These very different albums have a theme in common - a celebration of the 90th birthday of Chavela Vargas. The daughter of a Costa Rican rancher, she moved to Mexico to become a hard-living celebrity, and a powerful and emotional singer, championed by the film-maker Pedro Almodóvar. The finest of the two, El Ultimo Trago, features songs from Vargas's repertoire, reinterpreted by an intriguing duo of very different Latin musicians. Buika has shaken up the Spanish flamenco scene with her emotional vocals and African influences (her parents are from Equatorial Guinea), while Chucho Valdes is one of the finest jazz pianists in Cuba. The result is a stylish, and gently passionate set in which Buika's controlled, powerful and soulful vocals are balanced against Valdes's elegant, jazz-tinged piano. It's the finest flamenco-Cuban fusion since Chucho's celebrated father Bebo recorded with Diego El Cigala. The latest Pink Martini offering is remarkable mostly because it includes a new recording by Chavela Vargas herself. Her voice is not what it was, of course, but her treatment of Piensa En Mi, on which she is backed by piano and strings, is brooding, powerful and emotional. The rest of the album shows the quirky Oregon 12-piece edging towards the easy-listening mainstream, but with an entertaining dash of French and Spanish balladry, jazz, and doo-wop included.