Arab Flac

Habibi Funk has subtitled this tasty label compilation "an eclectic selection of music from the Arab world". It's an apt description, because the double vinyl set is little less than a whistle-stop tour of killer cuts from North Africa and the Middle East.

Piano solo for one of the most well-known jazz musician in Italy. Playing piano from early childhood, Rita Marcotulli studied classical music at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory before being drawn to Brazilian music. She also began moving onto the fringes of jazz and established a local reputation at first, before becoming well known among contemporary jazz audiences both at home and abroad. Pianist and Composer Rita Marcotulli's DSD Album "The Light Side of the Moon" features jazz music written by herself, apart from two tracks. In the booklet you can read a personal story about each of the tracks (in Italian, French and English).

"Offramp" is the third album by the Pat Metheny Group, released in 1982. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. The album contains the popular ballad "Are You Going with Me?". Offramp is the first studio album on which Metheny used a guitar synthesizer, a Roland GR-300 controlled with a Roland G-303 guitar synthesiser controller. The guitar synthesizer became one of Metheny's most frequently used instruments. "Offramp" is also the first Group album to feature vocals, which became a fundamental component of the band's sound.

Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite is a 2000 studio album by Oscar Peterson. The album is a suite dedicated to Peterson's native Canada, arranged by Michel Legrand.

Austrian singer Simone Kopmajer has consistently released charming and wonderful albums from the Japanese label Venus Records over the years, many of them musically directed by brilliant pianist/arranger John di Martino. They got together again for this collection of Hawaiian songs, interpreted from a jazz musicians' perspective and performed with superb musicianship.

The best-of compilation from Audiophile Blues and Jazz label - AudioQuest Music, featuring Terry Evans, Doug MacLeod, Joe Beard, Mighty Sam McClain, Ronnie Earl, Pinetop Perkins, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Bruce Katz Band and Sherman Robertson… the crème of the crop from the last three years of blues releases from AudioQuest Music.

"Phil Woods with Strings?" you may ask with a bit of apprehension. An album with strings, which is inevitably heavily arranged, is always a risky proposition for a jazz musician whose art depends above all on spontaneous improvisation. But Phil Woods, arguably the best alto sax player alive today, has done it many times in his 55-year career. What distinguishes this album is the core group: Wood's regular quartet featuring the young and brilliant pianist Bill Charlap. Also, they decided to go with a string quintet (two violins, two violas and one cello) instead of a larger string section. This probably worked to make the ensemble agile and more spontaneous. The first violinist even takes a few solos!