It was released last month, but I'd hate this charming and surprising album to escape your notice. It consists of four cosmopolitan jazz musicians playing 21st-century variations on a work by the English composer John Dowland, a contemporary of Shakespeare. Despite the doleful title, these variations range from solemn to sparkling (Tears of Joy) to completely bonkers (Crocodile Tears). The players are an Austrian trombonist – Muthspiel himself – Swiss trumpeter Matthieu Michel, French vibraphonist Franck Tortiller and American bassist Steve Swallow. What Dowland would have made of it is anyone's guess, but it's an absorbing listen.