It’s much easier, nearly four decades later, to separate the music from the moment when it comes to Wings Over America. Back then, this multi-disc concert souvenir from Paul McCartney seemed like a triumphant musical summation.

Emily Bear plays her piano with a finely nuanced touch, with both her comping left hand and a right hand that can cascade notes like sand pouring out of your hands. The song, her own, is a circular figure to which she discreetly adds graceful touches

Paul McCartney’s as-yet untitled new solo album is said to feature guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and — in a surprise — the living members of Nirvana. Mick Ronson, of Amy Winehouse fame, produced four tracks.

“Conviction” is a powerful word, it connotes purposeful, assured and determined. And those are qualities that be ascribed to Kendrick Scott’s second album, Conviction.

Something like blues, something like R&B, something like pre-Beatles rock. James Hunter is simply something else, and this soul-lifting, groove-tastic lead track from his forthcoming album only confirms it.

What do you get when you cross the discriminating refinement of a piano jazz trio with the ferocious impact of a power trio? You get Hiromi’s latest, dangerous little combo.

One of the striking features of the current crop of jazz stars poised to dominate the scene is how so plugged in they are with their contemporaries on the rock, RnB and hip-hip side of music.

Tony Bennett holds a rightful place as an American icon for a variety of reasons: he is essentially our last link to the other great crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.

Stream a new song — this scrappy groover called “Sit Across Your Table” — from trance bluesman Otis Taylor’s forthcoming project My World Is Gone, due on February 12, 2013 from Telarc-Concord.

When I listen to Patricia Barber sing, I think of her not so much as a jazz singer than as a poet reciting her work, with the depth and feeling that only the originator of that work can deliver.