Where were you in 1972? If you were listening to the radio, you would surely have heard "Pata Pata", the bouncy number which carried Miriam Makeba's voice all round the world. So it's great to have it back as the title track of Pata Pata, plus 10 other tracks from the original album. These are triumphant times for the first lady of African music: she recently celebrated her 70th birthday by accepting the Swedish prize whose previous recipients have included Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. She spent 30 years in exile from her native land, and was re-exiled from the US during that time for her tireless campaign for racial equality; she has survived car crashes, a plane crash, cancer, four divorces and the deaths of her only child and grandson. But since her return in 1990 her good works have redoubled; they include South African charities for Aids awareness and women's causes. Her art was always sweet and simple, no matter how urgent and combative her message: this CD has great charm. Most of the tracks are accompanied by a mélange of guitars and African instruments, over which her voice rides clear and clean, with just the occasional hint of vibrato. There are Cuban moments and pure Kwazulu moments, but it all hangs together in a seamlessly beguiling whole. -Michael Church.

On paper, River sounds like a match made in several versions of heaven. Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock re-imagines Joni Mitchell with his hand-picked, star-studded band-including saxophonist Wayne Shorter-in tow. Luminary guests lend vocals to a song apiece: Norah Jones ("Court and Spark"), Tina Turner ("Edith and the Kingpin"), Corinne Bailey Rae ("River"), Luciana Souza ("Amelia"), Leonard Cohen (with an unsettlingly sanguine version of "The Jungle Line"), even Mitchell herself ("Tea Leaf Prophecy"). In the event, though, a few fundamental elements go awry. Hancock plays with almost saccharine understatement throughout, and even Shorter's seminal "Nefertiti" and Duke Ellington's "Solitude" fall into the album's presiding, somnolent surface, though to a lesser degree does the instrumental version of Mitchell's "Sweet Bird. " But girding, and in some measure, saving, the proceedings, the lyrics here testify to a subtler wisdom guiding Hancock's set list. The mix includes a continuum from intrepid classics to dusty, fans-only fare, but a distinct reverence for Joni Mitchell the Poet threads them together, and, in the end, this album works best as a sleepy window into one fan's giddy and particular love affair with his source material. Fans of Hancock win out. -Jason Kirk.

This is the one jazz record owned by people who don't listen to jazz, and with good reason. The band itself is extraordinary (proof of Miles Davis's masterful casting skills, if not of God's existence), listing John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans (or, on "Freddie Freeloader", Wynton Kelly) on piano, and the crack rhythm unit of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Coltrane's astringency on tenor is counterpoised to Adderley's funky self on alto, with Davis moderating between them as Bill Evans conjures up a still lake of sound on which they walk. Meanwhile, the rhythm partnership of Cobb and Chambers is prepared to click off time until eternity. It was the key recording of what became modal jazz, a music free of the fixed harmonies and forms of pop songs. In Davis's men's hands it was a weightless music, but one that refused to fade into the background. In retrospect every note seems perfect, and each piece moves inexorably towards its destiny. -John Szwed.

As the song goes, "Merry Christmas" has already "been said many times, many ways". Diana Krall's Christmas Songs is a worthy-though not particularly unique-addition to the holiday catalogue. Krall excels with an approach mastered long ago: elegant delivery that gives extra polish to a very familiar lineup. Some might find her style frosty at times, but that will come as a relief to those who want their carolers to cut through some of the holiday treacle and create a festive, yet grown-up vibe. And Krall does show off her playful side with little, personal touches. In "Winter Wonderland" she promises to "frolic and play the Canadian way", which should draw smiles from her native land. Elsewhere, she ends "Jingle Bells" with the girlishly giddy statement, "I'm just crazy about horses". Well…can't argue with that. -Leah Weathersby.

Many thought that Miles Davis's contributions to Charlie Parker's mid-1940s bebop quintet were insignificant if not disastrous, but his promise became clear on the 1949-50 nonet sides which were collected on LP in 1957 as Birth Of The Cool. If bop's breakneck tempos had caught the young trumpeter unprepared, he flourished in the more relaxed environments of such as "Jeru" and "Israel", maximising the lyricism which became the hallmark of his style. The credit must be shared, however: Miles was part of a group of young experimenters in which Gil Evans, previously noted for his impressionistic arrangements for Claude Thornhill, was a prominent voice. Hence flowing solos from Miles and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz are underpinned by detailed, multi-dimensional writing from Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Carisi which is more intriguing than the improvisations. Kind Of Blue from 1959 is doubtless a Miles essential, but this set offers a broader sonic experience. The group's nine instruments-unusually for the time including French horn and tuba-are deployed with great craft to create rich, mobile tapestries of tone, texture and harmony. No sound like this had been heard before in jazz, and the rarefied yet vigorous mood it set floated through the collective consciousness of jazz in the ensuing years. There have been several CD editions of these sessions, but this is the first to be drawn from the original 78 tapes rather than the LP master. With transfers by Rudy Van Gelder, the result is a new freshness in music which in some respects still sounds like it could have been written yesterday. -Mark Gilbert.