Putumayo

In addition to its stated purpose of paying tribute, a tribute album presenting a variety of cover versions of songs associated with a major artist may also demonstrate the artist's influence on others and the quality of the artist's songs as performed in ways other than the original versions. The Putumayo World Music label has specialized in genre samplers of a given musical style as performed by various artists, but here changes its approach by having various artists from different styles perform the songs of "a reggae legend." Actually, "the reggae legend" is what the title should say, since, of course, the legend in question is Bob Marley. The artists are from Hawaii, the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, India, and Sierra Leone. For the most part, they succeed in paying tribute and demonstrating Marley's influence on them, but they do not show off his talent as a writer by performing his songs in different ways.

Step back in time with these beautiful and timeless French chansons by legends and contemporary artists. Though echoing the past, Vintage France (Putumayo World Music; February 26, 2013) proves how alive and hip classic French chanson remains. Several generations of musicians continue to find inspiration in tunes that were first popularized in the early to mid-1900s…