A striking mix of radical and traditional, raw emotion and literate expression, hip-hop and vocal pop, Nellie McKay's Get Away from Me is the kind of feverishly inventive, sprawling album that only comes from young artists. Though it could've easily fit onto a single CD, it's a double-disc set designed to reclaim the feeling of flipping over a record; the back cover proclaims that McKay "is a proud member of PETA." While McKay's age (21 at the time of the album's release) and sound make comparisons to Fiona Apple, Nelly Furtado, and Norah Jones easy she even named her album Get Away from Me as a preemptive strike against it being lumped in with Jones' Come Away with Me McKay is a more esoteric and hyperactively creative artist.

Altoist Lee Konitz has recorded in many different types of settings through the years. This sparse outing matches Konitz in a pianoless trio with bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart. The focus is mostly on Konitz, and he is in top form, playing inventively and thoughtfully on four originals (most of which have chord changes based on standards), a piece by McClure, and the ballad "Angel Eyes." This is a melodic and cool-toned bop session that finds Lee Konitz often sounding as if he is thinking aloud.

UK jazz dance hero Paul Murphy teams up with BBE Music to deliver his first compilation on the label: a blazing selection of up-tempo jazz titled 'The Jazz Room'.Lauded by none other than Gilles Peterson as "the original messenger of jazz who found almost every dancefloor classic", Paul began DJing in 1970s London. His passion and unique playing style placed him at the epicentre of an emerging jazz-dance scene in the city, popping off in spots like The Horseshoe (aka Jaffas), The Wag, The 100 Club, The Blue Note and The Electric Ballroom, where he founded the now famous 'Jazz Room', after which this album is named.

The differences in Robert Cray albums are subtle but noticeable to fans of the veteran soul-bluesman. He retains the same backing trio on this 2012 release as on 2009's studio disc, with the only major difference in personnel being the addition of noted roots producer Kevin Shirley. Lyrically detailed story ballads about the trials and tribulations of love, with an emphasis on broken relationships, remain his strong suit as song titles such as "Sadder Days," "Fix This," "I'll Always Remember You," "Won't Be Coming Home," and even the album's title imply. Yet there are enough change-ups and excellent songs here to keep the pace varied.

Anyone who has paid attention to Otis Taylor's career understands that he is not a conventional bluesman, yet his diverse music, for all of its ambitious instrumentation, odd rhythmic meters, minor pentatonic scales, and textural strangeness embodies the spirit of the blues authentically and unmistakably. His is an iconic and some would argue iconoclastic vision. Contraband is nearly an hour long and contains 14 songs. Taylor plays guitar as well as banjo, and he uses a familiar slate of players: cornetist Ron Miles, keyboardist Brian Juan, fiddler Anne Harris, guitarist Jon Paul Johnson, with Chuck Campbell on pedal steel, djembe player Fara Tolno, and two bassists: daughter Cassie Taylor and Todd Edmunds; Larry Thompson plays drums.

Otis Taylor earned acclaim in 2001 when his White African release got picked up for national distribution, but this previous disc could just as easily have been the one to bring him into the spotlight: It was every bit as deep, ambitious, and listenable as White African. Listening to the independently issued When Negroes Walked the Earth reveals that Taylor was already one of the most fully developed voices in contemporary blues an artist in the true sense of the word, intent on crafting his ideas into sharply realized songs and then into a full-fledged album.

In this album Clara Andrada, solo flutist of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, performs three 20th century flute concertos together with the orchestra conducted by Jaime Martín. Malcolm Arnold’s delightful Flute Concerto No. 1 makes a pleasant addition alongside Nielsen’s and Ibert’s flute concertos. Jaime Martín, himself an excellent flutist, is a perfect companion to these works. This is the orchestra’s second album for Ondine, and continues the fruitful collaboration between Jaime Martín and Ondine that has already produced three albums previously.

Louis Lortie completes his survey of the piano concertos of Saint-Saëns with Nos 3 and 5 (the Egyptian), adding the Rhapsodie dAuvergne and Allegro appassionato for good measure. As before, he is joined by Edward Gardner and the BBC Philharmonic.

The late quartets of Beethoven are renowned as the pinnacle of his output, and stand among the greatest compositions of all time. The Brodsky Quartet’s keenly anticipated recording celebrates the Beethoven year.

Baker's Holiday finds Chet Baker effectively paying tribute to Billie Holiday with mellow trumpet solos and occasional vocals. Baker is backed by a full sax section and a four-piece rhythm section that includes pianist Hank Jones; Jimmy Mundy contributed the colorful arrangements. His performance of ten songs associated with Lady Day (most of which he had not recorded previously) is often exquisite.

Sir Andrew Davis and his Melbourne forces turn to Goossens’s Second Symphony and the Phantasy Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, featuring Tasmin Little as soloist.

During the eighteenth century the cello gradually emerged from the anonymity of the continuo group, and by the beginning of the Romantic era the instrument had become an indispensable tool for composers. Robert Schumann, who had himself taken cello lessons, was very fond of it, describing is as a ‘beautiful instrument’; and Johannes Brahms, who acquired considerable skill as a cellist, praised its ‘masculine, serious character’. It is therefore to be hoped that neither composer would object to Christian Poltéra’s sensitive adaptations of their works. Schumann and Brahms wrote three violin sonatas each, both choosing D minor as the key of one of them.

On this amply filled album, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Clavierstücke verschiedener Art (Keyboard Pieces of various Kinds) is presented in its entirety, with the exception of three songs for voice and keyboard. This collection is the most diverse of Bach’s publications and includes multi-movement genres, a free fantasia, a learned fugue, and various short pieces of varying degrees of difficulty. The variety suggests that Bach did not want for his keyboard music to be strictly divided into ‘light’ and ‘serious’ pieces.

An esteemed conductor who has worked with most of the major orchestras and made more than 300 recordings, José Serebrier is also a prolific composer. He became established at an early age with Leopold Stokowski giving the world première of his Symphony No. 1, when he was only 17 years old. He studied composition with Martinu and Copland, while also learning conducting from Doráti, Monteux and Stokowski, who named the 22-year old Serebrier his associate conductor. This dual career has flourished ever since, as demonstrated by this disc on which Serebrier conducts the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in some of his most recent works.

Jan Antonín Losy was born around 1650 of a prosperous Bohemian family. After the death of his father, the first Count of Losinthal, he inherited not only his title but also considerable wealth. He was therefore able to devote his life to music, and his skill as a lutenist became famous throughout Europe. Unlike professional players, Losy had no need to sell or publish his music but fortunately it has survived in numerous manuscript copies. Today we have almost 200 pieces by Count Losy, many of which once belonged together in larger suites or partitas.