Notable CDs

One knock against NRBQ, the band with which the pianist Terry Adams rose to cult-favorite status in the 1970s, was that its affectionate crossbreeding of rock ’n’ roll roots sometimes felt too cute. And because four of the 14 instruments played by this album’s seven musicians are electric (and because one of those instruments is a pipe organ), these Adams-arranged Thelonious Monk compositions sometimes feel too cute too. Mostly, though, they feel affectionate. And what they lack in swing they make up for in bounce.

Blackbird: The Beatles Album

Since 2003, Dan Dugmore’s Off White Album has been the standard where Beatles explorations by unplugged guitarists were concerned. On these 15 tracks, however, Miloš Karadaglić gives Dugmore a run for his money. The comparison is somewhat apples and oranges. Dugmore played steel strings, Karadaglić nylon. Dugmore forwent vocals; Karadaglić enlists Gregory Porter (“Let It Be”) and Tori Amos (“She’s Leaving Home”). But both guitarists share a lightness of touch. What might give Karadaglić an edge: his enlisting Anoushka Shankar’s sitar for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

Midnight McCartney

Mellowing out Paul McCartney might seem redundant given that McCartney is mellow enough to begin with, but often Pizzarelli gets away with it. Not on “My Love”—there’s a difference between “mellow” and “mushy.” But on “Heart of the Country” and “Junk,” his unsmitten approach is even more refreshing than Michael McDonald’s unsmitten guest vocal on “Coming Up.” Guitar-wise, Pizzarelli is sheer je ne sais quoi. Vocally, he’s a charming ringer for what the middle-aged Chet Baker would’ve sounded like had he not been a junkie.

Emily’s D+Evolution (Deluxe Edition)

There’s more than a little Joni Mitchell in Esperanza Spalding’s vocal elasticity and her dithyrambic takes on the personal and the political. And there’s at least a little Natalie Cole in her voice. But the restless fusion-jazz is hers alone. Having already crossed “Win a Grammy” off her bucket list, Spalding clearly intends to spend the rest of her relatively youthful energy going where no bass-playing jazz woman has gone before—and making sure that the journey is well worth her and her fans’ time.

Spotlight

It’s hard not to give Wynton Marsalis’ large-scale works the benefit of the doubt. They’re so long and complex that even if one isn’t bowled over by them, figuring out why seldom seems worth the trouble. Marsalis’ latest big project is The Abyssinian Mass (Blue Engine), a 2013 live performance of the two-hour gospel-jazz oratorio commissioned of Marsalis in 2008 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. Co-credited to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Damien Sneed, and Chorale Le Chateau, it’s long and complex too.

But figuring out what’s wrong and what’s right with it is relatively easy. What’s wrong is the religiously syncretic elements of the theologically liberal Rev. Calvin O. Butts’ homilies on Disc Two, which elevate unity over truth. What’s right is the music, which even at its most elephantine is Ellingtonian enough to make overfamiliar worship tropes seem fresh. And, often enough, it’s not elephantine at all. —A.O.