Latest releases reviewed

TETHERED MOON Play Kurt Weill Winter&Winter  ****

Tethered Moon suggest a lunar reflection captured in a dark pool, an elusive, haunting image borne out by the music of the trio - Masabumi Kikuchi (piano), Gary Peacock (bass) and Paul Motian (drums). This reissue is Weill's music approached with unfettered imagination, spacious, flexible and intense. The moods shift like sunlight and clouds on a landscape. It's epitomised by the long, oblique Moritat and on Speak Low, where the dialogue is so fluid that notions of conventional soloing or lead voices are heavily diluted. But no matter how free, each performance retains an emotional and directional shape. And they can call on a more overt lyricism, as lovely explorations of Barbara Song, Bilbao Song and My Ship attest. www.harmoniamundi.com

Ray Comiskey

JIM HALL/ENRICO PIERANUNZI Duologues CamJazz  ****

The mere fact of this guitar/piano duo encounter will inevitably recall Hall's famous Intermodulation session with Bill Evans, especially as Pieranunzi was heavily influenced by the pianist. But Pieranunzi is no longer so much in thrall to Evans, and Hall is an even finer guitarist now. The dialogue is even closer and the mutual responsiveness, in a way, more intense, as From E to C, a graceful waltz reminiscent of Skating in Central Park from the long ago Hall/Evans meeting, confirms. And the lengthy Our Valentines is a remarkably sustained, lyrical example of how they pick up on each other's subtleties and changes of mood, a communion confirmed by some fine pieces spontaneously conceived in the studio, with Duologue 3 perhaps the best example of these.www.harmoniamundi.com

Ray Comiskey

HAROLD ARLEN Centennial Celebration Concord  ***

Compilations are really only for radio programmers, iPod fillers and someone who likes background music. No doubt, then, that this double CD celebration, one of singers, the other instrumentals, of composer Harold Arlen's centenary is probably a godsend for all three. The singers are a good, if mixed bag, with Mel Torme, Susannah McCorkle, Rosemary Clooney, Jimmy Witherspoon, Sarah Vaughan and Abbey Lincoln the pick. The instrumentals are particularly inviting, ranging from Scott Hamilton, Bill Evans and Miles Davis, to Art Pepper, Wes Montgomery, Art Tatum, Jimmy Rowles, Oscar Peterson, Roy Eldridge and Gillespie, enough to satisfy most iPod fillers. www.musicconnection.org.uk

Ray Comiskey