Skylark Vocal

Conceived and recorded over the past 2.5 years by Sono Luminus, Imagine Christmas is the perfect album for your holiday celebrations, evoking a very deep sense of nostalgia while remaining wonderfully modern. Includes: Frosty the Snowman - Ensemble Galilei, December: Christmas - Bruce Levingston, White Christmas - Irina Muresanu & Matei Varga, Holly Jolly Christmas - Jasper String Quartet, Walking in the Air - Ronn McFarlane, Twas The Night Before Christmas - Cory Hills, Santa Claus Is Comin to Town - Kathryn Bates, Christmas Time Is Here - Caleb Nei, Joy to the World - Cuarteto Latinoamericano & Lydia Lewis, Good King Wenceslas - Stewart Goodyear, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Skylark Vocal Ensemble and Silent Night.

There are very few musicians who dare to expand their artistic vision with every new project as Swedish vocalist-songwriter-composer Lina Nyberg. Aerials, is the her second installment in a trilogy of albums that offers her unique perspective about the world, the elements and the music itself. Nyberg began the trilogy with the double album The Sirenades (Hoob, 2014), that featured her songs composed for her quintet and the Norrbotten Big Band, sketching poetic images of cyber-seas, monsters and waves. On Aerials Nyberg sings of avians real and mythological birds and raising her glance a bit higher and adding images of pilots, winds and astronauts.

Please Send Me Someone to Love features 11 tracks by vocalist Bill Henderson recorded during his short tenure with Vee Jay Records in the early '60s. Most of these compositions are standards, including "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," "I Go for That," "Skylark," and "Never Will I Marry," along with a soulful rendition of Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love."

This project had its genesis back in 1983 with a Benson promise to Count Basie that he would record an album in his style, a promise partially fulfilled the following year with 20/20's "Beyond the Sea." Focusing on standards that steer commendably clear from tunes normally associated with Basie, Benson takes on the dual challenge of big-band singer and lead guitarist and succeeds with authority in both roles. The robust playing of the Basie band under Frank Foster poses absolutely no problems for Benson's muscular guitar, for he punches out the notes and octaves in irresistibly swinging fashion (for prime mature Benson, check out "Basie's Bag"). As a vocalist, he sounds solid and debonair, blending well with Basie vocalist Carmen Bradford on "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" There are two deviations from the format, though.