Joshua Redman makes his Blue Note debut with his nuanced 2023 travelog where are we. Along with being his first studio album for the storied jazz label (and his 16th overall), where are we is also his first primarily vocal-oriented production, featuring singer Gabrielle Cavassa. Also joining him is pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Brian Blade. Vocally, the California-born/New Orleans-based Cavassa has a warm sound that bridges the gap between the relaxed style of alt pop artists like Billie Eilish with jazz and R&B luminaries like Billie Holiday and Phyllis Hyman. She fits nicely alongside Redman, whose own burnished tone has always evinced a vocal-like quality. There's a sense throughout the album that Redman is pulling songs from an array of influences. Most emblematic of this broad palette is "Chicago Blues," a heady cross-stitch of Count Basie's "Goin' to Chicago" and indie singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago" that also features Chicago-bred vibraphonist Joel Ross. Redman returns to the hometown concept throughout the album, bringing along several special guests who each play a song associated with the place they grew up. Crescent City-born trumpeter Nicholas Payton jumps on board for a boldly reharmonized take on "Do You Know What It Means," while guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel sprinkles his fusion-influenced lines on a convincingly reworked rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia." We also get New York guitarist Peter Bernstein for an urbane and swinging take on the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart standard "Manhattan." Elsewhere, Cavassa settles into warm readings of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "That's New England," and "Stars Fell on Alabama," all of which bring to mind the relaxed, '50s jazz of singers like June Christy, albeit with a modern creative jazz and classical-inflected artfulness that longtime Redman fans will be familiar with.© Matt Collar /TiVo

There’s a ‘before and after’ Out Of Time in the life of R.E.M. This ‘before’ for Michael Stipe’s band is mainly found on university campuses where the group gained a cult following in the ‘80s… How then did R.E.M. manage to sell 12 million copies of Out Of Time to the world? The answer is that this record was both sublime and austere. An uncompromising album, like the chamber rock such as Nirvana and the Pixies that you’d blast out without caring about pissing off the neighbours in that year of 1992… Always virtuosic, Peter Buck goes from the mandolin to the acoustic guitar with great ease, John Paul Johns from Led Zeppelin sublimely arranges refined chords and Michael Stipe shines with his melancholic and tortured prose with the candor of a man with self-assured belief. Cinemascope ballads prevail, peaking with Everybody Hurts. It must be said, Automatic For The People is not the most easy-flowing album by R.E.M. but it is one of the most beautiful. Released in 2017, this 25th anniversary edition also offers, alongside the remastered album, a live recording from the 40 Watt Club in Athens on the 19th November 1992 with some cover versions like Funtime by Iggy Pop and Love Is All Around by The Troggs. © MD/Qobuz

Initially a trumpet virtuoso, Louis Armstrong's career had a joyous second chapter as a spirited, vividly expressive singer. Amazingly, he knocked The Beatles off the top of the singles chart in 1964 with "Hello, Dolly," one of the two number-one hits of his career. Given his ebullient personality, love of performing and oft-professed devotion to creating happiness among his fans, Armstrong was a natural at singing well-known Christmas songs; his holiday music legacy is grounded in the A and B-sides of the three singles he recorded for Decca in the 1950s. With plenty of strings and a pace that allow him to enunciate and linger on every line, Armstrong's slow renditions of "Winter Wonderland" and "White Christmas," are among the very best of both. "'Zat You, Santa Claus?" is a spooky Halloween/Christmas blend that only a singer of his dexterity could pull off. There is also a jumpy, fast-paced duet with Ella Fitzgerald on "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," which first appeared on the 1957 album Ella and Louis Again. Unrelated to Christmas but a tune that has become his best-known vocal recording, and a worldwide anthem to joy, "What A Wonderful World" is also included. Although it's been controversially linked by some to sexual assault in recent years, "Baby It's Cold Outside," is here in an oft-reissued live version, exemplifying Armstrong's rapport with Velma Middleton, a member of his '50s group The All-Stars. Middleton, who was considered family by Armstrong, is an effective straight woman for his randy implications in the song's trademark back-and-forth. Finally, there is an unreleased version of Clement Moore's poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas," reputed to be Armstrong's final recording, from February, 1971, five months before his passing.  It's beautifully mixed together with new accompaniment from New Orleans pianist Sullivan Fortner. Few days, including Christmas, were ever as merry and bright as Louis Armstrong. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

After filling 2017 with nearly a dozen installments of their Kill Yourself series, New Orleans duo $uicideboy$ issued their long-awaited official debut, I Want to Die in New Orleans (Caroline Records). Landing in the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 upon release, the introspective set dealt with familiar themes for the dark pair, including depression, suicide, and addiction. In addition to the singles "Carrollton" and "Meet Mr. NICEGUY," I Want to Die also included the fourth part of the song saga "I No Longer Fear the Razor Guarding My Heel (IV)."© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

A festive compilation, 2018's Ella & Louis Christmas brings together a hearty mix of holiday-themed songs recorded over the years by trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald. Here we get a cross-section of tracks each artist made on their own, including traditional favorites from Fitzgerald like "Sleigh Ride," "Jingle Bells," and "Frosty the Snowman." There are also several of Armstrong's humorous hipster cuts including "Cool Yule," and "'Zat You, Santa Claus? Also featured are several of their famed duets, including 1951's "Would You Like to Take a Walk?" and 1957's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm."© Matt Collar /TiVo

Having cut an album of standards on his first Warner Brothers album, In a Sentimental Mood (1989), Dr. John turned for its follow-up to a collection of New Orleans standards. On an album he described in the liner notes as "a little history of New Orleans music," Dr. John returned to his hometown and set up shop at local Ultrasonic Studios, inviting in such local musicians as Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, and the Neville Brothers and addressing the music and styles of such local legends as Jelly Roll Morton, Huey "Piano" Smith, Fats Domino, James Booker, and Professor Longhair. The geography may have been circumscribed, but the stylistic range was extensive, from jazz and blues to folk and rock. And it was all played with festive conviction -- Dr. John is the perfect archivist for the music, being one of its primary proponents, yet he had never addressed it quite as directly as he did here.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Turning away from the sweet pop of Out of Time, R.E.M. created a haunting, melancholy masterpiece with Automatic for the People. At its core, the album is a collection of folk songs about aging, death, and loss, but the music has a grand, epic sweep provided by layers of lush strings, interweaving acoustic instruments, and shimmering keyboards. Automatic for the People captures the group at a crossroads, as they moved from cult heroes to elder statesmen, and the album is a graceful transition into their new status. It is a reflective album, with frank discussions on mortality, but it is not a despairing record -- "Nightswimming," "Everybody Hurts," and "Sweetness Follows" have a comforting melancholy, while "Find the River" provides a positive sense of closure. R.E.M. have never been as emotionally direct as they are on Automatic for the People, nor have they ever created music quite as rich and timeless, and while the record is not an easy listen, it is the most rewarding record in their oeuvre.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

"I do one thing/I do it well," Philip Anselmo hoarsely screams to start the "Symptom of the Universe"-inspired "The Man That Follows Hell," but the fact is he's sorely mistaken on one count. The erstwhile Pantera prowler does a heck of a lot more than only one thing, as evidenced by his numerous side projects, of which Down is the most prominent. As for doing it well -- not to say that the long-awaited sophomore disc is a waste of time, but Down II lacks the precision punch of NOLA. Perhaps that's the fault of the debut, which saw the supergroup supersede even the lofty expectations brought about by the pedigree, but even on its own, the second outing suffers from way too much Black Sabbath meets Black Oak (and not nearly enough Black Flag), which wouldn't in and of itself be a bad thing necessarily, except for the one-dimensional portrayal of said influences. The blame, oddly enough, doesn't belong to Anselmo. Even though the mouthpiece is the most prominent, his pipes generally show the range that has allowed the New Orleans native to reach demigod status among metal aficionados, gutturally blasting out tortured-soul lyrics that all seem to address his state of mind and body (legend has it the disc was recorded in a rural Louisiana swamp under the influence of quite a few narcotics). Pepper Keenan's shtick is a holdover from the last couple of Corrosion of Conformity discs, and except for the fact that Anselmo is a much better singer than Keenan and the material is far darker than he usually takes his main project lyrically, much of Down II could have appeared on a new Corrosion of Conformity album and few would have blinked an eye. Which means his contribution to the music is great, but a push in terms of the quality of said roughage. However, the rhythm section of Pantera bass-mate Rex Brown (who replaced Todd Strange for this album) and Jim Bower is the main failing. The thing that made Sabbath and the '70s Southern rock legends great was having prominent rhythm sections that were unique and able to stand on their own. These two are content to provide only the basic, minimal amount of contributions, and merely providing a solid backbeat is not enough to lift the disc from the doldrums. A few tracks stand out, like the almost psychedelic "Beautifully Depressed," which revels in its contradiction, and the closing "Landing on the Mountains of Meggido," a nearly eight-minute epic which is reminiscent Led Zeppelin if they were truly evil and didn't just play the part on TV. But too much of Down II is stuck in somewhat-speedier-than-stoner rock mid-tempos that all run together to form an album that doesn't go nowhere fast or somewhere slow, but just meanders without really ever starting the journey.© Brian O'Neill /TiVo

Steve Goodman's 1971 self-titled album marked the debut of a great new songwriter. "City of New Orleans," which was (then) soon to be a hit for Arlo Guthrie, is the obvious standout, and "You Never Even Call Me by My Name," later a country hit by David Allan Coe in a revised version, is also impressive, but "I Don't Know Where I'm Goin', but I'm Goin' Nowhere in a Hurry Blues" and "Would You Like to Learn Dance?" also show off different sides of this versatile talent. Versatility is the key here, as Goodman broke well out of the "folkie" tag to embrace pop, country, and arcane jazz, including not only his own compositions but also covers of songs by Hank Williams, Johnny Otis, and pal John Prine while utilizing a who's who of Nashville session musicians. Beyond the musical eclecticism, there was also a variety in tone, with gentle evocations of tenderness and humor alternating so that you didn't always know whether Goodman was serious or kidding. At a time when sensitive singer/songwriters were all the rage (a trend that probably earned Goodman his record contract), this was one guy who was at least as interested in picking an old country song as he was in baring his soul. [The 1999 reissue added two bonus tracks, "Election Year Rag," previously unissued in the U.S. and featuring Bob Dylan on piano, and the previously unreleased "Georgia Rag."]© William Ruhlmann /TiVo