It's hard not to hear Brenton Wood's biggest hit, "Gimme Little Sign," and not be convinced that it very well might be the greatest single ever cut. It relies on no one thing -- the song is slinky, surprising, and ...

Michael Buble's third major US release (including the mostly live COME FLY WITH ME) stays on message--this young Canadian loves the lush, swaying music of his parents' and grandparents' generations. Buble's albums, however, are much more than mere back-in-the-day exercises. ...

Recorded between 1977 & 1991. Includes liner notes by Clayton Riley. There have been numerous attempts at summarizing Phyllis Hyman's career on one disc. Most have been severely flawed, whether it has come down to missing hit singles or poor selection ...

All-Time Greatest Hits is a 12-track budget-priced collection that features some of Dean Martin's biggest hits on Capitol Records, including "That's Amore," "You Belong to Me," "Memories Are Made of This," "Volare," "Standing on the Corner," and "You're Nobody 'Til ...

If ever there was a musical populist of the big-band era who managed to hang on into the rock & roll era, it was bandleader/vocalist Vaughn Monroe. Monroe's pleasant baritone vocalizing fit like a glove around the smooth love ballads ...

Although the plaudits for Melody Gardot's debut album, WORRISOME HEART, were entirely justified, it sometimes seemed as if the young singer-songwriter's compelling personal story--hit by a car and severely injured at the age of 19, the aspiring fashion designer began ...

A three-disc grab-bag of tunes by country supergroup the Highwaymen, this self-titled collection actually consists ofsolo tracks by each of the quartet's famous members--Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings. A number of the tracks are live versions. Triple ...

Boney James comes back from car accident injuries that jeopardized his embouchure and makes his label debut with Contact on Verve Forecast Records. But, really, it's just steady-as-she-goes musically, as the contemporary jazz saxophonist turns in a typical set of ...

While there's no shortage of Glenn Miller collections, there aren't many that rival Bluebird/Legacy's THE ESSENTIAL GLENN MILLER. This two-disc, 38-track compilation covers the peak years of the iconic bandleader/trombonist's career, and includes a welcome handful of numbers recorded with ...

Rhino's 2001 retrospective The Very Best of Miki Howard is a generous, near-definitive overview of Howard's biggest R&B hits from the '80s. She didn't have many crossover hits, but she did have numerous entries on the R&B charts, all of ...

The follow-up to his smash 2009 concert album Live in Boston, Chris Botti's studio album Impressions features more of the cool trumpeter's crossover jazz, pop, and classical stylings. Focusing on Botti's love of melody, Impressions is an aesthetically varied album ...

ACAPELLA CHRISTMAS comprises ten carols from jazz vocalists The Manhattan Transfer, including "Winter Wonderland" and "White Christmas." Manhattan Transfer's stunningly tight-knit harmonies make a versatile palette for numerous styles of music. Since their emergence in the late 1960s the quartet has ...

"Never Lookin' Back," the opening track to Kenny Wayne Shepherd's first studio album in seven years, and his studio debut for Roadrunner, is a contradiction because he does exactly that, at least musically. Last time out, the guitarist experimented with ...

Track Listing: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; Santa Claus Is Coming To Town; Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm; Christmas Song, The; Little Drummer Boy, The; Frosty The ...

Rio, the double-disc solo concert recording by Keith Jarrett, marks his 40th anniversary as an ECM recording artist; coincidentally, Facing You, his debut for the label, was a solo piano recording, though cut in a studio. Many of Jarrett's improvised ...

Apparently, Etta James' musical career ends with The Dreamer. The legendary vocalist announced a few months back that this would be her final album; she's retiring from music in order to deal with serious medical issues. Co-produced by James, Josh ...

Richard Elliot's In the Zone picks up where 2009's Rock Steady left off. Where that album paid tribute to the saxophonist's R&B heroes, In the Zone, which marks Elliot's 25th anniversary as a recording artist, offers a thank-you to the ...

Liner Note Authors: Jack Jezzro; Beggie Adair. Recording information: Wildwood Recording. Personnel: Beggie Adair (piano); Chris Brown (drums). Audio Mixer: Brendan Harkin.

There's nothing particularly Appalachian about this set, other than the cover, really, but it is a graceful and balanced holiday album featuring Mark O'Connor's brilliant fiddle playing on several Christmas classics, along with friends and guests Renée Fleming, Alison Krauss, ...

Let's put the hook in right from the jump: Echoes of Indiana Avenue is perhaps the most significant release of previously unissued material by a major jazz artist since the The Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall ...

2011 marked the 30th anniversary of Acoustic Alchemy; it was back in 1981 that Simon James and the late Nick Webb, Acoustic Alchemy's original co-leaders, started working together. These days, Acoustic Alchemy have two different co-leaders: Greg Carmichael and Miles ...

One of the challenges of being a mega-successful producer and artist whose talents run deeper and more diverse than what you're known for is trying to find a few spots to showcase that deeper soul in the midst of the ...

The 1963 Impulse! Records LP John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman helped to redefine the renowned jazz saxophonist by pairing him with a singer on a collection of standards, showing that Coltrane wasn't (or wasn't only) an avant-gardist bent on playing ...

When Jeff Lorber reignited the Jeff Lorber Fusion in 2010 with Now Is the Time, he sought to re-examine the very music he'd helped to establish: contemporary jazz. Its instrumental tracks were solid and satisfying, but the vocal cuts lacked, ...

This 34-track collection features a quality sampling of Herb Alpert's most sought-after tracks from the '60s to the '80s. Highlights include the original versions of "What Now My Love," "This Guys in Love with You," "Spanish Flea," and "Rise." Recommended ...