Thirty-one tracks of nylon-string guitar played with a delicacy nobody else in the idiom has matched. Earl Klugh is the quietest virtuoso in jazz. Earl Klugh Earl Klugh was born in Detroit in 1953 and is almost unique among jazz guitarists in playing exclusively acoustic nylon-string guitar — no electric, no amplification beyond a microphone. That choice defines everything: the tone is warm and woody, the attack is soft, and the whole music sits at a volume that requires you to lean in. He was playing professionally as a teenager, recorded with Yusef Lateef at fifteen, and joined George Benson's band before working with Chick Corea's Return to Forever. That is a serious jazz apprenticeship, and it is worth knowing before filing him under easy listening. His influences are unusual for the genre — he has named Chet Atkins as a primary one, which explains the fingerstyle technique and the country-adjacent clarity of his lines. What to listen for "Livi...

Twenty-nine tracks from an Atlanta producer who shaped TLC, launched Boyz II Men and then made records with Madonna and Gwen Stefani. Dallas Austin Dallas Austin is from Columbus, Georgia, moved to Atlanta as a teenager, and was producing hits before he was twenty. He is one of the small group of people — with Jermaine Dupri, L.A. Reid and Babyface — who turned Atlanta into the centre of American Black music in the 1990s. His range is the notable thing. Austin produced hard-edged new jack swing, glossy pop-R&B, and later straight pop and rock for white artists, without any obvious change in method. He is also a genuine multi-instrumentalist who plays much of what is on his records. He founded Rowdy Records and, later, the Dallas Austin Foundation, and has worked extensively in music education in Atlanta. What to listen for The TLC material is the core. "Creep" won a Grammy and is one of the strangest hit records of the decade — a song a...