ALBUM REVIEWS : ‘Mo Blues’ and Hard Bop From Branford Marsalis

*** BRANFORD MARSALIS ET AL. “Music From ‘Mo’ Better Blues’ ”; Columbia

This album by the Marsalis quintet, with Terrence Blanchard in the trumpet role played in the film by actor Denzel Washington, is an amalgam of hard bop, R&B; and other diversions and will appeal mainly to those who have seen the film. The title cut, and the ballad “Again Never,” both composed by Spike Lee’s father, Bill Lee, stand out. There are two versions of W.C. Handy’s antique “Harlem Blues,” updated and sung by Cynda Williams, the actress/vocalist who performed the songs on screen. Caveat: fast forward through “Pop Top 40,” an out-of-context pseudo-pop affair, and “Jazz Thing,” a simplistic pocket history of jazz in rap form.

*** ANDRE PREVIN “Uptown” Telarc

Previn edges even closer to pristine form in this, his second comeback-to-jazz celebration. Bassist Ray Brown is on hand again, and this time the guitarist is the long-respected Mundell Lowe. The subject matter helps: six Harold Arlen songs, seven Ellingtons, and one Duke-associated pop tune, “Five o’Clock Whistle.” Previn nudges his way obliquely into a sensitive “Come Rain or Come Shine,” and achieves a spiritual beauty on “Come Sunday.” Except for the slightly hasty “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” everything swings with the utmost ease.

**** TERRY GIBBS DREAM BAND “Volume Four: Main Stem” Contemporary

This Gibbs CD is surely the livest live session on record. Here are 17 men and a woman (pianist Pat Moran) who think as one, captured with brilliant sound (by the late engineer Wally Heider) at the Summit, the Hollywood nightspot that now houses the Club Lingerie. The leader’s vibes are ingeniously woven into the arrangements by Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers and Al Cohn along with booting contributions by such soloists as trombonist Frank Rosolino, reedmen Joe Maini and Richie Kamuca and drummer Mel Lewis, all sadly no longer around, as well as by trumpeter Conte Candoli and saxman Bill Perkins, who are still vitally among us.

** 1/2 CYBILL SHEPHERD “Vanilla” Gold Castle

At her best, actress/singer Shepherd has revealed a genuine talent with a jazz sensitivity; however, this reissue of a date made in 1979, after she had returned home to Memphis, is weighted down by a ragged band--Fred Ford and his Beale Street Orchestra. Except for the inane title tune, most of the songs are jazz/pop standards. Still, there is a rare value here in the person of the late Phineas Newborn, a jazz piano giant, and his rhythm section--his brother Calvin (guitar), Jamil Nasser (bass) and Bill Tyus (drums). Shepherd is in good voice on “My Ship”--where Newborn has the first chorus to himself and where the band is too subdued to be disconcerting. Questions: Whatever became of that fine album she made backed by Stan Getz? Why doesn’t she return now to the studios, to make the superior jazz session of which she is capable?

*** 1/2 VINCENT HERRING “American Experience” Music Masters

Herring, now 25, taped these sessions in 1986 and 1989 with two different but equally compatible hard bop groups. Heard recently in Nat Adderley’s quintet, he has emerged as one of the most passionate new voices on alto and soprano saxophones. He is represented as a composer along with Charles Lloyd, Horace Silver and his pianist Bruce Barth. The earlier cuts, made when he was only 21, reveal that he had already reached a rare plateau of maturity. Herring has come a long way from the streets of Manhattan, where he was playing outdoors as recently as 1984.