Black Cabbage Black Cabbage (DROG)

In our urban milieu, folk music often becomes distanced from one of its defining elements, which is a sense of community. Guelph's Black Cabbage exemplify that quality as a large, loosely-knit musical collective. Poi Dog Pondering might be a good reference point in explaining this self-described 'folkestra,' who mix electrical instrumentation in with the fiddles, accordions and acoustic guitars. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Jacques Labelle Page 1 (Omnisource)

Mike Rud Whyte Avenue (Jazz Focus)

Two healthy examples of the state of the jazz guitar in Canada. Labelle is a Montreal veteran heard here in duo and quartet settings while Rud, from Western Canada, is a master class student at McGill with a very bright future. His session, recorded in New York, finds him in a quintet and two different quartet settings. The John Stetch trio helps make this one a success. Both 8.5/10 (Len Dobbin)

Ancient Echoes Chorovaya Akademia (RCA/BMG)

This Moscow-based choir of eight tenors, four baritones and four basses wowed America during their 1993/1995 tours, delighting midwestern audiences with Russian liturgical chants and campy encores like Gershwin's "Clap your Hands" and "Consider Yourself" from the musical Oliver. Their debut album of traditional Orthodox hymns tailored to soothe Western ears is sublimely smooth, the finest Russian choral album in years. 10/10 (Philip Anson) Chorovaya Akademia at Église du Gesù, March 26, 8pm. $10-25. 861-4036

Jochum/Bavarian Radio Symphony J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor (EMI Forte)

Here's a bargain B Minor Mass featuring soprano Helen Donath, who floored Montreal with Mahler last month, the infallible Bavarians under masterful Eugen Jochum and mezzo Brigitte Fassbaender (authentic instrument and countertenor fanciers will prefer Brüggen on Philips). Despite bass Robert Holls's slurring, this is a solid pick. 8/10 (Philip Anson) Bach Mass in B Minor: MSO/St. Lawrence Choir, Notre-Dame Basilica, March 26, 7:30pm. 842-2112

Herreweghe/Orchestre des Champs Elysées Brahms: A German Requiem (Harmonia Mundi/SRI)

Belgian Philippe Herreweghe's choirs join competent German soprano Christiane Oelze and Montreal-born tenor Gerald Finley for a passable, mildly interesting Brahms Requiem. Just what you'd expect to hear in a provincial German town in the 1890s, but nothing to displace cherished recordings. 7/10 (Philip Anson) Brahms: A German Requeim. Philharmonique de Montréal/ Choeur de l'UQAM, Église St-Jean Baptiste, March 28, 8pm. $22. 790-1245