Kurt Elling: Live In Chicago (Blue Note)

AT 31, Elling is state-of-the art jazz singing, a rich baritone with a resonant lower register and an utterly individual gift for phrasing and altering the melodic line. He's also highly literate; Vince Mendoza's Esperanza has lyrics inspired by Pablo Neruda's poems, retitled Esperanto by the singer/lyricist and given a gorgeous performance on this live album, made last summer in Chicago. There are also gloriously sensitive interpretations of My Foolish Heart, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Sting's Oh My God and Wayne Shorter's Night Dreamer (again with lyrics by Elling), as well as excursions into vocalese with guest Jon Hendricks and a dash of scat singing. Some playing to the gallery, too, but he's indisputably the real thing.

Ray Comiskey

Lee Morgan: The Sixth Sense (Blue Note)

THIS fine, late-1960s Morgan date sank without trace when first released. So had the then jazz audience, which explains why an album with him and such major league players as Jackie McLean, Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins was largely ignored. It's the kind of updated hard bop Blue Note favoured at the time, crisply done, with challenging originals by the musicians involved, and well-constructed solo work to go with it. What adds to the interest is Frank Mitchell, an excellent tenor who, like the equally little-known Frank Haynes and Rocky Boyd, emerged briefly to hold his own in the premier division and then disappeared. Three more tracks from another Morgan-Mitchell date make this even more valuable.

Ray Comiskey