Smooth Jazz Hits For Lovers is an all-star genre collection geared towards setting a romantic mood via a mix of engaging instrumentals and vocals.

The casual listener can put it on, light a candle, have dinner and slow dance as the tracking rolls from dreamy sax gems (Boney James' balmy cover of Stevie Wonder's "Send One Your Love," Najee's "Forever And A Day After") to slightly funked up keyboards (Jeff Lorber's chillin' "You Got Something") and coolly grooving electric guitars (The Rippingtons' "Love Story," Norman Brown's "Sending My Love").

To lend variety to the action under the stars and moonlight, the set includes an ample number of charming lead vocals, from Dave Koz's engaging take on "This Guy's In Love With You" to Ryan Collins' funky, soulful lead vocal on Mindi Abair's "Get Right," George Benson's rousing "Show Me The Love" and Nathan East's seductive "I'll Still Be Lovin' You." Lest we forget melodic and infectious, easy flowing pieces from Peter White ("Always, Forever"), Marion Meadows ("Flirt") and Jessy J ("True Love").

For hardcore fans of the genre, the real story that emerges over the course of these tracks from the past three years is just how deep Concord Music Group's genre catalog has become. All of the chosen artists have had numerous radio hits, some dating back several decades, which are familiar to most listeners. The joy of this set is that these are mostly "deep cuts" one might only have heard if they owned the full CD.

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When it came time to choose the playlist for the long overdue "greatest hits" set Legacy: The Best of Tab Benoit, it must have been quite a task for singer-songwriter and blues guitar great Benoit to distill nearly a decade and a half of hard hitting work down to 14 representative tracks.

Though his extraordinary run with Telarc began with Homesick For The Road -- a 1999 guitar trio date featuring Kenny Neal and Debbie Davis -- Benoit formed his first trio and began playing clubs in New Orleans and his hometown of Baton Rouge in the late-'80s. Truly living up to liner notes writer John Swenson's designation that "Benoit is a true Louisiana resource, the product of a life steeped in music -- blues, country, Cajun, rock and soul," the multi-talented artist lives and breathes the triumphs, tragedies and indomitable spirit of his beloved home state. His commitment to protecting the precarious landscape of his home state via his environmental advocacy work with Voice of the Wetlands predates the devastating aftermath of Katrina.

The collection includes a brooding cover of "For What It's Worth" from Power Of The Ponchartrain (2007); "Night Train" and "The Blues Is Here To Stay" from Fever For The Bayou (2005); "Muddy Bottom Blues" from Wetlands (2002); the country-flavored "Comin' On Strong" from Brother To The Blues (2006), a Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues Album; and "Shelter Me," the theme song for the Discovery Channel series Sons Of Guns. Benoit's most recent studio release Medicine (2011) is represented by its slow simmering title track. Benoit is featured in the IMAX film Hurricane On The Bayou and in May of 2010, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

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A celebrated bluesman who transcends the tradition via colorful experimentation and bold craftsmanship via the guitar, banjo and harmonica, Otis Taylor brings a fascinating history to his nearly decade long catalog on Telarc -- which includes his latest multi-faceted offering Contraband.

Originally from Chicago, he grew up in Denver playing the banjo, but his father wanted him to be a jazz musician. Upon hearing that the banjo was originally an African instrument turned almost exclusively into a white bluegrass instrument in part through the derogatory black-face minstrel shows of the 19th century, Taylor dropped the banjo and began to focus solely on the guitar and harmonica. He played music professionally both in Europe and the United States in a variety of blues-oriented bands until 1977, when he left the music industry for other pursuits, including becoming an antique dealer.

Since returning to music in the mid-'90s, there’s been no stopping him. He has earned eleven Blues Music Awards nominations, including his latest in 2009 for his banjo playing. He won Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll various times for Blues CD of the Year, most recently in 2008 for Recapturing the Banjo. A master of the unexpected, Taylor draws on a mix of roots music in their rawest form and, despite his personal lighthearted delivery, has no problem singing about hard topics like murder, homelessness, tyranny and injustice.

Contraband, which splits its 14 tracks between electric and acoustic, features his trademark mix of tempos and styles, beginning with the rousing rocker “The Devil’s Gonna Lie,” then strutting playfully on “Banjo Boogie Blues,” telling a heartfelt story on the laid back “Blind Piano Teacher and firing back up on “Contraband Blues.”

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April is Jazz Appreciation Month. What I appreciate most about jazz is that no one has the one and only, exclusively correct, definition of jazz. Which is quite liberating: If no one can tell me what jazz is, then no one can tell me what jazz is not.

Some folks consider Dixieland music, for example, to be the most original and pure form of jazz. But if Dixieland is jazz, how can music played by bands like Return to Forever and the Yellowjackets be jazz? It's completely different, almost totally opposite, music. And if that music is jazz? Then the wobbly blue rhythms and chords of Thelonious Monk surely are not... are they? What do we do with a vocalist like Tony Bennett? Is he a jazz singer? He sings a lot of pop...

That's what I appreciate about jazz the most: No matter what you claim jazz "is" -- Dixieland or fusion or bebop or whatever -- we can with just a little effort find something completely different and call that music jazz, too.

From this perspective, jazz becomes much more than just one style of music, it becomes a way of listening to and appreciating ALL styles of music. The way Isaac Hayes rearranges a pop tune like "I Stand Accused" and transforms it into a profoundly personal soul manifesto, or that Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers rough up Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man," or that Tom Ball finger picks through a Merle Travis tune -- it's all jazz to me.

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