Rickie Lee Jones "unplugged" – in fact, solo with an acoustic guitar or piano on all but a couple of tunes – Naked Songs is otherwise a retrospective concert album on which Jones cherry-picks songs from her five studio albums, including the hits "Chuck E.'s in Love" and "Young Blood," and others from her breakthrough debut record. The studio album arrangements always tried to support and augment Jones' idiosyncratic writing and playing style, which sounds less unusual when she is simply accompanying herself, and in many ways more effective. "Altar Boy," a previously unreleased song, strays into Leonard Cohen territory, mixing religion with eroticism.

Thanks in part to Robert Palmer's hand in the process of compiling Addictions, Vol. 1, this early best-of is a fine peek into the musical passions that made Palmer tick. The 13 songs that make up the collection are mostly first-rate, and at the very least they present to a newcomer the eclecticism and style that made Palmer so consistently interesting. Since its genesis was 1989, the highlighted albums are Palmer's Island releases from 1978 to 1988: Double Fun, Secrets, Clues, Maybe It's Live, Pride, Riptide, Heavy Nova, and the soundtrack to Sweet Lies. Appropriately, the thundering, menacing "Some Like It Hot" from the Power Station's debut is included, though it's somewhat of a mystery as to why the band's T. Rex cover, "Get It On (Bang a Gong)," doesn't make an appearance. Only that song and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" seem like obvious omissions. The latter would appear on the remix-heavy Addictions, Vol. 2, but the former wouldn't appear on a career sampler until 1997's The Very Best of Robert Palmer. Otherwise, the collection is nearly perfect.

It's a recording that just a few years ago would have been mainstream: a "name" pianist (albeit one much less well known in the U.S. than elsehwere), who has been playing Mozart's piano concertos since childhood, joins forces with a name conductor with whom she has frequently collaborated, leading a modern-instrument orchestra of some 70 players, with the results released on a major international-conglomerate label. Now it's distinctly unusual. But lo, there's value in the old ways. Portuguese-Brazilian pianist Maria-João Pires is a lifelong Mozart specialist, but she still has new things to say in two of Mozart's most popular piano concertos. You can chalk it up to her Buddhist outlook if you like: her readings of the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595, and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, might be described as detached without being lifeless. Her approach is most startling in the Piano Concerto No. 20, where her no-drama shaping of the material runs sharply counter to type. Sample the piano's entrance in the first movement, where it offers a twisting, tense elaboration of the main theme that is far removed from its source material. Generally pianists use this to raise the tension level, but Pires lets the unusually shaped, chromatic line speak for itself with fine effect.

UK two disc compilation includes three albums, 'Orange' (1972), 'Past, Present & Future' (1973), & 'Modern Times' (1975), plus one bonus track, 'Swallow Wind'.

British crossover jazz, funk, and pop outfit Shakatak are a sophisticated ensemble who have enjoyed a long career. With a sound steeped in contemporary jazz and R&B, they found success with both instrumental albums and pop vocal productions. Formed in London in 1980, Shakatak originally featured keyboardists Bill Sharpe and Nigel Wright, guitarist Keith Winter, bassist Steve Underwood, and drummer Roger Odell. The group quickly scored an underground hit with its debut single "Steppin'." Collection includes: Invitations (1982); Down On The Street (1984); City Rhythm (1985); Street Level (1993).

Refuges: A Charisma Records Anthology tells the audio story of one of the most innovative labels of the '60s and '70s. Though this collection only spans a mere decade in the history of Rock (1969-78), it is a decade filled with musical innovation and excitement. Though most of their releases may have hovered outside the Top 40 in the U.S., the label's roster consisted of artists that are just as influential today as at any other time in the last 30-40 years. Features 44 tracks including cuts from Peter Gabriel, Van Der Graaf Generator, Genesis, Monty Pythons, Hawkwind, Bo Hansson, Rare Bird, The Alan Parson Project, Lindisfarne, Peter Hammill, Keith Emerson, String Driven Thing and many others.

Unhalfbricking is the third album by British folk rock band Fairport Convention, released in 1969. It is seen as a transitional album in their history and marked a further musical move away from American influences towards more traditional English folk songs that had begun on their previous album, What We Did On Our Holidays and arguably reached its peak on the follow-up, Liege & Lief, released later the same year. In 2004 Q magazine placed Unhalfbricking at number 41 in its list of the 50 Greatest British Albums Ever, and in the same year The Observer, describing it as "a thoroughly English masterpiece", listed it at number 27 in its Top 100 British Albums. The following year, 2005, it was included in Robert Dimery's "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

"I'll Melt With You" will forever be the one specific moment that's Modern English's place in pop history, but the album it came from, After the Snow, isn't anything to sneeze at. Indeed, in transforming from the quite fine but dour young miserabilists on Mesh & Lace to a brighter incarnation that still had a melancholy side, the quintet found exactly the right combination best suited for their abilities. Like contemporaries B-Movie and the Sound, Modern English used punk and post-punk roots as a chance to introduce a haunting, beautiful take on romance and emotion, while the contributions of Stephen Walker on keyboard helped make the album both of its time and timeless. That said, the secret weapon on the album is the rhythm section of Michael Conroy and Richard Brown, able to shift from the polite but relentless tribal beat clatter on the excellent "Life in the Gladhouse" to the ever more intense punch of the title track, the album's unheralded masterpiece.

Nino Rota’s reputation outside Italy as, at best, a civilised purveyor of minor theatre music is turning out to be hardly even a half-truth. BIS’s series of his symphonic and chamber works, and Chandos’s of the concertos, reveals a composer of incisive gifts and technical brilliance. Civilised the music certainly is, but often far more than that, its pervasive wit enhancing rather than detracting from the elegant suggestions of deep feeling. The wise and wily ‘neo-classicism’ of the Third Symphony sets out like an exercise in updated Mozart, but though Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony is brought to mind it soon becomes evident that a strain of acid melancholy undercuts the dapper phraseology. The model here, if there is one, seems more likely to be late Busoni, with disturbing cross-currents just beneath the surface. The Concerto festivo, more obviously a display piece, takes Italian opera genres (aria, cabaletta, etc) and reinterprets them in fairly irreverent orchestral terms, while the ballet music that Rota produced for the tercentenary of the death of Molière – almost his last work –insouciantly mixes Baroque, modern and popular styles, just as it mixes merriment and melancholy, with constant technical brilliance and utter lack of pomposity. The Swedish performers take to the Italianate gaiety as to the manner born. A delightful disc.

This highly anticipated 2009 release features all-new material by the highly regarded and 2-time Grammy Award winning cult heroine Rickie Lee Jones. Includes guest artists Allison Krauss, Ben Harper, Victoria Williams, Bill Frisell, Jon Brion and Vic Chestnut!

Mozart's Requiem is one of the truly iconic works in the history of music. A prime reason for this is of course its musical qualities; but even before that, legends had begun to form around the work - that it was written to fulfill an anonymous commission received through 'an unknown, grey stranger' - is the stuff of mystery novels, while the fact that Mozart fell ill and died while composing it has been exploited to great melodramatic effect. One thing that we know for certain is that its first performance took place at a memorial service for Mozart only days after his death. The performers used the composer's incomplete autograph, but very soon attempts to complete the work were set in motion by Mozart's widow. In 1800 the Requiem, in Franz Xaver Süssmayr's completion, appeared in print; it is this version that is still by far the most widely performed. Many have tried to improve on it, however, or make their own versions based on the autograph. For this recording, Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan commissioned a new performing edition.

The by turns grizzled and vaporous-toned Webster really hit his stride on the Verve label. During a stretch from roughly 1953-1959, the Ellington alumnus showcased his supreme playing with both combos and string sections, swingers and ballads – and lurking beneath his blustery and hulking sound were solo lines brimming with sophistication and wit. This 1957 date with the Oscar Peterson Trio is one of the highlights of that golden '50s run. After starting off with two bluesy originals – the slow burning title track and gutsy "Late Date" – Webster gets to the heart of things on five wistful ballads: Here, his exquisitely sly "Makin' Whoopee" is only outdone by an incredibly nuanced "Where Are You." Providing sympathetic counterpoint, Peterson forgoes his usual pyrotechnics for some leisurely compact solos; his cohorts – guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Stan Levey – are equally assured and splendid.

Pryor reaffirms his mastery of postwar blues harp over the course of this sturdy set, again done with the help of some fine Texas and Chicago players. Pryor's downhome vocals shine on the distinctive "Bury You in a Paper Sack" and "Stick Way Out Behind".

This two-CD sampler is most highly recommended for listeners not familiar with Stan Getz's recordings of the 1950s and '60s. Starting with a version of "Stella by Starlight" that co-stars guitarist Jimmy Raney, this set matches Getz's cool tenor with such artists as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Conte Candoli, trombonist J.J. Johnson, baritonist Gerry Mulligan, pianists Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Chick Corea, valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and vibraphonist Gary Burton. Also included are his two main bossa nova hits "Desafinado" and "The Girl from Ipanema" along with a couple of tracks from Getz's highly-rated Focus album. It's a fine overview of the great tenor's middle years.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was a German musician and composer; and the second of five sons of Johann Sebastian Bach and his frist wife, Maria Barbara Bach. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Classical style, composing in the Rococo and Classical periods.