A massively comprehensive look at the earliest years of Ella Fitzgerald on record – the legendary recordings she made with the Chick Webb orchestra at the end of the 30s and start of the 40s! Ella was way more than just another singer with a band – as her presence in the Webb group really dominated its recording history, so much so that there were nearly five times as many Chick Webb singles with vocals by Ella as there were instrumentals by the group! Fitzgerald's placement was for good reason, too – as her singing abilities were landmark – almost more with the deftness of an instrument than most other singers who'd come before, and developed amazingly over the course of the seven years presented in the set. If you only know Ella from all her later famous sides – and plenty of those are wonderful, too – you'll find even more to love here – a beautifully remastered presentation of 187 titles that were originally issued on 78rpm singles, all collected here for the first time ever – with amazing notes, photos, and details on all the music. The set's not only a great illustration of the strength of the Webb and Fitzgerald team, but also of the way that Mosaic's talents for compilation can work especially well for the pre-LP years of jazz!

Some forty years into one of music’s most impactful, sometimes tense and yet curiously enduring partnerships, Tears For Fears have finally arrived together at The Tipping Point – the group’s ambitious, accomplished and surprising first new studio album in nearly two decades. And now, at very long last, Tears For Fears find themselves back in peak form at The Tipping Point, an inspired song cycle that speaks powerfully and artfully to our present tense here in 2021. This is an album that vividly recalls the depth and emotional force of the group’s earliest triumphs. Imagine a far more outward-looking take on TFF’s famously introspective 1983 debut album The Hurting set in an even more mad world, or 1985’s Songs From The Big Chair bravely confronting even bigger issues in our increasingly unruly world. Or even 1989’s The Seeds Of Love that sows a mix of love and other emotions. The Tipping Point is the bold, beautiful and powerful sound of Tears For Fears finding themselves together all over again.

The Steve Lacy Sextet (comprised of the leader on soprano, Steve Potts doubling on alto and soprano, Irene Aebi playing violin and singing, pianist Bobby Few, bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel, and drummer John Betsch) had a rare opportunity to appear on a major American label in the early '90s. This live set is an excellent example of the group's unique music performed live. The versions of Lacy's five scalar originals ("Prospectus," "The Bath," "Morning Joy," "The Wane," and "Blinks") are each at least ten minutes long ("Morning Joy" clocks in over 16) and find the musicians playing with enthusiasm and consistent creativity. Their relaxed but adventurous solo and ensemble work make this a set worth several listens.

Camille Saint-Saëns and the Prix de Rome… surely a strange bringing together of ideas, given that the composer never gained that coveted award and consequently never took up residence in the famous Villa Medici? All the same, Saint-Saëns entered the competition on two separate occasions and, peculiarly in the history of the competition, twelve years apart: firstly in 1852 and then in 1864. On the first occasion he was still an adolescent, devoted to worshipping the memory of the great Mendelssohn; behind him, by the time of the second occasion, were already a number of his masterpieces later to be confirmed by posterity – and he had become acquainted with Verdi and had also discovered Wagner.

Take a collection of classics by musical behemoths The Beatles, Kate Bush, The Sex Pistols, The Righteous Brothers, Brotherhood Of Man and suchlike, and perform them in a style as diametrically opposite to the original as one can imagine… Therein lies the manifesto that brought the world the wonderfully twisted take on pop music that is “Hybrid Kids”.

There are several words one could use to describe Jack Bruce. Legendary, fiery, innovative, multi-talented, and influential. His style of bass playing, incredible vocals and the sound he is most recognized for is distinct and never duplicated. He has inspired and influenced generations of bass players and has brought that instrument single-handedly into the spotlight. On the 20th of November in 1980, Jack Bruce performed live in Denver, Colorado with Billy Cobham, David Sancious, and Clem Clempson. On this album, the band tackles works from Cream ('White Room', 'Traintime', 'Politician'), Jack's solo years ('Post War', 'Morning Story') and songs from the other band members.

The Hooters' first album of new material since 1993, TIME STAND STILL sounds as if the intervening 14 years had never happened. Featuring a full reunion of all five original members, as opposed to singer-songwriters Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian simply resurrecting the name, the Philadelphia quintet's familiar blend of traditional folk instruments and glossy rock remains. This includes Hyman's trademark melodica solos that gave the band their name. Along with 10 new songs, the album also includes a faithful cover of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer".

For a long time, Ennio Morricone (1928-2020) kept the two main fields of his compositional activity neatly separated. First, there was film music: this was undoubtedly the best known and also the most abundant of the two. His artistic partnerships with directors such as Sergio Leone, Giuseppe Tornatore, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giuliano Montaldo, Elio Petri, and Gillo Pontecorvo marked the history of film music. However, the directors with whom he cooperated, also on the international stage, are very numerous, including Brian De Palma and Quentin Tarantino. His film music comprises nearly 500 scores: a record quantity, reached over the course of more than five decades, and crowned by three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, five BAFTAs, a Grammy and countless other awards.

The two Sonatas play a major role among Dmitri Shostakovich’s piano pieces. Given the great “historical awareness” shown by the composer right from the start and his inevitable respect for the sonata genre, they can rightly be considered as symbols of two distinct creative phases, from the comparison of which it is possible to appreciate the stylistic development of his language. Composed seventeen years apart from each other, the two sonatas seem to have developed with diametrically opposed premises and results: the first one is fierce, dense and atonal; the second one is meditative, rhetorical and calm.

Ron Adelaar is a Dutch-based pianist and composer of neoclassical, meditative piano compositions. Besides that he is A&R manager at Andante Piano, sublabel of Disruptive Records run by his son Ivo Adelaar. Ron had an early introduction to piano music, as he started his career at the age of 13 by playing the organ and piano at several churches in his hometown Amersfoort (The Netherlands), all together with his father Ton Adelaar who played the flute. After that, and now for already 37 years, Ron is a pianist and conductor of a choir in Amersfoort. His passion has always been to create his own contemporary compositions and share it with others. Because of the technical possibilities these days he’s finally able to share his own piano compositions with the rest of the world, all recorded in his home piano studio. Ron’s neoclassical piano compositions contribute to relax, meditate or to maintain concentration and focus during work.

Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard has reimagined and combined his two out-of-print 2007 albums into a new release, Our Gaze, set to arrive May 20 via Rockathon Records.