Dave Stewart's second album with the Spiritual Cowboys expanded the musical ideas of their debut, although it was slightly less focused and pop-oriented than its predecessor. Dave Stewart and The Spiritual Cowboys was an English band, formed in 1990 after frontman David A. Stewart's departure from Eurythmics. Chris Bostock from JoBoxers, Jonathan Perkins, Olle Romo and Nan Vernon were later joined by Martin Chambers from The Pretenders and John Turnbull from Ian Dury and The Blockheads. They made two albums: the self titled Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys and Honest. Their live stage act is characterized by spiritual icons and a unique double drum kit played by two drummers.

To celebrate the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Di of England, Oscar Peterson composed a ten-song suite that he performs on this album while accompanied by an unidentified string orchestra arranged by Rick Wilkins. Not too surprisingly Peterson (who doubles here on electric piano) proves to be a talented composer and, even if none of the individual pieces caught on (or was ever apparently recorded again by the pianist), the music on a whole is quite satisfying.

This 19-track compilation focuses on Elmore James' crucial sessions recorded for the Modern Records subsidiaries Meteor and Flair between 1952 and 1956. At the time of these recordings, the distorted amplified sound of James' slide guitar with his unmistakable electrified Robert Johnson lick was helping map out the postwar blues idiom with such classics as "I Believe," "Blues Before Sunrise," "Wild About You," "Mean & Evil," and the extraordinary reworking of Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom" into "Dust My Blues." Even though roughly half of these tracks appear on the equally recommended 1986 Ace release Let's Cut It: The Very Best of Elmore James, this set is a great introduction to the dynamic slide guitarist's earliest recordings.

A Love Trilogy is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer. It was released on March 5, 1976, just eight months after her international breakthrough with the single and album of the same name - "Love To Love You Baby". The bold, sexual nature of that particular song had earned Summer the title "The first lady of love." A Love Trilogy uses the first side for one long disco track in three distinct movements ('Try Me', 'I Know', 'We Can Make It', and coalescing into the "love trilogy" of the title - "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It". Side Two contained three additional erotic disco songs, including a cover of Barry Manilow's "Could It Be Magic". The album's artwork showed Summer floating light-heartedly through the clouds, again adding to the image of her as a fantasy figure.

"Rambler's Blues," the shuffling hip-shaker that opens Charlie Musselwhite's The Well, is the most autobiographical statement he's ever made – until you listen to the rest of the record. Despite his large catalogue, this is his first record of all original material. Musselwhite's back with Alligator after a sojourn of 14 years, during which he recorded some stellar material for various labels, including the stellar Delta Hardware for Real World in 2006. Musselwhite is accompanied here by a stellar band: guitarist Dave Gonzales, bassist John Bazz, and drummer Stephen Hodges. His own harmonica playing and vocals are everywhere and top-notch. The most compelling thing about The Well is its lack of pretension; Musselwhite has risen to the task of recording a completely autobiographical album that refuses easy cliches, or resting on laurels; its energy is infectious.

Brian Setzer, in a career entering its fifth decade as of 2023, has restored not one Americana genre to popularity, but two: During the '80s with the chart-topping Stray Cats, he revived rockabilly (it was only marginally popular in the '50s). In the '90s he formed the Brian Setzer Orchestra, spreading big-band jump and swing to the alt rock generation. In the 21st century, he's recorded live more often than in the studio. Following a 2019 Stray Cats reunion, he issued the excellent Gotta Have the Rumble in 2021 after a seven-year studio hiatus. The Devil Always Collects was recorded at The Terrarium in Minneapolis, and co-produed by Setzer and Julian Raymond. The 11-song set contains eight Setzer originals: Five co-written with Mike Himelstein, one with spouse Julie Setzer, and three covers.

A blend of myth and memoir, First There Were Feathers is an exciting album in which Wendy McNeill’s folk noir roots and passion for storytelling have grown to include elements of Jazz and World music as well as echoes of Beatles, early Bjork and Radiohead.

Bay Area singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Lindsay Olsen is the mind behind the warped and magical project Salami Rose Joe Louis. Drawing from her studies in planetary sciences, she creates a unique experience: exploring ideas of multiverses and climate change through the lens of a fictional post-apocalyptic keyboard-toting earthling with a flashlight, a can of cashews and a hopeful optimism. Melding influences from jazz, rock and hip-hop – Shuggie Otis, Captain Beefheart, Stereolab, and R. Stevie Moore – she creates a unique blend of experimental galaxy sounds with jazz influenced vocals and keys.

Berlin trumpeters Axel Dörner and Lina Allemano team up to create experimental improvised sonic explorations, both in duo and in larger trumpet-ensemble form. The pieces' titles reference the small lesser-known objects circling around the sun in our solar system; the album’s title Aphelia being the furthest distance away in orbit around the sun.

Plunge into the depths of the most emblematic duos in the repertoire with two fantastic singers, Karine Deshayes and Delphine Haidan, accompanied by the pianist Johan Farjot. Winners of multiple awards at the Victoires de la Musique and presented on the most prestigious international stages, this release by Klarthe is not to be missed!

Siparia to Soweto is an album that represents a coming together, an amalgamation of people, experiences and culture. It is the melding of different but unique flavors into one; a celebration of the African diaspora’s rich diversity. This momentous production is a reflection of Hugh Masekela’s great love of travel, musical adventure, and collaboration. Before his passing, the South African icon paid a visit to Trinidad & Tobago where he performed and collaborated with the Siparia Deltones Steel Orchestra. During his month-long residency Masekela worked extensively with one of the world’s premiere steel pannists, Akinola Sennon, to record a large catalogue of original compositions and arrangements scored by the great Carlton ‘Zanda’ Alexander. The album’s lead single “The Meeting Place,” features another native of Siparia, “King of Soca,” Machel Montano, who eventually joined forces with the team as an executive producer. The eagerly awaited album features 13 songs comprising a collection of Caribbean classics with African inspirations.

Pianist and educator David Witten's career has included numerous concert tours in Europe, Israel, Russia, China, and South America. He is the editor of Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis, which includes his landmark analytical study of the Chopin Ballades. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, SUNY Buffalo and Boston University, he is on the faculty of Montclair State University. Witten has chosen four works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who was born in Florence, but whose ancestry traces directly back to a Sephardic Jewish family that escaped the Spanish Inquisition. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's musical style is filled with colorful harmonies and a penchant for modal melodies. Coming to the United States in the mid-1930s, he found work at MGM and other studios, ultimately composing soundtracks for more than 200 films. This recording features both his early and late piano works – two concert suites from 1924 and works from his later years in California.

Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen, an ECM musician for more than fifty years, is a masterful player who has always welcomed a challenge. His first recording with his new quartet – including rising stars Marius Neset and Helge Lien (both bandleaders in their own right)– is almost entirely improvised. The players make the leap of faith together and find and develop forms in the moment, an object lesson in spontaneous group creativity. Affirmation was recorded in November 2021 at Oslo’s Rainbow Studio.