The potential for a collaboration between B.B. King and Eric Clapton is enormous, of course, and the real questions concern how it is organized and executed. This first recorded pairing between the 74-year-old King and the 55-year-old Clapton was put together in the most obvious way: Clapton arranged the session using many of his regular musicians, picked the songs, and co-produced with his partner Simon Climie. That ought to mean that King would be a virtual guest star rather than earning a co-billing, but because of Clapton's respect for his elder, it nearly works the other way around. The set list includes lots of King specialties -- "Ten Long Years," "Three O'Clock Blues," "Days of Old," "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer" -- as well as standards like "Hold on I'm Coming" and "Come Rain or Come Shine," with some specially written and appropriate recent material thrown in, so King has reason to be comfortable without being complacent. The real danger is that Clapton will defer too much; though he can be inspired by a competing guitarist such as Duane Allman, he has sometimes tended to lean too heavily on accompanists such as Albert Lee and Mark Knopfler when working with them in concert. That danger is partially realized; as its title indicates, Riding With the King is more about King than it is about Clapton. But the two players turn out to have sufficiently complementary, if distinct, styles so that Clapton's supportive role fills out and surrounds King's stinging single-string playing. (It's also worth noting that there are usually another two or three guitarists on each track.) The result is an effective, if never really stunning, work.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

On his first album in more than five years, Jimmy Smith, who turned 75 shortly before the release date, attempts the soul-jazz version of what Santana did on Supernatural -- heavily featuring guest stars in an attempt to broaden his appeal. The basic band consists of Smith on organ, Reggie McBride on bass guitar, and Harvey Mason on drums, but this trio is never featured alone, although four tracks feature the trio joined only by guitarist Russell Malone -- "C C Rider," "Mood Indigo" (with John Clayton replacing McBride on acoustic bass), and two new Smith originals, the title track and "Tuition Blues." (On a fifth song, a remake of Smith's "8 Counts for Rita," the quartet is joined by percussionist Lenny Castro.) Not surprisingly, these are the most jazz-oriented performances on the album. The rest of the disc takes a blues turn, with Dr. John contributing vocals and piano on his own composition, the lead-off track "Only in It for the Money"; Taj Mahal singing and playing guitar on his own "Strut"; Etta James singing the Muddy Waters hit "I Just Wanna Make Love to You"; Keb' Mo' taking guitar and vocal duties on his composition "Over & Over"; and B.B. King doing the same on his old favorite "Three O'Clock Blues." Thus, half the album is given over to guest stars who sing, making this the most vocal-dominated album ever released under Jimmy Smith's name. As a consequence, it is also something of a blues sampler with Smith playing a prominent role rather than a Jimmy Smith album. Jazz fans will be happy to know that, after more than 40 years of recording, Smith retains his ability to play, but Dot Com Blues is anything but a showcase for the man whose name is on the cover.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Texas guitar ace Gary Clark, Jr., who at his best sounds like nothing so much as the past and the future of the blues, has been compared to guitar icons like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. His playing is a powerful and inspired mix of blues roots with some contemporary soul and hip-hop touches, but it remains the blues always, and the blues is perhaps even more central to his sound than it was for either Hendrix or Vaughan. Clark's major-label debut, 2012's Blak and Blu, stretched the blues thing a bit thin in places, and it only partially resembled his live sets, which were wild, gritty, and often beautifully elegant surveys of electric blues, with Clark's solid originals settling nicely with vintage covers, all with no frills and gimmick-free. Clark, for all the press about it, has never really been about being clever and innovative with the blues, but prefers instead to stand for its strong tradition, and just bring what he brings to the table without a whole lot of fuss. That's what his live sets are about, and this double-disc live album, recorded during a 18-month-long tour in 2013 and 2014, reveals a clearer and more in-focus look at what Clark offers than Blak and Blu does. Mixing select blues covers with standout Clark originals from Blak and Blu, Live is a wonderful introduction to a fine young guitar player, songwriter, and singer. Opening with a thunderous version of Robert Petway's "Catfish Blues," this set never falters through Clark originals like the Chuck Berry-ish romp "Travis County," the timeless-sounding "When My Train Pulls In," and the monster Jimmy Reed homage "Bright Lights," and seamlessly blends in covers of Lowell Fulson's "Three O'Clock Blues" and Albert Collins' "If Trouble Was Money" and "If You Love Me Like You Say," the latter of which is paired with Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" in a striking ten-plus-minute medley. Clark closes things out with a gentle, sparse, and striking version of Leroy Carr's "When the Sun Goes Down." This is an impressive live set, with crisp playing and sharp sound, and, best of all, it lets Clark play the blues and shine with energy, passion, and a good deal of grace while staying free of the bells and whistles the studio affords. In Clark's case, he doesn't need bells and whistles. He plays the guitar, really good guitar, and if this is indeed the past and future of the blues rolled into one, then the blues appears to be in really good hands.© Steve Leggett /TiVo

One of eight albums that were issued in this landmark year; this one is among the lesser-known or noticed. It contained routine soul and R&B numbers sung with little variety or emotion by Turner, and produced and arranged with almost no variety or flair. It was more a collection of singles than an actual album, but was rushed out among the raft of Ike and Tina product that glutted the market. It has since been deleted, and deservedly so.© Ron Wynn /TiVo

A revelation upon its release, this album is now a collection of standards: "Illegal Smile," "Hello in There," "Sam Stone," "Donald and Lydia," and, of course, "Angel from Montgomery." Prine's music, a mixture of folk, rock, and country, is deceptively simple, like his pointed lyrics, and his easy vocal style adds a humorous edge that makes otherwise funny jokes downright hilarious.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

B.B. King has cut a lot of albums since the success of Live at the Regal. And, like the live shows they document, none of them are any less than solid and professional, hallmarks of King's work aesthetic. But every so often B.B. truly catches fire; his playing and singing comes up an extra notch or two, and the result is a live album with some real sparks to it. Live in Cook County Jail is one of those great concerts that the record company was smart enough to be there to capture, documenting B.B. firing on all cylinders in front of an audience that's just damn happy for him to be there. Possibly the best live version of "The Thrill Is Gone" of all its many incarnations, and rock solid renditions of classics like "Everyday I Have the Blues," "How Blue Can You Get?," "Sweet Sixteen" and a great medley of "3 O'Clock Blues" and "Darlin' You Know I Love You." Live at the Regal is still the champ of King's live output, but many say this runs a close second, and they just may be right.© Cub Koda /TiVo

Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark had lain waiting for some years before John Prime succumbed to Covd-19 and joined them in April 2020 at the age of 73. The great songwriter and storyteller (who is little-known on this side of the pond but is somewhat of an idolized cult figure back home in the States) began his career as a protégé to Kris Kristofferson and recorded seven albums with Atlantic and Asylum between 1971 and 1980. All are remastered in this collection: John Prine (1971), Diamonds in the Rough (1972), Sweet Revenge (1973), Common Sense (1975), Bruised Orange (1978), Pink Cadillac (1979) and Storm Windows (1980). To understand the scale of Prine’s influence, two quotes from musicians from two different generation among thousands who flooded to social media to upon the announcement of his death. Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver: “A simple majority of who I am as a person, let alone a musician, is because of John Prine.”. Bruce Springsteen: “John and I were “new Dylans” together in the early 70s and he was never anything but the loveliest guy in the world. A true national treasure and a songwriter for the ages.” These seven albums (especially the first four), prove that John Prine was one of the great portraitists of his generation. While his dark sense of humour prevented him from sounding soppy, he nevertheless had a knack for touching hearts with empathy and humility. With Prine, anti-establishment was never low on the agenda as he fused wit and emotion with rarely seen talent… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

In 1928 Maurice Ravel described the violin and the piano as “essentially incompatible”. Yet by then he had already composed for those instruments two sonatas (one of which was published posthumously), Tzigane, and the Berceuse sur le nom de [Gabriel] Fauré – a miraculous output for a supposedly mismatched duo! Written for the most part in the early twentieth century, these works reflect Ravel’s interests and influences, including Spain, jazz, blues and foxtrot, Hebrew songs.... All of these pieces show Ravel’s modesty and poetry, and his marvellous ability to bring enchantment to our world. Here Elsa Grether and David Lively present Ravel’s complete works for violin and piano, including two world premiere recordings: Gustave Samazeuilh’s arrangement of the Adagio assai from the Piano Concerto, and a transcription by André Asselin of the mischievous Five o’Clock Foxtrot from L’Enfant et les sortilèges. © Aparté

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The potential for a collaboration between B.B. King and Eric Clapton is enormous, of course, and the real questions concern how it is organized and executed. This first recorded pairing between the 74-year-old King and the 55-year-old Clapton was put together in the most obvious way: Clapton arranged the session using many of his regular musicians, picked the songs, and co-produced with his partner Simon Climie. That ought to mean that King would be a virtual guest star rather than earning a co-billing, but because of Clapton's respect for his elder, it nearly works the other way around. The set list includes lots of King specialties -- "Ten Long Years," "Three O'Clock Blues," "Days of Old," "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer" -- as well as standards like "Hold on I'm Coming" and "Come Rain or Come Shine," with some specially written and appropriate recent material thrown in, so King has reason to be comfortable without being complacent. The real danger is that Clapton will defer too much; though he can be inspired by a competing guitarist such as Duane Allman, he has sometimes tended to lean too heavily on accompanists such as Albert Lee and Mark Knopfler when working with them in concert. That danger is partially realized; as its title indicates, Riding With the King is more about King than it is about Clapton. But the two players turn out to have sufficiently complementary, if distinct, styles so that Clapton's supportive role fills out and surrounds King's stinging single-string playing. (It's also worth noting that there are usually another two or three guitarists on each track.) The result is an effective, if never really stunning, work.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Upon leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, guitarist John Frusciante delved into home recording, eventually completing a 12-track album titled Niandra Lades that bore the influence of '60s oddballs like Syd Barrett and Captain Beefheart. Niandra Lades languished on the shelf for a while until it was paired with another 12-track collection of Frusciante's home-taping efforts; this one, titled Usually Just a T-Shirt, concentrated on pleasant psychedelic instrumentals with plenty of backward-guitar effects. While some might find the jump from bizarre vocal numbers to atmospheric instrumentals (and the resultant shift in mood) a bit jarring, the two halves do share certain characteristics. Frusciante's singing voice has a fragile, wispy quality that sits well next to the often delicate second half, and the sparse arrangements of the first half help set the stage for the gossamer guitar work later on. Because the whole project has a definite stream-of-consciousness feel, it does fall prey to underdeveloped ideas at times, but overall, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt is an intriguing and unexpected departure from Frusciante's work with the Chili Peppers.© Steve Huey /TiVo

The Collected Works was a triple-disc box set that included all of the duo's albums, but no rarities. For average fans -- even fairly dedicated ones -- that set contained most everything they would need, even if the sound quality was a little below average. Old Friends is a three-disc box set that was designed to replace The Collected Works, but it fails to achieve its goals despite its improved remastered sound. Part of the reason is the content itself -- all five albums plus the rarities on this set could have fit on three discs, offering a real complete recorded studio works, but the compilers decided to truncate the albums and toss on a handful of rarities. The result certainly isn't bad -- after all, it features all of the hits, most of the major album tracks, the 1975 reunion "My Little Town," and a couple of good rarities like "Blues Run the Game" -- but it isn't all it could have been. If you already own The Collected Works, Old Friends serves little purpose unless you're a collector or audiophile, and if you're a neophyte, you're better off obtaining the original albums, not this well-intentioned and enjoyable but ultimately unsuccessful compilation.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Although the duo of Bobby Blue Bland and B.B. King was one of the most popular touring acts of the '70s and '80s, their first duet album -- appropriately titled Together for the First Time ... Live -- doesn't quite live up to expectations. Both musicians are in fine form, but rarely do any sparks fly. Occasionally, King turns out a good solo and Bland sings with passion, but usually the vibe of the record is too relaxed to be truly engaging. It's a pleasant record, just not the essential listening that it should have been. © Thom Owens /TiVo

Colin Meloy and his brave Decemberists made the unlikely jump to a major label after 2005's excellent Picaresque, a move that surprised both longtime fans and detractors of the band. While it is difficult to imagine the suits at Capitol seeing dollar signs in the eyes of an accordion- and bouzouki-wielding, British folk-inspired collective from Portland, OR, that dresses in period Civil War outfits and has been known to cover Morrissey, it's hard to argue with what the Decemberists have wrought from their bounty. The Crane Wife is loosely based on a Japanese folk tale that concerns a crane, an arrow, a beautiful woman, and a whole lot of clandestine weaving. The record's spirited opener and namesake picks off almost exactly where Picaresque left off, building slowly off a simple folk melody before exploding into some serious Who power chords. This is the first indication that the band itself was ready to take the loosely ornate, reverb-heavy Decemberists sound to a new sonic level, or rather that producers Tucker Martine and Chris Walla were. On first listen, the tight, dry, and compressed production style sounds more like Queens of the Stone Age than Fairport Convention, but as The Crane Wife develops over its 60-plus minutes, a bigger picture appears. Meloy, who along with Destroyer's Dan Bejar has mastered the art of the North American English accent, has given himself over to early-'70s progressive rock with gleeful abandon, and while many of the tracks pale in comparison to those on Picaresque, the ones that succeed do so in the grandest of fashions. Fans of the group's Tain EP will find themselves drawn to "Island: Come and See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel the Drowning" and "The Crane Wife, Pts. 1 & 2," both of which are well over ten minutes long and feature some truly inspired moments that echo everyone from the Waterboys and R.E.M. to Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, while those who embrace the band's poppier side will flock around the winsome "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)," which relies heavily on the breathy delivery of Seattle singer/songwriter and part-time Decemberist Laura Veirs. Some cuts, like the English murder ballad "Shankill Butchers" and "Summersong" (the latter eerily reminiscent of Edie Brickell's "What I Am"), sound like outtakes from previous records, but by the time the listener arrives at the Donovan-esque (in a good way) closer, "Sons & Daughters," the less tasty bits of The Crane Wife seem a wee bit sweeter.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

As on Caetano Veloso's album from the same year, Gilberto Gil does not sound happy away from his homeland. Recorded in London, the eight songs on his final self-titled album are mostly blues and introspective, downbeat pop songs. Steve Winwood's "Can't Find My Way Home" is an inspired choice, delivered with a crushing sentimentality rarely found in other versions. Gil also reprises "Volks, Volkswagen Blues" from his 1969 LP. The effect isn't quite as doom-laden as Veloso's work, but Gil is definitely homesick, as the touching "Nêga (Photograph Blues)" shows. [Most reisssues included three bonus tracks: a live version of "Can't Find My Way Home" along with "Up from the Skies" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."] © John Bush /TiVo

The premiere vocal jazz group, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross made their recording debut on this classic album, which has been reissued on CD by GRP. After unsuccessfully searching for a dozen singers in 1957 who could sing vocalese in a re-creation of some famous records by the Count Basie Orchestra, Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross decided to overdub their voices several times instead. Utilizing just a rhythm section, the vocalists sing the witty and inventive lyrics of Hendricks in note-for-note reproductions of ten Basie records. Highlights include "It's Sand, Man!," "One O'Clock Jump," the up-tempo "Little Pony," and "Avenue C." This record was a sensation when it was released and it is still quite enjoyable and unique.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

Gottlieb Wallisch continues his acclaimed survey of jazz-influenced piano literature. In this volume we explore le tumulte noir ("the Black craze") in the French-speaking countries after the First World War, taking us to Paris and Brussels where the mood was hot for dancing. The fashionable status of this new craze attracted writers, composers, intellectuals and artists from all over the world, with American jazz music as the latest rage in the cafes and bistros of the day. The influence of dances from overseas spread like wildfire, taking hold amongst French and Belgian composers eager to free themselves from Germanic Wagnerism while riding the wave of popularity of hit records and cinema. © Grand Piano Records

On the face of it, pianist Oscar Peterson (whose virtuosity always allowed him to play an infinite amount of notes) and Count Basie (who made inventive use of silence and space by emphasizing single rhythmic sounds) would seem to have had little in common. However they both swing, and there was a definite overlapping in their repertoire. Peterson's Basie tribute is a near-masterpiece. With guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and guest drummer Buddy Rich all playing quite sympathetically, Peterson's arrangements make the nine Basie-associated songs (along with Peterson's original "Blues for Basie") all sound quite fresh and lightly swinging. Quite a few of these renditions (particularly "Easy Does It," "9:20 Special," "Broadway," and "One O'Clock Jump") are instantly memorable.© Scott Yanow /TiVo