Ernán López-Nussa has emerged as a giant of Jazz in Cuba, and if it were not for the limited production runs and distribution of his recordings outside of the country along with limited tour opportunities in countries like the U.S., I could probably have placed a period after the word Jazz. He is recording constantly and has a rather massive collection of awards in Cuba to show for it. He does, however, follow his own path, which constantly defies North American expectations of what "Cuban Jazz" should look and sound like. For example, you will rarely encounter traditional Afro Cuban percussion instruments in his recordings. One only needs to listen to a few bars to realize that his drummers function perfectly well without those, but I once had the experience of listening to a potential booking agent ask why there was not a conga drummer in the group..

The debut album from Norway's TNT is anchored by the charismatic pop-metal vocals of singer Tony Harnell (actually an American) and the high-tech fretwork of guitarist Ronnie Le Tekro. The record also benefits from excellent pacing and, for the most part, great tunes. As far as this kind of music goes, TNT does it far better than most of their contemporaries. Le Tekro's solos alone are worth the price of admission for metal fans; combining a classically influenced Euro-metal aesthetic with electrifying modern chops and imagination, he is capable of real excitement. And Harnell's vocals recall Queensryche's Geoff Tate, but with the theatrics pared down and the intensity cranked up. There are some great rockers here, like "Ready to Leave," "Last Summer's Evil," and "Knights of the Thunder." But watch out for the cheesy power ballad "Without Your Love."

Alexis Weissenberg The Complete RCA Album Collection brings together all of the pianist s 1967/70 RCA Victor sessions for the first time in one place and remastered from the original analog sources, along with his 1949 recorded début that first appeared as a ten-inch Columbia Masterworks LP. The recordings include Chopin s Scherzi Nos. 1 and 2 and Sonata No. 3 in B minor, three Haydn Sonatas, a Debussy recital, Bartók s Piano Concerto No. 2, plus interpretations of Rachmaninoff s complete Préludes and Piano Concerto No. 3 that became modern-day reference versions. The booklet contains full discographical information and an essay by Jed Distler.

Battleaxe is a heavy metal band from Sunderland, England. As one of the notable bands of the new wave of British heavy metal scene, they started out with the name Warrior and morphed into Battleaxe sometime in early 1980. The band consisted of Dave King (vocals), Brian Smith (bass), Steve Hardy (guitar), and Ian Thompson (drums). After playing around the area and honing their chops, they entered the studio to make a demo called "Burn This Town". In doing so, they garnered the attention of Roadrunner Records and the result was their first album, Burn This Town…

This fine collection has a diverse range of well know piano repertoire from Bach to Gershwin and illustrates Weissenberg’s brilliance and his exciting lyrical playing. Including both orchestral and solo piano works this collection offers a magnificent range of repertoire for the piano enthusiast. Weissenberg is critically acclaimed for his interpretations of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No.1 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concert No.2 both of which are included in this set. A pianist of virtuoso technique, with wide repertory but a particular interest in the Romantic period (especially the music of Chopin and Schumann), he can give in performance and recordings the impression of a forceful flamboyance of style.

Alizée Jacotey, known professionally as Alizée, is a French singer, dancer and voice actress. She was born and raised in Ajaccio, Corsica. She was discovered by Mylène Farmer, following her winning performance in the talent show Graines de Star in 1999. While collaborating with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, she followed it with a series of albums that attained immense popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on NRJ, Europe 1, MTV, Virgin Radio, and many others. Throughout her career, many of her songs have been in top 25 hit lists on the record charts, including "Moi… Lolita", "L'Alizé", "J'en ai marre!", "Gourmandises", "Mademoiselle Juliette", her cover version of "La Isla Bonita", "Parler Tout Bas", "Les collines" and "À cause de l'automne".

Orphan Project is an american band formed around 2001 by Shane Lankford. First album released in 2003 named "Orphan Found" is Shane Lankford's first atemp to write and compose music with autobiographic content because he was an orphan himself trying to search his identity and his origins and this album is a personal one for him. Musically the major influences are Kansas, Spock's Beard, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Dream Theater, Whiteheart and quality music in general.
Shane asked good friends, guitarist Chris Maggitti, drummer Nathan Grant, violinist Cindy King, and bassist Jason Chaillou to play in the studio on the CD and John gathered bassist Colin McGough, celloist Ben Hardesty. Together with the incredible leadership of John Grant and Tony Correlli they recorded "Orphan Found" during April-June '03.