Deutsche Grammophon's affordable Trio series revives great recordings from the past, many long unavailable and coveted by collectors. Yet this 2004 triple-disc set of Schubert's late string quartets and the Quintet in C major, performed by the Emerson String Quartet and Mstislav Rostropovich, is identical to the 1999 release in all respects except for packaging and price, and will be superfluous to owners of the first edition.

Here's a set of the best of Mozart's symphonies performed by the well-respected Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. These are reissues of recordings made in the 1980s, and although half were done in the studio and half were live, there is really no significant difference in sound.

A brilliant recording by Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria, Afro Roots (Prestige, 1989) collects the Latin jazz hero’s first two albums released on the Fantasy label, 1958’s Yambu and 1959’s Mongo. The music is some of the best the genre has ever produced and shows just how good Santamaria was before making the unfortunate leap to Latin fusion in the late ‘60s. The supporting musicians on these sessions are also impeccable, numbering among them Cal Tjader, Francisco Aguabella, Willie Bobo, Armando Peraza, Emil Richards, and Vince Guaraldi. With most of its songs falling within the four-minute mark and the LP featuring a beautiful black woman on its cover (a style very much of its time), Afro Roots is designed for a popular audience with the aim of making this music enjoyable and accessible.

In patching together a program of Hugh Masekela's MGM recordings onto a single overstuffed CD, Verve took the original The Americanization of Ooga Booga album, leapfrogged over its successor, Next Album, and coupled it with the third MGM LP, The Lasting Impressions of Hugh Masekela. That made good sense since the two albums originate from the same live date at the Village Gate, recorded when the trumpeter was still in the process of making an impression in the U.S. Masekela is full of wild, sputtering, high-rolling exuberance, developing some of his familiar signature trumpet riffs, freely exploring South African rhythms, harmonic sequences, and chants, and mixing them with soul-jazz at a time when hardly anyone else would bother (the mixture of township jive and jazz works especially well on "U-Dwi").

Úgy tűnik egyfajta népzenei örvénybe kerültem, hiszen nemrégiben Dresch Mihály „Forrásból” címet viselő zseniális albumáról volt szerencsém értekezni, most pedig a Malek Andrea és Jáger András által fémjelzett „Madárka/ Birdie” forog lejátszómban. Mindkét anyag hazánk gyönyörű zenéjének XXI-ik századi lenyomata, jobbnál-jobb muzsikusok szemüvegén keresztül láttatva - „hallatva” a csodás melódiákat.

Rob Mazurek has long been entrenched in his eclectic, global and multi-media creative sphere making it easy for listeners to forget his musical roots. With his 1994 leader debut, Man Facing East (Hep Records), he had already shown signs of breaking with convention, particularly on the title track of that album. The electro-acoustic cornet and keyboard player and visual artist began his music career in Chicago, working his way through hard bop and progressive rock before finding his place in the avant-garde/free improvisation sub-genres. The latter forms do little justice to the unique and varied approaches that Mazurek pursues across multiple group formations. Rome, is Mazurek's first solo outing since Vortice of the Faun (Astral Spirits, 2015), a very different, all-electronic noise album.