Im/possible to Keep - Hamiet Bluiett
Jazz/R&B, review by Michael Ullman
The Old "New Thing": Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett makes his mark blending avant garde with traditional jazz.(2/20/96)

The Complete Commodore Recordings - Billie Holiday
Jazz/R&B, review by Michael Ullman
A complete set of Billie Holiday's controversial Commodore recodings. (2/6/97)

Blue Train - John Coltrane
Jazz/R&B, review by Michael Ullman
Now that Blue Note has reissued John Coltrane's "Blue Train" in such excellent sound, you can hear why critics in 1957 called it a perfect recording -- and why Coltrane considered it his favorite. (04/17/97)

Hints on Light and Shadow - Julian Priester and Sam Rivers
Jazz, review by Michael Ullman
Suggestive, challenging, informal and occasional irritating, "Hints on Light and Shadow" is not, as Dexter Gordon liked to say about music he liked, your average B flat. (05/13/97)

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943): Piano Concerto No. 4, Corelli Variations, Piano Sonata No. 2, Prelude in C-sharp mino - Michael Tilson Thomas
Classical, review by Michael Ullman
These performances are technically flawless, lyrical and full of dramatic tension -- and would have been nearly revelatory 50 years ago. (2/25/98)

Quartets for Four Solo Voices - Franz Schubert
Classical, review by Michael Ullman
The vocal quartet was one of the most popular musical genres in Schubert's Germany, and no one but Schubert could have written the gracefully flowing melodies so beautifully rendered here by the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble. (04/30/97)

Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy Talkin
Jazz/R&B, review by Michael Ullman
Wildly unexpected Latin rhythms from Dizzy Gillespie (02/04/97)

Alma Brasileira: Music of Villa-Lobos - Michael Tilson Thomas
Classical, review by Michael Ullman
Michael Tilson Thomas' shining interpretation of Villa-Lobos (2/26/96)

Beyond the Missouri Sky - Charlie Haden/Pat Metheny
Jazz/R&B, review by Michael Ullman
Home is where the Heartland is: Metheny and Haden deliver jazz with a country twang on "Beyond the Missouri Sky" (3/18/97)

Stravinsky in Moscow - Igor Stravinsky conducting the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and The USSR Symphony Orchestra
Classical, review by Michael Ullman
Because these rare Russian performances were as much political as musical events, Stravinsky didn't say a word about the musical experience. Nonetheless, the concerts were important, if for no other reason than because after this visit, his music began to be played in his homeland once again. (08/20/97)

Traveling Without Moving - Jamiroquai
Pop/Rock, review by Aidin Viziri
Jamiroquai: Play that funky music, New Age British white boy. (01/17/97)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Soundtrack, review by Brad Weiners
Drug binges? Road craziness? Yawn. (12/4/96)

Beg, Scream and Shout - Various Artists
Jazz/R&B, review by Douglas Wolk
Almost every track on the wonderful "Beg, Scream & Shout!," a 6-CD set in a very cute "45 box" package, is somebody's long-unheard favorite song. It includes 144 '60s soul singles (by 144 different artists), almost all chart hits in their day -- but almost all unknown now. (08/19/97)

The Big 3 - 60ft Dolls
Pop/Rock, review by Douglas Wolk
Spinal Tap reincarnate: Clichéd Welsh rockers break like the wind (01/29/97)

Memories of Love - Future Bible Heroes
Pop/Rock, review by Doug Wolk
Legendary Unknown Stephin Merritt steals the show on the Future Bible Heroes' first album and delivers the kind of deliberately synthetic, genuinely sad, deeply funny music for which he's famous -- that is, if you already know who he is. (06/09/97)

Animal Rights - Moby
Pop/Rock, review by Douglas Wolk
Thar she blows: Moby's guitar rock is a monumental misfire (2/13/97)

Jewish Music:Serge Gainsbourg-Various Artists
Classical review by Douglas Wolk
What musicians love most about Serge Gainsbourg's records is their arrangements, and occasionally the temptation to re-create them proves too great -- but the arrangers who take the greatest liberties on "Great Jewish Music" come out the best. (11/07/97)

Mirador - Tarnation
Pop/Rock, review by Douglas Wolk
When Tarnation lead singer Paula Frazer croons on the band's third release "Mirador," she's so filled with lonesome cowgirl emotion that at times it sounds like heaven itself is crying. (04/16/97)

Rare on Air - Various Artists
Pop/Rock, review by Douglas Wolk
Live Cowboy Junkies and Guided by Voices (3/17/97)

The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum - L7
Pop/Rock, review by Jennie Yabroff
The SoCal punk band's fifth album delivers fast-food for thought. (3/6/97)

House of Music - Tony Toni Toné
Jazz/R&B, review by Jennie Yabroff
Tony Toni Toné's latest is all talk, no action. (11/12/96)

The White Album - Sheryl Crow
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Contemplating the sonic blancmange that is Sheryl Crow
Text-only version. (9/30/96)

I'm With Stupid - Aimee Mann
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Singer Aimee Mann scorns twiddly hippie-girl poetry. (1/27/96)

The Healing Game - Van Morrison
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Morrison's moony-eyed mystical romanticism is among the best of his latter-day work. (3/4/97)

At play in the fields of the bored - REM
Pop/Rock, review Stephanie Zacharek
"New Adventures in Hi-Fi" proves once again that REM is impossible to dismiss.
Text-only version. (9/9/96)

Sarge - Charcoal
Pop/Rock, review by Staphanie Zacharek
Gentle bravery beyond belief (02/05/97)

Gone Again - Patti Smith
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Patti Smith's new "Gone Again" is a meditation on grief that gets richer and simpler each time you listen to it. (7/1/96)

Individually Twisted - The Jazz Passengers
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Deborah Harry shines with screwball Jazz Passengers (2/25/96)

Be Here Now - Oasis
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek Oasis' third album, "Be Here Now," is a massive, angry woolly mammoth of a record, sounding less like pop music than some kind of sonic fantasy conquest. (09/02/97)

Retreat From the Sun - That Dog
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Even though you hear lots of girlish innocence and longing on That Dog's "Retreat from the Sun," the specter of bad-ass desire is never far behind. (05/28/97)

September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill - Various Artists
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Diverse and uncategorizable -- spanning his earliest, edgy collaborations with Bertolt Brecht and his later Broadway compositions, with their breathtaking emotional depth -- Weill's work practically invites the brainy kind of playfulness found here. (09/15/97)

Eventually - Paul Westerberg
Pop/Rock, review by Stephanie Zacharek
Former Replacement Paul Westerberg is in recovery. And on his new CD he's not afraid to show it. (4/29/96)