Album Reviews

Anita O'Day: Cool Heat (American Jazz Classics) £9.99

The wonderful Anita tends to get overlooked these days when the names of classic jazz singers come up, so this excellent reissue should serve as a reminder of what a marvel she was. It finds her in 1959 on two separate sessions, with arrangers Jimmy Guiffre and Billy May. Her poise, cool hipness and sheer musicality shine through on every track, as she gives subtle, swinging readings of Gone With The Wind and My Heart Belongs to Daddy. The tracks with May are all Cole Porter songs. All round, mighty fine. AV

Jo Jones: The Jo Jones Special (Poll Winners Records) 9.99

Here's the daddy of modern jazz drumming in the mid-50s with a Count Basie-styled small group session that helped define mainstream. It's been a long time since this one was available, and it's good to have it back. Quality soloists like tenorman Lucky Thompson and trumpeter Emmett Berry float along on Jones's light, irresistible beat. Basie guests on a couple of tracks, and the CD includes a fine bonus session from 1960 with trumpeter Harry Edison. Lovely stuff. AV

Mahler: Symphony 4. (LSO Live, LSO00662) 8.99

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So, the London Symphony orchestra, the Russian maestro Valery Gergiev and Mahler's most genial symphony. A memorable combination? Indeed, but for all the wrong reasons. Gergiev's neo-classical approach goes too far and his constant attempts to impede its flow are perverse.

Lovely playing, yes: crisp woodwinds, immaculate strings, fine singing by soprano Laura Claycomb, but treat with caution. RC

Beethoven: Piano Concertos 4 and 5. (ECM Records, ECM 2114) 12.99

The Austrian pianist, Till Fellner, studied with, among others, Alfred Brendel. He learned well. The poise, clarity and colour of the piano's five-bar phrase that opens the fourth concerto hint at a memorable performance and we are not disappointed. His intelligent dialogue with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, under Kent Nagano, lifts this and the gently questing Emperor concerto into the top class of recordings. RC