Jazz

Stefon Harris/Jason Moran/Greg Osby/Mark Shim: New Directions (Blue Note)

By Ray Comiskey

Old bottle, new wine. Blue Note's young Turks - Harris (vibes), Moran (piano), Shim (tenor) - led by quasi-elder statesman Osby on alto, do their own take on some of the label's archetypal 1950s and 1960s mixtures of the visceral and cerebral, with some success. The band, with Tarus Mateen (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums), ran in the material, by Shorter, Morgan, Mobley, Silver, Henderson et al, over a six-week tour before recording, so ensembles on the - somewhat - new approach are disciplined. But the soloists remain the band's strength; Harris and Moran, especially, along with Shim, are consistently inventive and Osby his virtuosically quirky self. The looser rhythmic and harmonic world they usually inhabit suits them better, though.

Cannonball Adderley: Cannonball's Bossa Nova

By Ray Comiskey

One of the rarest of all the altoist's albums, Adderley's early-1960s bid for a slice of the bossa nova action was made nine months after Stan Getz's best-selling Jazz Samba. It never caught on, perhaps because his alto was a more pungent jazz sound than Getz's tenor - and, anyway, few could match Getz for sheer, legato, wraparound lyricism. Adderley's undoubted lyricism, abundantly displayed here, was more swash-bucklingly romantic, less vulnerable, than Getz's, conveyed in a gorgeous tonal mix of Parker, Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter - the Holy Trinity of jazz alto. Backed by Brazil's Bossa Rio Sextet, including no less than drummer Dom Um Romao, later of Weather Report, and pianist Sergio Mendes, he charms his way effectively through a programme of Brazilian compositions, sharing the solo spotlight with Mendes.

More CDs reviewed in tomorrow's Weekend supplement.