Celebrated musician, bandleader and television host Jools Holland has amassed an almighty line-up of musicians, each a master of their individual instrument, for his new album PIANOLA. PIANO & FRIENDS. A loving tribute to the black and white keys that have become synonymous with Holland and his show-stopping stylings.

Paul Dunmall's dynamic Birmingham quintet's release Yes Tomorrow was a Discus highlight of 2022. We enjoyed the release so much that we took the unusual step of suggesting he add Julie and Charlotte to the group to make a second release. Paul embraced the idea with enthusiasm, and came up with this suite for the expanded group. The result is a freewheeling set with a great "live gig" feel, which gives plenty of space for each player to shine, and which mixes some tight compositions with open ended improvisation sections.

OUA's 6th album collides a studio session of bass driven rhythms with a marathon free improvisation session - combined, sculpted and arranged into an ever morphing tapestry of new sounds from leftfield progressive music. Fans of Soft Machine, Magma, Pink Floyd, Henry Cow, Sun Ra will enjoy this too.

This is a unique blend of free jazz and electronica. Beginning with three live concerts, each recorded in four instrumental layers, some performances (notably the trumpet) were left intact, other layers were either re-performed or invented anew. Some layers migrated from one performance to another. Other completely new layers were made by canibalizing parts from previous works and reshaping them. This collection is an interesting blend of live concert recordings and studio mixes which makes for a haunting and ethereal soundscape.

"If There Are Mountains" is the first album by Dave Douglas and Elan Mehler as co-leaders, setting poetry and specifically haiku within the context of improvising music.

Vocalist Catherine Russell's third album for World Village is a wonder, pure and simple. On this collection of 13 songs, titled Inside This Heart of Mine, the thread that ties it all together, is the special place these songs hold inside the heart of the singer. Let's describe that heart. It's warm and effusive, bluesy and erudite, bold yet vulnerable, passionate yet ethereal. Starting to get the drift? If not, then listen to Catherine's masterful reading of 'Troubled Waters,' a seldom heard tune scored by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, performed here as a sultry meditation, reaching deep into the cockles of one's being. This decades spanning collection, originally performed by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Peggy Lee, Maxine Sullivan, Howlin' Wolf, Wynonie Harris, Fats Waller, and Catherine's father, Luis Russell, draws from Vaudeville wit, Tin Pan Alley tune craft, New Orleans swagger, Swing Era sock, the European Cafe, Jump Blues jive, modal Delta Blues, and Django-esque swing, with an immediacy and a timeless quality that's refreshingly oblivious to current 'trends.' Catherine's third album represents a deepening of a well-established, tried and true, approach.

40 Great Original Hits By Original Artists: Vera Lynn, Fred Astaire, Gracie Fields, Harry Roy, Al Bowlly, Joe Loss, The Andrews Sisters, Jo Stafford, Noel Coward, Geraldo, and many more.

Soft Machine were never a commercial enterprise and indeed remain unknown even to many listeners who came of age during the late '60s and early '70s, when the group was at its most visible peak. In their way, however, they were one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground outfits. Soft Machine, one of the original British psychedelic groups, were instrumental in the birth of both progressive rock and jazz-rock.

A quartet piece in which Eugenia Canale (born 1989), a talented female pianist active in both jazz and classical fields, plays her own compositions featuring chromatic harmonica and accordion virtuoso Max de Aloe. An aesthetic work depicting a romantic world filled with deep lyricism and melancholy and full of shadows.

2004 compilation for artist whose beautiful high-tenor voice graced many of the most enchanting pop songs of the '50s & '60s. This three disc, 60-track collection covers his entire recording career with all the hits & more. Three standard jewelcases housed in a slipcase.

As an improviser of unsurpassed lyricism and technique Fred Hersch is at his most intimate and revealing in a solo setting. With 'Solo', the pianist kicks off a creatively fecund yearlong celebration of his 60th birthday with a definitive statement of his solo artistry. In many ways, 'Solo' distills the essence of Hersch's pianistic expression. Recorded in a jewel-like Catskills church at the 2014 Windham Chamber Music Festival, the set evolves with a compelling internal emotional logic all its own, flowing through Hersch's familiar solo touchstones (Jobim, Ellingtonia, Monk, originals) that turn into vessels for his supremely graceful invention. His 10th solo recording, 'Solo' joins an illustrious collection of albums that started with his riveting 1994 addition to Concord Jazz's Live at Maybeck series.

Exalted as "The George Gershwin of Brazil," Antonio Carlos Jobim was an incredibly prolific composer who wrote many songs that became standards in Brazilian and jazz circles. But in fact, Jobim also composed many great songs that aren't standards, and on this absorbing CD, Ana Caram insightfully spotlights some of the Jobim pearls that aren't nearly as well known as "The Girl From Ipanema," "Triste" or "Corcovado." Indeed, The Other Side of Jobim underscores the fact that for every "Desafinado" or "One Note Samba" he wrote, there was a lesser-known treasure like "Ana Luiza," "Olha Maria" or "Esperanca Perdida." Even those with an extensive knowledge of Brazilian music may not be familiar with "Correnteza" or "Demais," but as Caram obviously realizes, they certainly deserve to be.

New York's first-call bass-drum pair Peter Washington and Billy Drummond find the right tempo and dynamic pulse for every tune. Check the simmering medium groove Drummond hits on "Outsider", how he propells the band through the shifting meters of the unflaggingly burning "Barebones"; hear Washington's sublime time and intonation throughout, his interplay with Bostrom's flute on "End Of The Year So Soon", how he effortlessly navigates the rhythmic permutations of "Three Armed Man".
"No nonsense" is a good way to describe the uncommon blend of pragmatism, craft and creative inspiration with which Walt Weiskopf has approached each stage of his musical career. Song For My Mother shows that he's transcended his influences; chances are he'll influence a few future jazz musicians himself.

Tetrahedron is the new chord-less trio led by Ernesto Cervini. Featuring two of Canada’s finest improvisers, Luis Deniz on Alto Saxophone and Rich Brown on Electric Bass, the band plays originals from all three musicians as well as funky arrangements of standards. It’s a groovy, energetic trip! The group has been performing extensively around southern Ontario for the past 4 years, and will be recording their debut album in April of 2019, with special guest, guitarist Nir Felder from NYC.

For more than two decades, the disciple that has most visibly carried on Sun Ra Arkestra’s legacy and sound is their musical director, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, the iconic fire breather and life force that restored the Arkestra’s vitality in the massive vacuum left by Ra and John Gilmore’s death in the ‘90s. Allen turned 98 in 2022 and, as evidenced by Living Sky, his influence and leadership remain undiminished. Marking the Arkestra’s first new recording since their 2021 Grammy-nominated album Swirling, Living Sky was recorded on June 15, 2021 at Rittenhouse SoundWorks in Philadelphia and features a total of nineteen musicians, including a strings section. It was mixed and mastered by three-time Grammy winner Dave Darlington (Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, Wayne Shorter).