1. Singer-songwriter Paul Simon says his latest album "Stranger to Stranger" (Concord) will be his last, and if so, it's the glittering capstone on a brilliant career. Famous for his wide-ranging interest in world music, Simon is as much a wordsmith as a musician, and his lyrics can have the simplicity and concision of poetry. From "The Werewolf": "The fact is most obits are mixed reviews./Life is a lottery, a lot of people lose./And the winners, the grinners, with money-colored eyes/Eat all the nuggets/Then they order extra fries." From "In a Parade": "My head's a lollipop and everyone wants to lick it./I wear a hoodie now so I won't get a ticket."
The cover art is a detail from a 2011 portrait of Simon by artist Chuck Close.
2. De La Soul has long been one of the most creative and influential groups in hip-hop. Their back catalog, including such seminal works as "3 Feet High and Rising," has disappeared in the digital age, mostly because of its heavy reliance on sampling, back in the days when the technique was new and innovative, and no one bothered to secure any rights to the sampled music. It's been a while since a new De La album, but their fans came through with a Kickstarter campaign to produce "De La Soul and the Anonymous Nobody," and it's a hoot from beginning to end.
The album has plenty of original music, thanks to their house band the Rhythm Roots Allstars, and all "interpolations" are duly noted in the CD booklet. It's something of a variety show of musical talent, with guest turns from Jill Scott, Snoop Dogg, David Byrne, Usher and others. "Don't turn your back when she's on that track./Watch out for that train wreck!"
3. Music director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will release an all-Debussy album on SFS Media later this month, and the advance copy enchants. It's reviewed in our music coverage this week.
4. Gypsy swing trio the Hot Club of San Francisco releases their new album next week. It's called "John, Paul, George and Django" because on it they reinterpret the Beatles' songbook in the style of jazz legend Django Reinhardt. HCSF founder and guitarist Paul Mehling said, "Our vision can be summed up as WWDD: What would Django do? What if he hadn't died, and had lived long enough to interpret Beatles songs? Because you know he totally would have."
5. The National Jazz Museum in Harlem has partnered with Apple Music to launch The Savory Collection, an historical archive featuring Swing Era jazz artists in their prime, performing extended performances of never-before-heard material. The first volume is "Body and Soul: Coleman Hawkins and Friends." The collection, which includes tracks recorded between 1936-40 by Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Lionel Hampton, Carl Kress and Emilio Caceres, with a foreword by filmmaker Ken Burns, will be available at Apple Music and iTunes on Oct. 14.
6. Brooklyn-based recording artists Joan As Police Woman and Benjamin Lazar Davis will release their collaborative effort "Let It Be You" on Oct 21 via Reveal Records.
7. Also out Oct. 21, on ISO/Columbia Records, is the "Lazarus Cast Album" featuring the cast and band of the original New York production performing their versions of David Bowie songs from the show. Along with the "Lazarus" cast's interpretations of classic Bowie are the three final Bowie studio recordings. Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti and recorded with Donny McCaslin and his quartet, the same band that played on Bowie's last album, these last three songs are "No Plan," "Killing a Little Time" and "When I Met You."