Just as his 2023 album On & On wasn't a straightforward Erykah Badu tribute, José James' 2024 follow-up, 1978, isn't merely a throwback to the year of the singer's birth. In essence, a little over half of the set achieves release on the dancefloor and in the bedroom, and the remainder is more reflective and sonically adventurous. Sensuality fuels the first side and seeps into the second side, beginning with a pair of caressing ballads frictionized by Jharis Yokley's twists on Dilla-style drunken drums. The next two songs, rhapsodic, slick, and as seductive as what precedes them, evoke prime Heatwave and Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson -- from Chad Selph's driving low-end synthesizer to Marcus Machado's wriggling rhythm guitar -- distinguished by James' buttery vocals and casual swagger. "Black Orpheus (Don't Look Back)" reverts to ballad mode with a philosophical look at companionship. James cited Leon Ware as an inspiration for the album, and the low-profile Motown legend's work, particularly on Marvin Gaye's I Want You and his own Musical Massage -- landmarks of quiet storm eroticism issued months apart in 1976 -- is especially felt in the love ballads. 1978's sound and vision open up with "Dark Side of the Sun" ("a prayer for broken-hearted people") and "Place of Worship," global gospel-folk fusions with respective featured appearances from stern Congolese-Belgian rapper Baloji and comforting Brazilian singer/songwriter Xênia França. The last two songs are among James' heaviest. Backed by only piano and strings, he delivers a poised outpouring of grief on "For Trayvon," masterfully switching in one early line from solemn baritone to despairing falsetto, and staying in the latter range until fadeout. James then returns to his hometown of Minneapolis for "38th & Chicago," the site of George Floyd's murder. The energy increases for this second song written in response to a racist killing. It's a rolling groove that, in a way, reimagines Marvin Gaye's What's Going On with Ware involved to apply some Afro-Brazilian influence. The breeziness is certainly at odds with James' feelings of terror, anger, and frustration, but its steady propulsion, combined with a burning Machado solo and a Pedrito Martínez conga break, signify resolve, defiance, and power.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Larry Coryell has ventured down many musical paths, but his soul belongs to jazz. These freewheeling excerpts from three live sets at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago find the guitarist at the top of his game, accompanied by an intuitive rhythm section, bassist Larry Gray and drummer Paul Wertico. The opener is a startling "Autumn Leaves," an adventurous wide-ranging performance that begins in a post-bop setting and almost (but not quite) transforms into avant-garde. Coryell's sensuous treatment of "Black Orpheus" and his masterful acoustic solo of "Love Is Here to Stay" also prove to be captivating. "Star Eyes" alternates between a soothing samba and a cooking bop vehicle. He especially brings out the lyrical qualities within George Harrison's "Something" with a soft, spacious solo interpretation. His one original is the funky "Good Citizen Swallow," followed by a brilliant lengthy excursion into Milt Jackson's "Bag's Groove." Live jazz just doesn't get any better than this. © Ken Dryden /TiVo

Alongside Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa (the co-composer of BLACK ORPHEUS) is one of the original trailblazers of the bossa nova sound. Released in 1962 on Verve, PLAYS AND SINGS BOSSA NOVA can safely be certified a classic of the genre. Elegant, lyrical, rhythmic, and a showcase for Bonfa’s deft guitar technique and sweet, unassuming singing, PLAYS AND SINGS is an album that will sound good to almost anyone, at any time.© TiVo

Cinema Serenade came to be as a result of the 1992 collaboration of the world's premier film composer, John Williams, with one of the world's finest violinists, Itzhak Perlman, on the score for Steven Spielberg's Holocaust epic Schindler's List. The duo reunited to create a collection of excerpts from a variety of different film scores presented in new arrangements that are centered around Perlman's violin. Williams arranged most of the numbers and conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The selections are a strange hodgepodge culled haphazardly from some 50 years of film history. As you might expect, the theme from Schindler's List is included. And it's not surprising to find Oscar honored scores like Out of Africa (John Barry) or Il Postino (Luis Bacalov), The Age of Innocence (Elmer Bernstein) and The Color Purple (Quincy Jones, Jeremy Lubbock, Rodney Templeton, Jeff Rosenbaum). But some of the other selections are less predictable. There are songs from musical comedies ("Papa Can You Hear From Me?" from Yentl, "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). There is a Carlos Gardel tango that was used briefly in Scent of a Woman, but was not composed for a film. Most rewardingly, there are some memorable musical selections from the oft-neglected realm of foreign film. In addition to Bacalov's theme from Il Postino, a beautifully sentimental melody with tango-like flourishes, there are excerpts from Luis Bonfa's Black Orpheus, Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso, and Andre Previn's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Perlman's gorgeous solos add breadth and scope to nearly all of the compositions, demonstrating that they work as well in the concert hall as they did in the movie theater. The only real lightweight pieces included were both composed by Williams himself. Far and Away and Sabrina are hardly the brightest points in Williams' career; the scores were nearly as forgettable as the films themselves. (The latter did receive an Oscar nomination for best musical or comedy score, but it never would have been selected if anyone else had written it.) But fans of film music will generally be pleased by this collection, and in some cases may prefer the Perlman versions to the originals.© Evan Cater /TiVo

Only a little over a year old at the time of recording, this incarnation of the Ramsey Lewis Trio -- Ramsey Lewis, Cleveland Eaton, and Maurice White (later of Earth, Wind & Fire) -- were well on their way to the pristine and symbiotic gel that would define their style. They were, however, still undergoing that process when they laid down this "live" set at San Francisco's Basin Street West club in July 1967. It's that somewhat formative vibe that makes this particular performance such a complete and utter joy. Dancing in the Street is this trio's recorded debut and, across a wide range of covers and styles, it's a captivating portrait of contemporary jazz. The title track, a cover of the Martha & the Vandellas R&B classic, is so smooth and stylish that it nearly outshines the original. "Django," meanwhile, is a delightful tribute to the Belgian Gypsy musician Django Reinhardt. Lewis pays further homage to the greats across his cover of the Billy Taylor classic "Mood for Mendes." Also of note is the Ramsey Lewis Trio's rendition of the country song "You Don't Know Me." Originally a hit for Jerry Vale in 1956, it was revisited in 1960 by Lenny Welch and again in 1962 by Ray Charles, and it's from that great bluesman's version that Lewis took his cue with this wonderful jam. These three musicians are a joy to hear, and it's within their far-reaching vision, and the effortless incorporation of so many styles into contemporary jazz, that they were -- and remain -- among the genre's finest. © Amy Hanson /TiVo

Calling Keziah Jones idiosyncratic sorta belabors the obvious, so it should come as no surprise that the opener, "Afrosurrealism for the Ladies," rolls in with a prominent part for...yeah, you got it, bass clarinet. But the music on Jones' discs has shown a downward trend in cohesion, and the Nigerian-born songwriter/guitarist's first disc in four years continues that pattern because it sounds disjointed, and more so the deeper into the disc you go. The funky "KPAFuca" has a lot of rhythm trips and a deep honking baritone sax, and Jones generally remains faithful to his African space-cadet surrealism, but there are fewer attempts to jump up and generate excitement. It's a moodier, more introspective disc and "Femiliarise," "Wet Questions" (with its drums and falsetto vocals), and "Neptune" establish a mellow, drifting acoustic vibe, the last with a jazzy chord progression and Vincent Segal's cello. Makes you wonder if there's maybe a water theme at play here because the effects vaguely bring to mind "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" from Electric Ladyland. The spoken intro to "72 Kilos" cleverly transplants Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" to Lagos, complete with blaring horns to emulate traffic jams, and the lyrics seems to be an autobiographical rundown (the title quantity refers to Nigerian herb). "All Praises" goes dramatic, with Jones' voice flowing along long melody lines anchored by Julian Siegel's bass clarinet again. But nothing else is that memorable, beyond a pretty display of Jones' very individual style on acoustic guitar in "Autumn Moon," and some latter-day Sly Stone vocal moves. Makes you half-wonder if Black Orpheus half-turned into an Unplugged disc somewhere along the way. Jones makes you wonder a lot here. He's never been direct, but seems even more intent on being fractured, fragmented, and abstruse than ever, playing for himself without giving much thought to enticing the listener along for the ride. You have to be really ready and willing to enter his private universe and language, because Black Orpheus demands it.© Don Snowden /TiVo

Alongside Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa (the co-composer of BLACK ORPHEUS) is one of the original trailblazers of the bossa nova sound. Released in 1962 on Verve, PLAYS AND SINGS BOSSA NOVA can safely be certified a classic of the genre. Elegant, lyrical, rhythmic, and a showcase for Bonfa’s deft guitar technique and sweet, unassuming singing, PLAYS AND SINGS is an album that will sound good to almost anyone, at any time.© TiVo

Black Orpheus the film by Marcel Camus, and its soundtrack, were the signposts by which the world first learned of samba and bossa nova and fell in love with it. Therefore, it is staggering to consider that it took until 2008 for a definitive edition of the soundtrack to be released, one that assembled all the songs and music heard in the film. After all, this is the score that created the partnership of composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes, and introduced the brilliant and influential guitarist Luiz Bonfá. Universal France has assembled all the sound recordings into one 17-track volume. These include the two original 45 EPs, and the 10" 33 rpm album, as well as some tracks that have never appeared before now. Given the wild success of the readily recognizable album on both LP and CD over the decades, this amounts to an entirely new hearing of Brazilian music -- bossa was emerging in Rio at the time too, a brand new genre. The sounds of the various samba schools from the carnival parades are accompanied by the gorgeous instrumental interludes by Bonfá (including the now ubiquitous "Manha De Carnaval," written with poet Antonio Mara), and the songs of de Moraes and Jobim (including "A Felicidade," as sung by Elizeth Cardoso). The songs may be well known now; the music of the favelas, as practiced by the escolas de samba with their agogo bells, atabaques drumming, stomping batacuda solos, and duels, folk line chants, and unusual (even now if one thinks about it) blend of African rhythms, dissonance, and extended harmonics, is still revolutionary today. A 13-minute encore medley by Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete that recorded in 1966 at the Monterey Jazz Festival, has been added as a bonus cut, wedding "Manha de Carnaval," to "A Felicidade," and "Samba de Orfeo." The presentation is handsome. There is an exhaustive historical essay by French scholar Anaïs Fléchet, complete discographical information, and photos. The sound quality is only fair, but considering the neglect of the original masters, it's actually remarkable.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Here is Vince Guaraldi's breakthrough album -- musically, commercially, in every which way. After numerous records as a leader or sideman, for the first time a recognizable Guaraldi piano style emerges, with whimsical phrasing all his own, a madly swinging right hand and occasional boogie-influenced left hand, and a distinctive, throat-catching, melodic improvisational gift. The first half of the program is taken up by cover versions of tunes from the Antonio Carlos Jobim/Luiz Bonfa score for the film Black Orpheus, recorded just as bossa nova was taking hold in America. These are genuinely jazz-oriented impressions in a mainstream boppish manner, with only a breath of samba from Monty Budwig (bass) and Colin Bailey (drums) in the opening minute of "Samba de Orpheus"; an edited version of this haunting song was issued as a 45 rpm single. But DJs soon began flipping the single over to play the B-side, a wistful, unforgettably catchy Guaraldi tune called "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" that opens the North American half of the album. The tune became a surprise hit; Fantasy redesigned the cover to call attention to it, and Vince was on his way to fame as one of Latin and mainstream jazz's most irresistible composers. The whole album evokes the ambience of San Francisco's jazz life in the 1960s as few others do -- and such is this record's appeal that even non-jazz and non-Latin music people have been grooving to this music ever since it came out.© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo

Here is Vince Guaraldi's breakthrough album -- musically, commercially, in every which way. After numerous records as a leader or sideman, for the first time a recognizable Guaraldi piano style emerges, with whimsical phrasing all his own, a madly swinging right hand and occasional boogie-influenced left hand, and a distinctive, throat-catching, melodic improvisational gift. The first half of the program is taken up by cover versions of tunes from the Antonio Carlos Jobim/Luiz Bonfa score for the film Black Orpheus, recorded just as bossa nova was taking hold in America. These are genuinely jazz-oriented impressions in a mainstream boppish manner, with only a breath of samba from Monty Budwig (bass) and Colin Bailey (drums) in the opening minute of "Samba de Orpheus"; an edited version of this haunting song was issued as a 45 rpm single. But DJs soon began flipping the single over to play the B-side, a wistful, unforgettably catchy Guaraldi tune called "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" that opens the North American half of the album. The tune became a surprise hit; Fantasy redesigned the cover to call attention to it, and Vince was on his way to fame as one of Latin and mainstream jazz's most irresistible composers. The whole album evokes the ambience of San Francisco's jazz life in the 1960s as few others do -- and such is this record's appeal that even non-jazz and non-Latin music people have been grooving to this music ever since it came out. © Richard S. Ginell /TiVo

Featuring tracks culled from eight of her albums, beginning fittingly enough with 1989's Eliane Elias Plays Jobim, Blue Note has compiled a strong collection of pianist Eliane Elias' Brazilian jazz cuts on Brazilian Classics. Elias' classically influenced touch is evident here on such standards as Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Chega de Saudade" and "One Note Samba," as well as her medley of Milton Nascimento works off her 1992 Fantasia release. While it would have been nice for Blue Note to include some rarities or alternate takes, as it stands Brazilian Classics works as a fitting representation of Elias' take on her home country's unique sound.© Matt Collar /TiVo