With a Song in My Heart
This kind of album can only result from the interplay of seasoned yet tirelessly inventive musicians who would rather lay out than revert to cliché. Trumpeter Lew Soloff, whose daunting résumé charts a trajectory fromBlood, Sweat & Tearsto the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, displays his interpretive prowess on classics such as the title cut, "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "The Way You Look Tonight." He is backed by a rhythm section to die for:Mulgrew Milleron piano, George Mraz on bass, andVictor Lewison drums. Soloff's wife, Emily Mitchell, plays the harp on two cuts, one of which is a movement from a Tchaikovsky symphony. The CD consists of nine tunes, which are nicely sequenced and balanced and, not incidentally, suffused with feeling. The music commands attentive listening, and that is just what the players here are doing with each other: while Soloff sustains a note on "I'm a Fool to Want You," Miller responds with a lovely phrase that Soloff picks up in the next breath. Sparkling exchanges like this abound here; not a note is taken for granted, and that's what jazz improvisation, at its best, is all about.--Karen Bennett