On April 29, 2009, Soto released his third album, Mesmerized, and is currently climbing the contemporary jazz charts. “Mesmerized is a high octane collection of the highest order and further cements the position of Jay Soto in the major league of smooth jazz guitarists.

Long Time Coming, the debut solo album from guitarist Jay Soto, takes aspects of a relatively wide array of training and puts them together for a somewhat varied fare. A turn in a Christian band or two gives Soto some basic hymnal-type melodies, a turn in a Latin band gives him some simple flairs, and a round as a finalist in the Guitarmageddon competition has given him some practice in straightforward, virtuosic speed passages. Nearly the whole of the album is filled with Soto-penned originals, though the classic "Black Orpheus" closes out the set. The performance is nice, with hints of the nylon-stringed masters.

Daniel Barenboim conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in this 1998 performance, live at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin. Included are Beethoven's 'Symphony No. 8 F major' and Liszt's 'Les Preludes'. Featured is a rare gem of Romantic music: Schumann’s Concert Piece for four horns, the present recording being the only DVD currently available on the market. Another rarity is an entirely instrumental performance of Richard Wagner's 'The Ride of the Valkyries'.

Hiram Bullock claimed that he had never done a "jazz" album before this – which is a debatable proposition depending upon how limiting your definition of jazz is. What counts is that he has come up with a beautiful album, drenched in soul-jazz yet touching upon popular music genres as well. Bullock didn't have to change much, utilizing his subdued and rock-tinged guitar styles at will, occasionally bursting out in full rock regalia and making tasty use of electronic additives.

2003 reissue of a 1984 live album from the legendary Flamenco guitarist and his group that helped modernize Flamenco and redefine for the 20th Century. "Alta Mar" was co-written with oft-time collaborator Al DiMeola.

Carla Bley & Michael Mantler - The Watt Works Family Album (1989) {ECM Records WATT/22 rec 1973-1989}
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© 1989 ECM Records / Watt Works | WATT/22 / 841 478-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Experimental Jazz / Progressive Jazz

When Michael Mantle and Carla Bley started WATT in 1974 as an outle for their own music, they couldn't have imagined that this effort, which began as an impulsive, radical solution to the music industry's lack of interest in young composers, would not only remain necessary 15 years later, but that it would still work.

Alfred Schnittke - Symphony No. 8, Symphonic Prelude and For Liverpool (2005) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-1217} (Item #21)
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© 2005 BIS Records AB | BIS-CD-1217
Classical / Contemporary Classical / 20th Century

The first BIS disc dedicated to the music of Alfred Schnittke was released in January 1987 – almost 20 years ago. Since then, our Schnittke Edition has qrown to 20 volumes with the present disc completing the cycle of the composer’s eight finished symphonies. (At Schnittke’s death in 1998, his Symphony No. 9 was left uncompleted.) Symphony No.8 was composed in 1994, and to some extent exemplifies Schnittke’s ambiguous position as a Russian composer of German ethnicity, combining as it does a Germanic organized structure with an intense Russian melancholy.

This double-disc set features all of the studio performances between saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Jimmy Raney recorded between October of 1948 and April of 1953. The sheer number of labels the pair recorded for is staggering, from Sittin' in With to Roost, Savoy, Sesco, Clef, Prestige, and others. And while Getz, particularly on the early sides, is still deeply entrenched in his worship of Charlie Parker, the cool elegance of Raney's own playing is already asserting itself on the early sides, so that by 1951, Getz has moved toward the center from strictly bebop. Some of the other players on these sessions include Duke Jordan, Curly Russell, Blossom Dearie, Horace Silver, Roy Haynes, Frank Isola, and many others. There are 41 performances in all, giving a striking portrait of the era, and of Getz's development as a soloist and bandleader in particular…