It is fun even if it isn't remotely the best jazz, or jazz at all. Benny Golson leads an orchestra featuring Art Farmer on trumpet and flugelhorn, Eric Gale on guitar, and Bernard Purdie at the drums, doing jazzed versions of the theme music from popular commercials. Some of it does work-Farmer and Gale have their moments-but a good deal of this recording (especially material like "The Swinger," for the Polaroid camera) comes off as jazz-muzak; it's doubtful that even Miles Davis could have done much more with the repertory here, and Golson wasn't being half as ambitious. Elliot Horne's original notes talk about Golson's credits and musical imagination, but here he even leaves the vocal choruses intact on several tracks, which ensures that listeners think of the original commercials and the products, not the music; in fact, next to this record, Verve's Count Basie Plays The Beatles is hot, swinging, and daring…

Jadis have re-released their first proper album as "More than Meets the Eye 25" in a special edition to mark 25 years since its original release in the early 1990s. This 2xCD Digipak has a brand new remix by Gary Chandler and disc 2 has newly recorded acoustic renditions of ‘Wonderful World’ and ‘G13’ by Martin Orford and Gary using 12 String Guitar, Piano, Flute and Vocals as well as live versions of ‘The Beginning and the end’ and ‘This Changing Face’ recorded in 1993. There are also 4 remastered songs from ‘Medium Rare’ ‘Follow me to Salzburg’, 'All in one day,’ 'View from above’ and ‘This Changing Face’ acoustic.

The late, great Lightnin' Hopkins was one of the most natural of bluesmen, a poet who would often make up lyrics as he recorded. He was at his best when unaccompanied, as on this Prestige date recorded in 1961. Though he usually played electric guitar, the Texas blues titan performed on this release with an acoustic, and the result is most rewarding. Tunes include "Goin' to Dallas to See My Pony Run" and "Buddy Brown's Blues."

Tyrannosaurus Rex's transformation from oracles of U.K. hippie culture to boogie-friendly rock stars began with the album A Beard of Stars, released in early 1970 when the band picked up electric instruments, and by the time the year was out, Marc Bolan had pared their name down to the more user-friendly T. Rex and dropped their first album with the new moniker. Oddly enough, while the songs on T. Rex bear a much stronger melodic and lyrical resemblance to what would make the band famous on Electric Warrior in 1971, the tone of the album is a bit more pastoral than A Beard of Stars; on most of the tunes, the electric guitars are more successfully integrated into the arrangements so they lack the jarring immediacy of "Elemental Children" or "Pavilions of the Sun," and Mickey Finn still wasn't using a full drum kit, so the tunes don't quite have the kick of a full-on rock band…

Joseph Holbrooke, an all-star ensemble from the mid-1960s dedicated to free improvisation, brought together three of the most influential British improvisers: guitarist Derek Bailey, bassist Gavin Bryars, and drummer/percussionist Tony Oxley. Though their recorded legacy is sparse, the group briefly reunited in 1998, leading to the acclaimed The Moat Recordings. Last Live 2001 captures their final performance, recorded in Antwerp in January 2001, and stands as a newly unearthed gem from Gavin Bryars’ archives. This release is both a document of the trio’s fearless musical dialogue and a moving tribute to Bailey and Oxley.

Telemann's Fantasias represent the most important current discovery in the gamba repertoire and are destined to become one of the cornerstones of the repertoire. The compositions, full of musical references to many different styles, are a compendium of how Italian and French influences permeated the purely German language to create a specific style, but it is also an example of visionary creativity, as Telemann anticipates many structural elements that define what will become the galant or pre-classical style. Moreover, using the genre Fantasia, Telemann shows us a portrait full of audacity, freshness and compositional freedom hitherto unknown.

RMI's Steve Dinsdale, Duncan Goddard, and Gary Houghton know how to coax all sorts of nuances from their machines, and they function as a live, interactive trio, with each member responding to the others' riffs and musical motifs. It doesn't hurt any, either, that Houghton has very impressive guitar chops, so when he eases into the mix with some blistering Stratocaster bursts, he rather convincingly updates (and improves upon) Edgar Froese's generic and rather predictable guitar flights on the seminal Tangerine Dream recordings. In a word, Radio Massacre International nail the vintage electronic music sound, but the band is simply more "nimble" than the first generation models, which greatly enhances the listening pleasure of the suitably attuned listener…if you're a musical novice unacquainted with RMI's sources, this music will serve as a stellar introduction to the form.

Duke Ellington had so many talents (composer, arranger, bandleader, personality) that his skills as a pianist could easily be overlooked. Fortunately he did record a fair amount of trio albums through the years so there is plenty of evidence as to his unique style which was both modern and traditional at the same time. The Pianist has trio performances from 1966 and 1970 and finds Ellington shifting smoothly between styles and moods while always remaining himself.