It should come as no surprise that Van Morrison has made an album inspired by skiffle. Van Morrison's love of skiffle dates back to his childhood. He would hang out at the famed Belfast record store Atlantic Records, where he'd hear early 20th century folk, blues and jazz from the likes of Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton.

'Moving On Skiffle' finds him taking a homemade style that exploded across Britain in the mid-1950s and infusing it with a level of sophistication and soulfulness that it didn't always possess the first time around. The 23-track album goes to the heart of the music Van Morrison has inhabited ever since he was six years old, hanging out in the smoky confines of Belfast's Atlantic Records.

It also contains songs that underline, in their messages on the importance of freedom and living on your own terms, his lifetime philosophy.

One of the best reviewed albums of the year, Promises is a collaborative studio album by British electronic musician Sam Shepherd, better known by his moniker Floating Points; American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders; and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Live footage of the Japanese jazz pianist performing to her home crowd in Tokyo.

The 14 tracks on this collection all come from the 1970s when Masekela was at the height of his powers. Spectrum. 2003.