Standards

Albums of reworked pop and jazz classics released in November bear warnings of creative resignation and commercial opportunism. Seal, however, evidently entered the historic Capitol Studios and United Recording more delighted than a kid in a candy store who just had his braces removed. Going by his liner notes, in which he raves about performing with a 65-piece orchestra, cutting the set, his first for Republic, had an invigorating effect on him. Conducted and arranged by Grammy nominee Chris Walden, Standards was recorded with first-rate studio veterans, some of whom worked with Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.

New Standards is a studio album by a young John Pizzarelli attempting to create modern standards in the Great American Songbook. The release was not met with much enthusiasm, as most critics felt Pizzarelli was capable of much better offerings. Aside from his regular trio of himself, Martin Pizzarelli and Ray Kennedy, a host of other musicians join Pizzarelli on this album (including his father Bucky Pizzarelli).

This solid collection may strike June Christy fans as a little ironic because rather than stock her albums with standards the way that most of her peers did, the West Coast jazz vocalist was known for unearthing new and obscure songs. It's not that Christy neglected standards (in fact she recorded dozens of them over her 12-year run with Capitol Records), it's just that one gets the feeling that when she sang something like "I'm Glad There Is You" it was because she had something fresh or unique to bring to it. And she does put her own personal and idiosyncratic stamp on 20 of the songs here while two tunes haven't been recorded enough to become standards (the undeservedly obscure "Cry Like the Wind" and the swing-era novelty "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon"). So, when you add the song selection to the fact that this disc features the vocalist in orchestral, small-group jazz and big-band settings, the disc not only offers a much more complete portrait of the artist than the title suggests, but this is also one of the strongest entries in EMI's Sings the Standards series.

The Triple Feature series by Sony Legacy compiles three – usually well-known – catalog albums by big-name artists, assembles them in a slipcase box, and sells them at a budget price to consumers. While the reason may be simply a new package in order to clear shelves of excess inventory, this exercise also serves a purpose for collectors and fans filling in holes for a favorite artist. In the case of Frank Sinatra, Sony actually compiled three previously issued compilations – Classics & Standards, I’ve Got a Crush on You, and Songs from the Movies. Sinatra-philes already know that the earliest part of his career was spent recording for Columbia, and these titles reflect more the crooner than the finger-popping swing daddy of jazz and pop. It’s not that the music here isn’t worth hearing…