**** George Coleman Quartet

I COULD WRITE A BOOK: THE MUSIC OF RICHARD RODGERS

(Telarc)

Before it was set "free," jazz was a song-driven music. Brawny-toned saxist George Coleman mixes the best of both worlds on this set, abetted by fellow Memphis guy Harold Mabern on piano, Jamil Nasser on bass, and the great drummer Billy Higgins on one of his first sessions since his kidney transplant. Like good post-boppers, Coleman and Mabern ignite classics like "My Funny Valentine" and "Bewitched" with a taste of melody and then dive headlong into transporting reinterpretations and flights. Coleman uses Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" as a blueprint for his own, and it's a joyful homage -- all smarts and soaring subtlety. But one of his canniest performances is "Have You Met Miss Jones?", which is full of gently restrained crescendos that give way to new melodies sung by his sax in a pure and loving tone, all breathy with blue ecstasy until a final sighing, joyful climax. It's proof that tradition-rooted jazz can transcend formula when a master's at the helm.

-- Ted Drozdowski