Jazz

Artist: Madeleine Peyroux
Boasting an enthralling voice many have regarded as reminiscent of Billie Holiday's, Madeleine Peyroux burst onto the music scene eight years ago with the extremely successful release of Dreamland. Championed by major publications such as The New York Times and Time Magazine, Peyroux was immediately recognized as a remarkably talented singer with a promising future. With the release of her long awaited follow-up album Careless Love, Peyroux's potential as an artist is truly realized. Her smoky voice and knowing delivery make each song her own, whether she's singing vintage tunes by W.C. Handy and Hank Williams, or contemporary songs by Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith. Producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin) weaves strands of acoustic blues, country ballads, classic jazz, torch songs and pop into a vibrant fabric that is both timeless and thoroughly up to date, with Peyroux's arresting vocals always front and center.

List Price: ~~$17.98~~	Our Price: $7.98

Legends of Jazz: Showcase [Blu-ray]

Rated: Unrated
Staring: Various Artists
The critically-acclaimed Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis - the first weekly television series devoted to jazz in more than 40 years - debuted nationally on PBS stations in April 2006. Now presented on the superior new Blu-ray Disc format, Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis "Showcase" is an all-star collection of 13 riveting live performances from the series by some of the biggest stars in jazz. Track Listings: Take Five

-- All Jarreau & Kurt Elling My Funny Valentine

-- Chris Botti The Panther

-- Marcus Miller, George Duke, Lee Ritenour Senor Blues

-- David Sanborn & Phil Woods Armando's Rhumba

-- Chick Corea 12 Year Old Boy

-- Robert Cray & Keb' Mo' Killer Joe

-- Benny Golson The Island

-- Ivan Lins Mumbles

-- Clark Terry They Can't Take That Away From Me

-- Jane Monheit & John Pizzarelli Obsession

-- Dave Valentin Take The 'A' Train

-- Dave Brubeck & Bill Taylor Dear Lord

-- Ramsey Lewis

List Price: ~~$19.98~~ Our Price: $13.93

Buena Vista Social Club

Artist: Ry Cooder , Ibrahim Ferrar , Ruben Gonzalez , Compay Segundo , Omara Portuondo
Ry Cooder's name has helped bring attention to this session, but it's the veteran Cuban son musicians who make this album really special. Reminiscent of Ellington in its scope and sense of hushed romanticism, Buena Vista Social Club is that rare meld of quietude and intensity; while the players sound laid-back, they're putting forth very alive music, a reminder that aging doesn't mean taking to bed. Barbarito Torres's laoud solo on "El Cuarto de Tula" is both more blinding and more tasteful than any guitar showcase on any recent rock album; a quote from "Stormy Weather" and some very distinct parallels to Hawaiian styles remind us of why it's called "world music." --Rickey Wright

List Price: ~~$18.98~~	Our Price: $9.37

Putumayo Presents: Jazz & Blues Christmas

Artist: Various Artists
Putumayo delivers the perfect package of soulful jazz and blues to liven up the holiday season. A Jazz & Blues Christmas offers a memorable array of classic holiday songs by jazz and blues legends and lesser-known artists. B.B. King opens the album with "Christmas Celebration," a rollicking, up-tempo tune cheerfully punctuated with bursts of brass from an energetic horn section. Ray Charles tells the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to a soulful beat. Ramsey Lewis plays "Here Comes Santa Claus," simulating the ring of sleigh bells on the upper registers of his keyboard. And, young Canadian chanteuse Emilie-Claire Barlow offers a new take on the old holiday favorite "Santa Baby."

With other exceptional tracks by rhythm and blues veteran Riff Ruffin, iconic blues crooner Charles Brown, jazz vocalist Topsy Chapman and the traditional New Orleans jazz band, The Dukes of Dixieland, A Jazz & Blues Christmas is sure to join Putumayo's other collections New Orleans Christmas and Christmas Around the World as Yuletide classics.

List Price: ~~$15.98~~ Our Price: $10.61

Duets: An American Classic

Artist: Tony Bennett
Perfecting the art of excellence for over six decades, with 105 albums selling over 50 million copies, Tony Bennett has come to represent the essence of elegance, tradition and artistic accomplishments. Tony celebrates his 80th birthday recording Duets of his greatest hits with today's greatest artists: Bono, Michael Bublé, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, Elton John, Juanes, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, John Legend, Paul McCartney, Tim McGraw, George Michael, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, and Stevie Wonder.

More from Tony Bennett ...

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Getz/Gilberto

Artist: Stan Getz , Joao Gilberto , Astrud Gilberto
Originally released in March 1964, this collaboration between saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist João Gilberto came at seemingly the end of the bossa nova craze Getz himself had sparked in 1962 with Jazz Samba, his release with American guitarist Charlie Byrd. Jazz Samba remains the only jazz album to reach number one in the pop charts. In fact, the story goes that Getz had to push for the release of Getz/Gilberto since the company did not want to compete with its own hit; it was a good thing he did. Getz/Gilberto, which featured composer Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano, not only yielded the hit "Girl from Ipanema" (sung by Astrud Gilberto, the guitarist's wife, who had no professional experience) but also "Corcovado" ("Quiet Night")--an instant standard, and the definitive version of "Desafinado." Getz/Gilberto spent 96 weeks in the charts and won four Grammys. It remains one of those rare cases in popular music where commercial success matches artistic merit. Bossa nova's "cool" aesthetic--with its understated rhythms, rich harmonies, and slightly detached delivery--had been influenced, in part, by cool jazz. Gilberto in particular was a Stan Ge...

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Red Clay

Artist: Freddie Hubbard
Before Freddie Hubbard signed with CTI Records in 1970, he was already considered one of the most brilliant jazz trumpeters in the world. RED CLAY, his debut album on the label, is an exceptional set of plugged-in hard bop fused with funk - and reportedly the album he considers his best. Joining him on five of the six cuts, is a crack quintet featuring longtime colleagues Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock, on tenor saxophone and keyboards respectively. The final number, a previously unissued, extended live jam on the title tune, finds Hubbard fronting an all-star septet that includes such fellow CTI stars as George Benson and Stanley Turrentine.

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Unspoken

Artist: Jim Brickman
Relax and soothe your soul with Unspoken, Grammy-nominee Jim Brickman's first all-solo piano CD since he launched his recording career fifteen years ago. This brand new collection of romantic piano favorites exudes deep sophistication and heartfelt sentimentality as only Jim Brickman can!

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Pass It On

Artist: Dave Holland Sextet , Dave Holland , Eric Harland , Antonio Hart , Robin Eubanks , Mulgrew Miller , Alex Sipiagin
Pass It On features newly-realized arrangements of some potent Holland compositions from past recordings, including "Lazy Snake" and "Equality" (from 1995's Dream of the Elders), the uptempo burner "Double Vision" (from 1984's Seeds of Time), the dynamic, mood-shifting suite "Rivers Run" (written for Dave's former duets partner from the mid-'70s, saxophonist Sam Rivers, and originally appearing on 1988's Triplicate), "Processional" (from 1989's Extensions) and "Modern Times" (from the 1995 Gateway recording, Homecoming). "Some of the compositions that I've written in the past evolve in my mind a little bit over time," says Holland, who is perhaps the most prolific bassist-composer since Charles Mingus. "When we first recorded some of these pieces, they were done in more stripped-down versions with different instrumentation, and I was starting to hear them as being possible for a larger ensemble. One of the advantages of the sextet is that it's still a smaller unit than big band or octet but it also gives you a lot of options in terms of orchestrating and utilizing backgrounds, either from the three horns or if one of the horns is soloing, from the other two horns. So I thought that...

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Somethin' Else

Artist: Cannonball Adderley
When alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley culled together this quartet, he grabbed three champions from seemingly disparate schools to complement his flinty solos: Miles Davis, the king of cool; Art Blakey, the thundering force of hard bop; Hank Jones, a veteran of swing; and Sam Jones, a versatile bassist adaptable to nearly any setting. The results are one of Blue Note's most beloved albums. The open-ended beauty of "Autumn Leaves," which features Davis beautifully stating the melody on muted trumpet, sounds like it could easily be an outtake from Kind of Blue (which it isn't). The midtempo title track provides the centerpiece of this classic as Adderley echoes Miles's swaggering melody before both unravel wonderful solos. A must-have Blue Note album. --John Murph