Tony Thomas

There's no mistaking Tony Joe White's signature swamp boogie. Patented in the late '60s, White has been working that same low-down blues grind ever since, taking a long sojourn from recording in the '80s before settling into a regular groove sometime around the time of the new millennium. Usually, these collections of new songs were on tiny labels – including his aptly named Swamp imprint – but 2013's Hoodoo appeared on Yep Roc and received an appropriately larger push than its recent predecessors.

Tony Bennett and Diana Krall's partnership didn't begin with the 2018 duets album Love Is Here to Stay. Krall popped up on two prior duets albums from Bennett and the pair toured at the dawn of the 2000s, but Love Is Here to Stay marks their first full record together, and it's an elegant affair. Conceived as a tribute to George Gershwin, the album is filled with familiar tunes, but hints of imagination lurk around the edges, such as the revival of "Fascinating Rhythm," the tune Bennett recorded for his first single in 1949. Nearly 70 years separate that version of "Fascinating Rhythm" from this 2018 rendition, and while Bennett certainly sounds older – his voice is slightly raspy, he can't hit the high notes the way he used to, nor does he sing with quite as much force – he still sounds spry and commanding, happily dancing through these cozy melodies, singing with as much rhythm as lyricism.

Long before he signed to Yep Roc in 2013, Tony Joe White perfected his minimalist groove – so much so, his records often seemed like they flowed from the same swamp. Bad Mouthin', his third record for Yep Roc since 2013, doesn't necessarily break from that tradition – from its first note, it is quite clearly the work of Tony Joe White – but it does prove a variation on his signature by offering his first album devoted entirely to the blues. Combining blues standards with songs he wrote years ago, White highlights how pivotal the skeletal shuffles of John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed were to his own sound.

The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern functions as something of an answer to its predecessor, Cheek to Cheek. That 2014 duet album with Lady Gaga was suitably brassy and snazzy, relying on well-loved standards and pizzazz – the kind of thing designed to stoke nostalgia vibes – but The Silver Lining is a purer jazz record, an intimate songbook collaboration with pianist Bill Charlap; the difference can be heard simply in comparing the versions of "I Won't Dance" that pop up on the two albums – the Gaga swings boldly, the Charlap rendition carries a wry resignation. Songbooks have been a standard item for Bennett throughout the years but if The Silver Lining recalls any specific album in the vocalist's discography, it's The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album, a record released in 1975 when Bennett dropped off the major-label radar and his name was perhaps as well-known to record buyers as that of Evans.

Nkrumah Jah Thomas is one of the great Deejay voices of Jamaican music. Through his Midnight Rock label, he is also known as a formidable producer – making important records with the likes of Anthony Johnson, Early B, King Tubby and Super Cat. Acid Jazz group label Roots Records has worked with Thomas since the late 1990s, and is set to release the first ever collection of his vocal work on 16 August 2024.

Like her first two efforts for Rounder, True Believer is a stellar collection of contemporary soul performed in the classic '50s New Orleans tradition. The difference is in conception. True Believer focuses on heartbreak songs, and there is genuine anguish in Irma Thomas' voice, making new songs by the likes of Dan Penn, Dr. John, Tony Joe White, Allen Toussaint, and Doc Pomus sound like instant classics. Another excellent effort from a woman who has plenty to her credit.