Crebassa Boy

Mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa and pianist Fazıl Say share some tantalising, captivating and sensuous Secrets in this album of songs, centred on Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Fazıl Say’s own Gezi Park 3 – which he and Crebassa premiered in 2014. Describing the recording sessions, Marianne Crebassa says: “Sometimes we worked in a kind of trance … there were some moments when nothing seemed to exist around us …”

Marianne Crebassa's new album celebrates her French-Spanish roots. Centered around French composers taking inspiration from Spain and Spanish composers, Séguedilles is a mix of opera arias and songs from composers Bizet, Massenet, de Falla, Mompou, Offenbach, Guridi, Ravel, and Saint-Saëns. It features hits such as the "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen and Falla's "Vivan los que rien" from La Vida breve. Crebassa portrays 5 strong female characters Carmen, Dulcinée, Concepcion, Périchole, and Salud. She recorded the album with the Choeur & Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Ben Glassberg.

Billy Boy Arnold is one of the last of the legendary Chicago Blues harmonica players. In addition to his solo releases, he recorded with Bo Diddley in the Fifties and has been covered by David Bowie, The Yardbirds and The Blasters. Produced by Duke Robillard and backed by stellar musicians, including the Roomful Of Blues Horns, this release showcases a brilliant artist still in his prime. Billy Boy was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2013. "Billy Boy Arnold's talent as a songwriter, singer, harp master and blues historian is still in full swing and here, on this album, he demonstrates his flair and love for many different facets of the blues. This recording is surely a remarkable achievement."

Formed in 2009 as a solo vehicle for Sydney-based singer/songwriter Dave Hosking, Boy & Bear specializes in evocative and heartfelt indie folk-rock in the vein of contemporaries like Fleet Foxes, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Mumford & Sons. Rounded out by guitarist Killian Gavin, bass player Dave Symes, and brothers Tim (drums) and Jon Hart (mandolin, keyboards), the Aussie quintet inked a record deal with Island Records on the strength of its independently released first single, "Mexican Mavis." The group's debut EP, With Emperor Antarctica, dropped in early 2010, followed in 2011 by Boy & Bear's debut long-player, Moonfire, which went platinum in their native Australia. The band's sophomore outing, 2013's Harlequin Dream, would go gold.

Rice Miller (or Alec or Aleck Miller – everything about this blues great is somewhat of a mystery) probably didn't need to take the name of the original Sonny Boy Williamson (John Lee Williamson) to get noticed, since in many ways he was the better musician, but Miller seemed to revel in confusion, at least when it came to biographical facts, so for whatever reason, blues history has two Sonny Boy Williamsons. Like the first Williamson, Miller was a harmonica player, but he really sounded nothing like his adopted namesake, favoring a light, soaring, almost horn-like sound on the instrument…

Guitarist, songwriter, and singer Andrew "Jr. Boy" Jones began working professionally at age 16 with Freddie King's backing band, the Thunderbirds. He got his first guitar from his uncle, jazz musician Adolphus Sneed. Jones cites an eclectic array of influences: Freddie King, Cornell Dupree, and Larry Carlton. For many years, he's backed various Dallas-area vocalists on guitar, but in the mid-'90s, he came into his own as a vocalist with an album for JSP Records, I Need Time (1997), which showcases his crafty songwriting, great guitar playing, and powerful singing…

Boy Meets Girl's George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam wrote Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)," so they understand how important a foundation is to adult contemporary pop – without something to pull the listener along, the songs become just flash and keyboard flutter, platitudes about love and loss. And while Reel Life suffers a little bit from the over-synthesized instrumentation of its era, Boy Meets Girl more often than not pushed the right melodic buttons on this, their biggest album. "Bring Down the Moon" and "Stay Forever" are particularly strong, while the hit single, "Waiting for a Star to Fall," is just a classic.

This album by the Rice Miller fellow who called himself Sonny Boy Williamson - in other words, the Mississippi harmonica player rather than the Tennessee harmonica player - may have been one of the best volumes in the grim-looking series of single-album reissues and collections Chess put out before switching to double-album sets. Those who enjoy both blues and the film noir style will enjoy the graphic design of these albums, which often sported singularly unattractive photography of the artists. The grainy, out-of-focus picture of Williamson that fills this front cover is no exception; in fact, in a way, it established the rule. It isn't that he looks mean, he just looks like he could care less. Such a look of indifference has perhaps never before been captured by the camera. It could easily have been taken during some of the discussion that occurs between the artist and his producers during the recording of a song called "Little Village"…