With the swanky midnight mood of their previous collaboration Here's to Life in mind,
Shirley Horn and arranger
Johnny Mandel go at it again -- a move that is sure to send her legions of latter-day fans into blissful orbit. This time, though, the six sophisticated string-laden ballads are interspersed with five relatively short, swinging numbers with just
Horn, her trio, and various instrumental guests. As a result, you get a better balanced album, not weighted too much in one direction or another.
Mandel's orchestrations are paragons of subtlety, sometimes creeping almost imperceptibly like a slow moving fog upon
Horn's trio. Like his singer,
Mandel respects the value of silence and space; they're a well matched pair, their different ideas of timing dovetail together neatly. Though some of us would have wanted
Horn and her jazzmen to stretch out more on the small group tracks, they do serve effectively as breathers, or intermezzos, in between the languorous collaborations with
Mandel. In lieu of the participation of
Wynton Marsalis (who contributed to Here's to Life),
Carl Saunders offers some soulful trumpet obbligato work on "Solitary Moon." Guitarist
Russell Malone and bassist
Brian Bromberg also appear on the small group tracks --
Malone even does a soft focused rockabilly thing on "Why Don't You Do Right?" -- while bassist
Charles Ables and drummer
Steve Williams stoke the rhythm in
Horn's trio. Another worthy stylish outing for
Horn. ~ Richard S. Ginell