When you're an institution like Paul Simon, and strictly speaking you don't have anything to prove, you can do whatever you like. So surely Art Garfunkel's former bandmate was doing exactly that when he recorded this ample (two hours!) live set in Hyde Park in London on 15 July 2012, as part of the Hard Rock Calling Festival. As so often in this kind of situation, when the artist possesses an XXL-sized body of work and discography, the recording plays the role of a kind of Best Of. And that is precisely what it is. All Paul Simon’s hits get an airing here, in pretty vigorous versions. The concert reunites Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who were present on the album Graceland, but also features a guest appearance by the great Jimmy Cliff. Solo career (Kodachrome, Graceland, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover) or works from the Simon & Garfunkel period (The Boxer), nothing is missing from this first-rate performance. © CM/Qobuz

On his third album, Will to Live, Ben Harper strengthens his populist folk with a grittier groove, which even borders on funk, that makes his music more immediate. Harper still has a tendency to preach, yet his melodies are catchier than before, and he has a better sense of rhythm, helping his bluesy songs catch hold.© Leo Stanley /TiVo

Released while Paul Simon was in the thick of his Homeward Bound farewell tour of North America, Graceland: The Remixes pushes his monumental 1986 album into the realm of modern electronic music. Considering how Simon wrote nearly all of the album's songs to rhythmic tracks, it's a curious choice and the execution is even curiouser, as the assorted DJs -- including Paul Oakenfold, Groove Armada, Thievery Corporation, and Photek -- essentially keep large portions of the vocal tracks in place and ditch everything surrounding them, including the elastic bass and winding guitars. This is a relatively standard move for remixers, so it isn't unexpected, but it dramatically alters the feel of the Graceland material, turning something fluid into something flat. Matters are complicated by how the vocal tracks are the only elements that survive, a decision that keeps the tracks recognizable as melodies but not songs. Every cut feels diminished without the original backing musicians, and while there are some nice chillout grooves scattered through this remix album, it's not enough to sustain interest.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

On his third album, Will to Live, Ben Harper strengthens his populist folk with a grittier groove, which even borders on funk, that makes his music more immediate. Harper still has a tendency to preach, yet his melodies are catchier than before, and he has a better sense of rhythm, helping his bluesy songs catch hold.© Leo Stanley /TiVo

In an interview promoting 2020's fine Blues Bash, guitarist Duke Robillard stated, "I want to make a straight vintage-style blues album ... danceable blues ... like the blues records I bought as a kid." This notion may have guided him in recording They Called It Rhythm and Blues, too. The majority of these 18 songs are beautifully crafted covers of vintage R&B, blues, and jazz tunes. Robillard's band -- vocalist Chris Cote, pianist/organist Bruce Bears, bassist Marty Ballou, drummer Mark Teixeira, and saxophonist Doug James -- are drenched in swinging earthiness playing these R&B, jump, and rowdy blues jams. Robillard appended them with fine guest singers and instrumentalists; everybody approaches the material with sophistication and spontaneity. Cote sings six songs, including the opener, Chuck Higgins' gritty, fingerpopping, "Here I'm Is," atop Robillard's stinging fills and James' moaning tenor framing a piano and snare shuffle. He also delivers a riveting vocal on Joe "The Honeydripper" Liggins' piano-pumping, horn-drenched party anthem "In the Wee Wee Hours" and Freddie King's Big Joe Turner instrument "Someday After Awhile." Mickey & Sylvia's "No Good Lover" features a vocal-and-guitar duet between singer/axe slinger Sue Foley, as well as a choogling organ break by Texas bluesman Mike "The Drifter" Flanigin. Kim Wilson joins his former Fabulous Thunderbirds bandmate on vocals and wailing harmonica in a raw, spirited, spiky revisit of "Tell Me Why," with pumping piano by Matt McCabe. Further, Wilson reprises his NOLA-inspired R&B stroller "The Things I Forgot to Do." Speaking of harmonica, Chicago's Sugar Ray Norcia lends his voice and snaky harp to a roiling tribute to Big Walter Horton on Tampa Red's "Rambler's Blues," and puts the party into overdrive with a version of a Louis Jordan-inspired read of Jimmy Nelson's "She's My Baby." The W.C. Handy Award-winning Michelle Willson lends her resonant voice to Effie Smith's jump groover "Champagne Mind" and Richard M. Jones' immortal "Trouble in Mind." Robillard's gently swinging solo on the latter underscores her smoky performance, framing it with a muted trumpet -- sounding like the ghost of Bix Biederbecke -- and throaty baritone sax. John Hammond offers a scorching vocal on Melvin "Lil' Son" Jackson's Bessie Smith vehicle "Homeless Blues, and Howlin' Wolf's lonely, sinister "No Place to Go." Robillard and Anita Suhanin duet on the guitarist's "Outta Here" amid greasy guitars, Stax-styled horns, and Bears' bumping B-3 grooves. Robillard sings on what may be the first recorded cover of Texas bluesman Zuzu Bollin's R&B groover "Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept Last Night?" His instrumental set-closer "Swingin' for Four Bills" is a soulful exercise in bluesy soul-jazz with Flanigin's B-3 and Foley's guitar. It's Robillard's tribute to organists Bill Doggett and Wild Bill Davis, and guitarists Bill Jennings and Billy Butler. They Called It Rhythm and Blues showcases Robillard at a peak: We already appreciate him as a guitar giant and blues, jazz, and R&B scholar, but here he reveals himself as a generous accompanist, accommodating bandleader, and sympathetic producer to boot. © Thom Jurek /TiVo