is Canadian born 's second album for . This latest effort from the Vancouver resident concentrates on more upbeat and jazzy material than his first album, , which leaned toward easy listening. For this set, has garnered several good jazz musicians for a primarily swinging affair. With a voice and style somewhere in between the raspy 's and the purer sounds of , he does justice to a set of 15 tunes, mostly standards, with a couple of offbeat tunes thrown in. There's no doubt that the instrumentalists chosen for go a long way into making this album attractive. The singer is not in the same class as , , or , who sound good irrespective of their backing. He needs good musicians and fresh arrangements, which he gets, particularly the sympathetic arrangements by . The session gets a notable kick-off with a rousing version of with 's energetic tenor pulling along on a fine rendition of this chestnut. is on several other cuts, enhancing them considerably with his presence, like on and Guitar player is also a major player on this album, providing clean stringed backing throughout the session. excels on up-tempo material, especially on tunes that he can sink his teeth into, like It's a mixed bag on ballads where he sometimes wavers and seems to lose his way. One exception is his duet with Montreal-based jazz diva on Also, he engages in some -like jazz warbling on which is a mistake. has been on the vocal scene since the 1960s, having gigged from New York to Las Vegas. He dodged the ultimate bullet when he was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in 1985. A second examination revealed that the first diagnosis was incorrect. On this album, he takes full advantage of his reprieve with an acceptable effort, the shortcomings on some ballads notwithstanding. ~ Dave Nathan