When Prince comes to the Montreux Jazz Festival, all bets are off. On his third visit to the Swiss Riviera for the 47th edition of the event, he was given carte blanche over three consecutive, sold-out evenings and appeared determined to cover as many bases as possible.

Blessed with a clear, warm voice that soars on choruses to a pure high-register croon, and all-round instrumental skills to rival Stevie Wonder, Mayer Hawthorne is a blue-eyed R&B prodigy admired even by those whose crown he threatens, such as Justin Timberlake.

Austin, Texas-style country-meets-soul, with composer/singer Lebeau, a Native American Shoshone tribesman who grew up on a Wyoming reservation, backed by three star sidemen in Roscoe Beck, JJ Johnson and Red Young.

Is he tired of playing second fiddle? He scored a No 1 for Rudimental when he co-wrote and featured on their No 1 dance hit, "Feel the Love".

Multi-instumentalist, string arranger, model, senior editor of Love Is the Magazine and busker … the surprise here is only that the violinist/singer Toliver's debut LP is, on the surface, such a conventional, Radio 2-friendly affair.

Hubcap Music – so titled because one of the guitars he uses was made from “two hubcaps and a garden hoe” – finds Seasick Steve back on form, with an album steeped in gritty boogie and even grittier attitude.

Judge says it may have been a crazy scheme, ‘but it was a very real plan’

Omara “Bombino” Moctar's 13-minute “Tigrawahi Tikma” was one of the standout cuts on last year's Songs For Desert Refugees compilation, its driving guitar trills exemplifying the enduring strength of Tuareg desert-blues.

Understated is that rarity, a positive break-up album confirming an emotional rebirth: “Back to life, back to hope... I can't stay another day with you,” he exults in “Too Bad (That's Sad)”, one of a clutch of Motown stompers.

Recorded in Willie Mitchell's Royal Studio with an all-star band including Spooner Oldham, Willie Weeks and Ray Parker Jr, Memphis is a late-night delight.

"I'm going to do something I never do," confesses Allen Stone. "I've got a song called 'The Fly' I wrote two days ago in my hotel room I'd like to sing to you." It's a courageous and daft act from this resolutely bland American soul singer.

If appearing on the soundtrack of Grey's Anatomy leads more people to investigate Jamie Lidell's music, they ought to enjoy what they find.

"Teardrops" singer Cecil Womack has died, aged 65, his brother and fellow musician has confirmed in an emotional Facebook message referencing their troubled relationship.

The queues for the plastic champagne flutes might have rivalled those at Terminal 5 last weekend