Modern Jazz Quartet - Three Windows • CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

both of which Lewis has recorded in various settings – although never before with the MJQ. Even "Encounter in Cagnes," the album's one première, sounds vaguely familiar, borrowing its major strain from "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West," an insinuating Lewis blues piece from the 1950s.

Granted, a composer has the right to tinker with his works, no matter the consternation it might cause his critics. But Lewis's greatest asset as a composer has always been his modest sense of proportion, and in enlarging the works on Three Windows, he's sacrificed some of the intimacy that made them so appealing.

The one significant exception is "A Day in Dubrovnik," an evocative three-part work that gives the illusion of having been conceived as a discourse between the MJQ and the chamber group. The lengthy second movement, with its magisterial, Vivaldi-like violin sweeps, counts as one of Lewis's most fruitful efforts in writing for classical instrumentation. But the opening and closing movements also boast their share of felicities: call and response with the strings; tension-gathering rubatos and stop times; dovetailing thematic improvisations by Lewis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson; and the usual selfless teamwork from bassist Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay. "A Day in Dubrovnik" is a masterpiece of its kind, as blissful a marriage of jazz and classical music as the MJQ has ever achieved – which is high praise indeed. (RS 509)

FRANCIS DAVIS