Various Mushroom Jazz Vol. 2 (Om/Fusion III)

World-travelling DJ extraordinaire Mark Farina is back on the Mush-jazz tip once again, with a collection of 14 exclusive and previously unreleased tasty morsels for your hungry ears. Let's be honest, the boy rarely fails to deliver the goods. It must be all that curly hair. This time around, it's more of that chunky downbeat sound heard on volume one, with tracks from artists like Mr. Scruff and Naked Music NYC. 8/10 (Krista)

Various Paris Is Sleeping Respect Is Burning Vol. 2 (Astralwerks/Virgin)

Like the title says, the second in what appears will be a series of French house music compilations inspired by the infamous Respect club in Paris... seeing as how French music has become "toute la rage" as of late. Volume 2 features representation from our North American house community, like Roy Davis Jr. and Romanthony, as well as remixes of that Stardust track that people continue to lose their heads over. Good, but it should have included some Bob Sinclar. 7/10 (Krista)

TQ They Never Saw Me Coming (Sony)

Proving he has both rapping and singing skills, TQ launches his bid to be gansta-balladeer top man. But even when he sings about love, you know that this ain't no Luther pillow talk. Case in point is his duet with Ericka Yancey, "When I Get Out," or "Your Sister" with Too Short. TQ keeps it real, but still finds time to dream about a better place, hence the infectious head-boppin' "If This World Were Mine." 7/10 (Gerard Dee)

Dizzy Gillespie Something Old, Something New (Verve/PolyGram)

A reissue of a 1963 session by one of the very best combos of that era and one of the best that Gillespie worked with on a regular basis--reedman James Moody had been in the Gillespie big band of 1948, Kenny Barron (then 19) was already a pianist of merit and Chris White and Rudy Collins were a particularly strong rhythm team. The music is split between bebop standards and (then) new material from the highly talented Tom McIntosh. Not to be missed! 10/10 (Len Dobbin)