Lionel Davidon

Lionel Hampton and his French New Sound Vol. 1 (1955). Lionel Hampton joins forces with a number of top French musicians for this 1955 studio session, reissued in Verve's Jazz in Paris series. Three of the four compositions are Hampton's, swinging tunes arranged by Christian Chevalier. The first, "Voice of the North," is primarily for the leader's matchless vibes with the rhythm section, though individual soloists are featured, including fellow Americans Nat Adderley and Benny Bailey on trumpets and David Amram on French horn, as well as clarinetist Maurice Meunier and baritone saxophonist William Boucaya. It's just Hampton and the rhythm section (pianist René Urtreger, bassist Guy Pedersen, and drummer Jean-Baptiste Reilles) for the long workout of "À la French"…

Lionel Richie's Back to Front isn't just a definitive greatest hits collection, it's a reminder of Richie's supreme strengths as an R&B singer-songwriter. From the gentle sweep of "Do It to Me" to the earnest lovelorn crooning of "Hello," Richie's ballads are timeless. Even the borderline sappy "Endless Love" shines despite cosinger Diana Ross's histrionics. Also featured is "Still" and "Say You, Say Me," and while the faster songs–the Caribbean-inspired rhythms of "All Night Long" and the '80s synthpop of "Running with the Night"–are weaker, they hardly detract from this otherwise sterling survey.

HH is the brand new album from Lionel Loueke playing the music of his long-term mentor, the legendary Herbie Hancock.

Here is the 12th volume in the complete chronological recordings of Lionel Hampton as reissued by the Classics label. It opens with Hamp's final five recordings for the MGM label, waxed in Los Angeles on October 17, 1951. This was a 20-piece big band using charts written by Quincy Jones, and the music it made feels much different from what's to be heard in the next leg of Lionel Hampton's odyssey, a Norman Granz-produced quartet session with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich, recorded in New York on September 2, 1953. While the big band sides are exciting and fun, with a hip vocal by Sonny Parker on "Don't Flee the Scene Salty" and a singalong routine led by Hamp on "Oh Rock," the quartet swings cohesively, stretching out for six, seven or nearly eleven minutes, for the LP era had begun and Norman Granz encouraged extended improvisations. The combination of Oscar Peterson and Lionel Hampton, whether cooking together on "Air Mail Special" or savoring the changes of a ballad like "The Nearness of You" made spirits to soar and sparks to fly.

The virtuoso pianist Lionel Monnet has recorded Stenheim’s second Acoustic Session at the Espace Consonance in Switzerland where he is the artist in residence. Once again Stenheim was able to call on the talents of Jean-Claude Gaberel to engineer the session. Lionel Monnet has won numerous prizes for his playing and has been invited to perform at venues throughout Europe and beyond. This session showcases his talents brilliantly, as well as the exceptional acoustics of the venue.

Since our meeting during our studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2010 and a few years of concerts and exploration, we are happy to be able to concretize a project that has been close to our hearts for a long time: the recording of our first disc. We designed the Color Gradient program together, featuring works composed between the end of the 19th century and the present day. The program is a journey from France to America and from so-called classical music to almost improvised music. Color Gradient can be seen as a tribute to the incredible stylistic and aesthetic evolutions of music during the 20th century in terms of harmony, form and melodic freedom.