Scats & Tracks

With Little Secret, the young woman who had landed on the festival stage in Montreal in 2006, such a bomb from a height of twelve, performing the songs of Ella Fitzgerald, emancipated by offering an album at the intersection of jazz original, of sixties soul and some pop, sip California sun. Underpinned images retro charm, the disc is produced in a modern way (benefiting from the advice of Quincy Jones, his mentor, manager and co-executive producer) to the point that it is sometimes difficult to determine what time date songs. The singer manages to blend perfectly pop-song structures and big brass band, festive rhythms and harmonies of great delicacy, catchy melodies and solos scats.

Groundbreaking pairing of Cee Lo Green and Danger Mouse that lit up the charts with their psychedelic vision of hip-hop, soul, and funk.

Maysa showed a lot of promise on this self-titled debut album, which recalls the late-'70s and early-'80s output of soul divas like Chaka Khan, Alicia Myers and Phyllis Hyman, and sometimes shows quiet storm leanings. Most of the songs that the big-voiced, expressive Maysa turns her attention to are straight-up R&B, although she ventures into jazz fusion territory when she scats her way through the Brazilian-influenced "J.F.S."

Named after the 1934 Ray Noble-penned standard made famous by Bing Crosby, The Very Thought of You is the sixth studio album from Canadian jazz vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow. Released in 2007, it features silky-smooth renditions of Nat King Cole's "Almost Like Being in Love," Billie Holiday 's "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," and Mama Cass' "Dream a Little Dream of Me" alongside interpretations of hits from various musicals including Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, and Pennies from Heaven.

Much of this is just standard pleasant Gilberto: offhand vocals and a sumptuous Brazil pop-cum-U.S. orchestration feel (Ron Carter and Toots Thielemans are among the sidemen). And some of the pop choices work well, particularly Tim Hardin's gorgeous "Misty Roses." No vocals or arrangements, however, could save the criminally wrong-headed military march of "A Banda (Parade)," or the exasperatingly coochie-coochie duet between Gilberto and her six-year-old son on the Lovin' Spoonful's "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice." Which makes it all the more surprising when the next and concluding track, "Nao Bate O Corocao," has Gilberto cutting loose with confident, sassy scats, as she rarely did before or since. The CD reissue improves matters by adding five bonus cuts from A Certain Smile a Certain Sadness, recorded in 1966 in more authentically bossa nova-style arrangements, anchored by organist Walter Wanderley.

Vocalist Dianne Reeves is coming off back to back Grammys for two highly orchestrated efforts: the Sarah Vaughan tribute Calling , and her live set In the Moment. For A Little Moonlight , she has stripped down this approach and used an intimate format to present captivating versions of jazz standards. A Little Moonlight is Reeves plain and candid, highlighting her wide ranging voice in all its glory. Energizing as she scats and swings on the up tempo numbers, she then seductively melts you by plunging down low for deeply rich contraltic renderings.