When the pandemic drove Kristian Matsson from New York City back to his farm in Sweden he felt enveloped by silence, stating frankly in his current bio, "I lost my imagination." Fortunately, when the singer-songwriter/guitarist who goes under the nom de stage The Tallest Man on Earth began to tour again his creative dam burst: "When I'm in motion, I can focus on my instinct, have my daydreams again." After writing twenty songs in ten days, some of which became his seventh full length Henry St., Matsson, initially a throwback Dylan devotee, decided that for the first time in his career he needed a band around him to flesh out his creations. It's a welcome new flavor, although, other than drummer TJ Maiani, who occasionally makes his presence felt—mostly via brushes—players like Ryan Gustafson of Sylvan Esso (guitar, lap steel), Bon Iver's CJ Camerieri (horns) and Rob Moose (strings) are mostly just background as Matsson's voice, consistently able to reach for emotion and urgency, is the star here, along with the songs, many of them with appealing melodic turns, like the opener "Bless You." In "Major League" he plays a jaunty banjo and sings lines about Cleveland, a Randy Newman song and how "I'm just waiting on a word from America." His sometimes home in the New World reappears in the title track as this "little dude" ponders his physical and emotional travels, "In the scape of songs/ I know I'm wrong/ I just feel it right/ I swim the world/ In my wishing well/ I just don't know if I can take it anymore." After Dylan, the strong and often high voiced Mattson, whose phrasing is occasionally reminiscent of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, is also a student of '60s troubadours, borrowing the attitude and bounce of early Cat Stevens in "In Your Garden Still." Determined to pound on eternal and unanswerable questions until some meaning seeps out, in "Italy" he admits, "I know that I stay with the life I dream and part of it shows" before coming to the only honest answer possible, "But I don't know of a way out in the river of time." Persistently inquiring in each song on Henry St., Matsson the searcher continues his quest. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Recorded at the Montreux Festival of 1986, The New Tango is an album of collaboration between the undisputed leader of the nuevo tango movement, Astor Piazzolla, and American vibe master Gary Burton. All of the pieces on the album were written by Piazzolla over the course of some 40 years of work, along with one special composition, "Vibraphonissimo," written expressly for Burton's usage. Surprisingly enough -- given the virtuosity and coherence that one receives on the album -- there were a mere three rehearsals prior to the recorded performance. As the listener finds out, the vibraphone is perfectly suited to the tango; or at the very least, that Gary Burton is fully capable of the job. As with all of Piazzolla's albums, the chances of disappointment are quite slim, with a special amount of attention given here to details by all musicians involved. Any fan of the nuevo tango or Piazzolla will be pleased as usual. Fans of Gary Burton or jazz vibes may find the album surprisingly good as it shows the versatility of the vibraphonist. As Fernando Gonzalez once said, "this music knows many dialects. And listens. There are no lines drawn and no sides to defend. This is new tango."© Adam Greenberg /TiVo

Even before Stephen Bishop (guitar, trombone, vocals) issued his debut long-player, Careless, in 1978, he'd already become a music industry insider. Bishop was discovered by Art Garfunkel in the 1970s as a publisher, where he penned songs for a diversity of artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to the Four Tops. His well-crafted melodies were matched by his strengths as a lyricist, evoking strong imagery with more than a touch of organic whimsy. This album is a star-studded affair, and among the talent on hand is Rufus vocalist Chaka Kahn, who had previously been the recipient of a few Bishop compositions. Eric Clapton contributes guitar to several cuts, including some tasty electric slide work on the midtempo rocker "Sinking in an Ocean of Tears," and both Kahn and Clapton are featured on the light and faintly tropical Top 40 entry "Save It for a Rainy Day." The biggest hit extracted from Careless is truly the stuff of adult contemporary heaven, as the somnolent "On and On" made it all the way to number 11 on the Pop Singles survey in early 1977. There are shades of other '70s singer/songwriters such as Harry Chapin and Janis Ian throughout, especially on the portentous and introspective ode "Madge," made all the more affective as Bishop's lone acoustic guitar accompaniment is increasingly poignant thanks to the stirring orchestration from Lee Holdridge. The quirky verses and adeptly placed chord changes on the title track, "Careless," stand out, bearing a bit of a resemblance to Paul McCartney's "Here, There and Everywhere," with an ever so slightly lilting gait ably pushing the melody forward. Bishop demonstrates his inimitable tongue-in-cheek wit on "Rock and Roll Slave." With a name like that, one might expect a ballsy and uptempo slasher, right? Listeners will be pleasantly surprised as the artist's phraseology is particularly stellar, with examples including "There'll be a million tomorrows tonight." Enthusiasts of the genre will not be disappointed with Careless, which was resurrected onto compact disc in 2005 by Hip-O Select -- available exclusively online at www.hip-oselect.com -- after nearly two decades out of print. There is even a miniaturized double-sided four-panel poster, replicating the original LP inner sleeve artwork and lyrics.© Lindsay Planer /TiVo

The vocal quintet Bell'Aria was assembled through auditions from singers responding to an ad in Backstage magazine for the purpose of creating an act to play in Las Vegas. (Who placed the ad? Their press biography doesn't say, but a good guess might be Ian Ralfini, credited as executive producer of this album.) The idea of the act might be described as a cross between the Rat Pack and the Three Tenors, with a heavy distaff participation, three women (Jessica Carvo, Angelica DiCastro, and Miriam Pultro) joining two men (the baritone Gabriel Burrafato and the tenor Christopher Macchio) to sing Italian-oriented music ranging from 1950s pop standards popularized by the likes of Dean Martin to opera arias by Verdi. The inevitable album version of the act (which debuted at the Venetian in August 2010) mixes just that sort of music, with a higher complement of pop than opera. In solos, duets, trios, quartets, and quintets, the five young singers address songs like "Volare," "That's Amore," and "Be My Love" on the one hand, and "Brindisi" from La Traviata on the other. If this is a gimmick, so was the concept of the Three Tenors, and, having passed their auditions, these are five talented singers. There may be no personality voices like those of Martin or Louis Prima, nor voices of the distinction of Mario Lanza, but the singers do creditable jobs with the material. It's hard to believe there's more than one more album in this concept, but as a souvenir of a Vegas act aimed at Italian-Americans, it was at least worth doing once.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo