Down the years Sierra Maestra have always mixed the classics of the Golden Age with newly written songs. As it happens it's the new songs that have become their most popular. Now, with five of the original members still present, they have gone to great lengths to find young talented writers with new songs that are in this son tradition and style, but expressed in new musical and lyrical directions.

For George Harrison he was 'the Godfather of Western Music'; for Yehudi Menuhin 'his genius and his humanity can only be compared to that of Mozart's'. No other musician of his time has garnered such encomia. Here for the first time are all Ravi Shankar's recordings on Deutsche Grammophon brought together in a single collection, in celebration of his 90th birthday.

San Patricio is the much-anticipated collaboration between Ry Cooder and the legendary Irish band The Chieftains. The record takes as its inspiration the story of a group of 19th Century Irish immigrants to the USA, who were conscripted into the US army, in their war against Mexico. The men of the San Patricio brigade defected to the enemy side and fought with their fellow Catholics against the American army, before meeting a tragic end when the war was lost.

Salif Keita is one of the best known names in African music, and La Difference marks his return as an album artist after a gap of 4 years. The album was produced by Patrice Renson and he gave substance to Salif's intentions with obvious efficiency; the pop influences are more pronounced than before, yet fluidly performed: Renson plays the drums, guitar or percussion on other tracks from La Différence.

These sessions brought together two legends of African music. The Malian-born guitarist and vocalist Ali Farka Toure was one of the first African musicians to become well-known outside his own continent. Toumani Diabate is from a younger generation of Malian musicians and he comes from a family of exceptional griots.