The Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801, also known as the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, are a collection of thirty short keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach: 15 inventions, which are two-part contrapuntal pieces, and 15 sinfonias, which are three-part contrapuntal pieces. They were originally written as musical exercises for his students. The four duetti BWV 802–805 were included at a fairly late stage in 1739 in the engraved plates for Clavier-Übung III. The use of the term duetto itself is closest to that given in the first volume of the Critica Musica (1722) of Johann Mattheson: a piece for two voices involving more than just "imitation at the unison and the octave". The purpose of the Bach's Duets has remained a source of debate. We thought it interesting – if a little controversial – to include different takes of the Inventions and Sinfonias that pianist Maurizio Zaccaria played during the same recording session. Each take is unique, with its own shades and nuances.

This is the romantic story of a three-way love-affair told to us in music. We know that the young Brahms, as beautiful as a star, made a very noticed irruption within the couple Schumann. "Arrival of Brahms, a genius! Notes Robert in his diary with an extraordinary intuition. The sequel is told by Shuichi Okada on violin and Clément Lefebvre on piano, two young musicians of the National Conservatory of Music of Paris, co-producer of the present, where they deftly weave the links between the three characters. Schumann's First Sonata in A minor, Op. 105, opens fire, followed by two excerpts from the famous Sonata F-A-E, composed by Schumann, Brahms and Dietrich, the latter unfortunately being systematically left out by the violinists. Caught in the vice between the two men who love him, here is Clara with his Three Romances, Op. 22 which precedes the very melancholy Sonata No. 1, Op. 78, "Regen-Sonate" by Brahms. The music gathered here speaks better than words of how the three composers respond to one another and become a kind of common language, that of the impulses of the heart, of the outpouring of feelings and the unspoken.

This hour-long concert album offers a chance to hear McCoy Tyner in a rare solo performance. His playing is fast and daring, as the ideas tumble one after another in his improvisations, whether he is addressing an original like "Suddenly," an old favorite written by his old boss John Coltrane, "Giant Steps," or a ballad standard like "Darn That Dream." A virtual retrospective on a long career by a still-vital artist, Live in Warsaw offers the listener an opportunity to hear Tyner's mature reflections on the music of his past and present in an unfettered context.

The essence of progressive music is characterized perfectly on Voyage of the Acolyte, Steve Hackett's first solo album. The former Genesis guitarist uses his instrumental mastery to conjure up musical images of sorcerers, magic, and old English castles with the primary use of keyboards and electric guitar…

Italian death metal unit Hour of Penance is back with a brand new album titled Misotheism due out October 25. The band recorded drums for the album at Bloom Recording Studio; guitars, bass, and vocals Kick Recording Studio with Marco Mastrobuono who worked on their previous two albums; and mixed and mastered the album at Hertz Studios (Behemoth, Vader, Decapitated).

Extreme Metal Music To Release “RISE OF THE EMPIRE”, new album of Ancient Roman inspired death metal pioneers ADE. Record label Extreme Metal Music is excited to announce they will be releasing the long awaited fourth album of the Ancient Roman death metal pioneers ADE, ‘Rise Of The Empire‘. The concept about their homeland has gathered enthusiastic interest all around the world: “The band was born by the passion for death metal and the history of Rome, in a period when extreme metal bands used to be into northern cultures, german traditions and ancient Egypt myths. It was easy to be focused on our own culture, a practically non-existent topic”, comments the band.

Recorded in Vienna, the city of Joe Zawinul's birth, this 2005 concert adapts many of his most celebrated compositions for the expanded presence of the WDR Big Band. After the triumphant opening of the propulsive eleven-minute title track, the gentle "In a Silent Way" revisits the evocative memories of Zawinul's childhood that inspired him to write the piece over forty years ago.

Miles Davis - Collectors' Items (1956) {2009 Prestige RVG Remasters Series}
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© 1956, 2009 Concord / Prestige | 0888072312227 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Bop / Cool / Hard Bop / Trumpet

From the new liner notes: “The session of March 16, 1956 is one of most beautiful, laid-back, floating-on-a-cloud experiences one can have. The first time I listened to it, I replayed it three times. Side note: ‘Vierd Blues’ is the same piece that appears on Miles’s Trane’s Blues, and there credited to John Coltrane, as it was when Trane first recorded it on a Kenny Drew session, years before. Until it was combined with the 1956 date, the Miles-Bird-Sonny session lay in the vaults. Meanwhile, on May 15, 1953 Bird and Dizzy Gillespie recorded their famed Massey Hall concert in Toronto. When that record was issued ‘Charlie Chan’ was used as Bird’s pseudonym. That’s how it came to be used for Collectors’ Items.”

If one must indulge in categories, My People, featuring the Zawinul Syndicate and a United Nations coterie of guests, probably belongs on the vast world music shelf, the links to so-called jazz now so tenuous as to be nearly, but not quite, invisible. On the percolating "Slivovitz Trail," "Orient Express," "Many Churches," and the Caribbean-tinged cleverly titled "In an Island Way," the music does suggest earlier versions of the Syndicate, and Joe Zawinul's nostalgic evocations of Wayne Shorter on the Korg Pepe reach back even further. Otherwise, Zawinul is looking entirely toward ethnic cultures for musical sustenance. The musical structures are linear, the rhythms full of intricacies welded to Zawinul's love affair with the groove, the synthesizer textures usually sparer than ever.

Jin Hi Kim - Komungo (2001) {OODiscs OO70}
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© 2001 OODiscs | OO70
World / Classical / Jazz / Avant-Garde / Korean / Komungo

The Korean folk instrument known as the komungo has an extraordinary range, and Jin Hi Kim uses every bit of it on this CD. Not content with very high and low tones, on several tracks she bends the notes in a way that is slightly reminiscent of a pedal steel guitar player. Most of the tunes here are solo pieces which alternate fast rhythms with meditative, meandering excursions which may or may not have anything recognizable as a melody line to someone unfamiliar with Asian music. Nevertheless, most of these compositions are fascinating just because of the strange and wonderful quality of the sound.

Arthur Loesser - In Recital (2001) {2CD Set Marston 52036-2 rec 1967}
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© 1967, 2001 Marston | 52036-2
Classical / Piano / Historical

For Arthur Loesser (1894-1969), who taught the piano, played the piano, wrote about the piano and used it as the anchor of his Cleveland home, this was no ordinary instrument and Loesser was no ordinary pianist. Loesser may be best known for his classic 1954 book Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History. Yet Arthur Loesser studied at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York, which was later to become the Juilliard School. He made his piano debut in Berlin in 1913, his New York debut in 1916 and then toured the United States. His unique approach to the keyboard will delight the discriminating listener. This two-CD set includes his 1967 Town Hall concert which Loesser titled “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi,” and excerpts from Cleveland Institute recitals.