Vikki, Play Misty For Me

Violinist Viktoria Mullova has developed into a very broad minded and adventurous musician. So far this album, Through The Looking Glass, has been a one off but she may yet revisit this kind of repertoire in future. It is normally described as a jazz album because of the prominent participation of pianist Julian Joseph and the presence of numbers by such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius and Errol Garner's evergreen Misty. Jazz is probably a fair enough description, there is certainly plenty of improvisation and Mullova proves herself most adept at it. But she is joined by her partner cellist Matthew Barley on some tracks and as producer, while percussionists Colin Currie and Sam Walton also come from a mainly classical background. The influences on the other percussionist Paul Clarvis and guitarist Steve Smith are more diverse. On some tracks, Mullova retains a Bartokian sparkiness to her playing, on others she can sound like she belongs in a sixties west coast psychedelic improvising situation and on yet others she moves into Stephane Grappelli Hot Club territory. It was this last side of her playing on the George Harrison song For You Blue that I felt just occasionally seemed a little unnatural for her. The Ellington workout is excellent though and the Weather Report tracks retain a dance feel, as does the Youssou N'Dour number Life. The biggest surprises are the transformations of the cheesy seventies pop songs How Deep Is Your Love and particularly The Air That I Breathe, which becomes a sublime piece of music by any standards, rhapsodic with a lilting latin feel that Joseph even gives a subtle gospel twist. The whole album is an object lesson in how to do it for any artist considering any form of crossover.