Petty project, is designed as an aural biography of the late rocker, telling a tale that begins with a Mudcrutch session from 1974, running through the glory of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in 1976, and concluding with a live version of "Hungry No More" from 2016, just over a year prior to his tragic 2017 passing. Arriving roughly a year after Petty's death, the timing for An American Treasure makes sense – he certainly deserved a tribute – but in strict discographical terms, there didn't seem to be a need for a second career-spanning box set, as he already had 1995's rarity-laden box Playback and a multi-disc The Live Anthology from 2009. Happily, An American Treasure offers a story that's not told on either previous set, and that's a complete picture of Petty's career, told entirely through byways, not highways.