While perusing eMusic's list of best albums so far this year I ran across Esperanza in the jazz list along with an album by Bennie Maupin and a new album from Marco Benevento. (More on the latter album sometime later.) I was not familiar at all with Esperanza Spalding and discovered that she is a vocalist/bassist from South America. Certainly the influences of latin culture are all over her music

I read several nice reviews of The Submarines and decided to give Create a New State! a try. In summary, excellent dreamy folk-pop that is more pop than folk. Wonderful vocals with nice instrumental work. I really like the album even though it doesn't seem to make it on the iPod that often. I think I'm going to try and correct that. My favorite tracks are Brighter Discontent and Clouds. However,

New Lambchop album, OH (ohio), just hit the streets. Very good news indeed. More on it when I've had a chance to listen - I downloaded it from eMusic without listening to a single track...

Just downloaded this yesterday based on a review, comparison to Amy Winehouse and listening to a brief snippet online. If you like sounds like Joan as Police Woman, Leslie Feist, and the current wave of incredible female vocalists, add Adele to your list. What an amazing voice.

Downloads (so far) this month from eMusic and iTunes:Adele - 19The Born Again Floozies - Street MusicMarco Benevento - Invisible BabyThe Week That Was - The Week That Was

In Rainbows is the album that Radiohead made available from their website for whatever you wanted pay for it. I avoided all the hype around that whole thing for a long time until I saw the album available on eMusic. In a moment of weakness, I gave the samples a listen and immediately downloaded the entire album. It is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of popular music. Forget the free download and

Imagine having an album sit lost in your music collection since 2004 and accidentally finding it to discover a beautiful classical classical album. I've got about 45G of music on the Mac, plus about 3000 CDs that I've not had a chance to rip. It's easy for things to get lots. Really easy. I don't remember where I got this copy of Flatlands, but it's been a wonderful surprise. The MP3 tags associated

If you're like me and can't get enough Broken Social Scene, Something for All of Us... by Brendan Canning will be a real treat. Very much in the Broken Social Scene style, but with a bit more edge throughout. I was a bit put off by the opening title track, Something For All Of Us, the first time I listened to the album. Pretty straight up gloomy sounding rock-n-roll. Not quite shoe-gaze, but in

Bill Frisell (along with Pat Metheny and Jon McLaughlin) is among my favorite guitarists. Is sound is unique, which is tough to do on an electric guitar. The man is a musical chameleon - he can play any style he can here from straight ahead jazz to country. Bill Frisell is a collaboration with two of his most frequent sidemen - Ron Carter on bass and Paul Motian on drums. Given the lineup, the