Who would have known, Nao Co Ai Biet, Phuong Thanh and Duc Tri make a fruitful collaboration? From a producer standpoint, Duc Tri makes a wise decision to record an acoustic album of his own tunes. The intimate setting showcases Phuong Thanh’s rough voice and raw emotion. Accompanied by Duc Tri’s sentimental strumming guitar, Phuong Thanh pours her heart out on slow ballads including “Co Bao Gio,” “Nao Co Ai Biet” and “Khi Giac Mo Ve.” On more powerful ballads, however, Duc Tri gives Phuong Thanh more room to do her roaring. “Ta Chang Con Ai” and “Co Quen Duoc Dau” takes listeners back to Phuong Thanh’s golden days when she stormed the pop scene with her vigorous voice. Nao Co Ai Biet displays the platonic connection between the two musical friends.

Before Duc Tuan, singers who get Duong Thu’s approval for his music were mostly women: Hong Nhung, My Linh, Khanh Linh, Thanh Lam, Tran Thu Ha, Nguyen Thao and Bang Kieu. To this reviewer’s ear, Hong Nhung and Nguyen Thao were the two most successful in articulating Duong Thu’s nature-inspired lyricism. They sing his music in a very easy-going approach. Duong Thu coached Duc Tuan to do the same in Bay Gio Bien Mua Dong, Duc Tuan’s latest album. Unlike Hong Nhung and Thao Nguyen, Duc Tuan has lost that natural instinct after his second album. The major different between Duc Tuan and the two female singers is that he forces himself to sound effortless. Throughout the album, but “Bai Ca Dao Mua Dong” and “Cua So Mua Dong” in particular, listeners can tell that he tries his hardest not to break a sweat. Bay Gio Bien Mua Dong is a proof that natural singing is something that cannot be trained. You either have it or you don’t.

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Playing the Piano has been my go-to album for the holiday season. Right off the opening “Amore” the vibe fits just right for the winter spirit. Sakamoto’s solo piano is relaxing and the way his fingers fall softly on the high keys is irresistible. The intimate setting continues on “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” “The Sheltering Sky” and throughout the disc. I would love to listen to Playing the Piano on a snowy day accompanied by a book and save the second disc, Out of Noise, in which Sakamoto experiments with sound, for another time. The ambiance vibe is a complete different animal.

Jasmine, a beautiful, intimate collaboration between pianist Keith Jarrett and bassist Charlie Haden, is perfect for the holiday season. Haden’s deep, meditative approach provides Jarrett the spacious, relaxing template to stretch out his ballad playing. From the sentimental “For All We Know” to the soulful “Where Can I Go Without You” to the sensational “Body and Soul” to the serenading “Don’t Ever Leave Me,” Jasmine is, in Jarrett’s own words, “a night-blooming flower with a beautiful fragrance.” I actually started listening to this album a couple months ago and now the holiday spirit brings me even closer to it. Can’t wait to play it on Christmas Eve with my love ones and with a glass of Merlot.

Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés pays homage to jazz legends on his latest release Chucho’s Steps. The title track, which built on a strong Latin percussive rhythm, is a reference to John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.” The rollicking “Zawinul’s Mambo” is a nod to Dizzy Gillespie and Zawinul. The Dixieland-flavor on “New Orleans” is a tribute to the Marsalis family. The soulful blues “Julián” pays respect to Cannonball Adderley. The real treat though is the Cuban-jazz “Danzón.” The ballad starts off with Carlos Miyares Hernández’s sentimental saxophone solo, but the tempo kicks up a notch when Mr. Valdés enters with sweeping, fleeting solo. His compelling improvisations show that the 69-year-old man still have great chops and his playing attests that age ain’t nothing but a number.

Charles Lloyd Quartet’s tasteful, elegant Mirror kicks off with a lush, tender ballad “I Fall in Love Too Easily.” Charles Lloyd begins with a soulful solo on the saxophone with the subtle supportive of Reuben Rogers’s bass and Jason Moran’s piano. Moran’s solo is compact and filled with angularities. In the follow-up “Go Down Moses,” Eric Harland’s drums provide Mr. Lloyd a pulsating, energizing rhythm to lay down his spiritual sound. Whether covering the Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No.” or revisiting Thelonious Monk standards (“Monk’s Mood” and “Ruby, My Dear”) or playing his own originals ( “Desolation Sound”, “Mirror”, “Tagi” and “Being and Becoming”), Mr. Lloyd sounds rejuvenating with his young stars. Mirror shows the beauty of understatement as well as the power in restraint.

Nicki Minaj’s debut, Pink Friday, opens with the impressive “I’m The Best.” Then she proves to be a bitch of a rapper immediately on the second track, “Roman’s Revenge,” in which she rhymes like dungeon dragon matching Slim Shady flow by flow. On the third track,”Did It On ‘Em,” she continues to grind hard: “All these bitches is my sons / and I’ma go and get some bibs for ’em / a couple formulas, little pretty lids on ’em / If i had a dick, I would pull it out and piss on ’em.” Unfortunately, the album turns toward mainstream radio like the Rihanna-assisted “Fly” and heads straight to the club with the support of Auto-Tune and Will.i.am on “Check It Out.” With her rhyming skill and swag, she could have been the best female rapper in the game if she didn’t go pop.

With Never Stop, The Bad Plus, which made up of bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King, proves that the trio can write its own tunes just as well as reinterpreting others. “The Radio Tower Has a Beating Heart” opens the album with an invigorating jazz-classical improvisation that is filled with harmonic intensity and complexity. The title track, however, takes a different turn toward pop. The melody is catchy as hell even without a hook to rely on. Over Iverson’s and King’s the big, groovy beat, Anderson plays some infectious ostinatos reminiscing of Thelonious Monk. The slow pieces, “People Like You” and “Bill Hickman at Home,” find the trio digs deep into their compositions, creativities and souls. The brief “Super America” joyfully closes out the album, yet one would hope that the record would never stop.

Also worth watching: The Bad Plus at the Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2010.

In its new release, Rubber Soulive, the funkified trio, which made up of organist Neal Evans, drummer Alan Evans and guitarist Eric Krasno, gives the Beatles’ tunes a fresh soul-jazz makeover. All songs are short and instantly recognizable. The group strips down the sound and keeps the melody intact. On “Something,” Krasno literally sings the lyrics with his soulful guitar. While “Drive My Car” gets a funk-up groove, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” gets a rock, bluesy vibe. Rubber Soulive is a tasteful treatment of the Beatles’ classics.

To capture the true essence of flamenco, renowned bassist Dave Holland who accompanied Miles Davis in his electric period knows that he needs to get inside the music. In learning from and collaborating with guitarist Pepe Habichuela, the master of the flamenco, Holland accomplished his mission: bringing his own voice to the music but with a deeper understanding of the flamenco’s language. Hands is a result of Holland’s appreciation for the music and the mutual respect between Holland and Habichuela.

“Bailaor (Seguiriya Cabal),” the longest and most captivating piece on the album, showcases Holland’s profound rhythmic and melodic sensibility and Habichuela’s effortless, expressive techniques that one can tell the man lives and breathes the flamenco. The intensity and connectivity in the way the two men complement each other on “Camaron (Taranta)” sound as if two Gypsies were in the house. Aside from Holland’s tuneful Latin-jazz flavors (“The Whirling Dervish” and “Joyride”), which accompanied by the Carmona clan, the eight masterpieces written by Habichuela are pure traditional flamenco masterpieces.