Szikra

Amsterdam Klezmer Band & Söndörgő

The Amsterdam Klezmer Band exists to entertain folk-music fans who lack the Eastern European heritage to enjoy older-school klezmer music instinctively. The Hungarian tamburitza quintet Söndörgő has a similar agenda vis-à-vis Balkan folk. Together, they somehow achieve a sound that’s as sinuous, danceable, and light as what they achieve alone despite being twice as full. It’s more adventurous too. They also understand pacing, going out on an eight-minute climax called “Powerbeat” toward which everything else in retrospect turns out to have been building.

Cool Like You

Blossoms

In the same way that a lot of catchy ’80s rock emerged from bands inspired by ’60s prototypes, these Mancunians make catchy 21st-century rock inspired by ’80s and ’90s sounds. The surging “I Just Imagined You” in particular packs a powerful retro sugar rush. Two of the Blossoms play guitar, but—not counting the vocals—bass, drums, and synthesizers are all that come through. It’s just as well. The acoustic-guitar-foregrounding unplugged versions that comprise the second half of this sophomore effort’s deluxe edition sound wimpy.

One More Song

Ashley Cleveland

The three songs that Cleveland wrote herself continue the confessional transparency of her 2013 memoir Little Black Sheep. (One of them, the motherhood-themed “Lily Grown Wild,” rocks feistily enough for Cougar-era Mellencamp.) Most of the songs, however, subsume or forgo autobiographical specifics altogether. And whether she co-wrote them (“Crooked Heart,” “Ezekiel 2”) or discovered them via the public domain (“Down by the Riverside,” “Walk in Jerusalem”) or via Washington Phillips (“Born to Preach the Gospel”), their transcendent gospel-blues properties come through loud and clear.

Roxy: Tonight’s the Night Live

Neil Young

Years before Geffen sued Young for submitting what the label deemed deliberately uncommercial recordings, he ran afoul of Reprise with these needle-and-the-damage-done songs, causing their studio versions to go unreleased for two years. Sure, they were dark, but they also focused Young’s attention more than just about any other subject before or since. These live club renditions, interspersed with jokes both verbal and musical, take some of the edge off. (The crowd certainly doesn’t seem bummed out.) The edge that’s left still cuts plenty.

ENCORE

Jim Snidero and Jeremy Pelt apparently believe that if the influential jazz alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley hadn’t existed, they would’ve had to invent him. But, as Adderley did exist (from 1928 to 1975), Snidero and Pelt settle for reinventing him instead on their new album, Jubilation! Celebrating Cannonball Adderley (Savant). They do so by supplementing faithful covers of six Adderley-identified tunes with two originals (Pelt’s “Party Time” and Snidero’s “Ball’s 90th”) so in keeping with their hero’s soulful, melodic buoyancy that listeners who ignore the composer credits might mistake the songs for newly unearthed Adderley gems.

An alto saxophonist himself, Snidero shoulders much of the responsibility for keeping the project on track. But as Adderley’s quintet also featured his cornet-playing brother Nat, Pelt’s trumpet contributes substantially to the verisimilitude. The absence of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” denotes the duo’s refusal to push obvious buttons. The presence of the immortal “Sack o’ Woe” denotes the duo’s inability to resist the irresistible. —A.O.