Couple of quick pieces of music to check out: I've been enjoying saxophonist Matt Bauder's oeuvres in the past few months. He's been around for a while but I only discovered him in 2010. He released two records in '10, the more approachable of which is "Day in Pictures". Start with the track "Parks After Dark"and then "January Melody" to see if you dig it.

As far as classical goes, I'm fond of the "Music for Double Bass and Piano: Eccles, Haydn, Bottesini, Goens, Shostakovich, Serventi, Karadimchev" from Entcho Radoukanov and Ingrid Lindgren released last year. The unusual combo of instruments attracted me, and indeed there is a lot to be learned about the diversity of sounds from a double bass - it produces some beautiful sorrowful bits very much like a cello, for example on the Shosto piece near the end of the disk. Worth a listen, very nice Sunday morning music.

The last one is the Erik Friedlander 2010 disk Alchemy. I love it. It's different from his previous best, 2003's Maldoror, but just as good, with his trademark hypnotic cello (often played pizzicato), combined with occasional electronica backdrop.
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