Jazz review: Yellow Cocktail Music

YELLOW COCKTAIL MUSIC:

THE GREAT GATSBY JAZZ

RECORDINGS

Various artists

WaterTower Music

***½

Director Baz Luhrmann has come up with a second soundtrack for his The Great Gatsby movie. This second volume is available on CD, iTunes and vinyl. Jazz and literati purists who sniffed at the film's enthusiastically anachronistic use of hip-hop and contemporary music will enjoy this album more, as it draws from the swing music of the 1920s. There are three classically straight-ahead tracks from the likes of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Irving Aaronson & His Commanders.

What is more intriguing are the 11 tracks by The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, which plunge enthusiastically into making over the contemporary tunes. Will.i.am's Bang Bang is redone as classic, frenetic four-beat swing with hyperactive horns, while Jay-Z's 100$ Bill is unrecognisable with a New Orleans funeral band march beat overlaid with sinuous muted trumpet and trombone.

Ferry fans might like to check out Back In Black and Love Is The Drug, where his morose mumble blends well with the dirge-like rhythms of the arrangements. The musical experimentation surprisingly sounds slick. In fact, Love settles very easily into the swing jazz arrangement.

Living up to its title, this disc is the perfect aural wallpaper for hipster parties.

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.