Sarah McLachlan first emerged as a global phenomenon over three decades ago, introducing an unprecedented new voice into the pop canon: soulful, spellbinding, and supremely capable of transforming pain into transcendence. On her first album of new material in 11 years, Better Broken finds the Canadian singer/songwriter widening her creative circle and furthering her legacy with songs that speak an uncompromising but radically illuminating truth about the state of the human condition.

Recorded live in Birmingham during a Contemporary Music Network tour in 2002, Tramonto finds UK pianist John Taylor (1942-2015) in celebratory, outgoing mood, fronting one of his most dynamic and quick-witted groups, with US musicians Marc Johnson and Joey Baron – the energetic team that would later collaborate on the critically-lauded ECM recording Rosslyn. Here the repertoire features the well-known Taylor tunes “Pure and Simple”, “Between Moons” and “Ambleside” (heard in an epic 15 minute version), as well as the Ralph Towner-composed title track and Steve Swallow’s “Up Too Late”, which swirls from bop phrasing to free playing, and includes high arco soloing from Johnson, and skittering drums from Baron. In all, a welcome reminder of what a creative force John Taylor could be, as leader of an outstanding piano trio.

This edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers is an unusual one. The personnel includes Blakey veterans Lee Morgan (returning to the band after some success as a leader), Curtis Fuller, and Victor Sproles, along with John Hicks (who appeared on three other Blakey records) and the tenor saxophonist John Gilmore (of Sun Ra fame) in his only appearance with the band. As was typical of Blakey-led groups, the emphasis is on original material by its members; the one Broadway show tune included, "Faith," is from a long since forgotten I Had a Ball. Morgan's driving blues "'S Make It" is easily the highlight of the session, though Hicks' richly voiced "Waltz for Ruth" and Fuller's Latin-flavored "Little Hughie" also deserve to be better known than they are. It's a shame that this was the only recording by this particular lineup of the Jazz Messengers, as Gilmore's strong blowing complements Morgan very well.

Ray Barretto's Carnaval combines two 1962 sessions, Pachanga with Barretto (his Milestone label debut as a leader) and Latino!. Both sets feature Barretto's first band, Charanga Moderna, with trumpeter El Negro Vivar and tenor saxophonist Jose Chombo Silva added to the front line for the latter LP. The first album is very much Latin jazz of its time, with all ten tracks designed for dancing the briefly popular pachanga, a dance that was simply too manic and difficult to catch on widely. The pachanga-friendly tempos on these ten brief cuts (most under three minutes) make the album sound rushed and nervous to ears unfamiliar with the dance fad. The far-better Latino!, recorded in nearly the same session, is a good old-fashioned jam session, with more leisurely tempos and extended playing times that give all the soloists – especially Vivar, Silva, and flutist Jose Canoura – plenty of room to stretch out. These two albums are very different, but hearing both of them in proximity reveals much about the state of the New York City Latin jazz scene in the early '60s.