Susheela Raman - Music For Crocodiles EMI4771272

The follow up album to Salt Rain - and even better than its predecessor. (A third album, Love Trap, seems only to be available by import in the UK) Susheela is British, trained to sing classical Indian music, but spreads across into jazz and blues. This is Crossover at its best. African percussion, Asian dissonance, western production on tracks like The Same Song and Meanwhile it all works together surprisingly well. Some tracks are hard work at first but repay the effort. Smoky, perfumed and seductive.

Ry Cooder - Chavez Ravine - Nonesuch/Perro Verde 7559798772

This is journey back into Los Angeles of the fifties, when the greed for land to develop for shopping malls and high-rises resulted in the destruction of many poorer neighbourhoods, including Chavez Ravine. The cd booklet has a remarkable picture of several earth-movers careering down a slope to start work on the stadium for Dodgers baseball team. It's a piece of showmanship and theatre on a grand scale, designed to wipe out the memory of what was there before.

A tribute to the music and the musicians of the time, it has some spoken word thrown in for good measure, and, while it's obviously Latin, it has its own distinctive flavour and benefits from the warm, natural sound that marks out Cooder's albums. I particularly liked Muy Fifi and, for a piece of street story-telling 3 Cool Cats. It's got a great spirit, this album.

Herbie Hancock - Possibilities - Warner 510110112

This is Herbie on piano with a host of guest vocalists, ranging from Sting to Christine Aguilera. I’m not normally a fan of those albums where someone rings up a pile of his or her chums and they all have lovely time and put together a hotch-potch of styles and egos but this really works and you get a splendid collection of songs with some great jazz piano and arrangements, effortlessly blended.

The album starts with a funky track with John Mayer and then the world-flavoured Safiatou on which Santana pops up with Angelique Kidjo, and on both tracks Hancock enhances the music without losing the flavour. I’ve never been a fan of Ms Aguilera (you’ll be amazed to hear) but on A Song For You she keeps the vocal gymnastics under control and lets Hancock do the real work and that’s really the start of the more jazz-flavoured numbers. Annie Lennox, Damien Rice, Paul Simon and Joss Stone also appear with others you may hate or love, but I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every track.

R L Burnside 1926 - 2005

R L Burnside has died at the age of 78, leaving a wife and 12 children. For most of his career, he played raw Delta blues but latterly, under the guidance of the Fat Possum label, produced some fine albums mixing his blues with scratches, beats and loops. The purists hated it, but he made no bones about needing the money.

For the raw Burnside, try First Recordings. Equally raw is his collaboration with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Ass Pocket of Whisky. Come On In is one of his "beats and blues" albums and has a fine photograph of R L and his fridge, padlocked and chained to stop his relatives stealing his food. Burnside on Burnside is recorded live, with R L sounding as though he's having the time of his life. A Bothered Mind is mixed, in more ways than one, and I guess the label were scraping the barrel of recorded fragments after R L stopped work, having been "interviewed to death by Europeans" on the festival circuit. Nearly all the albums are available, as CDs and on vinyl (try Diverse Vinyl).

The best, I think, is Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down, for his singing, the blend of old and new styles, and, above all, the material, telling part of the story of R L's life. Which is what it's all about. I hope, in heaven, that they've found him a chair. He deserves it.

Laura Veirs - Year of the Meteors (Nonsuch B000A14OEC)

Suzanne Vega's younger sister goes electric. She's not, of course, but she might as well be. I may be missing something here as it has picked up good reviews - which is why I picked it up on offer in Borders. There's nothing bad or objectionable - but nothing to set it apart either. No friction at all really and it will probably be the subliminal soundtrack to countless thirty something dinner parties for the rest of the year. I just need music to touch the sides somewhere as it is aurally digested. The musical equivalent of cheese dip.