Swiss-born harmonica player and composer Grégoire Maret is based in New York, and a first-call sideman and collaborator for a wide range of musicians including Pat Metheny, Elton John, Meshell Ndegeocello, Terri Lynne Carrington, and Marcus Miller. French-born pianist Romain Collin attended Boston's Berklee College of Music and stayed. He leads his own trio and plays duo dates with Maret. Guitarist Bill Frisell needs no introduction; he is the aesthetic anchor here as well as the date's supreme colorist.Americana is a love letter from two immigrants to their adopted home. For Maret, that's doubly true: his mother is from Harlem. The program contains original compositions by all three men as well as three covers. The opener is a reading of Mark Knopfler's "Brothers in Arms," and delivers the set's initial surprise: It's played by Maret and Collin. The two ACT labelmates perform this paean of affirmation and commitment as quietly and gently as a lullaby. Frisell's "Small Town" reprises the roots aesthetic the guitarist showcased on albums such as Nashville (1997) and Disfarmer (2009). Initiated in Maret's high-middle register, its melody recalls the music of the Civil War, underscored by the guitarist's use of a banjo alongside his electric six-string. Collin's chord voicings add color, texture, and nuance, drawing the melody's emotion into the open. While the tune's structure is simple, the canny, sensitive interplay is not. Collin's "San Luis Obispo" is a straight-up country tune and he uses an upright piano. Frisell states the melody before winding it out with slippery, single-string statements and impressionistic chord voicings before handing it off to Maret, who takes over and interacts with Collin. The harmonicist's "Back Home" is initiated by Collin with a cascading single-note pattern embellished by fragmentary chords. Maret's lovely yet intensely lonesome chromaticism never plays extra notes; he allows them full voice as guest Clarence Penn's brushed snare adds emphasis. The reading of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman" begins with an airy statement from Frisell before Maret claims the melody atop Collin's gospel-inflected chords. Frisell strums an acoustic underneath them and embellishes with his Telecaster. All three men alternate in offering small improvisations on the changes and lyric to quietly stunning effect. The set's longest number is a cover of Justin Vernon's "Re: Stacks"; its original version appeared on Bon Iver's stripped-to-the-bone debut For Emma, Forever Ago. Acoustic and electric guitars frame the margins of Collin's gentle yet interrogative piano pulse as Maret makes the lyric melody breathe with long doubled notes. Its movement is leisurely with ghostly reverbed piano hovering around Frisell's strummed changes and single-string lines. The sonic abstractions offered by Collin's Moog Taurus and pump organ continue with the harmonica as a nearly ambient interlude that bleeds over into their joint improvisation "Still." Americana is imbued with warmth and tenderness throughout. It's an endearing portrait of the intimate side of American life. These songs echo collective and individual memories as well as idiosyncratic sense impressions of those that are hoped for.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

The recorded repertoire of Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe is centered on Bach, but stretches from the Renaissance to Mahler and Bruckner. Regardless of era, he seems to do best in sober, complex structures that he can unpack with a combination of perfect control and great surface beauty. He has rarely obtained more perfect results than with this recording of works by the towering figure of the Spanish Renaissance, Tomás Luís de Victoria. The Officium Defunctorum, described in the album annotations as a swan song, in fact fulfilled that role both for its dedicatee, the Empress Maria of Spain (Victoria's longtime employer), and for Victoria himself, who wrote nothing else after publishing this music in 1605; he died in 1611. The Offices consist of a requiem mass (Missa pro defunctis), a pair of motets, and a Libera me separate from the mass. The collection seems disparate, but everything is knit together in Victoria's setting. Each section absorbs plainchant seamlessly into the texture, and the overall somber mood is broken by the anguished pleas of the Offertory, asking God for deliverance from the trials of Hell. Herreweghe deploys a 13-voice version (all adults, mixed gender) of his Collegium Vocale here; many of the singers are stars of modest repute on their own, and the vocal textures he draws from them are awesomely rich despite the restricted palette of the music. A selection of Victoria motets rounds out the program, and any one of them would be worth the purchase price. Renaissance choral singing just does not get better than this.© TiVo

Romance features the usual smooth, well-crafted pop ear candy from Luis Miguel, earnestly sung over strings and polite Latin rhythms. This may be a concept CD: each tune title is preceded by a year, which one assumes refers to its year of composition or original release. There are printed lyrics, albeit in a totally different song order, and no liner notes explain what listeners are to make of this presentation. Ultimately, it doesn't matter; the title of the release says it all.© Janet Rosen /TiVo

Predictably, this debut album by a sort of Tex-Mex Traveling Wilburys is a delight. Forty percent of the Sir Douglas Quintet -- Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers -- is represented, along with Freddy Fender and accordionist Flaco Jimenez. The album reflects the differing strains that each brings to the music, from the more pop/country approach of Sahm and Meyers to Fender's bluesy singing and Jimenez's Mexican playing. An all-star project that brings out the best in its members, Texas Tornados is a landmark Tex-Mex album. (The track "Soy de San Luis" won the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Mexican/American Performance.)© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

20 Años is an album from prolific Mexican superstar Luis Miguel. Just 20 years old when it was released in 1990, the album represents Miguel’s successful transition from teen idol to full-on pop star, and sold over 600,000 in the first week of its release.© Gregory Heaney /TiVo

Luis Miguel has built a sizable catalog since the early '90s, providing a variety of Latin pop albums that have ranged from excellent to merely decent. The Mexican superstar has recorded his share of gems, although at times, he has played it safe and coasted on his considerable talent. But there is no coasting on México el la Piel (Mexico in the Flesh), which is undeniably one of the finest, most enriching albums of his career. Unlike much of his catalog, this 2004 release isn't strictly an album of Latin pop; Miguel favors a more classically Mexican approach this time, embracing well-known Mexican standards and celebrating the country's rich mariachi and ranchera heritage. Miguel, in fact, is joined by none other than Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, a Mexican institution that goes all the way back to the late 1890s. Over the years, the mariachi powerhouse has had numerous lineup changes -- and all of the original members, of course, have long since passed away. But then, Mariachi Vargas at this point is really about a sound, a culture, and a tradition rather than individual members; they have long functioned as Mexico's finest repertory band, and the 2004 edition of Mariachi Vargas is a definite asset for Miguel on Mexican standards like José Alfredo Jiménez's "Un Mundo Raro," Federico Méndez's "De Que Manera Te Olvido," and Alvaro Carrillo's "Luz de Luna." Miguel really soars on those gems as well as on "Paloma Querida" (another Jiménez classic) and a stunning performance of Consuelo Velásquez's "Que Seas Feliz" that has been used as the theme for Apuesta por un Amor, the telenovela (Latin soap opera) that replaced the popular Rubí on the Univision network after it concluded. Among non-Latino audiences, "Que Seas Feliz" isn't as well known as "Besame Mucho." But the song is a longtime favorite in Mexico, and Miguel has no problem doing Velásquez's poignant lyrics justice. Miguel has every reason to be proud of México el la Piel, which is definitely among his most essential releases.© Alex Henderson /TiVo

There's so much myth surrounding Latin pop star Luis Miguel -- a man who rubbed shoulders with Sinatra and can't turn around without winning an award -- that it's hard to imagine him standing on a stage interacting with a real live audience. Nevertheless, it's something he does all the time, to packed houses the world over, and Vivo stands as an effective document of the live Luis Miguel experience. Despite the intimidation factor inherent in someone of Miguel's status, he seems refreshingly real, shouting playfully to the crowd, and investing all his energy into his performance. The music moves mostly from lightly grooving Latin pop/R&B to lushly romantic numbers, and Miguel's singing is inevitably consistent, as he wraps the crowd around his little finger.© TiVo

After seven years in the hinterlands of controversy, legal issues with a former representative, and canceled concerts, Luis Miguel returns in grand style with the chart-topping ¡México por Siempre!, his second mariachi album. Evidence of its quality surfaced in October with the pre-release single "La Fiesta del Mariachi," featuring the surprise accompaniment of the celebrated El Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, one of the tradition's greatest bands. Each song on this 14-track set is a classic mariachi number, all perfectly suited for Miguel's golden, passionate voice. Other highlights among the classics include "El Balajú," "¿Por Qué Te Conocí?" and Miguel's nearly inimitable version of José Alfredo Jiménez's "Sin Sangre en las Venas."© TiVo

This compilation album reunites on one CD all the greatest boleros from the "Romances" series (six albums, starting with 1989's Romance and ending with 2001's Mis Romances). After four albums in which Luis Miguel recreated the classic tunes from the genre, this album is supposed to close this era. Some of the greatest hits in Spanish, in any genre, are included here, like "No Sé Tú," "Somos Novios," "El Día Que me Quieras," and "Solamente una Vez." There's only one new song: the bonus track "Hasta Que Vuelvas." The first edition included a bonus DVD with seven videos. For any die-hard fan, this is the only reason to buy this album. If you don't have any of the "Romances" series' boleros, and you are looking for classic songs and good vocal performances, then this is the right album for you.© Iván Adaime /TiVo