Pat Metheny 2017

It sounds as if Seattle-based trumpeter Cuong Vu is in the early stages of lining up the jazz guitar gods and recording and releasing an album with each. The year 2015 saw him offer up Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny (Nonesuch Records), and 2017 finds him bringing Bill Frisell into his orbit, with Ballet: The Music Of Michael Gibbs. These are two distinct guitar voices, joining in the crafting of two distinctly different sounds. The Metheny collaboration featured—like much of Vu's recorded output—a lot of electricity: a wired up trumpet, Metheny's guitar spewing tidal surges of electrons into a heavy sludge of bass and drums, resulting in a sonic density that seemed, at times, impenetrable. A sound so dense that, if you ran a Roomba at it, the little electro-machine's sensor might "detect" a wall; it might make the little vacuum cleaner do a hundred and eighty and go the other way.

To catch Dianne Reeves singing on stage is to witness one of the most captivating vocalists on the international music scene today. Through her majestic alto, conversational phrasing and improvisational agility, she delves deep inside each song, unveiling its universal themes in a repartee with her own revelations. The New York Times hailed Reeves as “the most admired jazz diva since the heyday of Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday,” while the Chicago Tribune praised her as “one of the most creative and technically accomplished female vocalists today.”

With all audiophile music lovers in mind, Simone Kopmajer presents "Deaydreaming", a remarkable and intimate EP recorded in 32bit/192kHz PCM, analog mixed & mastered by Martin Kreiner. It includes brand-new original material in a smooth and relaxing jazzy mood as well as cover songs like Aretha Franklin’s “Day Dreaming”, Merle Haggard’s “Crazy Moon” and Pat Metheny’s masterpiece “Travels” in the vocal version “Travelling to You”.

12 CD box set collection featuring all of Allan Holdsworth's solo albums from 1982-2003. That title is no hyperbole-it was a proclamation that ran on the cover of Guitar Player Magazine in 2008, and is a feeling shared by fans and guitarists all around the world. Still, though, Holdsworth remains largely under-rated; many who admire his most famous work have overlooked dozens of fascinating finds to be made on his decades of recordings. This collection is a treasure trove of such discoveries, as it brings you all 11 of his albums as a solo artist, producer and group leader since 1980 plus the live-in-Tokyo album Then! And a 40-page booklet full of liner notes and archival photos. You also get previously unreleased bonus tracks, and all these albums have been newly remastered from the original tapes: I.O.U. (1982), Road Games (1983), Metal Fatigue (1985), Atavachron (1986), Sand (1987), Secrets (1989), Wardenclyffe Tower (1992), Hard Hat Area (1993), None Too Soon (1996), The Sixteen Men Of Tain (2000), Flat Tire (2001) and Then! (2003).

The Best Jazz Hits is a 2017 compilation focusing on jazz and all of its forms. It was made without authorization in Russia and features Seal, Norah Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Orbison, Nat King Cole, Voivod (!!!) and many more. Listening to the mood of the rest of this set, I think the inclusion of Voivod was an error but it is left here.

Danish vocalist Sinne Eeg has a mature, pliable voice that shows traces of singers like Peggy Lee and Sheila Jordan in its contours and sound. She is a long-established presence in her home country but Dreams is only her second album to be released in America. For the occasion she has put together a solid cast of veteran American musicians in guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Joey Baron along with her countryman, pianist Jacob Christoffersen.

Per il terzo anno consecutivo Warner Music pubblica la compilation ufficiale del festival Jazz più importante in Italia, nonché uno dei più apprezzati a livello internazionale. La doppia raccolta presenta alcuni tra i protagonisti dell’edizione che si terrà a Perugia a partire dal 7 al 16 Luglio. Tra questi, e solo per citarne alcuni, ricordiamo: Paolo Fresu, Gianluca Petrella, Jamie Cullum, Danilo Rea, Fabrizio Bosso, Jacob Collier, Hiromi, Kenny Barron, Wayne Shorter, Dee Dee Bridgewater e molti altri ancora! 2 ore di musica di altissimo livello per celebrare Umbria Jazz, The Summer Festival! This year’s lineup for the Umbria Jazz Festival boasts such international stars as Brian Wilson, Wayne Shorter, Hiromi, Jamie Cullum and many others……..

Vienna, Rome, Seoul… Iiro Rantala and Ulf Wakenius are musicians who travel the world, always on tour as leaders of their own projects. So it was something of a fluke that this duo was able to come into existence at all. The idea first emerged in October 2015, when Rantala and Wakenius stopped off at the Philharmonie in Berlin. Siggi Loch, curator of the “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” concert series, had brought them together on stage for the “Tears for Esbjörn” concert. “We were part of a larger ensemble on that occasion”, Rantala remembers, “but it was clear to both of us straight away that we would want to form a duo.” This has to be seen as a very smart move, given the rarity of the piano-guitar duo in jazz – a fine exception being that of Brad Mehldau with Pat Metheny.