When Belgian-Portuguese duo Jess & James (Tony Lam and Wando Lam) released their third LP in 1969, they already had an impressive body of work under their belt. Playing a highly energized blend of pop and soul, they achieved great success in Europe with singles like "Move and "Something for nothing". Oddly enough, they were often presented as British musicians origin instead of Portuguese.
In 1969 Jess & James released their self titled third and final album which is widely regarded as their best. This time they are joined by top session musicians Scott Bradford (keyboards) and Stu Martin (drums) and the sound changes toward a more hard- psych- prog approach, featuring superb Hammond work and some long jams, at times reminiscent of early Caravan.

As the title suggests, Ultravox were in a gray mood as they launched into their seventh studio LP, their previous existential angst now pooling around personal anguish. The album's title track was a study in languorous melancholy, where the emotional pain lingered on and on. And why would it ever dissipate, when romance is forever doomed, as "When the Time Comes" exquisitely illustrated? Even "One Small Day," the most musically celebratory song on the set, battles depression but dismally loses the war. No wonder Ultravox were so keen to escape far into the past, with "Man of Two Worlds" taking them back to the gloriously romanticized days of the Celts. The modern world, in contrast, was filled with terrors, both emotional ("A Friend I Call Desire") and global. There was the omnipresent yellow peril to fear; but if "White China" warned of the dangers of creeping communism, the nation sworn to protect its citizens from a Stalinistic embrace proves just as nefarious on "Heart of the Country".

Since issuing Aeolian in 2005, Berlin's continually evolving extreme music collective the Ocean have created conceptual recordings that reflect the evolutionary, violent character of nature itself with a musical signature that combines progressive, sludge, hardcore, and atmospheric post-metal. Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic is the first of two releases - the second is forthcoming in 2020. After 2013's glorious Pelagial, which charted the savage and harmonious life of the sea, Phanerozoic I returns the focus to solid ground; it is the proper sequential sequel to 2007's Precambrian and the missing link between it and 2010's Heliocentric/Anthropocentric.
While Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic continues some of the genre traits and strategies of Pelagial, it's musically more akin to the progressive metal feel of Precambrian…

Thigpen has a deft hand on the drums, and this live set from the Copenhagen Jazz House in 1998 is good proof of his skill. Never one to grandstand, he puts the music first. His trio, with Carsten Dahl on piano and Jesper Bodilsen on bass, lays down some straightforward and pleasing traditional jazz, with nice original tunes by all members of the band.

Legacy & (next) Legacy are the brand new musical projects by Paolo Fresu. New compositions for celebrating three anniversaries: his 40-year-old Quintet his 20-year-old Devil Quartet and his 22-year-old Duo with Uri Caine 3CD Box Set & 3 LP Box Set limited, coloured and hand numbered. Both signed by Paolo Fresu.
At the beginning of the '80s, trumpeter Paolo Fresu attended the Siena Summer Jazz Seminars and amazed Enrico Rava with his creativity, talent, and technique. Over the next ten years, he became a major player on the Italian scene, first with his own quintet (which is still going), then branching out in a variety of projects. After finishing his Conservatory studies, he became a teacher at the same Jazz Seminars in Siena; he lives half the year in Paris, from where he coordinates the major Time in Jazz Festival he created in his hometown…

Reduced to a quartet for the most part, with Barry Adamson joining Nick Cave, Blixa Bargeld, Mick Harvey and Thomas Wydler on only a couple of tracks, the Bad Seeds turn from the interpretive triumph of Kicking Against the Pricks to another strong high, the mostly-original Your Funeral…My Trial. The one cover is a sharp, unsurprisingly dramatic version of Tim Rose's "Long Time Man." As for the rest of the album, Trial shows the Seeds working as, again, a remarkably accomplished and varied act, ever available and ready to explore a wide range of musics distilled into Cave's often dark, always passionate vision. Arguably Cave and company have by now so clearly established their overall style that Your Funeral…My Trial is much more a refinement of the past than anything else, but so good is their work that resistance is near impossible. If anything, the brooding power of the Seeds is more restrained than ever, suggesting destructive endings and overwhelming love without directly playing it.