JAZZ

Ray Comiskeyis taken with Patricia Barber's take on the work of Cole Porter and Grachan Moncur's new release.

PATRICIA BARBER

The Cole Porter Mix

Blue Note

****

With this release, Barber refreshes those parts of Porter few other singers can reach. The album's overall reflective mood could have used more contrast, but there are gems here: the lithe, bossa poise of Easy to Love; the expressively unforced You're the Top(with half the original lyrics brilliantly updated by Barber) and I Get a Kick Out of You; and fine interpretations, personal yet understanding, of I Concentrate on You, In the Still of the Nightand What Is This Thing Called Love?Barber is also a remarkable composer/lyricist; her worldly-wise Late Afternoon and You, and the poignant, sophisticated sensuality of Snow are not out of place beside a words-and-music master such as Porter.

And she's a marvellous pianist with a band to match, including Chris Potter (tenor) guesting memorably on five tracks, and a virtuoso guitarist, Neal Alger. Close to five stars.

RAY COMISKEY

MARTIN WIND

Salt'n Pepper

Challenge

***

German-born, New York-domiciled bassist Martin Wind has an A-list cast in Scott Robinson (tenor/bass clarinet), Bill Cunliffe (piano) and Greg Hutchinson (drums) for this well organised quartet album. Apart from a freely improvised intro to (Remember October 13th), which morphs into a slow blues, the lingua franca is more or less mainstream, intelligently handled by composer/arranger Wind.

It's not a working group, but they have a professionalism that ensures the playing never drops below a certain level, even if it doesn't rise above it. Cunliffe, absent on a couple of tracks, plays particularly well at times. Robinson, the most distinctive voice, adds an uncredited overdubbed cornet line on Early Morning Blues(not quite a formal blues) and, on two otherwise fine performances ( The Dreamand Monk's Bright Mississippi), Wind's bass is rather back in the mix.

www.musicconnection.org.uk

RAY COMISKEY

GRACHAN MONCUR III

Evolution

Blue Note

The latest in the Rudy Van Gelder remastered series restores to circulation this exceptional, if not seminal, 1960s leader debut by composer/trombonist Moncur.

Set on the cusps of free and modal leanings, Moncur's mood- determining compositions prod Jackie McLean (alto) and Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), neither risk- averse, into fresh areas, and nudge Lee Morgan (trumpet) out of his bop comfort zone to good effect.

It's epitomised in the compelling title track, aside from Moncur's writing and his sombre trombone sound, key roles, in the absence of more familiar harmonic and rhythmic reassurances, are played by Bob Cranshaw's bowed bass and Tony Williams's superb drumming.

The band also deals persuasively with the leader's brilliantly parodic Monk in Wonderlandand swings The Coaster, a modal piece, in an authoritatively straight-ahead manner.

RAY COMISKEY