Rachelle Ferrell

The Live collection does, however, offer a few surprises. It’s intriguing, for instance, to compare Ferrell’s lovely ’89 interpretation of Cy Coleman’s under-appreciated “With Every Breath I Take” with her decidedly more assured live version from ’97 (boosted by some masterful keyboard work by surprise guest George Duke). Two other ’97 crowd-pleasers-gorgeous renditions of Charles Aznavour’s “Me Voila Seul” and “On Se Reveillera”-are equally wonderful additions to the eclectic Ferrell oeuvre.

Released a year after his successful duets double album, French icon Charles Aznavour's 2009 follow-up is another collaborative effort, this time with Los Angeles-based Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Featuring duets with jazz vocalists Rachelle Ferrell and Dianne Reeves, it includes 14 big-band interpretations of both his classic standards ("La Boheme," "Comme Ils Disent"), and several less familiar tracks ("Je N'ouiblerai Jamais," "Des Amis Des Deux Cotes").

Grouped together, as they are on the double-disc From Q with Love, producer/arranger/conductor Quincy Jones' love songs sound an awful lot alike. The high-gloss production, the silky smooth harmonies, the lead singers – who all happen to bear a strong vocal resemblance to Jones' most famous client, Michael Jackson – and even the tunes themselves have a one-note, suite-like sweep to them that can be mind-numbingly tedious after a couple hours. It helps that From Q with Love is loaded with hits from Jones' past 30-plus years (Patti Austin and James Ingram's "Baby, Come to Me" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?," Ingram's "One Hundred Ways" and "Just Once," Jackson's "Human Nature," and a handful of tracks from Jones' 1989 golden showpiece Back on the Block.