After the charming acoustic set Chamber Music Society, and just-pipping Bieber to a Grammy for Best New Artist, bassist, singer and composer Spalding tries to breathe new life into the dead form of smooth jazz-fusion.

Bass: Adam Clayton

Is it a tribal chant or a yodel? A squawk or a chirrup? Merrill Garbus - aka Tune-Yards - is back, after the triumphant critical success of last year's album whokill, and live she's as arresting as ever.

We've been inundated with rereleases of 1970s music from Africa, so it's refreshing to be informed of an extraordinary Guinean singer from an earlier era. And this is shivers-down-the-spine stuff.

The gritty blues-rock duo have sold out their British tour. Andy Gill meets them at their studio in Nashville

It's arguable whether the saxophone's particular qualities are better employed serving the dynamic freedoms of jazz than the tonal rigours of classical music, but McChrystal here makes a good case for classical composers to write more for the instrument.

Some musicians make fun of corny standards.

Fresh from her Mercury Prize nomination in the morning, Katy B bounds on to the stage.

Chris Barber's Jazz And Blues Band has seen many changes in personnel over its 57 years of existence, and Ian Wheeler gave more years of service than most.

At 74, Shepp's saxophone voice has lost some of its raw intensity, but his phrasing is gloriously intact, full of lateral, bluesy-sounding shots across the bows of the melody.

Bruce Springsteen has paid tribute to saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died aged 69 over the weekend.

Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player who helped propel Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band into global rock'n'roll dominance for three decades, died late on Saturday, a week after suffering a stroke. He was 69.

That alto saxophonist Konitz plays as well as he does at 82 years of age is remarkable, but that doesn't mean you want to hear this 2009 recording very often, despite the contributions of Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Always an eccentric soloist, Kontiz's ideas seem as fresh as ever but a lack of puff renders his tone thin and weedy.

Emerging from the heyday of the British big bands as one of its most admired instrumentalists, Eddie Mordue went on to become a highly successful session player, at home in every musical genre.