If I could sell my soul to play piano I would play nothing but Ravel's piano works. Overlooked (in my humble opinion) by many familiar with classical piano, I think these works are among the finest expressions of impressionism. Jeux D'eax and the marvelous Tombeau de Couperin are transcendent in beauty and form. Amazing.

Meshell is my favorite living musician, hands down. Besides being a monstrous bass player, she is amazingly blunt, direct, and honest in her lyrics. Peace Beyond Passion finds her questioning her beliefs, railing against bigotry, and reveling in love. Nobody can touch this woman. I would list all her albums, and indeed, they are all worth buying, but this is my favorite.

The most intense Bowie album. The title track is sinister and groovy. This album is worth it alone for Golden Years. Struggling with cocaine addiction and wrapped in bizarre occult beliefs, this album is a postcard from a trailblazer on the thin edge of sanity, and it's a killer. Bowie's vocals on Wild is the Wind will send shivers down your spine. A gem from a true miner of musical goodness.

......words can't do justice to the marvel of sound this album is. Buy it!

Joni is amazing. Pat Metheney is ridiculous. Jaco Pastorius, well, was the greatest electric bass player of all time. This live album shows what happens when musical giants share the stage and let their egos take a back seat to the raw emotional power that music can wield. When the time machine gets invented, this concert will be my first stop.

Yes, I AM a bass player, and this gentleman is among the finest practitioners of the fine art of fretless bass. This guy is crazy inventive, lyrical, and technically masterful. You will soon forget that this is a bass solo record. Manring is one of those truly frightening musicians.

Speaking of Hector...you won't find a better example of how a composer can exploit the individual timbres of each instrument than in this colossal work. There is no more glorious sound than a full orchestra in all its regalia, and this symphony, for me, is tops.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's finest work! Plenty of snaky key changes, great horn lines, exotic scales..this is the real deal. The first progressive rock opera!

John Williams is a genius and will be remembered with the great composers when he passes. The Star Wars music inarguably elevated the movies from potentially being cheesy sci-fi flicks to epic, grand stories. Tell me we'd care about Luke and Leia if the score was some garage rock band or some goofy synthesizer garbage...we wouldn't!

Rush is one of those bands you either obsessively love or actively hate. Belong to the former camp, and if you hate Rush, you are, without qualification, WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Hemispheres is Rush at perhaps their most uncompromising. It was apparent that they didn't care what the critics, the radio programmers, or even the fans thought when they made this...they simply did it.