A serpent woman haunts Cecile McLorin Salvant's dreams on her boldly realized seventh album, 2023's Mélusine. Inspired by the European folktale most famously detailed by 14th century French writer Jean d'Arras, Mélusine tells the tale of a shapeshifting maiden, half-serpent/half-woman, whose righteous anger takes on ever-more dualistic meanings under Salvant's dynamic musical sway. Having been lavished with accolades, including several Grammy Awards for her clarion, swinging jazz and French chanson-infused albums, Salvant has increasingly leaned into the more stylistically experimental and personal aspects of her artistry. It was an approach she took to new levels with 2022's Ghost Song, performing her poetic originals alongside unexpected covers of songs by Kate Bush and Sting. Centered on the title track, which she composed during the Ghost Song sessions, Mélusine is a gorgeously realized production. Although there are some English lyrics here, the album features the most French Salvant has sung on record. Thankfully, she offers translations of each song with a sentence that also highlights how each track illuminates the story.The album also finds Salvant (who produced the album with Tom Korkidis) pulling together all of her disparate influences, from her moody cabaret jazz reading of Charles Trenet's "La Route Enchantee" to her playfully mischievous interpretation of the 14th century composition "Dites Moi Que Je Suis Belle," the latter of which is done in dancerly duet with djembe percussion master Weedie Braimah. Along with Braimah, she's joined throughout by several longtime associates including pianists Sullivan Fortner and Aaron Diehl, bassists Paul Sikivie and Luques Curtis, drummers Kyle Pool and Obed Calvaire, and saxophonist Godwin Louis. Shifting the line-up track to track, Salvant offers inspired forays into '70s sci-fi-inspired Canadian musical theater ("Petite Musique Terrienne" from Starmania), the dramatic French pop of Veronique Sanson ("Le Temps est Assassin"), and an Afro-Latin take on 12th century troubadour Almuc Castelnau's "Dame Iseut" that Salvant sings in both Occitan and Haitian Creole, languages that underline her own rich dual heritage. There's even a synthesizer-accented take on Michel Lambert's haunting 1660 air de coeur "D'un Feu Secret" that sounds like electronic composer Suzanne Ciani, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Modern Jazz Quartet giving a Baroque court performance. Her originals here are just as stylistically wide-ranging as she pulls together jazz and Haitian compas rhythms on "Doudou," accompanies herself on analog synth on "Wedo," and weaves a dreamy overlay of vocals and electric piano on "Aida." It almost goes without saying that Salvant's voice is utterly sublime on Mélusine, rich with an earthy jazz warmth on one song and shimmering with a brightly attenuated operatic resonance on another. There's also a feeling that for her, the story of a half-serpent half-woman is in keeping with her life as a Black woman raised in Miami by a Haitian father and French mother. Whether it's with the themes of romantic heartbreak and bodily autonomy, or the global boundary-pushing musicality at play on Mélusine, Salvant's work is transcendent.© Matt Collar /TiVo

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones is the fifth score that John Williams has written for George Lucas' Star Wars series and, by this point, he knows the lay of the land. Not just that, but his themes for the series -- from the main title to the march of the Storm Troopers -- are embedded in the consciousness of any filmgoer, so he could be excused for coasting and delivering simply what is expected of him on this score, given that it arrives five films into the series. But, The Phantom Menace changed that for the entire franchise by not quite living up to expectations. Visually, it was a knockout, but by many standards, it was a flat origin story, highlighted by some great flights of fancy. Judged on its own, however, Williams' score was quite impressive, particularly because it introduced a legitimate new masterwork in "The Duel of Fates" section. Given this, he didn't have much to prove with Attack of the Clones, but he still outdoes himself here (hopefully mirroring the reported rejuvenation of the series with this film), producing a thrilling atmospheric score that is so effective, it feels as if you're watching the film unfold before your eyes, even if you've never seen it before. Williams doesn't broaden his palette the way he did with Phantom Menace, where he spent a lot of time with African drums, but instead consolidates the strengths of the series, occasionally adding an unexpected twist -- such as the squalling electric guitar on "Zam the Assassin and the Chase through Coruscant" -- while developing another seemingly classic theme with its "Love Theme" (perhaps sappy, but effective all the same). This is enough, since it's an exciting, dramatic score that telegraphs the rush of the full film as effectively as watching the film. [Spoiler Warning! Although the track listing doesn't go to the extreme of Episode I, which actually gave away Qui-Gon's death with a track title, the tracks of this album do give away the structure of the film through its titles, even if no explicit twists are revealed.]© TiVo

This beautifully packaged album consists of seasonal songs and music from around France and is Malicorne's most consistently excellent album.© Steve Winick /TiVo