CD

Tierney Sutton Band: On The Other Side (Telarc). The title is a phrase from Harold Arlen’s and Ted Koehler’s “Get Happy.” Sutton and her band, one of the most tightly integrated small groups at work today, contrast the song’s sunny lyrics with a deliberate pace and a minor-key setting. The result is the unlikely combination of a sense of irony with the song’s essential optimism. As performed and programmed by Sutton and the band, the album’s eleven classic standard songs comprise a suite that constitutes a meditation on happiness or, in three cases, its bittersweet opposite. Sutton’s “You Are My Sunshine” is the most moving version I have heard since Sheila Jordan’s 1962 recording with George Russell. Jack Sheldon’s two guest appearances include a gorgeous trumpet solo on “Glad To Be Unhappy,” and inspired singing and playing on “I Want To Be Happy.”