Anthem is the highly anticipated sophomore album from Grammy-nominated trumpeter Christian Scott.  Anthem is a powerful collection of 12 tracks teeming indie-rock, neo-soul, hip-hop and jazz and features an appearance by Brother J of X-Clan on the finale track "Anthem (Postdiluvial Adaptation)".

The tracks on the album give us a taste of Christian's hometown, New Orleans, and the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina, however it also reflects the many changes Scott has gone through since releasing his debut album in 2006.  "My life changed completely.  So, the compositions on Anthem aren't just about one thing" he says.  "There's something here for everybody so that everyone can hear their own personal anthems."

In the golden age of American jazz there was no finer female jazz singer than Ella Fitzgerald. Perhaps it was all down to a serendipitous set of circumstances that she became known as The First Lady Of Song, but there's no doubting that Ella appeared at the right time and place and came to embody the very spirit of the age, that of a new found sophistication in outlook at the start of a brave new century of life and music.

Brazilian music legend Sergio Mendes spins his remarkable magic on his newest recording, Encanto (Enchantment), which is among the maestro's most beautifully realized in his unparalleled career. The collection refines Sergio's singular blend of infectious rhythms and irresistible melodies from the great Brazilian Songbook, with his always thoroughly modern arrangements and masterful production approach. The resulting collection is a bona fide Sergio Mendes classic-- a kaleidoscopic album that underscores the maestro's ear for addictive melodies, as well as his ability to cast incredibly talented singers and musicians from all over the world.

When it comes to his music - and the business of music - Sonny Rollins, in the year 2006, is fully and firmly engaged. In the midst of a spate of honors, including a Grammy win for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, as well as top awards (Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist) from the Jazz Journalists Association and in the Down Beat Critics Poll, Rollins has just released his first new studio recording in five years on his own Doxy label.

The new CD, Sonny, Please, captures his working band "at a good pitch," as Rollins puts it, shortly after they returned from a sold-out Japanese tour in November 2005. "Any time you do a string of performances, it tightens up the ensemble, and the band was playing well - very high-powered, if I may use that expression. Toward the end of the tour, the group really began to come together, and as a result I began to be able to play much more fluently. My mind was getting clear, and the whole thing was beginning to happen."

See the short video of how this great new album from one of jazz's masters came together in the studio.