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BARRY TUCKWELL with the TONY GOULD TRIO The Very Thought of You ABC JAZZ 270 7652

1. Blame it on my youth
2. Autumn in New York
3. Smile
4. Emily
5. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
6. These Foolish Things
7. Dindi
8. Shadow of your smile
9. The way you look tonight
10. Over the Rainbow
11. I've grown accustomed to her face
12. With a song in my heart
13. The very thought of you
14. Skylark

Barry Tuckwell (French horn)
Tony Gould (piano)
Ben Robertson (bass)
David Jones (percussion)
Imogen Manins (cello)
Strings of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Graeme Lyall (saxophone, musical director and arranger)

 

Barry Tuckwell was tempted out of retirement back in 2006, so the world has once again been treated to his magnificent playing. Though these excursions were classical, in August 2008 he set down eleven tracks of easy listening standards in arrangements, almost all of which were by Graham Lyall. This isn't his first foray into these waters, of course. Some will recall his Jerome Kern album in Richard Rodney Bennett's arrangements and his collaboration with George Shearing, for an Anglo-Australian alliance on Jazz standards.

All the tunes are predominantly slow and the feeling is mellow, laid back and warm. Tony Gould's trio and the accompanying strings of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra provide gentle support. If you're looking for innovative arrangements or Gil Evans inspirations this is not the disc for you. Autumn in New York shows the methodology. It's a tune burnished by graceful legato and liquid timbral resources, lightly supported by trio and strings. There's something suave about it, which one can take or leave, but the technical accomplishment is not to be underestimated. Tuckwell shows his unvanquished lip control in Emily, not least in its coda. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered flourishes in the orbit of Gould's romantic piano stylings - he plays solo as well in With a song in my heart, as he does in a resolutely non-jazzy The way you look tonight - so banish thoughts of Teddy Wilson.

Graeme Lyall makes an effective contribution on saxophone on Over The Rainbow but the main focus of course is on Tuckwell, whose languid playing on The very thought of you reflects much of the atmosphere of this disc as a whole - elegant, generous, lyric, warm, tasteful, unambitious.

Jonathan Woolf

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