New releases: Sade, Gil Scott-Heron, Jordi Savall, Lionel Louke, Chopin Bicentennial, ECM Sampler, Fred Hersch

Sade, SOLDIER OF LOVE (Sony, $14.98) – Sade’s seductive voice and sound was one of the most distinctive of the 1980s: she created a sound (and a genre) of her own. She’s back after a ten-year hiatus with the same infectious grooves.

Gil Scott-Heron, I’M NEW HERE (XL Records, $14.98) – In the 1970’s, Gil Scott-Heron’s recitation with music, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” and the album, Winter in America, launched an influential career as a poet and musician, and icon to many politically oriented rappers and singers. He has also returned after many years away from the scene.

Jordi Savall, ISTANBUL (Alia Vox, $23.98) – Viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall has programmed another inventive album. With his group, Xesperion XXI, Savall plays selections Dimitrie Cantemir’s 1710 manuscript, Le Livre de la Science de la Musique (which collected Turkish melodies of the period), and teams up with traditional musicians to play Sephardic and Armenian tunes.

Lionel Louke, MWALIKO (Blue Note, $17.98) – Jazz guitarist and percussive vocalist Lionel Louke duets with singer Angelique Kidjo, and bassists and vocalists Esperanza Spalding and Richard Bona. On three cuts, Louke fronts his guitar, bass, and drums trio.

CHOPIN BICENTENNIAL PART I
There’ll be a lot of releases and re-issues this year celebrating the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. Two budget titles can start your year: The budget re-issue of Alexandre Tharaud playing waltzes, CHOPIN: VALSES (Harmonia Mundi, CD & catalog, $8.98), is pure pleasure. Tharaud will be playing in Washington on March 12, at the Library of Congress.
CHOPIN: THE ESSENTIALS (Harmonia Mundi, $9.98) is a compilation featuring HM artists. Find these two titles downstairs at the bottom of the stairs on our classical mid-line display.

ECM SAMPLER
The ECM label celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Known for both jazz and classical titles, ECM has one of the finest rosters in music. The label sent us free sampler CDs featuring an hour of great jazz, all from last fall. ANNIVERSARY WALTZ: NEW RELEASES has cuts by Keith Jarrett, Anouar Brahem, Steve Kuhn and Joe Lovano, Tomasz Stanko, John Abercrombie, Miroslav Vitous, Jan Garbarek, and  Stefano Bollani. Free with any purchase of an ECM album.

FRED HERSCH IN THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
Anyone who missed David Hajdu’s great profile of pianist Fred Hersch in the New York Times Magazine, click here (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31Hersch-t.html?scp=1&sq=fred%20hersch&st=cse ). Listen to Hersch’s latest, PLAYS JOBIM (Sunnyside, $16.98)