A Guitar Odyssey A Tribute To Yngwie Malmsteen

Eleven years after her passing, Nina Simone still fascinates. Her work will forever be universally celebrated as that of a major figure in American 20th century music. Verve Records pays homage to her with an album in which her emblematic titles have been revisited by the cream of the new generation's Pop and Soul artists.

Schizoid Dimension: A Tribute to King Crimson contains contributions by a variety of artists on Cleopatra-affiliated labels, including Controlled Bleeding, Chrome, Brand X, Pressurehed, Astralasia, Melting Euphoria, Alien Planetscapes, Architectural Metaphor, Xcranium, Spirits Burning, Solid Space, and ex-Crimson violinist David Cross, whose track features John Wetton on vocals. Sometimes the artists' styles don't really mesh well with the music, but at other times, the reinterpretations can be fresh and compelling.

As far as tribute albums go, this homage to seminal Canadian rockers Rush is hard to beat. For one thing, Magna Carta has made an inspired decision to have each song recorded by an all-star lineup rather than letting one band handle all the chores (with one exception - Fates Warning get sole credit for "Closer to the Heart"). Often projects of this magnitude are doomed to failure from the start as a result of inadequate rehearsing, a shoestring budget, and sometimes a lack of talent capable of handling the songs with the respect they deserve. Working Man is a rare instance of everything going right. Terry Brown has done an incredible mixing job considering nearly all of the songs were recorded in different studios. The musicianship rivals the original versions - occasionally besting them, particularly where the vocals are concerned…

The Finnish progressive rock appreciation and fan society Colossus has been making a rather good name for itself in recent years, ever since it started issuing a line of project releases back in 2000. In collaboration with the legendary French record label Musea, more than a dozen concepts have been conceived, executed and issued. The first of these projects was named Tuonen Tytär, a double CD featuring tributes to various Finnish artists from the golden age of progressive rock.

Acclaimed pianist and composer Isaiah J. Thompson offers jazz lovers a spirit-lifting gift this holiday season, announcing the release of A Guaraldi Holiday. A tribute to the eclectic music of Vince Guaraldi – work which served as a both an introduction to jazz, and as a childhood sound track for generations of music lovers, Thompson included – the invigorating set was co-produced by Thompson with John Pizzarelli and features 12 fresh tracks, each one an exercise in nostalgic expressionism.

If a tribute album is done by numerous artists in rock and metal, the importance and influential impact of the honor musician is very obvious. ‘Legacy: A Tribute to Leslie West’ is such an album. Slash, Zakk Wylde, Dee Snider, Bachman & Bachman, Martin Barre, Joe Lynn Turner, Charlie Starr, Elliot Easton, Robbie Krieger, Mike Portnoy, Eddie Ojeda, George Lynch, Marty Friedman, Steve Morse and Yngwie Malmsteen, to mention just some, are involved and added a piece to this outstanding tribute album…

Holy Dio: A Tribute to Ronnie James Dio is much better executed than most heavy metal tribute albums, even involving Dio himself, who pens an introduction for the liner notes. Most of the bands are culled from the portion of Century Media's stable that's influenced chiefly by British metal, often with a progressive or Gothic touch, which makes them a perfect fit for the tribute's subject. That doesn't mean all of them deliver - there are still a few performances that are too mannered or enslaved to the originals - but, overall, it's pretty effective for a tribute album. Bands present include Fates Warning, Yngwie Malmsteen, Hammerfall, Axel Rudi Pell, Gamma Ray, and Blind Guardian, among others.