It’s hard to believe this album wasn’t made a long time ago, actually, since blues pianist Pinetop Perkins and drummer and harmonica player Willie "Big Eyes" Smith have worked together frequently in the past 40 some years. Perkins replaced the legendary pianist Otis Spann in Muddy Waters' band in 1969 when Smith was the drummer in the ensemble, and later Perkins and Smith formed the Legendary Blues Band in the 1980s. Perkins was 96 years old when the sessions for Joined at the Hip were recorded, but one wouldn’t know it, and Smith, now out from behind the drum kit (his son, Kenny Smith, plays drums here), concentrates on his harp blowing and handles most of the vocals. The result is a solid Chicago blues record, one that feels like it could have been tracked anytime in the past four decades…

On what is billed as his 20th solo album, journeyman blues-rock guitarist Walter Trout seems to be intent on establishing himself as something more than a worthy successor to an older generation of blues originators, as well as a bevy of their better-known successors all old enough to be his older brothers. He has written all 12 songs himself and printed the lyrics to them in the CD booklet. Especially at first, his bid to be a singer/songwriter shows promise, with the self-deprecating and reflective "May Be a Fool" and "Open Book" leading things off, and, in fourth position, the spiritually oriented title song, "Common Ground," a prayer for universal understanding.

West coast bluesman Coco Montoya has been known as a major guitar threat for years – we are, after all, talking about a guy who learned at the feet of Albert Collins – but after all this time spent focused on pursuing the blues fret-burner path, Montoya shows a new side of himself on I Want It All Back. There's plenty of piercingly lyrical guitar work, of course, but it's Montoya the singer who emerges as the dominant figure in these sessions, leaning into a smooth, soulful lilt that's not a million miles away from the sound of Los Lobos lead vocalist David Hidalgo. Not only that, Montoya is letting this cool-crooning approach lead him down different musical avenues, as well.

Originally recorded for the Canadian television program In Session in 1983, this was a historic meeting of two artists that has been proven to be a very special moment This famed live jam session by Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan has proven to be an evening that will never be forgotten. "It was evident from the first choruses," writes liner notes author/musicologist Samuel Charters, "that they were playing for each other. And that was the best audience either of them could ever have. The music never lost its intensity, its quality of something very important being handed back and forth and there was time for Stevie and Albert to see where their ideas took them."

Writing in a style that was essentially Romantic, if modified by his study of Classical composers, the Swedish composer Stenhammar enjoyed a successful career also as a pianist and then, primarily, as a conductor. As a leading composer of his generation in Sweden, Stenhammar contributed to a variety of genres. Two symphonies and two piano concertos, in addition to a number of less substantial works, are still in today’s repertoire. The Interlude from his important cantata Sången is a frequent concert item.

The group Apollo's Fire, also known as the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, was founded by its present conductor Jeannette Sorrell. Playing on period instruments, the modestly sized ensemble delves into the later end of the repertoire with this Mozart disc on the Avie album. Sorrell makes the curious choice to open the program with the well-known, powerful Symphony 40 in G minor, a work that concludes with such fervor and drama that it would seem more appropriately placed at the conclusion of the disc. Sorrell's vision for Mozart seems to be one of modest intensity and tempo diversity. Neither of the outer movements are noticeably driven or brisk, and the inner movements are likewise unsurprising in their execution.

The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, with their founder/ director Jeannette Sorrell, has made an indelible impression on the international music market since launching on Avie with recordings of Bach, Mozart and Monteverdi. Vivaldi and Friends is a presentation of concertos by the Red Priest with a twist: two authentic Vivaldi Concertos – one for four violins, the other for two cellos – are interspersed with J. S. Bach’s transcript ion of Vivaldi’s A minor concerto for four harpsichords, and Jeannette Sorrell’s own transcription of ‘Summer’ from the ever-popular Four Seasons. Sorrell’s arrangement mirrors the widespread baroque practice of transcribing violin works for keyboard. In her unique version, she performs the original violin parts on the harpsichord.

Cleveland's phenomenal early music ensemble Apollo's Fire ought to be proud of its 2010 double-disc release of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-1051, augmented with the Harpsichord Concertos, BWV 1052 and 1056, and the reconstructed Violin Concerto, BWV 1052, for this set is quite comparable to other excellent period versions on the market. Led by Jeannette Sorrell from the harpsichord, the group is vibrant and fully engaged in making lively music, so the performances are far from stodgy museum pieces.

Thierry Amiel has finally returned after an absence of 4 years preparing his third album which consists of acoustic versions of songs by Sarah McLachlan, of whom he is a fan. The silken voice, as smooth as honey, is as pure and true as when he made his first appearance on the French Show, "In Search of a New Star". With an incredible range, the singer reaches the highest notes with ease and fills each song with pure emotion.

"Celestis: Space Ceremonial Music" definitely stands out in the discography of this project, known mainly for its post-industrial and avant-garde recordings. It would be no exaggeration to say that this is their most accessible work (in a good sense) correlating with the best examples of such acclaimed masters of the "space genre" as Jean-Michel Jarre or Klaus Schulze. At the same time the music on "Celestis" is in no way secondary, it is modern and quite craftily made. From the opening theme "Capsula" the album's atmosphere plunges the listener into a world of spiritual experience, calls to take an imaginary space travel; fly towards Space along with the remains held in capsulas…

Giacomo Antonio Perti (6 June 1661 – 10 April 1756) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. He was mainly active at Bologna, where he was Maestro di Cappella for sixty years. He was the teacher of Giuseppe Torelli and Giovanni Battista Martini.

If any proof were needed that anticipation was at a fever pitch for Alcest's second full-length album, it could be found in the fact that a clever leak of Écailles de Lune that made the rounds before its release was rabidly snapped up worldwide even though most of the tracks came from a compilation of Chinese black metal acts. But the fact that it was treated as the real thing shows how strong Alcest's own aesthetic mark has been made already, and Écailles de Lune makes the most of its compelling fusion of black metal's theatricality and the after-echoes of shoegaze's propensity for utterly enveloping a listener, even if bandleader Neige approached that sound unconsciously at first. The first half of the two-part title track that begins the album starts with a gentle guitar chime before the full skyscraping riff kicks in, but - instead of getting even more intense as it goes - it's happy to turn even more elegantly beautiful…