Tucker has said My Turn is a salute to her late father and mentor, Beau Tucker, who loved these songs. It's hard to image a more well-executed tribute.

- Nick Cristiano

Kendel Carson
Alright Dynamite
(Train Wreck ***)

Kendel Carson closes her second album with "Mexico," a ballad addressed to a lover that's all about heading south of the border. The 24-year-old Canadian oozes so much seductive heat, however, that you realize she's not talking just about a road trip.

That's just one aspect of the fascinating personality Carson presents on the multifaceted Alright Dynamite. She's the second singer-fiddler taken under the wing of "Wild Thing" composer Chip Taylor, now a respected Americana elder statesman (he produced the album, wrote nine of the songs, and cowrote four with Carson). But she's no clone of the first, the more demure Carrie Rodriguez.

"Mexico" and numbers like "Oh Baby Lie Down" and "Ooh That Dress" represent Carson's sultry side. But she also displays plenty of sass that's right out of rock - and so is the music on "I Don't Want to Be Your Mother" and "Submarine." The one nonoriginal, Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz," gets a hoedown treatment that showcases Carson's fiddling chops.

- N.C.

Jazz

As collectives go, this is a good one. These four mega-players gathered in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, Calif., where Clint Eastwood is on the board of directors. Tenor saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Dave Holland already play a lot together, so there's a comfort level there. Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba represents a wild card. You feel the Cuban émigré's presence most on his romantic bolero "Otra Mirada" ("Another Look"), and on the stentorian chords that underlie drummer Eric Harland's "Treachery."

Like much of this session, Potter can be both amazing and acidic. His "Ask Me Why" finds him blowing to both poles. The tune is jagged, and Potter's solo scores for its sheer sense of adventure. But it also leads to a kind of mechanical chaos, as if he were on automatic pilot. But the set comes together on Harland's beautiful tune "Maiden." And Rubalacaba's "50" has some quirky funk to recommend it.

- Karl Stark

Frank Wess Nonet
Once Is Not Enough
(Labeth ***)

At 87, tenor saxophonist Frank Wess holds forth with a buttery perfection not unlike his long-passed mentor, Lester Young.

The distinguished Count Basie sideman originally joined with nine other players for a week-long stand at Dizzy's Coca Cola Club in New York in 2008, and parlayed that into this collection of standards and Wess originals.

The leader is all liquid on his "Dementia, My Darling," a crack-up of a title. The entire recording, which puts Wess in trio, quartet, and nonet settings, projects a quaint swing feel.

Wess, who doubles on flute, is a sagacious storyteller. He shows he's still got the tender touch on "Lush Life," while "Tryin' To Make My Blues Turn Green" is all sass. A monster group backs him, including Temple University's Terell Stafford on trumpet, Steve Turre on trombone, Rufus Reid on bass, and Winard Harper on drums.

- K.S.

Classical

Sonata No. 3, Sonata for Cello and Piano, plus mazurkas, nocturnes and waltzes
Maria João Pires, piano
(Deutsche Grammophon ***1/2)

Complete Works Vol. 1 and 2
Ian Hobson, piano
(Zephyr, two discs, ***)

With Chopin's core works so widely played by so many great pianists through the generations, you'd never think three sets could arrive at the same time with so many surprises. The chronologically programmed Ian Hobson is full of rarely played early works, such as the Piano Sonata No. 1, various contredanses, rondos, and variations on themes by others. The pieces don't have a great sense of content and are primarily about the delight of exploiting everything pianistically possible, but are worth an occasional hearing.