One of the aspects that appeals to this listener about Nikolai Lugansky's approach to the perennial favorite piano concerti of Sergei Rachmaninov is the commitment to the organic feeling of each work. So often these concerti are served up as early career, flamboyant exercises to introduce the young pianist du jour to already accepting audiences. And at times the imprint on the works imposed by the various pianists is what remains in the hall after the performance, not Rachmaninov.

Kenny Brown is definitely a bluesman. The man has served his apprenticeship with the best and usually hands out his guitar shingle with R.L. Burnside. But this outing finds him doing a great job of leading the band. Three songs come from Burnside ("Miss Maybelle," the frantic shuffle "Goin' Down South," and "Shake 'Em on Down"), while most of the rest are traditional, including the roaring "France Chance" and "Cocaine Bill," where the bass does a perfect imitation of a cakewalk tuba. Brown lets his trademark slide sing throughout, with a wonderfully raw tone, while his voice carries the weight of years heavily - he doesn't just sing the blues, he lives them. To hear him on the goodbye of "Fare Thee Well Blues" is to experience loneliness. With a tight band of Cedric Burnside and Takeeshi Imura, he can handle anything, put the grease on it, and take it down home. If you're looking for the real deal, look no further.

Santana, which was renowned for its concert work dating back to Woodstock, did not release a live album in the U.S. until this one, and it's only partially live, with studio tracks added, notably a cover of the Zombies' "She's Not There" (number 27) that became Santana's first Top 40 hit in five years. The usual comings and goings in band membership had taken place since last time; the track listing was a good mixture of the old – "Black Magic Woman," "Soul Sacrifice" – and the recent, and with the added radio play of a hit single, Moonflower went Top Ten and sold a million copies, the first new Santana album to do that since 1972 and the last until Supernatural in 1999.

Paris-based singer/composer F.R. David (born Elli Robert Fitoussi on January 1, 1947 in Menzel Bourguiba, Tunisia) is often regarded as a one-hit wonder since he failed to repeat the success of his 1982 monster hit "Words" that topped the charts in a dozen European countries and even peaked at number two in Great Britain…

Although Hans Zimmer receives nominal credit, Tears of the Sun is in fact a collaborative effort featuring contributions from the composer's Media Ventures colleagues including Lebo M., Steve Jablonsky, and Heitor Pereira - the end result channels some unexpected ethnic influences into an otherwise by the book war film score reliant more on its emotional scope than its action themes. While African percussion and chants enliven several cues, Tears of the Sun is above all dominated by a palpable sense of melancholy - little here echoes the heroic, larger than life scale of war scores past, and all vestiges of patriotism are superseded by post-9/11 angst. It's certainly unexpected, especially given Zimmer's affection for bombast, but it works.

This budget-priced three-disc Australian import – on RCA, so it's official – compiles Chet Atkins' work from the early '50s to about 1980. Basically, from the time he became "Mr. Guitar" to the end of his prime – though Atkins remained a monster guitarist until his death in 2001. You would have to know Atkins' music to get any of this because, besides a track listing and a cursory essay on how great he was, there is literally no discographical information provided here. Still, there's enough of his well-known material here for any fan to sit up and take notice, such as "Mr. Sandman," "Barbershop Rag," "Hot Toddy" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," both with Les Paul, "Teensville," "Sleepwalk," "Terry on the Turnpike" with Boots Randolph, "Make the World Go Away," "Rocky Top," "Tennessee Stud" and "Mystery Train," both with Jerry Reed, and of course, the amazing "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" with Dolly Parton. The vast majority, of course, are instrumentals by Atkins.

The operetta Die Fledermaus is Johann Strauss' most brilliant and best-known stage work. It's a glittering comedy packed with Viennese music that has become a firm favourite in opera houses all over the world. A top international cast really have a ball in this highly-acclaimed 1984 New Year's Eve performance from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in which Placido Domingo makes a very stylish British conducting debut. Kiri Te Kanawa stars with her celebrated performance as Rosalinde, and the charismatic Austrian baritone Hermann Prey is Eisenstein, one of his trademark roles. The cast also includes Benjamin Luxon as Dr Falke and Hildegarde Heichele as Adele.

For a band whose useful lifespan ran to nine albums, 10cc have been oddly represented by the compilations market. Their first two albums, of course, have been reissued and rejigged in virtually every conceivable permutation; the next four have at least been bled for the hits on a near-annual basis. But a super-rare Japanese four-CD box set notwithstanding, no attempt has ever been made to truly illustrate the band's entire career, from "Donna" to demise. Welcome, then, The Ultimate Collection, which not only does a fine job in unearthing all you need to know about those nine original albums, it also splits the discs in such a way that the first one gives you all the hits you remember, while the second serves up the songs that you very likely missed altogether.

Ernestine Anderson has been not only one of the greatest all-time jazz and blues singers, but has also displayed remarkable consistency. Her straight-laced, no-nonsense, soulful vocal control has graced many a standard or laid-back bluesy tune, each one of which she makes all her own. This collection is no different in terms of her refined quality in rendering well-known tunes, but there are some true signature statements included here that have to keep her high on anyone's list of favorite American born and bred vocalists. Producer, arranger, and guitarist Rodney Jones is a treat to hear on this date, dipping deep into the wellspring of his blues background in a way his progressive recordings only hint at. Pianist Lafayette Harris is one of those unsung heroes who plays so much in the pocket, he's easy to take for granted, yet never upstages anyone…

Following up his 2000 tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, Chasin' the Gypsy, saxophonist James Carter pays homage to iconic jazz singer Billie Holiday on Gardenias for Lady Day. Perhaps never before has the jazz iconoclast balanced so perfectly his "big top" avant-garde leanings with his more pinstriped traditionalist aesthetic. This is a beautiful album that revels as much in classic melody as it does in Carter's most torrid saxophone "skronk." Although the album largely succeeds on Carter's virtuosic performance, it gains most of its character from the deft and unpredictable orchestral arrangements of Greg Cohen and fellow Detroiter Cassius Richmond. In particular, Richmond brings a cinematic quality to the album with his treatments of "Sunset," "I Wonder Where Our Love Is Gone," and "Gloria" that breathe and swell, rubbing dramatically against Carter's muscular sound…

Dietrich Fischer Dieskau makes for an intriguingly offbeat, enjoyably seedy knight under Leonard Bernstein's baton. Bernstein has some interesting ideas about this opera, and not all of them work, but he grounds the opera with a solid, inspiring cast. Regina Resnik is clearly having a ball as Quickly, Rolando Panerai is fantastic in one of his most reliable roles. Only Juan Oncina and Graziella Sciutti, as the young lovers, disappoint. Best of all is Ilva Ligabue, caught in her prime in one of her best roles. Most of the cast would also feature in Bernstein's studio recording, but this live performance has a vitality absent from the more well-known studio effort.

It only seems like there has been an endless stream of Grateful Dead compilations. In reality, there has only been a handful, and the most notable of those were released while the band was still an active recording and touring unit in the '70s – and before they had belated chart success in the late '80s, 20 years after their debut album. So, Warner/Rhino's 2003 collection The Very Best of Grateful Dead marks the first attempt to do a thorough single-disc overview of the group's career, encompassing not just their classic Warner albums but also the records they cut for their own Grateful Dead/UA and Arista.

Guitarist Jim Hall is the sort of musician who displays such technical expertise, imaginative conception, and elegance of line and phrase that almost any recording of his is worth hearing. Still, Concierto ranks among the best albums of his superb catalog. For starters, the personnel here is a jazz lover's dream come true…

Drummer Daniel Humair's name might be listed first on this double CD, and organist Eddy Louiss may be the dominant voice, but it is the inclusion of violinist Jean-Luc Ponty as part of the trio that really makes it quite historic. Recorded in Paris in 1968, the live set features Ponty at the beginning of his career, before he came to the U.S., teamed up with the George Duke Trio, joined forces with Frank Zappa, became part of the second Mahavishnu Orchestra and had his long string of fusion albums for Atlantic. Not quite 26 at the time, Ponty is featured on the date mostly playing standards including "You've Changed," "Summertime" (which is taken double time), "So What," "Bag's Groove" and "Oleo." Sometimes his violin sounds a little like a saxophone and it is clear, even at this early stage, that Ponty had a great deal of potential in jazz…