Bach’s remarkable Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are revered for their boundless inventiveness, technical ingenuity and emotional depth. With their brilliant preludes, stately dances and complex four-part fugues, the demands on the performer are enormous – from rapid scale passages, double stopping and arpeggios, to the skill and concentration required to create the illusion of separately moving and interweaving voices.

When an artist records one type of music exclusively for years, it's always amusing to hear the artist's manager, record company or publicist claim that he/she "defies categorization." The fact is that when an artist spends his or her entire career recording a specific style of music, categorization comes easy – and it's silly and dishonest to claim otherwise. But if any artist really does defy categorization, it's Robben Ford. The eclectic singer/guitarist is a compelling bluesman, but he's equally convincing as a jazz improviser and a pop/rock singer. On Supernatural, Ford's primary role is that of an easygoing pop/soft rock singer – although a pop/soft rock singer who often incorporates soul, blues or jazz.

Tracks 1 to 3 recorded in New York, circa 1966, and released as Saturn 502; reprinted on Thoth Intergalactic KH5472. Track 4 recorded at Sun Studios, New York, circa 1967, and was previously unreleased. Engineered, restored and mastered at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago.

Pianist Bill O'Connell keeps it nice and lean here – working in a core quartet that moves its instrumentation around, but always in ways that maybe bring more of an edge to the record than some of O'Connell's previous records – yet all without losing the soulful charms that make him so great! Bill himself plays acoustic piano, but switches to Fender Rhodes on two cuts – a theme that's followed as Craig Handy plays soprano sax on three, and tenor on two more – while bassist Lincoln Goines shifts between acoustic and electric basses. Steve Jordan handles drums, and Pedrito Martinez adds percussion on a few tracks – exploring some of the Latin currents that Bill sometimes adds to his records.

At age 83, pianist/vocalist Jay McShann was still at the top of his game and providing many lessons for the younger "swing" cats and kittens. He is the epitome of what can be done when jazz and blues are mixed equally, especially when the fun factor is liberally added in. While some might find this typical, many others should revel in the sound of one of this music's last living legends who is still doing it, and doing it very well at that. The chemistry between McShann and guitarist/session leader Duke Robillard is considerable and undeniable, and makes Still Jumpin' the Blues enjoyable throughout. With such solid support from Robillard and the band, McShann has nothing to worry about. Everything you might want is here: classic versions of "Goin' to Chicago," "Ain't Nobody's Business," and "Trouble In Mind"; a nice rearrangement with tempo shift from mellow to mid-tempo on "Sunny Side of the Street"; Maria Muldaur's sultry singing on "Come on Over to My House," and especially the Bessie Smith evergreen "Backwater Blues"; wonderful instrumentals like "Moten Swing" and "Say Forward, I'll March"; and even a little Hawaiian slide accenting "Hootie's K.C. Christmas Prayer".

First collaborative album for 13 years from veteran female singer/songwriter Taeko Onuki and Ryuchi Sakamoto. In the early 1970s Onuki was a member of Sugar Babe along with Tatsuro Yamashita, during which time she first met and performed with Sakamoto. Simple album of Onuki's voice accompanied by Sakamoto's piano. Most compositions written by Sakamoto. Undertook a Japan tour in November/December 2010.

I'm Not Broken is a 12-track live performance album of Melissa's hits, plus a brand-new track she wrote specifically for the project. The record will be released in tandem with a two-part limited series for Paramount+ centered around Melissa Etheredge putting on a concert in a women's prison in Kansas. Melissa is originally from Leavenworth, Kansas and grew up playing shows in the prisons in her hometown before becoming a full-blown rock star, award-winning musician, celebrity, and activist. This project is about coming home to your roots, redemption, and the healing power of music. It will be released via Sun Records, a perfect home in line with Johnny Cash's iconic "Live From Folsom Prison" record.

September of My Years is one of Frank Sinatra's triumphs of the '60s, an album that consolidated his strengths while moving him into new territory, primarily in terms of tone. More than the double-disc set A Man and His Music – which was released a year after this album – September of My Years captures how Sinatra was at the time of his 50th birthday. Gordon Jenkins' rich, stately, and melancholy arrangements give the album an appropriate reflective atmosphere. Most of the songs are new or relatively recent numbers; every cut fits into a loose theme of aging, reflection, and regret. Sinatra, however, doesn't seem stuck in his ways – though the songs are rooted in traditional pop, they touch on folk and contemporary pop. As such, the album offered a perfect summary, as well as suggesting future routes for the singer. [This version of the album was released with a live version of "This Is All I Ask," as well as the single version of "How Old Am I?"]

The portrait of John Bull on the cover of this two-CD U.S. release gives an idea for the uninitiated of what to expect from the composer's music: it's intense, single-minded, and even a bit demonic (although the hourglass topped with a skull with a bone in its mouth is apparently an alchemical symbol). Bull was, in the words of an unidentified writer quoted by harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, "the Liszt of the virginals." The most immediately apparent feature of his music is extreme virtuosity, on display especially in the mind-boggling set of variations entitled Walsingham (CD 1, track 8) and in the galliards of the pavan-galliard pairs. But the opposite pole in Bull's style exerts just as strong a pull: he is fascinated by strict polyphony by what would be called harmonic progressions, and by the close study of the implications contained within small musical units. As spectacular in their way as the keyboard fireworks are, the three separate settings of a tune called Why Ask You? on CD 2 are marvelous explorations of compressed musical gestures.

One of Decca/London's 2 CD sets, providing two discs for the price of one (even less, when downloaded from Amazon.com on MP3), this set is a bargain as well as a treat. It's lovely to hear from Mme. Robles in her concerted repertoire. The Handel, Boieldieu and Rodrigo concerti have hardly ever been in better hands (the Rodrigo transcription was made at the request of the Spanish harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, who played it brilliantly as well), and it's a delight hearing them again in such excellent sound.

Breathtaking and magical, the Turtle Island String Quartet present a piece of art that sends a pleasing and haunting rush though the listener's bloodstream. Opening up with the title track, "Spider Dreams" takes one on a fateful journey to musical bliss, opening up the listener to a variety of intriguing emotions. Whoever dares to take such an adventurous ride with the quartet will be richly rewarded. "Texas Tarantella" bursts with flavor and textures which only the most brilliant quartet groups can deliver. A