This week's jazz releases reviewed

KURT ELLING

Dedicated to You Concord ****

Coltrane and singer Johnny Hartman's classic, sole joint recording is saluted by Kurt Elling in this live date with longtime collaborator Laurence Hobgood (piano) and his trio, and guests Ernie Watts (tenor) and the Ethel string quartet. As the use of strings signalled and as Elling intended, recreation wasn't the aim, nor were the standards confined to the original. What emerged was a joyous reminder of a timeless jazz vocal encounter, with Elling, poised and commanding, in prime form, Hobgood (who did most of the fine string-writing) typically excellent and Watts ideal for the project. It celebrates tradition rather than, as Elling's great Nightmoves album did, adding to it, but why nitpick? Performances such as All or Nothing at All, Autumn Serenade, Nancy With the Laughing Face, You Are Too Beautiful and Say It (Over and Over Again)are too good for that. www.concordmusicgroup.com

ED PALERMO BIG BAND

Eddy Loves Frank Cuneiform ****

Frank Zappa would surely have appreciated this reverently irreverent, inventive tribute by saxophonist/arranger Ed Palermo. Like Palermo's two previous Zappa tributes, it's no wallow in nostalgia. There is the same sense of fun and serious play, but taken further, to nothing less than a radical reimagining, amounting to recomposition, of the signature rocker's material. Changes of texture, rhythm and harmony are rung in (and out) with bewildering speed. A piece such as Let's Move to Clevelandmay have a mordant, Kurt Weill flavour, or the rocking Regyptian Strut filled with raucous mockery. But behind their exuberance and the dazzling ensembles of Night School, Echidna's Arf (Of You)and Dupree's Paradiseare complex, intensely detailed charts. It's a rich meal to digest, but brilliantly served up by an ebullient big band of awesome power and precision. www.cuneiformrecords. com

HORACE TAPSCOTT

The Dark Tree hatOLOGY *****

The late Horace Tapscott was one of the few pianists whose Monk- influenced style grew into something personal – plangent, extravagantly idiosyncratic yet concentrated. It's at its best in this reissue of a vivid 1989 live date with Cecil McBee (bass), Andrew Cyrille (drums) and the extraordinary clarinet of the late John Carter. In a quartet so mutually supportive, long solos were shaped more by group interaction and dramatic intensity than anything else. Both Tapscott and Carter, like McBee and Cyrille, were great communal players. The pianist's feel for sound and contrast served the music well, while Carter's responses almost burst the expressive bounds of his instrument. Tapscott's pieces could be simple, such as The Dark Tree, built on a bass vamp, or complex, such as the time mixes of Linos Pad, but this great band creatively shook them to their limits and beyond.