Arild Andersen - Hyperborean

(1997)
Arild Andersen's Hyperborean is based on an Ancient Greek legend: according to the myth, the Hyperboreans lived beyond the north winds, where the sun god Apollo presided. Andersen has created an impressive song cycle that draws from contemporary instrumental, European jazz, jazz-rock and the distinctive ECM production sound. Andersen's playing is typically tasteful and the compositions are unpredictable and evocative, making Hyperborean another worthy addition to his catalog. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide)
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Eberhard Weber - Stages Of A Long Journey

(2007)
Stages Of A Long Journey is a crystal-clear recording of a 65th birthday concert held in his home town, Stuttgart. Guests such as Jan Garbarek and Marilyn Mazur play wonderfully, and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra flesh out famous Weber tunes such as The Colours of Chloe and Silent Feet. … A soundworld further enhanced by the vibes of Gary Burton. Yet Weber always leads from the bass, with a timbre that rings true in any context.
(John L Walters, The Guardian)

Part1 & Part2

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Kettel - Through Friendly Waters

(2005)
After the mesmerizing, acoustic Volleyed Iron on U-Cover last year, Kettel returns to electronics, this time with an organic theme. Some of this music is reminiscent of Plaid’s Not For Threes, but it’s even more beautifully melodic. From the bleeps, piccolo, and piano on the delicate masterpiece “Pinch of Peer” to the subdued cello on the title track, this is a fine, sumptuous album. Other highlights are the squelchy “Shinusob,” and the lo-fi “Purple Jacket Trot.” The CD ends with two cuts from a live performance: “Whom” and “Mwoeb” are both drawn-out and almost ambient. This is the first release on new Dutch label Sending Orbs. Kettel, interviewed here in 2003, is still one of my musicians to watch. His music shows continued growth and maturity, with plenty of pleasant surprises.(Gridface)
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Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

THE UNFORGETTABLE NHØP TRIO LIVE

(2007)
“This album includes the final recordings by the great bass virtuoso who forced America to revise its opinion about whether Europeans (and Scandinavians in particular) could swing ... They remind us of NHOP’s formidable ability, both as rhythm player and lyrical improviser.”
JAZZWISE, UK
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Line Up:
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen - bass
Ulf Wakenius - guitar
Jonas Johansen - drums

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Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa

This seminal disc now almost seems like the manifesto for a whole new strain of minimalism that has found an enormously receptive audience. It represented a breakthrough for Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, whose music--like that of his European colleagues John Tavener and Henryk Górecki--pursues an austerely beautiful simplicity that suggests spiritual illumination. Fratres, given here in two versions, one for piano and violin and the other for 12 cellos, repeatedly intones a sequence resembling chant to convey a sensibility that seems at once archaic and beyond time. Violinist Gidon Kremer, for whom Pärt wrote the exquisitely contemplative and hypnotic title work, grasps the music's koan-like idiom, allowing an inner fullness to resonate through the most fragile, ethereal wisps of tone against the mysterious clangings of prepared piano. The tolling of the tubular bells in Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten is an emotionally charged lament, based on a simple minor descending scale, that introduces Pärt's fascination with what he calls "tintinnabulation": the literal and metaphorical sound of ringing bells. This recording is also famous for the acoustically warm presence produced by ECM's Manfred Eicher, which magnificently captures the mystical simplicity of Pärt's sound world. (Thomas May)
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Gidon Kremer violin
Keith Jarrett piano
Staatsorchester Stuttgart
Dennis Russell Davies conductor
The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Tatjana Grindenko violin
Alfred Schnittke prepared piano
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra
Saulius Sondeckis conductor

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Nguyên Lê - Three Trios

(1997)
Nguyên Lê is amazing. His guitar work is unique, inspiring, technically challenging, fired with soul, jazzy, rocking, and drips of fusion yet goes even further. You will hear world music (far-Eastern/Southeast Asian) scales and note treatments in attack, vibrato, and bends. Lê is of Vietnamese heritage but knows full well the world of jazz and rock.
He can play light-hearted, crystalline-clear tones, dreamy chordal sustains, wielding an endless barrage of effects and suddenly flat-out scream and wail like a banshee as if Ninja warriors had invaded the studio. I have never heard anything quite like him. I was deeply impressed first listen to this release. This is a guitarists’ guitarist kind of CD. Every jazz musician and fusion musician needs to hear this magic.
For references sake, I suppose you can hear echoes of Bill Frisell, Terje Rypdal, Steve Kahn( Blades era), Wayne Johnson, Kazumi Watanabe, and even Steve Tibbetts but . . . Lê is standing all alone in his total sound and delivery. My adored track was “La Parfum” for its simple elegance, beauty, and its power to transport me into bliss . . .
If you want the crunch go straight to his fiery boogie on “Straight No Chaser” and then sample the very fusiony “Dance of the Comet”. But really this is CD to be experienced in totality. You will discover sounds and feelings you will thrill to if you love great guitar-driven jazz. Highest of recommendations!!!
(John W. Patterson"All about Jazz")
Part1 & Part2

Line Up:
Nguyên Lê - el. & electroacoustic guitars, guitar-synth and E-bow
Marc Johnson - acoustic bass
Peter Erskine - drums
Dieter Ilg - acoustic bass
Danny Gottlieb - drums
Renaud Garcia-Fons - acoustic bass
Mino Cinelu - drums, percussions
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Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder

Talking Timbuktu

(1994)
Talking Timbuktu is a groundbreaking record that vividly illustrates the Africa-Blues connection in real time. Ali Farka Toure, one of Mali's leading singer-guitarists, has a trance-like, bluesy style that, although deeply rooted in Malian tradition, bears astonishing similarity to that of John Lee Hooker or even Canned Heat. It's a mono-chordal vamp, with repetitive song lines cut with shards of blistering solo runs that shimmer like a desert mirage. Toure may be conversant with some blues artists, but it is unlikely that artists like Hooker or Robert Pete Williams ever heard these Malian roots, which makes the connection so uncanny. Ry Cooder, well versed in domestic and world guitar styles, is the perfect counterpoint in these extended songs/jams, his sinewy slide guitar intertwining with his partner's in a super world summit without barriers or borders.(Derek Rath)
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Bonnie Raitt - Fundamental

(1998)
Bonnie Raitt's marvelous voice, saucy grooves, and singing slide guitar are this album's fundamentals. But these 11 love songs are more than a back-to-basics exercise. Coproducers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake help Raitt create the edgiest arrangements she's ever had. Which explains the dry, in-your-face vocal sound of "Round and Round" and the near-naked framing of the best guitar solos, like Los Lobos' David Hidalgo's probing Jimmie Vaughan masquerade on "Cure for Love." Raitt herself plays a rippling African-style melody line on "One Belief Away." And the jittery guitar break and pumping piano on "I Need Love" threaten to knock the tune's tonal center to pieces. Her lyrics are crafty, too, whether she's calling down the furies as she opts for another spin on the flaming "Spit of Love" or feeling romance tug like quicksand in "Cure for Love." A little weird, maybe, but commanding, wise, real, and beautiful. (Ted Drozdowski)
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Eberhard Weber - Little Movements

(1980)
Recorded 1980. At the time Weber's Colours group was one of the most highly-acclaimed bands on the international touring circuit. Colours combined a sense of jazz history (personified by ex-Charles Mingus saxophonist Charlie Mariano) with an awareness of the pattern-pulses of the minimalist composers (emphasised in Weber's writing for Brüninghaus's synthesizers) and the energy of jazz-rock (drummer Marshall had played with Soft Machine and Jack Bruce).
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Lars Danielsson & Leszek Mozdzer

PASODOBLE
(2007)
Veteran Swedish bassist/composer Lars Danielsson aligns with blossoming young Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer for an affair that pronounces a sense of intimacy as an additional vehicle for vast expressionism. Glisteningly recorded at a Swedish studio, you can discern every detail and nuance throughout. Consisting of lovely melodies performed with a soft touch, the duo frequently engages in rapid unison choruses amid some movements that touch upon classical concerto elements. At times somber, the artists also generate peppery themes, often spiced with subtle overtones and flailing crescendos. As they integrate depth and finesse into these works spanning folk-drenched dirges, lullabies, and intricately resolved jazz motifs.
On the title track, Danielsson generates a soft rhythmic element by tapping his bass strings in support of Mozdzer�s buoyant voicings. And with the piece titled �It�s Easy With You,� Danielsson uses his cello as a sweetening agent for his partner�s nimble progressions. One of the highlights of this disc pertains to the musicians� ability to perform within, and maintain a level-playing field. The intuitiveness they generate along with the overriding aura of these works presents a colorific set of ideas and enactments. In sum, they seem to have attained a deep-rooted comprehension of each other�s traits and stylizations; not to mention a deeply focused mode of execution that offers a mark of distinction. Musical personalities contract, expand and become magnetized during the preponderance of this irrefutably satisfying endeavor.
(www.jazzreview.com)
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Nublu Orchestra Conducted by Butch Morris

(2007)
A club, record label, band and movement all-in-one, the Nublu Orchestra is committed to developing and creating new sounds and music. The Lower East Side institution is comprised of talented musicians from jazz, funk, pop, fusion, Brazilian, R&B and classical genres, "but the music we make is none of these," comments Butch Morris, conductor of the Nublu Orchestra.
On the recently released self-titled album, Morris conducts band members from Wax Poetic, Love Trio, Kudu, Brazilian Girls and others, using signals of his own invention to relay real-time arrangements and compositions. The methodology unites musicians in their playing regardless of their technical, stylistic or cultural differences. The result is a free-form combination of avant-garde jazz, folk, funk and techno forming an improvisational hypnotic sound.
(coolhunting.com)
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Jonas Hellborg - The Word

(1991)
A wild improviser, bassist Jonas Hellborg leans more toward rock than jazz. Drawing inspiration from Jimi Hendrix, Arabic music, and Lifetime, Hellborg began playing professionally in the mid-'80s. After some session work (including Pil's Album, Ginger Baker's Middle Passage and John McLaughlin), he released The Word on Axiom in 1991. The album features Hellborg's acoustic bass, drums and a string quartet. He remained highly prolific throughout the decade, recording most prominently for the Day Eight label.
(All Music Guide)
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