Recent Listening, Continued

Tom Harrell, Dado Moroni, Humanity (Abeat). In six duets, the incomparable American trumpeter and the veteran Italian pianist achieve the most elusive of artistic goals, beauty through simplicity. Moroni's title tune is good company for five classic standards. I'm glad that this is a CD, not a vinyl record, or I would surely wear it out listening repeatedly to Harrell's solo on "Darn That Dream."

The Harry Allen-Joe Cohn Quartet, Music from Guys and Dolls (Arbors). Not that he's ever gone out of style, but musicians seem to be rediscovering Frank Loesser. Loesser's "Guys and Dolls" songs are among his best. Allen and Cohn do nothing innovative or revolutionary with the songs from Loesser's unforgettable Broadway musical. They simply improvise on them with affecting verve and imagination. Allen's tenor saxophone often evokes comparisons with Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Ben Webster. In this collection I hear a substantial Al Cohn component in his playing. Maybe something has rubbed off in his recent intensive work alongside Cohn's guitarist son Joe. Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson are guests on several of the pieces, singly and together. Erickson is good. Kilgore is remarkable, one of the best interpreters of superior songs since Frank Sinatra.

Jennifer Higdon, City Scape, Concerto for Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano (Telarc). My friend Jack Brownlow had a sixth sense for seeking out first-rate contemporary classical composers. Shortly before he died this fall, he sent me this CD containing two imposing works by Higdon, a protégé of Ned Rorem. He attached a post-it note reading, "24 Stars--a Masterpiece!" Bruno was not given to hyperbole. It's a masterpiece.

Steve Nelson, Sound-Effect (HighNote). The vibes player with the weightless touch and endless harmonic resourcefulness teams up with a dream rhythm section of pianist Mulgrew Miller, basist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. The program includes, on the one hand, a lightning "You and the Night and the Music," on the other Nelson's impressionist ballad "Sound Essence." Between those extremes of mood there are Freddie Hubbard's waltz "Up Jumped Spring," Ahmad Jamal's "Night Mist Blues" in an irresistible medium groove, "Desifinado" perking along on Nash's bossa nova beat, and the lovely, little-known James Williams waltz "Arioso." A satisfying album.