Bunny Brunel and Stanley Clarke make their presence know on all of the songs on Bass Ball. The two virtuosos (Bunny and Stanley) have very distinctive playing and soloing styles, making it easy to guess who's playing what on the album. In the liner notes, "Bass Ball" carefully outlines each bass player's part. However, If you know your bass players, you'll no trouble identifying these iconic players.

Kenny Barron has been a respected jazz pianist since the early '60s, but it wasn't until the mid-'70s that he began coming into his own as a composer; deftly working complex time signatures and mercurial melodies into seamlessly swinging numbers, agile sambas, and lovely ballads. Fifteen years on, Invitation finds Barron in full maturity as a writer and in the sympathetic company of tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, bassist David Williams, and drummer Lewis Nash. Barron's democratic pen runs the gamut here as he distills Monk's angular jubilance on "And Then Again," produces one of his most beautiful ballads in "Dewdrop," and works a fine bossa nova groove on "Joanne Julia"…

Turntable Kitchen recently commissioned Yumi Zouma to cover a classic record in its entirety for the site’s Sounds Delicious subscription service. After months of deliberation, the Yumis eventually landed on Oasis’ landmark 1995 LP (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and without giving away too many spoilers, let’s just say they nailed it. We’ve already heard their beautifully blown-out, shoegaze-y cover of “She’s Electric”, and today the group shares their slinky and very Yumi-esque (the highest compliment) dream-pop version of Morning Glory‘s best track, “Champagne Supernova“, the first song they tackled for the project.

Released back when there was always two sides to every audio story (i.e., side one and side two), Giuffria's second offering houses an interesting concept: polarizing the huffy from the heavy. This is hardly a revolutionary idea, as such was the common format of most AOR at the time, and perhaps for the sake of balance some silk slips into the steel and vice versa, so the record ultimately ends up heavy on the light. The titular titan's bombastic keyboards float like angel feathers amongst David Glen Eisley's lung-busting vocals (Eisley even scats with axeman Lanny Cordola right out of the gate on "No Escape")…

Although the Scorpions had already achieved fame after 1982's Blackout, Love at First Sting brought them their biggest single of the decade, the slick anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane," with some greatly underrated songs to back it up. The album opens with the hair-raising "Bad Boys Running Wild" and continues with songs such as the memorable "Big City Nights" and the half-ballad, half-powerhouse rocker "Coming Home." The record also contains what just may be the band's best ballad ever, the tear-jerking "Still Loving You." Considering the fact that it has some of their best-ever singles, Love at First Sting is definitely a must for all fans of the Scorpions. .~ Barry Weber (All Music Guide)

This is an excellent Rachmaninoff programme, taking us from the high romance of the relatively early Suite No. 1 to the composer’s last opus numbered work, the Symphonic Dances. The Suite No. 1 is a very fine work, and this duo plays gorgeously in that sighing third movement Les larmes. The spectacular finale, Pâques rings out spectacularly, the powerful tone of the well paired pianos delivering a remarkable listening experience.

Composer, scholar, computer wizard and trombonist extraordinaire George Lewis is one of the world’s most distinguished musicians, and Les Exercices Spirituels is one of his greatest and most ambitious CDs to date. Featuring three new chamber compositions (two from 2010) performed by three brilliant New Music ensembles the music blends composition, improvisation and electronic processing into a dynamic and compelling new aggregate.

If you've been wondering what's been keeping Lee Southall busy all this time, you're about to find out. On Iron In The Fire, the former The Coral guitarist brings the outside world in through quality songmanship - showing that whichever paths our lives may take, our exposure to the elements will remain the same. Taking an alternative path to each of his Coral cohorts, when the group disbanded in 2012, Lee left behind his native seaside town of Hoylake on the Wirral, and moved 75 miles inland to the 'tops' of Hebden Bridge. In search of a fresh start, the dramatic wind-beaten and changeable landscape gave Lee time and space to craft Iron In The Fire but equally, it lingers like the taste of the salty air hanging above the coast. 'I've lived by the sea and watched weather roll in, but it's the same in Hebden, watching storms roll over the moors,' Lee says. 'The place is changing all the time and sometimes looks a bit chocolate box, village of the year, but when the tourists are gone it can feel like the set of a 1970s BBC folk horror - a bit Wicker Man.'