On the record: Al Jarreau

Artist : Al Jarreau

Album : Accentuate the Positive (Universal Music)

After a long period of different ventures, including crisscrossing into other genre, Al Jarreau is back to straight ahead, mainstream jazz, taking up where he left off with 1977's Look to the Rainbow.

Comprising 11 tracks of jazz standards and two original pieces, the album was recorded live with a quartet from Diana Krall's rhythm section: guitarist Anthony Wilson, drummer Peter Erskine and bassist Christian McBride.

The result is pleasing; no, it's nothing extraordinary, but still a welcome return to what he was first and best known for.

Jarreau's versatile and inimitable tenor shines as he sings Duke Ellington's I'm Beginning to See the Light, Lionel Hampton's Midnight Sun, and Dizzy Gillespie's Groovin High, which is highlighted with percussion and saxophone.

Through his eloquent scatsinging, in Schootcha Booty and Betty Bebop's Song, for instance, Jarreau proves he is still an indispensable vocalist. -- Hera Diani