Kevin Whitehead

Divine: The Jazz Albums, 1954-1958 packs four CDs with Vaughan's music, recorded live or in the studio with bands big and small. Two live albums from Chicago nightclubs are standouts, partly when a performance threatens to slide off the rails.

Four albums of reissues and archival recordings from Crosby's own vaults are getting a high-profile release; they demonstrate that his influence on modern singing is so huge, we barely notice it anymore. He could sing anything from Latin to Hawaiian to The Great American Songbook.

Mosaic Records has released Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928-1945. a seven-disc showcase for the jazz pianist and bandleader. Hines' right hand played lines in bright, clear octaves -- and his left hand had a mind of its own.

On his new album, The 3dom Factor, Altschul is great at mixing opposites: abstract melodic concepts with parade beats, open improvising and percolating swing. The album is the sort of comeback that reminds you how much good music the artist made the first time around.

Known for his work in New Klezmer Trio, clarinetist Ben Goldberg has just released two new albums for different quintets: Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues and Unfold Ordinary Mind.

The saxophonist and his quartet cross-pollinate Indian classical music and vintage Captain Beefheart to creat complicated rhythms and solos reminiscent of jazz-rock fusion.

A new four-CD set highlighting the music of the jazz keyboardist and drummer contains two discs that are gems and another two that have their moments.

An album recording of the guitarist from 1959 captures the thrilling sound of Midwestern jazz.

Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new, seven-disc Charles Mingus box set chronicling the jazz legend's mid-'60s live performances. The records, Whitehead says, "can be a little raw, as if the explosive music caught the engineers by surprise."

The violinist attempts to mix jazz, classical and traditional Chinese music with his octet on Burning Bridge.