New Recordings

. . . Featuring

(Blue Note ***)

nolead ends Norah Jones never sweats: She can't help sounding laid-back and soothing. That's a blessing and a curse: She can be soporific. Featuring, however, succeeds in skirting that hazard by pairing her mellifluous voice with a diverse cast of high-profile partners. It collects duets, guest appearances, and other collaborations going back to 2001, ranging from soulful jazz with Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, to classic country covers with M. Ward and the Little Willies, to bossa nova-influenced ballads with the Foo Fighters, Outkast, and Charlie Hunter, to indie-pop with Belle & Sebastian.

A pair of hip-hop tracks with Q-Tip and Talib Kweli disrupt the flow of this 71-minute collection - Jones is relegated to cameo roles, whereas elsewhere she usually plays the calm and steady foil - but Featuring highlights her range, humor and flexibility.

- Steve Klinge

nolead begins Cee Lo Green
nolead ends nolead begins The Lady Killer
nolead ends nolead begins (Elektra ***)

nolead ends Singer and rapper Cee Lo Green leaves hip-hop entirely behind on The Lady Killer, a bid for straight-up pop stardom, profanely fueled by the impossibly infectious, 18-million-hits-and-counting YouTube smash whose name cannot be printed in a newspaper. That song, included unexpurgated on The Lady Killer, can now be heard in buzz-killing form on the radio as "Forget You," and it's the best thing about Green's third solo album, which does not attempt to genre-hop nearly as much as past endeavors such as Gnarls Barkley's 2006 breakout, St. Elsewhere. (Gnarls Barkley is a collaboration between Green and DJ/producer Danger Mouse.) Instead, the gloriously raspy vocalist goes for a James-Bond-as-Soul-Man persona that is largely ebullient throughout, employing a Michael Jackson groove in "Bright Lights, Bigger City" and taking a horror movie turn in "Bodies." Charming stuff that's never as naughtily enjoyable as the lead single. But then, how could it be?

- Dan DeLuca

nolead begins The Floacist
nolead ends nolead begins The Floacist Presents
Floetic Soul
nolead ends nolead begins (Shanachie ***)

nolead ends It takes a brave woman to release a smartly wordy, quiet soul-hop album on an independent label, what with November's major-label glut of loud superstar product from Kanye, Rihanna, and Cee-Lo.

But Natalie "The Floacist" Stewart is a slam-champ poet, rapper, and singer renowned for her sharply lyrical work with neo-soul's sweetest sounding duo, Floetry. They collaborated with toughs like the Roots and Mos Def. The Floacist can hold her own.

Using the principle of "poetic delivery with musical intent" that she's used in past settings, Floacist's halting flow gives a quivering fluidity to each line she sings and speaks. There's a jump, a wiggle, and a giggle to her voice, whether toying with carnal passions ("Need You") or entreating karmic force ("Alright Then") through the gauze of soul-jazz ambience. Sensuality for the Floacist may come with firm commitment on her flighty Fender Rhodes-filled ballad "Forever" with Philly's Musiq Soulchild. Yet she sounds equally committed to facing down fear, as in the militaristic groove of "The Stand."

- A.D. Amorosi

nolead begins El Trio Zamora
and El Trio Melódicos
nolead ends nolead begins The Lost Cuban Trios

of Casa Marina

(Ahí-Namá ***1/2)

nolead ends The story behind this album is almost as good as the album. It consists of 25 Spanish-language standards played by El Trio Zamora and El Trio Melódicos, two bands from the famed Casa Marina bordello in Havana. The CD is taken from 1958 recordings by Morris Schrage, whose family had fled war-torn Poland to settle in Cuba. (Amazing.) Schrage created a sound room in his house and used a then-state-of-the-art Ampeg stereo reel-to-reel. These live-in-studio performances sound miraculously great (Schrage had a good ear for separation and balance), a true musical document of an era that would soon be wiped out in Castro's revolution. These familiar tunes are well-played; the occasional muffed note only deepens the charm. There are errors in the titles (It's "El Burro Socarron," not "Sacarron," and "El Teléfono," not "El Telephono"), and we learn nothing about the musicians. I realize it's hard to track down info on them 52 years later, but Ry Cooder (the musical detective who resurrected the Buena Vista Social Club players) could have done better. Still, Lost Trios is romantic, heady stuff, played by pros who had to be good for a high-class clientele. You can almost taste the aguardiente, smell the Habana cigars, and see the staff cha-cha-ing with clients in the palace of love for rent.

- John Timpane

You'll Never Be a Bird

(Fantastic Yes ***1/2)

nolead ends A former South Jerseyan and old Ben Vaughn sidekick who now lives in Memphis, Dan Montgomery really came into his own with 2006's Rosetta, Please (A Love Story), which made our year-end top-10 list. This long-in-coming follow-up, his fourth album, builds on the strengths of that gem.

Montgomery is a gifted storyteller who spins moving, empathetic narratives like "Waltz for Charlie," "Girl With a Broken Bell," and "Dollhouse." With "I.O.U.S.A.," he also produces a sing-along lament for the times that deserves to be a hit.

Montgomery keeps it real - there are not a lot of happy endings here - but he makes the journey a richly rewarding one. Once again, everything is framed in superbly crafted arrangements that dip into country, folk, even gospel ("Working on a Building" plays off the standard of that title), and flat-out rock ("Wheels of Soul"). And, like Montgomery's often hangdog vocals, they're suffused with a deep soulfulness.

- Nick Cristiano

Rubber Soulive

(Royal Family ***)

nolead ends The groove group Soulive takes a respectful approach to 11 Beatles tunes, several of them from the group's classic Rubber Soul. The turf is well traveled even in the organ soul-jazz realm. But Soulive - keyboardist Neal Evans, drummer Alan Evans, and guitarist Eric Krasno - find fresh grooves without screwing up the melodies.

Lots of original elements remain. The result is occasionally searing and more danceable than the originals.

Sometimes the trio tries a few vocals, as on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." But mostly it's Krasno's guitar atop the lava flow, playing George's melody on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and giving a twangy cast to "In My Life." "Taxman" makes for a jamming ditty. "Come Together" shows slamming potential, and "Revolution," while not televised, is surprisingly funky.

- Karl Stark

Janina Fialkowska, piano; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey conducting

(Atma Classique ****)

nolead ends nolead begins Etudes Op. 10 plus Schumann's Fantasy in C
nolead ends nolead begins Agustin Anievas, piano
nolead ends nolead begins (Newport Classics ****)

nolead ends nolead begins Mazurkas and other piano works
nolead ends nolead begins Cedric Tiberghien
nolead ends nolead begins (Harmonia Mundi ****)

nolead ends Stragglers? Interlopers? Whatever they are, some of the best Chopin discs are the late arrivals in the composer's waning 200th anniversary. Canada-based Janina Fialkowska has made more than her share of distinguished Chopin discs, but perhaps recording live with an orchestra has inspired her to surpass herself in a manner of playing that exercises daring flexibility, allowing her to sparkle in the extreme one minute and reveal her soul the next. Somehow - and partly thanks to conductor Tovey - she maintains long-range sweep of the pieces. Among recent Chopin concerto discs, this is among the best.

Cedric Tiberghien previously recorded the Chopin ballades in performances that were admirably probing but felt intellectually contrived and not yet fully formed. Only a few years later, contrivance is fleeting in these thoroughly original, fully realized interpretations. Though his mazurkas are sometimes too mercurial to dance properly, they always speak in great detail and often with great charm.

In his first recording in decades, 76-year-old Agustin Anievas, who is playing more since retiring from the Brooklyn College faculty, still commands demanding works such as Chopin's Etudes Op. 10 with an almost classical sense of poise, but with expressive subtleties that could only come from a senior pianist. As good as the etudes are, the main attraction of this disc is the Schumann Fantasy: The deeper emotional underpinning of the technical challenges is fully tapped by Anievas, with a sense of Schumann's logic that eludes so many performers.

- David Patrick Stearns