Shopping List: The New and the Notable
Uri Caine Ensemble, Plays Mozart (Winter & Winter)
Amadeus will never sound the same again after you hear Uri Caine's take on Mozart's world. The world-class jazz and classical pianist turns chestnuts like "Turkish Rondo" and Symphony 40 inside out with an octet that includes electric guitar and turntables. Their wonderful improvisations make Wolfgang's compositions sound nearly impromptu themselves.
Joe Lovano and Hank Jones, Kids: Duets Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Blue Note)
Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano enjoys a cozy play date with piano legend Hank Jones on Kids. Jones was a spry 87 when the unaccompanied duet convened at Dizzy's in Manhattan last year for an historic evening of bop (brother Thad Jones's "Little Rascal on a Rock") and balladry (Hank's own "Lullaby").
Spanish Harlem Orchestra, United We Swing (Six Degrees)
Congas percolate, horns blare, and virile male voices call to dancers on the second album by pianist-arranger's Oscar Hernandez's thirteen-piece salsa juggernaut. A summer dance party in a CD case, United includes Paul Simon singing a brightly rearranged version of his One-Trick Pony hit "Late in the Evening."
Mavis Staples, We'll Never Turn Back (Anti-)
The Staples Singers matriarch returns to the music she performed alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and other freedom fighters during the Civil Rights era. With the help of producer Ry Cooder (of Buena Vista Social Club fame), classic liberationist gospel music like "Eyes on the Prize," "99 1/2," and "We Shall Not Be Moved" sound thoroughly modern as big-voiced Mavis musically reinvigorates a movement whose mission is far from accomplished. Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Original Freedom Singers lend a choral hand.
Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)
Experimental-jazz guitarist Nels Cline has breathed new life into bandleader Jeff Tweedy's constantly evolving, often emotionally revelatory country-rock group. While tracks like "Impossible Germany" threaten to explode into ecstatic Grateful Dead-like guitar jams, others reflect bandleader Jeff Tweedy's ongoing acoustic ruminations on love, loss, and mortality.