On Chris Dingman's sophomore album, 2015's The Subliminal and the Sublime, the creative jazz vibraphonist/composer finds inspiration in nature, and the result is an often stunning album of both grand gestures and detailed, percolating undercurrents. Featuring alto saxophonist Loren Stillman, pianist Fabian Almazan, guitarist Ryan Ferreira, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Justin Brown, Dingman's sextet displays true mastery of wide dynamics across a suite whose extended-form movements culminate in strikingly dramatic fashion. Opener "Tectonic Plates" begins with high singing tones and chordal volume swells, creating an ethereal ambience over which Stillman introduces a calm melody, briefly joined by sharper yet still understated support from the other bandmembers to close this lovely four-and-a-half-minute intro.
If Rhino had merely combined Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 and volume two, they would have a compilation that captured her at her peak. They didn't do that for 2002's The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, but they did follow that basic blueprint very closely, with 16 of the 21 songs culled from her '70s heyday, with the remaining five drawing from her late-'80s/early-'90s adult contemporary comeback, including "Don't' Know Much" and "Somewhere out There." That these songs don't quite fit musically with the laid-back Californian soft rock of the '70s doesn't matter, nor does it matter that her excursions into other genres – her traditional pop albums with Nelson Riddle, her Mexican records, her country albums with Trio – are missing ("Different Drum" with the Stone Poneys is here), because this collection expertly delivers her biggest hits in an enjoyable fashion with very little fat. Those original hits records remain first-rate, but it's nicer to get all of these on one disc instead of two.
Linda Ronstadt has been an icon for more than 50 years. Her extraordinary vocal range and ambition created unforgettable songs across rock, pop, country, folk ballads, American standards, classic Mexican music and soul…