In classic tradition

TONY BENNETT: The Beat of My Heart, Sony Music; Rs. 100.

Tony Bennett has been singing for over five decades. He belongs to the tradition of the great American popular singers of the first half of the 20th Century, who in varying degrees sang with bands that straddled the line between pop and jazz. He has stayed on the jazz side of the line more than Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, since he has generally sung with genuine jazz instrumentation, but less so than Ella Fitzgerald, whose backing orchestras were strong on improvisation, as she was.

Recorded in 1957, this cassette is probably timed to coincide with Bennett's 75th birthday. The 17 numbers feature a variety of musicians, including pianist Ralph Sharon, who has kept him company through the decades, several star drummers, including Jo Jones, Art Blakey and Chico Hamilton, tenor saxophonist Al Cohn, trumpeter Nat Adderley, four trombonists and five flautists, in different combinations.

This is good jazz: the instrumentalists get plenty of individual prominence and thus fill the album with a variety of sounds. But there are few improvised solos. The drummers, especially Art Blakey, stand out particularly and contribute most to the jazz feeling. But the other instruments also make their presence felt whenever they appear.

Bennett's singing shows great ability to modulate volume and emotion, combining the "shouting" quality of the blues-jazz singers with the soft, swinging abilities of Ella Fitzgerald. He remarkably managed to maintain a place, over several decades, for a jazz tradition already looking dated by 1950. This album shows why.

Trail-blazers at their peak

Weather Report: Black Market Sony Music; Rs. 100.

Weather Report was the pioneering jazz-rock fusion group of the '70s. Consisting of Joe Zawinul on keyboards/ synthesiser, Wayne Shorter on tenor/ soprano saxophones, Miroslav Vitous or Jaco Pastorius on electric bass guitar, and Alphonse Mouzon on drums (some of whom also worked with Miles Davis on jazz-rock at the same time), it helped develop a kind of music with the sound of rock but with some jazz instrumentation and improvisation.

First released in 1976, this album shows much more of the jazz component in the fusion than does much of later jazz-rock. For example, Mouzon's drumming here is quiet and light as in jazz, not heavy and loud. Shorter's saxophones also raise the jazz profile. There are also plenty of improvised solos. However, they are not as well-developed as in mainstream jazz, but appear tentative, interrupted.

The emphasis seems to be on constructing a total sound picture, sometimes very dense and slightly chaotic. Shorter, for instance, sometimes switches between the two saxophones or starts a solo and finishes too soon. Zawinul uses his electronic keyboard or synthesiser to get the sound of various instruments, including flute and guitar, apart from electric and acoustic pianos. He also electronically produces sound distortion effects in characteristic rock style. There are some quiet passages, one slower and more contemplative number, and plenty of variation in the instrumentation, as in jazz. But the sound of rock is perhaps too strong for some lovers of mainstream jazz, such as this writer!

JAZZEBEL

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