HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED - BOB DYLAN

This dude rolls down the road by train and Buick finding desolation here and laughter there and personal collisions with stones and Queen Jane and Thin Tom Thumb. He rocks Americana and rolls just like a......dream.

HEJIRA - JONI MITCHELL

This lady travels to escape, travels to discover, the roads are sharp and brilliant, the motel rooms blue, the cities full of sighing jazz, the memories of simpler times. Free like the Coyote or Black Crow she finds refuge in the dusty roads.

POINTS OF VIEW - DAVE HOLLAND QUINTET

The elegant balance of the serenade and melody, the smooth bottom end of Dave's bass and the challenge and invention of his select team of players. Bounce and energy, contemplation and spirit lives here.

IT'S TOO LATE TO STOP NOW - VAN MORRISON

Gloria is on this rolling caravan, the wild children have thrown out the dominoes, the performance burns with mystical warm love so listen to the lion and watch out here comes the night.

WE SHALL OVERCOME - THE SEEGER SESSIONS - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

The ragged touring band arrives at the western saloon, sets up on the dusty wooden floor, in front of that wall distressed with bullet holes, tunes up quickly and lets loose. Like a joyful musicians circus they let rip, the brew is strong and true the audience lean or climb on the barrels, the mood is upbeat and drunk on a chorus of fun.

MELTING POT - ZOE RAHMAN

Zoe - angular and vibrant, strong, percussive and melodic, the flow of this piano trio is magnificent. The vision of the compositions tinged with classical bravura, their exposition is glowing and dazzling. Remarkable colours and moods, a rising star indeed.

GRATITUDE - CHRIS POTTER

Chris writes eloquent tributes to the inspiration of the previous jazz modern generations. Steel rainbow frames these perfect pieces, file under grand tour of jazz legends, marvel at the group dialogue, and the fluid horn.

THE ART OF THE TRIO VOL. 4 / BACK AT THE VANGUARD - BRAD MEHLDAU

Blues in London as he exits the film music, Brad leads his first team to the mesh of minds and melody as the classic Jazz piano trio cuts a new path. Energy and intermodulation in 99 for a brilliant chapter in the last phase of a century of Jazz.

THE BAND - THE BAND

Mythic tales from the frontier, the hard life after the civil war, the history in a folk rock hillbilly costume, harmonies and tunes fit for dustbowl heroes, these artisans are fine craftsmen of song. In 69 they seemed the true troubadours of American old time song with the filigree ornamentation of antique reproductions.

11 TRACKS OF WHACK - WALTER BECKER

America is fractured, lost souls, the corruption of money and Californian dreams, the climate of poignant sadness. The silvery thin voice is locked into his own nightmares and steely partnerships. The junkie girl in the photo, the moody girlfriend surfs on Henry's flat hat. Novels of the life in a minute of song.

MOMENTUM - JOSHUA REDMAN ELASTIC BAND

Joshua drives his sax organ drums combo around the Jazz block. Jewels of the urban fusion, Sam's organ shimmers, Jeff's pounding the skins, red blooded sheets of sound check wrapped for the velvet rigour of the night city streets.

A LOVE SUPREME - JOHN COLTRANE

This man is on a mission, beyond the plains, througth the forest, across the canyons, hidden in the clouds are the peaks of his own desire for perfection. And now he can reveal and share these perfect fragments shrouded in this sweet mountain air, the refracted folk memories, the universal tribal melodies, the soul of the saxophone haunts this place, for all time.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE - MICHAEL BRECKER

A place in time for Michael's new brotherhood, Metheny on angular guitar, Goldings pushing the stops organically. Together they roll the sharp cards dealt by this modern geometry called jazz, flickering darkness and light combined melodically, the rhyhtm is captured and squared, the cat creeps along the arc, the wolf leaps time in the morning of the night.

AFTER THE RAIN - JOHN MCLAUGHLIN

Coltrane's blues are explored and demons released by this vibrant trio. Fat warm tones from the Hammond, cascading notes from the electric guitar of the leader who brings spirit and colour with depth, and underneath Elvin plays the lines from the true ribbon, following the guidance of the master with magic drums and cymbals.

FACES AND PLACES - JOE ZAWINUL

The global seach touches down in Andalusia, Buenos Aires, Central Africa and a dusty village on the Indian sub continent. Joe fuses the beats from everywhere and finds meaning and the familiar, deja vu, humanity does struggle, strives and sings in all corners of the earth. The synth resounds around the world, the ethnic invention of sound designers rings out in those distant but artistically rich villages on every continent.

AXIS BOLD AS LOVE - JIMI HENDRIX

The numbers added up 1967, if 6 was 9, EXP speed and space rock from this Einstein of the guitar. Mr Electric takes wing and builds bold castles in a moment, their intricate third dimension structures stand forever as the poetry of genius, so alive and then fading into black winter. 10,000 miles away the delta blues inspiration can only be faintly heard in this original collection of musical and mystical poems.

CONSEQUENCE OF CHAOS - AL DI MEOLA

The master retuns to fast fusion but also packing those magic toys from journey's around the world. Mellow and uplifting now the scary space cadet young gun has transformed into the guide to the brightest stars and those moments of perfection and enlightenment. What a trip for the open minded listener ..... meaning, passion and truth lie within faithful traveller.

UBERJAM - JOHN SCOFIELD

Vibrant puple vibes pour out of this fusion mix that reinvents the 21st century with a nod to Jazz/Rock history and a mix of urban funk and mature composing from the future present. The wall of sounds refracting with simple direction here, easy improv and genius playing trigger the sparks that fly through the night after sunset.

SUNDAY AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD - BILL EVANS TRIO

They invented introspection on the floor of a night club, the trio explores a level of communication beyond the notes, tunes developed as flowing streams of consciousness, carrying the intelligence and emotion of their sunny forest of autumn fruits.

EVERYTRHING MUST GO - STEELY DAN

The Dan machine grinds into the fading consumer dream with the expected powerful vision, characters, events for an end of the pier, end of an era, closing time. With exquisite musical clarity, and sharp story lines, sound movies from a gritty L. A. flipside, across the valley from Hollywood.

ALL IS KNOW (PLAYS MONK) - TONY KOFI QUARTET

Sax man explores those quirky classic tunes with a twist. Yesterday versus tomorrow, old master overlaps young lion, hard blowing overlays chunky percussive piano. The experiment shines with power and dedication, delicacy and exuberance

UNDERCURRENT - BILL EVANS JIM HALL

The tides flow between the instruments reflecting and contrasting, the perfect piano guitar duo spins you into reflection, mediation , joy.

HALF THE PERFECT WORLD - MADELINE PEYROUX

Romantic time traveller, jazz from the exquisite historic age, django, billie are captured in this luminous record release of 2006 which belongs to a gentler acoustic age circa 1933 - 1949.

THE NIGHTFLY - DONALD FAGEN

This modern life of sophistication and cool urban romance. Are these surroundings familiar, are the experiences keys to progress, happiness, the riches of existence or passing dreams and empty adventures. Can the complex texture of jazz and song help to carve out a true destiny....

HEAVY WEATHER - WEATHER REPORT

Weather in the city is hot, the rhythm of the shanty towns echoes as the band marches down the world's city boulevards, the crowd are steaming as the band fuse the melodies in the international quadrant. The finese of the bass and keyboards, the sax sings as the percussionist wings, new music for a new age of jazz rock fusion. Supreme synthesizers and composition, the city celebrates the storm with a broad smile.

PHAEDRA - TANGERINE DREAM

Inexplicably lost in space, the frozen tundra without a footfall until you emerge through the doorway from the corridor into this vast well of empty horizon. Do not linger here long but accept the spell of this place in space,let it entrance you for a moment which stretches beyond limits of the classical soundscape. Explore and return with refreshed knowledge and horizons....

REQUIEM - BRANFORD MARSALIS

Flying melodies that prey on the essential. Swelling with intelligence, the heavy textured tones of the tenor sax penetrate the walls, unsettle the frame, sadness and melancholic shade pervade with energetic purpose. The quartet makes its final ruminating statement, the piano has fallen silent, the player has played his last note, the requiem published in tribute. The Jazz life, tragedy and glory.

STONEHENGE - RICHIE HAVENS

Village cafe buzz, the singer in the dim corner strums frantically and calls out with deep meaning and wisdom. Now beyond Greenwich in the studio with strings and love and protest, the textured penetrating waves of this dark voice, sunset hope pain freedom, smiles at the joke which is on the minstrel baby blue. Cosmic blues spans the message.

THE ROAD TO YOU - PAT METHENY GROUP

This tour bus rides on the edge, accelerates the silver engine of smooth power, the notes are mapped in a new chapter of chords and intricate melodies, the dust of Italy and fragrance of France are filtered into the mix. The band moves and flows around that travellin minstrel as he strikes strings and processes wood and electronics and takes the crowd to that sanctuary of first circle and letters home. Half life of guitar dreams on scheduled train journeys through the timeless heat of ancient european cities.

BITCHES BREW - MILES DAVIS

The musician becomes alchemist, the new science bleeds across a world of rhythm, a chaos of arrangments, with the genius of adventuring soloists. The pulse is dark and unpredictable, collisions in jazz without the lounge of familiar form, hard wired into the soul, fading into and out of beauty, laying down the sound unhurried but profound. The tones and bones of freeform, the audience breathes the notes and fragments around the swirling cauldron but the story is clear and sings out with trumpet, guitar, bass, percussion..... into the romance of the purest blended sound stream.

BLONDE ON BLONDE - BOB DYLAN

Wild mecury flowing in the vinyl, impossible to remove from the record deck, quickly attracts dust clicks and track glitches but the music rides through the organic and romantic highway. It underwrites the independance and bravery of youthful destiny with hope and challenge and the complexity of hot and personal emotional journeys. The voice of wisdom and momentous discovery fronts a band that rolls with strength and the potential to break out into the new rock folk country jazz and lives beyond the arrangment in a scary zone of jamming pure. And the words and puzzling stories entertain as mini novels where the heatpipes must know that one of us is sweet just like a woman every one is stoned. Study evolve and live with this album because once spun the fortieth year around it still is fresh and suprising.