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BILL FRISELL/RON CARTER/PAUL MOTIAN
Bill Frisell/Ron Carter/Paul Motian
Nonesuch
****

It must be the company. Faced with musical conversationalists of the calibre of bassist Carter and master drummer Motian, Frisell's guitar sups deeper at the well for swinging jazz than is usual for him these days. The result is, in relative terms, some of the closest to straight-ahead playing he's recorded for some time - even if, given Motian's extraordinary rhythmic flexibility and sense of colour, that's an oversimplification. Frisell and company engage in a three-way dialogue of considerable subtlety and, whether languorously dallying in rubato episodes on You Are My Sunshine, Pretty Polly or Hank Williams's I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, or grooving magisterially on the blues, Eighty-One, Monk's Misterioso and, above all, on a euphoric On the Street Where You Live, this is one summit meeting that turned out well for all concerned.

DAVE GLASSER
Above the Clouds
 Arbors
***

Alto saxophonist Glasser is a widely experienced mainstream player who grabs attention by telling personal stories with a spark of melodic originality and developing his solos as complete statements, rather than a succession of choruses. With Larry Ham (piano), a fine accompanist, and the superior rhythm section of Dennis Irwin (bass) and Carl Allen (drums), Glasser delivers a relaxed, engaging set whose understated but definite virtues grow on you. Ham, a modest soloist, doesn't overstay his welcome, and Glasser's originals don't stay in the mind the way his playing does. But the better the material - Can't I?, Our Love Is Here to Stay, Easter Parade and, especially, In a Sentimental Mood - the more Glasser's and the group's performances resonate. www.arborsrecords.com

CHRIS MCNULTY
Whispers the Heart
Elefant Dreams
***

McNulty is carving out a niche as a vocalist whose debt to anyone but herself is not obvious. Operating mainly in sextet, septet and nonet (one with strings added) settings, she casts the net here over some old standards and material by Legrand, Bacharach, Bernstein, Jobim and herself, a varied bag whose interpretive and expressive challenges are met with aplomb. Well-crafted arrangements help, but McNulty is such a distinctive singer that she's often at her best in the barest of settings, like her duet with guitarist Paul Bollenbeck (When Love Was You and Me) and a quintet performance of Make It Easy On Yourself with Frank Wess (tenor); another bonus is the presence of Ingrid Jensen (flugelhorn/trumpet) on four tracks. www.elefantdreams.com