Jennie Oh Brown, Carter Pann & Friends: “giantess

Carter’s backing band here included young and youngish players like pianist Kenny Barron, drummer Lewis Nash and flute player Hubert Laws, along with four cellists and a harpsichord player. The selections move from the half-expected (Lewis’ stuff, and a couple of Carter originals), to the truly invigorating - like "Vocalise" from Rachmoninoff, "Prelude No. 4 in E Minor" by Chopin and Eric Satie’s "Gymnopedie." Carter, as always, plays with atmosphere, and restaint - though he is never boring. On "Friends," Carter presides over a far more delicate enterprise, and his playing matches that depth: he improvises in ways both impressionistic and intelligent, lyrical yet frank. It makes for one of the more challenging, yet strangely familiar recordings in the Davis-related canon. Jazz devotees will find a smooth passage into the classical genre, yet Carter’s legendary sophistication helps provide a new and invigorating take on these ages-old orchestations.

Forty-two songs cut between November 1940 and August 1946, and the perfect companion to Bear Family's It's Magic box set – anyone who's been even tempted to own that will have to get this more modestly priced precursor to that material. Day's period singing with Les Brown is, today, regarded with a degree of love and affection reserved for Ella Fitzgerald's era with Chick Webb, or Frank Sinatra's work with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Yet Sony Music's own releases devoted to Doris Day and Les Brown spread the music around to several different CDs, and suffered from sound that, today, seems substandard. These newly remastered tracks, offered in chronological order, including one previously unissued song ("Are You Still in Love with Me"), not only display a far richer, warmer sound, but have been presented with the kind of care that is normally reserved for the best parts of a label's catalog – which these sides definitely are. Day's voice during this period (she was 16 when she cut her first sides with Brown) was an astonishingly expressive instrument.

Immediately, Houston Person's saxophone and Ron Carter's bass meld so fluidly and effortlessly - and create such a complete picture - that it's easy to forget that they are the only two musicians playing. Drums are not missed, nor are piano, horns, or anything else: Person and Carter's communication skills here, as on their previous outings together, are never in doubt; they're "always" in perfect sync. They take on the standards here, and though most of these ten tracks have been recorded to death by other jazz artists, the duo's approach is original and honest enough that the songs sound fresh. "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)" is smooth, soft, and sexy; Irving Berlin's "Always" swings even if it never quite reaches swing tempo; and "Blueberry Hill" is playful and sweet…