Marvpaul Di'anno's Warhorse

Reunion showcases a couple of old saxophone pros diving deep into the jazz mainstream, backed by an energized rhythm section. Tenor men Hadley Caliman and Pete Christlieb worked together on the Los Angeles Central Avenue jazz scene back in the 1960s, at a club called Marty's, where Caliman was the mentor. Forty-plus years later, they're back together again, on an absolute jewel of a straight-ahead offering.

Since the late '60s, John McLaughlin's name has been synonymous with electric fusion guitar. But McLaughlin is equally accomplished on the acoustic guitar; he has a long history of excelling on that instrument, which he plays exclusively on Thieves and Poets. This 2003 release, in fact, isn't fusion in the amplified jazz-rock sense but rather acoustic-oriented post-bop with Euro-classical leanings. Thieves and Poets finds McLaughlin joining forces with two of Europe's classical outfits: the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie (with Renato Rivolta serving as conductor) and the much smaller, guitar-oriented Aighetta Quartet.

Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos has been known for high-powered Liszt performances and for gee-whiz transcriptions of works like Mozart's Rondo alla turca that seem to add an impossible collection of polyphonic lines to the music. All that could have been expected from this 2003 recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, was another big, powerful interpretation to join the others already out there.

osé Serebrier's distinctive conceptions and nimble conducting imbue the familiar Marche slave, Capriccio italien, and 1812 Overture with a freshness that belies their long-held "warhorse" status. By employing lighter sonorities and crystal-clear balances (all rendered with spectacular fidelity and dynamism by BIS's remarkably vivid recording) that expose Tchaikovsky's gorgeous woodwind writing and inner harmonic detail, Serebrier brings a vibrant youthful quality even to the overplayed 1812. Listen to how the bracing opening, with its cleanly phrased, rhythmically taut string playing fosters ever-increasing tension. Later, in the grand coda, the dramatic brass-and-strings interplay genuinely excites while cannons roar away in the distance (the opposite approach to Telarc's cannon-down-your-throat technique).

Fans of JJ Grey and his ever evolving band Mofro will be delighted that the Florida swamp sage lives by the dictum "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" on This River. If anything, Grey has doubled down on the grittier, funkier aspects of 2010's Georgia Warhorse, and brought the studio closer to the stage to boot. The sound on this record is live, crackling. Half of its ten tracks are crunchy uptempo numbers that flex their funky muscles. The rest is balanced between well-articulated soul tunes, a rock number, and back-porch ballads. Set opener "Your Lady, She's Shady" is a crusty, greasy funk attack, while "Somebody Else" walks some weird line between part of the melody from the Classics IV's "Spooky" (courtesy of the Atlanta Rhythm Section's cover), vocal phrasing by Wilson Pickett, and guitars, bass, and horns coming straight from Stax. Speaking of which, the horn chart and melody in "Tame a Wild One" come right out of the late '60s – and in the grain of Grey's whiskey voice, it feels right. "99 Shades of Crazy" is dirty-ass blues-rock inspired by Delaney Bramlett and Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones.

Yannick Nezet Seguin, Lisa Batiashvili, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra - Tchaikovsky Pathetique (2014) {Deutsche Grammophon}
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Classical / Symphony

Yannick Nézet-Séguin's first symphonic recording with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on Deutsche Grammophon is of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, "Pathétique," which the conductor has known intimately throughout his career. Due to his familiarity with the music, this is a solid reading that holds its own against the large number of recordings of this symphony, so listeners who need a first-rate version can be assured of the interpretation and the performance. Yet because this is one of the most frequently recorded classical pieces of all time, one may wonder what Nézet-Séguin brings to it that makes his rendition necessary.