LESTER YOUNG The Complete Lester Young (1995 US 16-track CD of two sessions recorded in New York on December 28th 1943 and March 22nd 1944 with Lesters Quartet and Kansas City Seven the latter including Buck Clayton Count Basie and Freddie Green. Features alternative takes to compare and contrast two of which - Sometimes Im Happy and After Theatre Jump - are previously unreleased 513819F)

Lindsay Mac creates full and rich alternative folk/jazz with the cello and funky, organic instrumentation. Her debut album, Small Revolution, features two-time Grammy-winning cellist, Eugene Friesen, Rounder Records' fiddler, Matt Glaser (The Wayfaring Strangers), and pianist Tim Ray (Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Jane Siberry). The album also features turntable work by Emmy-winner, Stephen Webber (professor, Berklee College of Music), who was recently featured on the Today Show teaching Al Rocher how to scratch.

The term crossover can mean many things, and, as Sony Classical has proved time and again, attempts to package classical artists as sophisticated dabblers in world music can be as embarrassing as it is, on rare occasions, stunning. On the cover of this, their Sony Classical debut recording, we have four essentially classically-trained guitarists slouching like members of a rock group. The 60-minute disc careers through music inspired by Africa, Brazil, the Balkans, Chile and Japan, with stops in reggae, jazz, and New Music along the way. Despite the obvious talent and technical skill of the L.A.G.Q.'s members, this listener found little to enjoy in this particularly watered-down and superficial-sounding repertoire. —Gwendolyn Freed