Herb Alpert's early successes revealed a man with a keen sense of popular music trends and melodies. With "North On South Street", the master of trumpet-pop has once again updated his sound, this time taking on the hip-hop rhythms and dance grooves of the 1990s.

2009 album from the world's most awarded female recording artist (411 awards to date). From Pop fanatics to R&B aficionados, everybody loves Whitney! On "I Look To You", Houston works with an A-list of producers including Stargate, R Kelly, Akon, Eric Hudson & Johnta Austin, Fernando Garabay & Harvey Mason Jr, Tricky, Swizz Beatz, David Foster and, of course, Diane Warren.

The selections on this album span 70 years of popular song, because the more Susannah felt she knows about singers and songs, the more she adores the women who started it all: the great Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, and the mother of all modern popular singing, Ethel Waters. She also feels a great affinity for Brazilian songs, the sound of the language and the sadness and seriousness of the lyrics, and they too are included here.

Quartet is the thirty-fourth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, his first with the V.S.O.P. Quartet without Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter. It was originally issued in Japan on CBS/Sony, and later given a US release by Columbia.

Nina Simone’s 1969 gem finds the legendary singer performing pop, rock and folk classics, a far departure from her usual blues and jazz standards. "To Love Somebody" includes compositions by Leonard Cohen, Pete Seeger, Barry Gibbs, Robin Gibbs and Bob Dylan. Standouts include “Suzanne,” “Revolution” and “To Love Somebody”. The album showcases Simone’s versatility and proves that she was one of the greatest powerhouse vocalists in music history.

This album is typical of Herb Alpert's '80s style, with his familiar horn sound grafted to contemporary dance and R&B rhythm tracks. He even got the old Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland to write and co-produce a couple of tunes. Although there is nothing here to rival Alpert's 1979 comeback "Rise," he had multi-format success with the album, which charted pop, R&B, and jazz and threw off two chart singles, "Garden Party" and "Red Hot.

"All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" is the third official solo album by English rock musician and songwriter Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who. Townshend had just successfully conquered his life-threatening alcoholism and drug addiction, so „Chinese Eyes“ was the first album in a long time that he did completely sober. Again, Townshend worked with producers Chris Thomas and Bill Price (known for their work with the Sex Pistols and the Pretenders), who give the songs more pop flavor than an expected punk edge. Highlights include the quirky "Face Dances Part Two" (an early MTV favorite), the beautiful yet haunting album-closing "Slit Skirts", "The Sea Refuses No River", and "Somebody Saved Me".

Miriam Makeba's sixth and final RCA Victor album largely abandoned the South African focus of her earlier recordings (particularly her most recent release, the joint LP An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba, which was devoted to songs in South African tribal languages) for a collection of mainstream pop on which she was backed by an orchestra conducted by Sid Bass.

George Shearing's classic quintet is expanded to seven members on this release as two of Shearing's "amigos", Latin percussionists Carmelo Garcia and Chino Valdes, sit in on this 1975 release of pop standards. Includes a reading of Shearing's biggest hit and signature tune "Lullaby of Birdland".

The high-flying confidence of "Rise" and the experimental bent of "Beyond" began to wear off by 1981, giving way to the more relaxed but musically weaker ministrations of "Magic Man". With Michael Stokes, then A&M's director of Black Product/A&R, co-producing, Alpert came up with a pleasant collection of mostly forgettable, mild-mannered R&B/pop-slanted tunes, plus a fairly uneventful rendition-at-length of 'Besame Mucho' and a redundant cha-cha/disco remake of his own 'You Smile, The Song Begins.' Alpert's haunting trumpet still reflects his post-'Rise' sense of command, but he doesn't have much to say this time; the material holds him back.

Digitally remastered edition of this 1982 album from the Jazz/Pop icon. After a meteoric rise to fame as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, one of the most successful groups of the '60s, Herb Alpert focused on running A&M Records, the indie powerhouse he had founded with partner Jerry Moss. His second artistic journey began with the release of Rise, which climbed to #1 on the Billboard chart. His acclaimed album, Fandango, found Alpert returning to Mexican and Latin American sounds and rhythms, but with a modern sound. The result was one of the most acclaimed albums of his career, remaining on the Billboard Top Albums chart for half a year, and featuring the Top 40 hit 'Route 101.'

"Espirito" is a suite that extends and expands the vision of Lawson Rollins’ critically-acclaimed debut solo release "Infinita" with thirteen compositions that delve deep into the roots of world music. Espirito’s wide-ranging musical palette spans continents and cultures without losing its bedrock groove or playful sense of adventure.

Directstep is the twenty-fourth studio album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. Originally, the record was released only in Japan on December 2, 1978, via CBS/Sony label.

On "Blue Pepper", modern swing band Echoes Of Swing open a new chapter, a quantum leap forward from their last award winning release, with even more impressive arrangements and some outstanding original pieces. A concept album of sorts, all the tracks have the word "blue" in their titles or concern themselves with the colour. The legacy of the swing era is safe in the hands of these fine musicians.

This album set is a homage to a (often forgotten) legend and key figure in jazz. Besides Louis Armstrong, American jazz cornetist and pianist Leon Bismark “Bix” Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. With his unusual purity of tone and a gift for improvisation, he helped to invent the jazz ballad style and hinted at what, in the 1950s, would become Cool jazz.