Sharon Jackson

Two CD set highlighting Sharon's 15 year career. The tracks featured on the album brilliantly encapsulate the scope of her musical influences. County Clare-born accordionist/multi-instrumentalist/bandleader is long overdue for a career retrospective and this two-CD set overflows with high points. Although an acknowledged master of Irish traditional styles, this least complacent and most generous of artists never ceases experimenting. The first disc contains instrumentals cherry-picked from six albums. "Cavan Potholes" depicts omni-present Irish road conditions and "The Mighty Sparrow", taped during the "A Woman’s Heart" tour, is a jig augmented by a Caribbean beat and raucously apt sax solo. Disc two is given over to vocals, many of which are performed by stars from other genres. Jackson Browne’s "A Man Of Constant Sorrow" is given a Hibernian Grand Ol’ Opry treatment compete with lovely back-up singing from Mary Staunton. Damien Dempsey, a sensitive roughneck of a Dublin singer-composer, gives the Lennon/McCartney chestnut "Norwegian Wood" a new lease on life and also turns up in "Courtin’ In The Kitchen", a profane little comedy led by the inimitable Dessie O’Halloran. But the late Kirstie MacColl’s treatment of Astor Piazzolla’s "Libertango" is magic of a more wistful, shadowy kind, making us miss her all the more. –Christina Roden

Two CD set highlighting Sharon's 15 year career. The tracks featured on the album brilliantly encapsulate the scope of her musical influences. County Clare-born accordionist/multi-instrumentalist/bandleader is long overdue for a career retrospective and this two-CD set overflows with high points. Although an acknowledged master of Irish traditional styles, this least complacent and most generous of artists never ceases experimenting. The first disc contains instrumentals cherry-picked from six albums. "Cavan Potholes" depicts omni-present Irish road conditions and "The Mighty Sparrow", taped during the "A Woman’s Heart" tour, is a jig augmented by a Caribbean beat and raucously apt sax solo. Disc two is given over to vocals, many of which are performed by stars from other genres. Jackson Browne’s "A Man Of Constant Sorrow" is given a Hibernian Grand Ol’ Opry treatment compete with lovely back-up singing from Mary Staunton. Damien Dempsey, a sensitive roughneck of a Dublin singer-composer, gives the Lennon/McCartney chestnut "Norwegian Wood" a new lease on life and also turns up in "Courtin’ In The Kitchen", a profane little comedy led by the inimitable Dessie O’Halloran. But the late Kirstie MacColl’s treatment of Astor Piazzolla’s "Libertango" is magic of a more wistful, shadowy kind, making us miss her all the more. –Christina Roden

The first time I saw Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, nearly 20 years ago at the legendary Frank’s Cocktail Lounge in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I turned to my companion and said, “I get it — they’re a classic R&B cover band that plays originals.

You could hardly get hotter than Michael Jackson in the summer of 1983. Thriller was an almost permanent fixture in the Top 10, Off the Wall was also hovering somewhere in the charts every week, and he had even charted with a storybook telling of the tale of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. Single after single was being released from Thriller, which was on its way to becoming the biggest selling album of all time and even though an album of old Motown material had been released only two years previously, BMG Direct Marketing licensed all the hits from the '70s Motown days and put together an album of songs featuring both Michael Jackson as a solo artist and the Jackson 5 with, of course, Michael taking lead singing duties.

Following up 2008's The Sinatra Project, Michael Feinstein's 2011 The Sinatra Project, Vol. 2: The Good Life features more of the urbane and polished singer/pianist's takes on Ol' Blue Eyes' catalog. Featuring both large and small ensembles, here Feinstein takes on a nice selection of both well-known and lesser-known cuts that Sinatra tackled at some point in his storied career. Included are such stand-out numbers as the big-band rhumba piece "Sway," the swinging medley "Luck Be a Lady/All I Need Is the Girl," and the romantic orchestral ballad "The Way You Look Tonight." While Feinstein is a pleasant vocalist, he's less of a dynamic crooner than Sinatra and not surprisingly, the best tracks here are the more intimate ones that find him accompanying himself on piano, as with the autumnal "C'est Comme Ca" and the poignant "I'll Be Around." Longtime Feinstein fans should find much to enjoy on this impeccably crafted homage to Sinatra. ~ AllMusic Review by Matt Collar

Greta Matassa made her mark performing in the Pacific Northwest as a jazz vocalist, with a great insight into the Great American Songbook and strong scatting abilities. Both are on display in this big-band session, with arrangements by the promising young pianist Tamir Hendelman and an all-star group.