Music

Pop music in the 21st century has been flush with precise re-creations of '60s and '70s American R&B — think of Sharon Jones, Adele, Raphael Saadiq and the late Amy Winehouse. Meanwhile, I've been waiting for a similar revival of Jamaica's R&B: ska, rocksteady, roots-reggae.

The jazz musician Ravi Coltrane, 47, didn't make his burden any lighter by choosing to play tenor and soprano saxophones — the same instruments his father, John Coltrane, indelibly stamped with his influence.

Ravi knew early he needed his own voice. On tenor, he has his own ways of bending and inflecting a note, applying flexible vibrato. Even when his noble sound bears witness to his heritage, Ravi Coltrane can draw on his father's language and make it his own.

Robin Ticciati is the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany. He's conducted at the Metropolitan Opera and just finished a run of Britten's Peter Grimes at La Scala. Ticciati has also been tapped to take over England's storied Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2014. And did I mention he's under 30?

With their musical project Rimo Machine, Mixmaster Latin Bitman and Cypress Hill's Eric Bobo fired up the crowd for their 2012 Latin Alternative Music Conference showcase at the Prospect Park Bandshell during Celebrate Brooklyn. The guys slowly but surely built a wall of sound, layering Caribbean percussion, finely woven digital beats and the coarse-but-alluring rhymes of the Los Angeles rappers in Psycho Realm.

Performing as part of the 2012 Latin Alternative Music Conference showcase at Celebrate Brooklyn, the Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux faced a daunting challenge in opening for Calle 13, whose fans are dedicated, impatient and often vocal. But when she hit the stage, her supporters were ecstatic, and newcomers to her music appeared thunderstruck.