TRACKLISTING
1. I Just Found Out About Love
2. You Won't Forget Me
3. You Don't Know Me
4. The Great City - Album Version
5. Fever
6. If You Love Me (Really Love Me)
7. A Time For Love - Album Version
8. Come Dance With Me
9. Nice 'N' Easy - Live At Vine St.
10. But Beautiful
11. Here's To Life
12. Jelly, Jelly - Live
13. Loads Of Love
14. I Didn't Know What Time It Was

Ms. Shirley Horn, the quintessentially seasoned enchantress of song, has been whirling listeners through the windmills of their minds for four-and-a-half decades of unforgettable music. Her intimate, relaxed delivery and heart-piercing repertoire are completely captivating, making hearts and time stand still in a blissful suspension of disbelief...because nothing could be so beautiful. Ms. Horn has whisked rapt audiences around the globe on timeless journeys...and the cream of her recorded classics took place for New York City's legendary Verve Records. But Beautiful: The Best of Shirley Horn on Verve, offers eleven selections of absolute proof, along with the sweetest of cherries on top: three new live tracks made in January 2005 at the Au Bar in NYC.

TRACKLISTING
1. Hover (Bangra)
2. Softer
3. Water
4. Only These Things Counts
5. Sober
6. Darker
7. Feed
8. Dancer

Finally Nils Petter Molvær is back with a new studio album!

The new album has been given the name "ER", and contains eight new compositions. From his debut album as a leader with "Khmer" to his latest live album "Streamer", Nils Petter Molvær is well known for his distinct sound and personal trumpet playing.

"ER" contains a wide spectre of music expressions from the soft and downbeat productions to the strong and powerful ones.   Nils Petter Molvær has taken a new direction with "ER" even if the soundscapes will be recognised from "Khmer", "Solid Ether" and "np3". This time he has given more creative space to programmers like Knut Sævik, DJ Strangefruit, Reidar Skaar and Jan Bang. "It's important to use people in what they're good at."

Common for the eight tracks is Nils Petter Molvær's strong visual melodies and his personal and distinctive trumpet playing, which is even more in focus than on his previous records. Some of the productions are slightly 'toned down' to give space for the trumpet and the melodic structures.

Nils Petter Molvær has once again gathered a strong team of musicians and contributors. Eivind Aarseth, Sidsel Endresen, Magne Furuholmen and Ingebrikt Flaten are already mentioned. In addition Rune Arnesen, Erik Honore, Helge Nordbakken and Elin Rosseland participate. DJ Strangefruit, Knut Sævik, Jan Bang and Reidar Skaar have, as mentioned, all played a very important role in the production of "ER".

A new recording in the classical trio-format from Ketil.  

A genuine ark of sound, M'Bemba provides a change of scenery from 2002 album Moffou, right from the beginning, with the rare sounds of the simbi, a lute played by hunters, on the astonishing Moriba It makes your hair stand up with two "tradi-funk" pieces, Yambo and Dadjani, the latter entwined around an inflexible loop played on a hurdy-gurdy, the same instrument as that used in the folk-music of Brittany or the Auvergne region in France. Over a spectrum of tones that is broader than on the previous album, nothing is neglected, from the slight notes of the flute to the abrupt, broad roundness of the bass. Three voices join forces on Laban to urge the tune on in the same direction, bringing Salif to declare: "Dance is the difference between Moffou and M'Bemba. And daring."

The saxophonist sure didn't take the easy route to inaugurate his new Marsalis Music label. Instead, he and the rest of his quartet - pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts - explore some of the most challenging compositions by four giants of modern jazz. They open with Ornette Coleman's Giggin', followed by Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, before closing out with John Lewis' Concorde. The quartet pays homage to the greats while giving these timeless pieces fresh and exciting interpretations. They are unafraid to find their own paths even as they walk in the greats' footsteps. - Jones

Branford Interprets Artist On New Album

Branford Marsalis' latest project, inspired by Harlem Renaissance artist Romare Bearden and   featuring the Branford Marsalis Quartet, Wynton Marsalis, Doug Wamble and Harry Connick Jr.

Produced by Branford, Romare Bearden Revealed and released in time for the The Art of Romare Bearden, a retrospective that opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (the first major retrospective of its kind to feature an African-American) and travelled to San Francisco, Dallas, New York and Atlanta during 2004 and 2005. Bearden became a jazz fan and a contemporary of jazz musicians during his youth in Harlem in the '20s and '30s, and his art has since been used for albums by Charlie Parker, Donald Byrd, Wynton Marsalis, Sonny Fortune and Robin Eubanks.

Marsalis, on tenor and soprano saxophones, along with pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, recorded all new arrangements attempting to create aural impressions of Bearden's images. Songs on the album include Ellington's "Slappin' Seventh Avenue With The Sole Of My Shoe" with a rhythm guitar added, Wynton's "J Mood" with the trumpeter as guest, James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" performed with Harry Connick Jr., a live performance of Jelly Roll Morton's "Jungle Blues" by the Marsalis Family, Tommy Ladnier's "Steppin' On The Blues" and a recent Watts composition "Laughin' And Talkin' (With Higg)," an homage to Billy Higgins with Wynton as guest. Branford and Wamble contributed new compositions to the album, "B's Paris Blues" and "Autumn Lamp," respectively. The latter expounding on Bearden's rural influences from time spent with his family in North Carolina throughout his life. A 1950's piece, "Seabreeze," is revived by Marsalis with original lyrics by Bearden. Album annotator Robert O'Meally says that Romare Bearden Revealed "challenges hearers to see the music [and] viewers to hear the paintings."

www.marsalismusic.com

To learn more about Romare Bearden and to view his art, visit www.beardenfoundation.org and www.nga.gov/exhibitions/beardeninfo.htm

Many musicians create collections of ballads to serve as background listening in one dimensional moods. Branford Marsalis is an uncommon musician, however and Eternal is no ordinary ballad album. As with most of his recording projects, Eternal is the product of much thought and sustained artistic growth. "Around the time I recorded Crazy People Music in 1990, I began to realize how hard it is to really play a ballad," the saxophonist explains. "One of the old - guard jazz guys had come up to me and said, `Yeah, I heard you messing up the melody of "Lament,"' a J.J. Johnson ballad that I had recorded a couple of years earlier. The comment made me realize how certain people's jazz parameters had nothing to do with music. All that mattered to that guy was that I didn't play the bridge correctly. It made me start to think about what was important in playing ballads. I decided it was not just stating the melody, because Miles didn't always play the melody; it was playing emotionally."

In collaboration with band members Joey Calderazzo, Eric Revis and Jeff "Tain" Watts, Marsalis developed a program that is both unique and compelling. "I didn't want to just play familiar songs or songs from a fake book," he says. "I was more concerned with showcasing each musician's personal perspective, and the music was inspired in a variety of ways. Tain said we had to do one for the old folks, something with a two - step feeling like his parents used to dance to, which is where `Dinner for One, Please, James' came from. I had always loved Billie Holiday's `Gloomy Sunday,' but never thought of playing it until I heard a European pop singer named Heather Nova sing it on the soundtrack of a movie called Gloomy Sunday . That inspired me, plus Sonny Rollins' approach to `You Don't Know What Love Is' on the Saxophone Colossus album, the way he walked through a ballad. And I knew

`The Ruby and the Pearl' from Wayne Shorter's recording. The remainder of the program is comprised of a new composition from each member of the quartet. "Once we decided to do an all - ballad record, everyone in the band wanted to bring in a song," Marsalis reports. What resulted were three showcases for the his soprano saxophone - Watts' "Reika's Loss," Calderazzo's "The Lonely Swan" and Revis' "Muldoon" - plus his own overpowering title track, featuring Marsalis on tenor and dedicated to his wife Nicole.

The Crescent City's most celebrated jazz family led by the patriarch, Ellis Marsalis, has recorded together for the first time.   What may be the most eagerly anticipated family affair in jazz history, The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration.

The album features all of the music-making Marsalises - father Ellis on piano and sons Branford (tenor and soprano saxophones), Delfeayo (trombone) Jason (drums), and Wynton (trumpet) - along with bassist Roland Guerin and a special guest appearance by Harry Connick Jr.

Over the years, many attempts have been made to bring this illustrious family together. It was not until August 4, 2001 that schedules and the alignment of the stars allowed the Marsalises to join forces on one bandstand.   The occasion was a concert marking Ellis' retirement from teaching duties at the University of New Orleans, and the school's establishment of a chair in his name.   Before a packed house in the Kiefer UNO Lakefront Arena, the Marsalis family members were so inspired by each other's presence that, as Delfeayo puts it, the performance "reflected our family collectively and individually."

The center of attention is Ellis, the brilliant pianist, composer and educator who spawned both a family of jazz giants and (through his example and his teaching) several generations of young and influential jazz artists.   In settings that include, trio, quartet and sextet, Ellis' luminous touch, probing sense of harmony and keen melodic imagination are brought front and center.   The inclusion of four of his best-known compositions, "Swinging at the Haven," "After," "Nostalgic Impressions" and "Twelve's It," underline Wynton's observation that "through his playing and his teaching, my father has been so instrumental in the cultural life of New Orleans."

But Ellis is not the only family member who shines on The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration.   Youngest son Jason provides sympathetic percussive support throughout, stepping forward with a subtle, lyrical drum solo on the trio feature "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top."   Delfeayo's trombone is featured in a limber nod to Duke Ellington and Ellington trombonist Tyree Glenn on "Sultry Serenade."   Branford and Wynton turn Branford's blues "Cain and Abel" into a hearty, heated two-part invention.   And all four brothers, plus stalwart bassist Roland Guerin, join their father on four tracks, including a salute to Louis Armstrong on "Struttin' with Some Barbecue."

Also performing at the concert and included on the CD is one of Ellis' most illustrious students, Harry Connick, Jr. Connick performs "St. James Infirmary" with trombonist Lucien Barbarin and joins Ellis and sons for the spirited "Twelve's It."

Branford Marsalis sums up the results by noting that "Everybody came to play the music as well as they possibly could play it."   The spirited results, by turns fiercely swinging and deeply lyrical, confirm that the company and the occasion elevated each family member to new levels of eloquence.

Soul Symphony opens with the seductive beat of "Put Me On" and winds through a range of grooves and emotions. Other songs on the album include the emotive "A Promise," "Make Time for Love," a romantic ballad, and a rendition of Brian McKnight's "What's It Gonna Be."

Downing co-wrote several of the songs featured on Soul Symphony, including the beautiful "Heart of Mine," "Soul Steppin" with its danceable groove, and "Will Still Loves You," a respectful dedication to hard-working women and mothers everywhere.

TRACKLISTING
Disc One
1. Introductions and Announcements
2. One Down, One Up
3. Announcements
4. Afro Blue

Disc Two
1. Introductions and Announcements
2. Song of Praise
3. Announcements
4. My Favorite Things

Recorded 1965 at the Half Note, New York City: Disc One on March 26; Disc Two on May 7

These tracks are receiving their first authorized release.

These performances -- originally heard on late-night New York City radio in 1965 -- are the sound of ferocity and velocity, precision and invention: the ever-searching, never-drifting John Coltrane in full improvisational flight, pushing himself to personal peaks in a year when he was conquering creative heights almost every week.

To many, this music constitutes a Rosetta Stone of sorts, a code to understanding Coltrane's stylistic progress from his harmonic obsessions of the late '50s to his freer explorations of the mid-'60s. To some, in its passion and fury it more suggests the inevitable split of his historic quartet before the year ended. To the lucky few who caught Coltrane at the Half Note, this music calls forth memories of a cramped Manhattan bar being transformed into a temple of exultation.

"It was tight in there and it would get so loud, with Trane and Elvin on drums and McCoy hitting those piano chords!" recalls saxophonist Dave Liebman. "I remember one time the quartet was playing, it was probably 'Impressions' because that was pretty much the flag-waver. En masse, cats started to put their hands up to the ceiling and the whole place stood up. It was like those holy-roller meetings. It was unbelievable."

Very few of those evenings at the Half Note were recorded, even fewer in high fidelity. In lesser audio quality, these performances by the John Coltrane Quartet -- Coltrane with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones -- have long been celebrated and passed among a small inner circle of players and those in the know.

TRACKLISTING
1. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
2. Jingle Bells
3. We Three Kings (of Orient Are)
4. The Christmas Song
5. White Christmas
6. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
7. Silent Night
8. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman

TRACKLISTING
1.      Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Autumn in New York
2.      Stan Getz Bronx Blues
3.      Morgana King Down in the Depths
4.      Mark Whitfield Spring in Manhattan
5.      Sarah Vaughan Lullaby of Birdland
6.      Ben Webster Chelsea Bridge
7.      Mel Tormé Lonely Town
8.      Illinois Jacquet Harlem Nocturne
9.      Matt Dennis Violets for Your Furs
10.    Sonny Rollins Manhattan
11.    Blossom Dearie I Walk a Little Faster

New York City can break your heart, but it can also set it aglow. And, as people from around the world have discovered, it's easy to fall in love with New York, but it's even easier to fall in love in New York.

These eleven love songs with a heavy New York accent acknowledge the down-in-the-depth lows but mostly celebrate the top-of-the-skyscrapers highs. They're delivered by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz, and other jazz singers and instrumentalists who know the city well.

TRACKLISTING
1.      Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong April in Paris
2.      Johnny Hodges The Last Time I Saw Paris
3.      Michel Legrand La valse des lilas
4.      Blossom Dearie Tout doucement
5.      Stéphane Grappelli Nuage
6.      Abbey Lincoln C'est si bon
7.      Nina Simone Ne me quitte pas
8.      Roland Kirk Petit fleur
9.      Helen Merrill Quand tu dors près de moi
10.    Laura Fygi Les feuilles mortes
11.    Louis Armstrong La vie en rose

Is there a more romantic city on the planet than Paris? Generations of songwriters and musicians have answered that question with a resounding "No." A rich and diverse musical legacy celebrates the enduring idea that the City of Lights is also the City of Lovers.