CD's for auditioning

just in case you'd like to try something other than rock:
"Tango Ballet"(Astor Piazolla) Gidon Kremer/Kremer Baltica (the entire CD)
"Maria de Bueno Aires" (Astor Piazolla) Gidon Kremer/Kremer Baltica,track "Yo Soy Maria" vocals by Julia Zenko
Radio Tarifa "Rumbo Argelina" track 'Baile de la Bolla'
"El Tango" Gidon Kremer track 'Che Tango Che' vocals by Milva
"Sergio & Odair Assad Play Piazolla" track 'Escualo'
"The Clown" Charles Mingus track 'Haitian Fight Song'
"The Complete Africa/Brass Sessions" John Coltrane Quartet, track 'Song of the Underground Railroad'
"Nuevo Latino" Putumayo World Music compilation, tracks 1,3,4,10,11

Cheskys the Ultimate Demonstration Disc and Patricia Barbers Modern Cool on Mofi sacd hybrid.

The Shadows - moonlight shadows , a great mix of classic and contemporery tracks , give it a listen its budget priced but as anyone would know theres nothing cheap about
hank marvin and the shadows music.

The most difficult to reproduce correctly are female vocals and acoustic piano. Take good recordings of these along and find out how many pieces of equipment are embarrassed. Diana Krall recordings cover both of these aspects.

I second the Dire Straits, Diana Krall stuff for critical evaluations. Probably just because I like that stuff and know the songs so well but also since piano and vocals are harder to get right. Other than that any unamplified performances you know really well. I always take along a few songs I know well but are not that well recorded too.