Teen sax wiz holds her own

Grace Kelly and Lee Konitz (Pazz)

Grace Kelly -- a 15-year-old, not the actress-royalty person -- doesn't back down on a bandstand of talent. On the pun-ily named "GRACEfulLEE," the alto player stands strong with alto legend Lee Konitz, no easy task for a young player. The band also is filled with other strong players such as drummer Matt Wilson, bassist Rufus Reid and guitarist Russell Malone. That creates an album that swings mightily from its bebop opening "Subconscious Lee" to three bits of free improvisation -- "Call of the Spirits," "Buzzing Around" and "NY at Noon." Those pieces illustrate her remarkable improvisational skills, as she keeps up with Konitz. The album also features pretty versions of "There Is No Greater Love," "Alone Together" and "Just Friends," showing the young player understands the strength of melody as much as the power of technique.

It's a remarkable display by Lee and a good chance to hear Konitz.

-- Bob Karlovits

Christian Howes (Resonance)

Violinist Christian Howes has insisted he is trying to take his jazz away from the sounds of famous fiddlers Stephane Grappelli and Jean-Luc Ponty. "Hearffelt" gives him the chance to do that by presenting a package of ballad-dominated songs. If his sound came from any direction on this recording, it could be from the famous Chet Baker and Strings album. Howes is backed by a string section and the fine piano work of Roger Kellaway as he offers work focused on melody and lovely improvisation, far from the rock-influeced work has done in the past. But, while the album tends to be centered on the pretty, Howes also takes a look at Benny Goodman's "Opus Half," which is both bop- and stride-influenced. This release is from the new Resonance label, which is related to a nonprofit jazz effort and is trying to promote new performers, such as this 36-year-old. Like this one, their early albums show they are taking their work seriously.

-- Bob Karlovits

Bob Dylan (Sony BMG)

Less a time capsule of vault remnants than a fresh summation of Bob Dylan's modern times, "Tell Tale Signs" reveals the 67-year-old legend at the peak of his powers, ruminating on lost love, pondering mortality and trying to make sense of a broken society. The eighth installment of Dylan's "Bootleg Series" is a rich cache of unreleased studio recordings, demos, alternate takes, live tracks and rarities spanning 1989 to 2006, the renaissance era that yielded "Time Out of Mind," "Love and Theft," "Modern Times" and "Oh Mercy." The collection, available as a 27-song two-CD set or a lavish three-disc deluxe version with a 150-page hardcover book detailing his singles artwork, opens a fascinating peephole into Dylan's sonic sanctum. Dylan's attachment to America's musical roots are evident throughout, from "32-20 Blues "(his first release of a Robert Johnson cover) to a Ralph Stanley duet. But this is no museum archive. It's another side of a master songwriter and spellbinding performer.

-- USA Today

Pretenders (Shangri-La Music)

Chrissie Hynde may have spent the past three decades in London, but you wouldn't know it on this energetic and smart set of scrappy rockabilly and rootsy American rock 'n' roll. Flanked by competent hired hands, she's the sole original on her band's ninth studio album in nearly three decades, which isn't an issue since Hynde was always the great Pretender. She continues to project a tough, wise and vulnerable personality in bracing songs that dare to reach beyond the yearbook sentiments of love-struck teens. Her pain-revealing poignancy can startle, but she's at her best when snarling, as in the militant title track's call for environmental activism, set to a thumping Bo Diddley beat.

-- USA Today

Gym Class Heroes (Decaydance)

As the title suggests, "The Quilt" is a colorful patchwork project. The hip-hop darlings of the Warped Tour, Gym Class Heroes are a biracial band from Upstate New York that proudly wear their rap identity on their sleeves. But they keep pulling choice pop influences out of their pockets. "Blinded by the Sun," for instance, quotes extensively from Corey Hart's 1984 hit, "Sunglasses at Night." The ballad "Like Father, Like Son" sounds like the Temptations meet Dr. Hook. Even the most white-bread song on the CD, "Live a Little," suggests a mash-up of Fountains of Wayne and the Beach Boys. Gym Class Heroes are like House of Pain with serious musical chops. Superficial but pleasing, this offering is best consumed in small doses.

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

Jennifer Hudson (Arista)

Jennifer Hudson has been a loser on TV's "American Idol" and a winner in the film "Dreamgirls." Although she was awarded an Oscar, in part because she tore the house down as the discarded Effie, pouting and howling her hurt way through "And I Am Telling You," there's been no proof of this singer's real pop prowess. Until now.

Nearly two years in the making, Jennifer Hudson is what commercially calculated R&B has become: equal parts big, brassy sass and slow, simmering soul aided by producers and songwriters who do the same for other diva clients. While Timbaland's "Pocketbook" offers Hudson a sparse, kinky groove in which to croon, "Spotlight" finds her producer-writers, Stargate and Ne-Yo, going for their usual steely finish. The world can do without another Dianne Warren power ballad, but Hudson does eat up the torch and treacle of "You Pulled Me Through. "Is the record good• Indeed. It's grand even when it's at its most generic and features a great voice belting emotional tunes -- even if it's a little too clear that a committee has decided which emotions to feel.

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Randy Rogers Band (Mercury)

Kenny Chesney could learn a thing or two from the Randy Rogers Band. These up-and-comers play a tough brand of country-rock that doesn't sound like a rehash of '70s rock, and while their radio-ready songs cover familiar territory, they never indulge in lame introspection. Working again with producer Radney Foster, himself a smart country-rocker, the Randy Rogers Band has come up with another substantial set fueled by meaty hooks. There's a little less swagger this time -- the omnipresent fiddle often signals a somber or at least a serious mood. But front man Rogers, who cowrote all but three of the 12 numbers, remains a full-blooded presence -- a man's man who never becomes a macho cartoon, and a sensitive guy who never gets sappy even when pledging devotion to "One Woman" or saying an anguished farewell in "This Is Goodbye."

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer