Snake Davis
Talking Bird
[Skin Records]

Snake Davis is the UK jazz musician who has probably played in front of more people than any other UK jazz musician…….. Snake is back with his long awaited new album, the follow up to Snakebites and Hysteria. “Talking Bird” once again contains a mix of styles (you can’t put a snake in a box!). There’s bags of soulful searing tenor sax, some funky flute, a jazz ballad, some fast latin, Japanese influence with the shakuhachi and even a beautiful ballad featuring just soprano sax and strings. Passionate, sophisticated, melodic and wonderfully played. Snake draws on the artistic talents of some of the best players, writers and producers in the industry. Recorded in 2007 in Lancashire, Buckinghamshire and Tokyo. You may have heard Snake as the sax man on Paul Hardcastles releases, with Acoustic Alchemy, on the M-People hits, Lisa Stansfields “Change”, “Someday”, or Take That’s “A Million Love Songs”. Or you may have caught him live on the last Eurythmics tour, with M-People, Lisa Stansfield or Swing out Sister. That said, there’s nothing quite like hearing the man do his own thing – entertainment at its best from a hugely talented player.

The Country Gentlemen
Going Back to the Blue Ridge Mountains
[Smithsonian Folkways]

Modern bluegrass was born on July 4, 1957 when the original Country Gentlemen took the stage at the Admiral Grill in Baileys Crossroads, Virginia. The foursome heard on this disc is the "classic" Country Gentlemen—Charlie Waller, John Duffey, Eddie Adcock, and Tom Gray, one of the greatest ensembles in bluegrass history. This reissue of the Gents' 1973 album catches the band in its prime. 28-page booklet.

16 tracks. 46 minutes.

Various Artists
Classic Old-Time Fiddle from Smithsonian Folkways
[Smithsonian Folkways]

Old-time fiddler Jake Krack and Folkways archivist Jeff Place compiled and annotated this collection of vintage Southern Appalachian string band music from the Smithsonian archives. Clark Kessinger, Wade Ward, Tommy Jarrell, Marion Sumner, Gaither Carlton, Eck Robertson, Melvin Wine, and many more old-time fiddle masters play their signature sounds from the heart of Appalachia.
32 page booklet. 76 minutes.

Marcel Khalife
Tagasim
[Connecting Cultures]

Marcel Khalifé UNESCO’s Artist for Peace (June 2005)
Through his unique and extensive repertoire of musical offerings, Marcel Khalifé has dedicated himself to art and creativity, and has been universally recognized as one of the most significant luminaries of our time. He has so successfully transposed his experience to the plane of human universality that he has virtually become an icon of originality, innovation, and persistent assaults on yet untrodden horizons. Marcel Khalifé’s art, whether in his little home country of Lebanon or in his larger Arab homeland, has enjoyed an unmatched mass appeal, particularly for its advocacy of higher human values; for humanizing inter-human relations; for re-establishing such relations on the basis of tolerance, love, fairness, respect for the dignity of others; and for eschewing violence, bigotry, oppression, persecution, and occupation. For over thirty years, Marcel Khalifé has dedicated his art to defense of such values, bravely swimming against the torrent of flabbiness, silliness, and degeneracy that has overtaken all that is beautiful
and human in contemporary Arab music. CD including a 36 page book & luxury hard cover packaging