One of R&B's greatest divas, Patti LaBelle has been one of the finest vocalists in soul music (perhaps second only to her mentor Aretha Franklin) in a career that's spanned five decades. Filmed at New York City's Manhattan Center, "Live! One Night Only" showcases Patti at her best, and features duets with some of her more talented friends, including Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey. It's the live that won her both Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance.

This CD includes some of the greatest Bossa Nova tunes, performed of by the recognized masters of the style – J. & A. Gilberto, M. Toledo and S. Getz. Recorded in 1963, the time of Bossa Nova worldwide boom.

"Acoustic" is a Brazilian DVD release of the famous Sting's "MTV Unplugged" performance. The set includes eight songs, some from his then recent album, "The Soul Cages", and most of the Police classics ("Tea In The Sahara," "Walkin' On The Moon," "Message In A Bottle," and "Every Breath You Take"). Watch Sting and his band (Miller, Sancious, Colaiuta and Vinx) delievering one of the most beautiful live-versions ever.

The second album by the Mamas & the Papas, which was recorded and released during the precise high point in their brief career. While not quite as striking as a whole as their debut, the result is still magnificent. Aside from the hits "I Saw Her Again",which was possibly the hardest-rocking track the group ever recorded, and "Words of Love" (featuring Cass Elliot), the rest of the album has numerous highlights.

Percussionist/bandleader/composer Johnny Blas is a New York native who has performed and recorded in the world of Jazz and Latin music for over 25 years. He is one of the few conga players on the West Coast who leads his own band. "Indestructible Spirit", Johnny's first record in the 21st century, swings hard in places, is funky throughout, and never stops grooving whether on an uptempo mambo or a jazz ballad with layers of percussion.

Victor Assis Brasil was the best Brazilian jazzman of his generation, having being praised by international critics. He is said to have been more popular outside Brazil than in it and his style was strongly influenced by non-Brazilian musicians. This critically-acclaimed record captures Victor in 1979, during the last prolific period of his too short life, and features standards "It's All Right With Me", "Night And Day" and "'S Wonderful."

Nnenna Freelon is an world-renown American Jazz singer, composer, producer, arranger, and a six-time Grammy nominee. This collection was specifically chosen and sequenced not so much as a greatest hits package but to present the powerful scope and expanse of Nnenna's artistic appeal. Here you'll hear big band Jazz sound (with big bass, horns, and skatting a-plenty), Latin-tinged tunes, male acapella vocals, piano/gospel ballads, and even the Jazz-Reggae treatment of "Body and Soul".

Another great album from the talanted Japanese piano player Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. The set includes beautiful and moving interpretations of the well-known romantic standards, plus a tune written by Tsuyoshi himself. Mickey Curtis sings in "Medley for Chet Baker".

Midnight Lightning is a posthumous ninth studio album by American guitarist Jimi Hendrix, released in November 1975. At the moment of release, there was the furious media debate that accompanied it over whether it was appropriate to 'soup up' posthumous Hendrix albums. Producer Alan Douglas brought in many session musicians to overdub parts of songs; the only original recording (apart from those by Hendrix) was Mitch Mitchell's drumming on "Hear My Train A Comin'". Despite this conroversies, this album features one of his best Jimi's ballads ("Gypsy Boy"), instrumentals ("Trashman"), and the stellar studio version of "Midnight Lightning", which otherwise we could only hear live.

This album captures four tunes played live in Christmas Day 25 Dec 1974 at The Misty Club, Roppongi-Tokyo. The performances are strait, unhesitatingly, confident; Yamamoto do not wait applause and start another theme promptly. The audience also was high. This CD keeps a great Jazz moment from a distant year of past.

Michael Franks is a smooth jazz singer and songwriter from the United States. He has recorded with a variety of well-known artists; his songs have been recorded by The Manhattan Transfer, Patti Labelle, Carmen McRae, Diana Krall, Shirley Bassey and The Carpenters. This CD features a compilation of his best known romantic songs, including "The Lady Wants To Know", "When I Give My Love to You", "Tell Me All about It", to name a few.

"East of Eden" was a British progressive rock band, who had a top 10 hit in the UK with the single "Jig-a-Jig", which did not resemble their usual sound or anything else they normally played. Combining flutes, saxes, violins and tape loops to folk, blues and psychedelic music, the East of Eden style was always heavily supported on a pure rock base, strong and experimental. This is 2001 German reissue of their 1971 album. The highlight is "Crazy Daisy," a pungent hard rock jazz jam, which alone makes the album worth seeking.

Deaf School are an English rock band, formed in the mid 1970s and hailing from Liverpool. Their style is somewhere in between pub rock, punk, glam rock and art rock. The journalist, author and founder of Mojo, Paul Du Noyer, described them thus: "In the whole history of Liverpool music two bands matter most, one is The Beatles and the other is Deaf School. If that seems like a sweeping statement then consider this: after the pop revolution of the 1960s led by The Beatles and other Merseyside groups, it looked as if the city's music scene had dried up forever. But in 1975 there came a motley band of Liverpool art students called Deaf School..."

A musical rollercoaster from start to finish, Ritual Beating System jolts us with its abrupt mood changes, yet never really strays from a percussive Brazilian-oriented theme. Bahia's "all-star" lineup isn't conventional – percussionist Olodum (a highly regarded figure in Northeastern Brazil's Afro-Brazilian culture) and other Brazilian players are joined by fusion/post-bop greats Wayne Shorter (soprano sax) and Herbie Hancock (piano), as well as avant-garde explorer Henry Threadgill (flute) and George Clinton associate Bernie Worrell (organ). The result is a percolating, eye-opening encounter between jazz and pop musicians from Brazil and New York, fusion at its most sublime.

Benny Green (born 1963 in New York City) is a hard bop jazz pianist who was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Although not yet an innovator himself, Benny Green has managed to combine the styles of Bobby Timmons, Wynton Kelly, Gene Harris, and especially Oscar Peterson in his playing.