Nesles Blanche

André Previn turned seventy in 1999. From Berlin refugee to multi-Oscar-winning film score composer, from great jazz pianist to chief conductor of both the London Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, through four marriages including Mia Farrow and present wife Heather, with an honorary knighthood for his services to British music, his story is extraordinary. Previn's remarkable career reached a climax in September 1998 with the premier of his first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire. He also conducted the production at the San Francisco Opera, with Renée Fleming as Blanche.

For some reason, the second Elf record, 1974's Carolina County Ball, was released under the title L.A./59 in the United States and Japan, while the more widely accepted title was used in the U.K. and Europe. The Ronnie James Dio-led outfit was becoming increasingly entwined with Deep Purple – Roger Glover was producing the band, they appeared on the Deep Purple-owned Purple record label in the U.K., and the group was working frequently with Ritchie Blackmore – and their music began taking on a more powerful, more complex, more Deep Purple-like sound because of it. The more or less straight-up boogie rock of the Elf debut was not entirely abandoned for this follow-up, but tracks like "Annie New Orleans" and "Carolina County Ball" have a depth that goes beyond the accomplishments of the group's previous, self-titled offering. Difficult to obtain, this long out-of-print release is a true find for fans of Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Ronnie James Dio's best solo efforts of the '80s.

This deluxe release from the classy (but long defunct) Artists House label, as with all of Art Pepper's recordings of his comeback years, is easily recommended. This album has lengthy versions of "So in Love," "Stardust," "Straight No Chaser" and two Pepper originals ("Diane" and "Blues for Blanche"). Assisted by two equally talented rhythm sections (pianists Hank Jones and George Cables, bassists Ron Carter and Charlie Haden, and drummers Al Foster and Billy Higgins), Pepper is in excellent form throughout the album, giving these songs heart-wrenching interpretations.

“Looking Forward”, the second release of this Belgo-Swedish quartet, plunges us into the heart of an intimate and melodious jazz where Eve Beuvens’s poetry merges with the Nordic lyricism of Mikael Godée. Regular partners from way back, they are accompanied by an in-demand Swedish rhythm section. Since the release of her debut album ‘Noordzee’ (Igloo, 2009), Eve Beuvens has continued to search for a harmony of contrasts, moving from unadorned music to richer colors. The success of her carte blanche at the Gaume jazz Festival 2013 with her septet Heptatomic led to a first album for Igloo in 2015. Now she is back in a more intimate setting, a Nordic quartet featuring long-standing partners with whom she recorded a self-released album in 2013.

A much-recorded and lauded Italian pianist joins an exciting young multilingual soprano for an extensive collection of Debussy’s songs: a significant recorded contribution to the celebrations of the composer’s centenary.

The French band Sixun was founded in 1984.(Sixun comes from Six (Fr: six) and 'un' (one). This refers to the number of band members (six) from around the world that play together as a unit. The core of the band, Paco Sery (drums, percussion), Jean-Pierre Como (keyboards), Alain Debiossat (saxophone), Louis Winsberg (guitar) and Michel Alibo (Bass) remained unchanged over the years. The group began his recording career with Nuit Blanche in 1985, followed in 1987 by Pygmies and Explore in 1988. The polyrhythmic work of the band is very important and significant influences of the multicultural musical origins of the band members in particular, African and Caribbean can be found. The band is often compared to Weather Report, the major influence of Sixun.