Based in Tokyo, Keiko Higuchi is a vocalist and instrumentalist internationally renowned both for her solo performances and extensive collaborations in the world of underground improvisation, jazz and the avant garde. On Vertical Language, Higuchi has created an evocative and hauntingly beautiful album that unfurls in equal parts light and darkness, form and emptiness. On solo voice and piano as well as in duets with bassist Louis Inage, Higuchi performs a collection of songs and improvisations that take unexpected paths; her voice and piano starkly, soulfully emerge. They gradually take form as sparse notes resonate and build into intense layers of sound. The music is unvarnished and deeply personal- it embraces traditional Japanese and spiritual musics as well as even jazz and bossa nova but never completely turning itself over to their familiar forms.

At the beginning of the 2000s, a new wave of music spilled into the cocktail bars and lounge music was born. The band DePhazz quickly became the insider tip darling of television and radio editors, who liked to put the band's retro-electronic sounds on heavy rotation among their lifestyle and news reports and thus enveloped the entire nation in an aesthetic carpet of sound. Through numerous samplers such as "Buddha Bar" or "Cafe del Mar", songs like The Mambo Craze reached the whole world.

This 2-CD set presents the legendary valve trombonist acting as co-leader with Zoot Sims on the January 1956 album "Tonite's Music Today" and as leader of three separate studio groups on the self-titled "Brookmeyer" from October of the same year. He's leader of the BB Quartet on "The Blues - Hot and Cold" from June 1960, and finally shares leadership on "Stan Getz/Bob Brookmeyer" from September 1961.

Michel Legrand has spent most of his life as a composer in the studios and for films, but this release is a jazz classic. Legrand took 11 famous jazz compositions and arranged them for three different groups. Tenor great Ben Webster, flutist Herbie Mann, four trombonists, and a rhythm section perform pieces by Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Django Reinhardt ("Nuages"), and the Count Basie-associated "Blue and Sentimental." A big band with trumpeters Art Farmer and Donald Byrd and altoist Phil Woods plays "Stompin' at the Savoy," "A Night in Tunisia," and Bix Beiderbecke's "In a Mist." The most famous session has Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Phil Woods, Herbie Mann, pianist Bill Evans, harp, vibes, baritone, and a rhythm section performing music by Thelonious Monk, John Lewis, Jelly Roll Morton ("Wild Man Blues"), and Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz"…

Canadian trumpeter Lina Allemano and her signature acoustic quartet return with their latest album Pipe Dream. The Juno-nominated band’s seventh release includes the new four-part suite “Plague Diaries” and offers up a new chapter in the chamber-jazz quartet’s ongoing evolution. The band’s seamless improvisations and orchestral arrangements reflect a level of maturity that can only be achieved after 18 years as an ensemble. The quartet features Lina Allemano on trumpet, Brodie West on alto saxophone, Andrew Downing on double bass and Nick Fraser on drums.

Just three weeks after the U.S. release of the Beatles' swan song, Abbey Road, Creed Taylor ushered George Benson into the studio to begin a remarkably successful pop-jazz translation of the record (complete with a parody of the famous cover, showing Benson with guitar crossing an Eastern urban street). It is a lyrical album, with a hint of the mystery and a lot of the cohesive concept of the Beatles' original despite the scrambled order of the tunes. Benson is given some room to stretch out on guitar, sometimes in a bluesy groove, and there are more samples of his honeyed vocals than ever before (oddly, his voice would not be heard again by record-buyers until he signed with Warner Bros.). Don Sebesky's arrangements roam freely from baroque strings to a full-throated big band, and Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Fortune, and Hubert Laws get some worthy solo space…

Ultimate & most wanted japanese rare groove recorded by the saxophonist Jiro Inagaki, one of the main actor of the Japanese Jazz Rock & Progressive scene. In 1963, Jiro Inagaki was recruited by Helen Merrill for her first album recorded in Japan, "In Tokyo" with the Takeshi Inomata's West Liners group, and later formed various jazz band as the All-Stars, The (Black) Rhythm Machine or, of course, The Soul Media. Recorded in 1969 and released under the famous Takt Jazz Series from Nippon Columbia, Head Rock includes psychedelic guitar effects, great drum breaks, acid & electronic organ sounds, performed by The Soul Media, featuring some future japanese jazz great names, such as Ryo Kawasaki (in his first professional appearance), Yasuo Arakawa, Masaru Imada or Tetsuo Fushimi. Titles includes cover & original songs from Hal Galper (The Vamp), and Willie Dixon (an amazing version of Spoonful), five composed by Ryo Kawasaki (Twenty One), Masaru Imada (High Jack), Yasuo Arakawa (The Ground For Peace) and Jiro (Head Rock). All tracks arranged by Jiro Inagaki.

In the late '50s trumpeter Roy Eldridge and tenor-saxophonist Coleman Hawkins teamed up on a fairly regular basis. Since they always brought out the best in each other (their solos could be quite competitive and fiery), all of their joint recordings are recommended. Two LPs from their gig at Washington D.C.'s Bayou Club in 1959 were previously released on the Honeysuckle Rose label. Five of those selections plus four previously unissued cuts are included on this Stash CD. Most of the tunes are medium-tempo jams such as "Just You, Just Me," "Rifftide," and "How High the Moon," but there is also an excellent ballad medley. Backed by a local rhythm section, Eldridge and Hawk are both in superior form, making this a highly recommended disc even for those listeners who already have the earlier LPs.

There is a transcendental place that musicians can reach during performance. A space where they get lost in the music, letting the years honed skills and natural inclination take control. Many of the exhilarating moments in improvised music come from the sudden shift, the accentuation of razor sharp focus, to get back on course.

Rene Marie's second CD for MaxJazz is, for the most part, a very enjoyable CD. This extremely gifted singer has a very appealing voice and is a talented arranger as well. Her playful arrangement of "Them There Eyes," with bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, is very refreshing, with some fine scat singing, too. Her unusually deliberate and rather sexy take of "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top" adds pianist Mulgrew Miller and also has some fine scat singing, too. Her Latin chart for "I Only Have Eyes for You" proves catchy, with some tasty guitar playing from John Hart. "It's All Right With Me" is slowed to a snail's pace with Chris Potter's noodling bass clarinet and Hurst's brooding bass backing her powerful vocal…

This is a soul-stirring release performed by Pat Metheny and a plethora of friends, all great jazz musicians in their own right. Works II is a compilation of his finest work, spread out from the years 1976 to 1984. This guitarist/composer/bandleader became one of the leading names in the jazz genre during the '70s and '80s. This collection of beautifully written numbers reflects his character of good taste and the unique flavor of his graceful, even-flowing solos. Opening with "Unquity Road," Metheny is joined by the legendary Jaco Pastorius on bass and Bob Moses on drums. The soothing sweeping tones of his guitar blends in charmingly with Moses pulsating percussion and the rousing basslines of Pastorius.