Latest releases reviewed

SEAN HESSION
The Hession Session
SHP ****

Singer Hession is an unabashed Sinatraphiliac, and one of the best of them. Here, on what is clearly a labour of love, he pays homage to his master's voice with a collection of superior standards indelibly associated with Ol' Blue Eyes. Soaring happily over a shouting big band full of the cream of local talent, duetting hand-in-glove with guitarist Louis Stewart and pianist Noel Kelehan, and fitting snugly into a couple of jazz quartet settings, he emerges unscathed. Dave Gold's and Jim Doherty's arrangements recall the 1950s' and early-1960s' big band idiom of Sinatra's finest era and, with Stewart playing superb rhythm guitar and Hession swinging and phrasing in fine voice, this is a piece of nostalgia brimming with life. www.franklysinatra.com

TEDDY WILSON
Flawless Swing
Ocium ****

The title says it all. Wilson found his personal style early and, rapidly acknowledged as one of the foremost jazz pianists and influences of the swing era, polished and refined it until he seemed incapable of playing anything that wasn't elegant, orchestral and brimming with ideas - and swing. The piano trio was his natural habitat, standards his meat and drink, and what he did with them in that context was uniquely his; just a few notes immediately established his identity. Most of the material in this collection of early-1950s trio performances - on CD for the first time - comes from a fine trio with bassist Arvell Shaw and drummer J.C. Heard, but drummers Buddy Rich and Denzil Best are also there. The results underline what a lovely player he was. www.ocium.com

STEVE KUHN
LOVE Walked In
Sunnyside *****

Imaginatively and subtly backed by bassist Buster Williams and the brilliant drummer Bill Stewart, pianist Kuhn plays with astonishing fire and invention on this 1998 session issued within the last year; there's an indefinable but palpable tension between the creative outpouring of ideas and the awareness and control with which Kuhn channels it and his colleagues respond. Even the standards are full of freshness and surprise: ballads such as You've Changed and All Alone are taken up in tempo, Prelude To A Kiss emerges as a lovely bossa, and Autumn Leaves is given a brighter mood without losing the undertones of melancholy. But it's the exuberantly unflagging flow of ideas on driving performances such as No Problem and Love Walked In that catch this trio at its most typical peak.

www.sunnysidezone.com