The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 79

PHIL WOODS QUARTET A THE VANGUARD ANTILLES Phil Woods were a rnuntrv slntrpr BAILEY'S PURE GOLDSO IS PHIL WOODS instead of a Jazz player he'd fall right into the "good ol' boy" category. Ever since he escaped from Springfield, where he grew up. he's been a steady GENESIS YES AND NOREAL PIANO SOUND I I RUSS BARENBERG BEHIND THE MELODIES ROUNDER This is the second Barenberg album devoted to a calypso-jazz; the first. "Cowboy Calypso," is recognized, or will be, as one of the finest acoustic guitar albums In print. Barenberg comes from bluegrass roots, first playing with groups like Country Cooking.

All songs here are original compositions In very original arrangements that pair the dobro (Jerry Douglas) with the flute and alto sax (Billy Novick), with the mandolin (Andy Stat-man), and match violin (Matt Glazer) with violin (Evan Stover). "The Llama's Dance" exhibits Barenberg's fresh arranging ideas and his sharp-edged, calypso playing. This melody Is particularly infectious with its soft dobro passages and percussive drive. "Halloween Rehearsal" Is a bluesy-jazz number featuring double guitar leads by Barenberg and haunting dobro by Douglas, who plays a unison break with bass man Marty Confurius. A better song along the same serious lines is "The Invisible Choir." With its carefully conducted orchestration, the song grows to a string crescendo and then fades slowly to black and disappears.

Overall, this album is almost as rich and consistent as Barenberg's first. Jack Low jazz performer, often a briliant one. And he has survived all the trials and woes that have decimated the ranks of top players he's worked with. Now he lives on a mountain in Pennsylvania and makes periodic forays into the world to play and record. This lovely album which features Woods on alto sax and clarinet plus three more good ol' boys on bass, drums and piano is what jazz in all about, freedom and Joy and swing, more than 50 minutes worth ere.

Woods hits for the circuit with upbeat songs like "Airegin" and ballads like "All Through the Night," and a sad and questing song inscrutably called "It's time to Emulate the Japanese." And he plays them all with warmth and Intelligence, his lyrical tone and lilting rhythmic intelligence ineffably graceful and hip, skipping lightly over the top of the songs, bringing order and a luminous light to all he touches. Ray Murphy i 1 Paul Weller flash of brilliance Allen Collins SkynyrcLs are back CLASSICAL MURRAY PERAHIA, piano SCHUBERT IMPROMPTUS COLUMBIA (Digital) Iscussion about whether today's pianists can play better than their ancestors Isn't very fruitful, and It Is Impossible to make very useful comparisons even over the eight decades since the Invention of recording. The limitations of earlier recording processes, for example, may actually have contributed to the reputations of some older pianists the compression of dynamic and frequency range In the recording have something to do with the uniquely otherwordly quality of the end of Beethoven's last sonata, Op. Ill, In the famous EMI performance by Arthur Schnabel; the performance the RCA engineers recorded with the same pianist is not comparable In effect. The glare of subsequent recording processes hasn't flattered some modern pianists: one wonders how a performer like Alexis Welssenberg.

who has been widely criticized for the quality of his tone, would sound on an early electrical recording. All this Is by Indirect way of commenting on the remarkable new recording of the Schubert Impromptus by Murray Pera-hla, recorded digitally, a process that doesn't do much to warm up a pianist's sound. But the play of light and shade across the scale passages In the E-flat Impromptu (Op. 90. no 2) Is one of the great things on records; and you know tha STYLE COUNCIL INTRODUCING THE STYLE COUNCIL POLYDOR Paul Weller at 24 has a lot In common with Brian Wilson at 40.

Like Wilson's Beach Boys. Weller's Jam combines a pioneering drive with a heart that was hooked on the best pop traditions. The geniuses of the two bands burned out at different ages, but neither has allowed that to get In the way of flashes of pop brilliance. This album Includes the first three British singles from Weller's new band In a seven-song mlnl-LP format, and It will undoubtedly attract more Beach Boys fans than Jam fans. Weller's new songs aim for different periods of AM pop: A sultry "Long Hot Summer" comes with "shoo-be-doo-wop" chorus; "Head-start for Happiness" recalls the sanguine folk of early-'70s Paul McCartney, and pianist Mick Talbot's Instrumental "Mick's Up" rips off "Hot Lunch Jam" from the movie "Fame." All are harmless to the point of blandness.

but on "The Paris Match" Weller comes up with a winner of a torch song. We have to hope he can come up with more than one next time. Matty Karas PHILIP BAILEY CONTINUATION COLUMBIA This Is the rare dance album where each cut Is outstanding. Philip Bailey, co-lead vocalist for Earth. Wind and Fire, produced the album which will seduce you with Its charm and beat.

He also sings on It with his pretty, high-pitched voice running free and easy on "Vaya (Go with Love)" where airy harmonics provide an Ideal backdrop. The songs here are about glorious love. For a free-flowing piece and a soul-filling delight, try "It's Our Time" with Dcnlrce Williams providing sugar-sweet vocals In the duct. Sister Sledge can be heard on background vocals on "Desire." an all-out dance floor Saturday night disco number which has. unlike most songs of this genre, coherent, audible and PC-rated lyrics.

A zesty horn section accentuates the funk of 'The Good Guy's Supposed to Get the Girls." Bailey's talent as a solo artist Is unquestionable and after listening to this record It's clear he can cither continue making music on his own or with Earth. Wind and Fire. The results are pleasurable In either form. Martin Dasch GENESIS GENESIS ATLANTIC This wildly uneven album includes some of the best and worst music in Genesis' history. The good news first: "Mama" Is a brilliant single with an arrangement that's tense and stripped-down, brought to peaks of dramatic dissonance by Phil Collins' manic vocal and Tony Banks' pulsing sytheslzers.

The rest of the album favors shorter, more accessible songs. The ballads "Taking It All Too Hard" and "Silver Rainbow" are gentle and haunting, sung to perfection by Collins. The gritty "Just a Job to Do" continues the band's flirtation with black music and there are no Earth. Wind, and Fire horns this time, but it's still the funkiest track Genesis has recorded. The album's major failure Is Its one attempt to return to the old Genesis sound: The two-part "Home by the Sea" tries to be an epic In the "Nursery Cryme" vein, but falls flat for lack of a strong melody.

Its long Instrumental rambles pleasantly, but never reaches the band's trademark grandeur. Also disappointing Is "Illegal Allen," a silly novelty number with Collins trying a Mexican accent. Genesis hasn't lost their ability to explore new directions, but here they've only half-delivered. Brett Mllano STEVE FREUND and GLORIA HARDIMAN SET ME FREE RAZOR Gloria Hardlman Is a blues singer who makes you sit up and listen. Possessed of a rousing voice trained In the gospel tradition, her singing Is committed, charismatic and soulful.

Hearing her tear through "I Done Got Over It," one forgets easily how many times that standard has been recorded; and she needs to make no apologies for her cover of Aretha Franklin's "Dr. Feelgood." Her voice and style are similar to Aretha's but she's a fine singer In her own right reaching deep Inside for her blues. She's well-aided by a band dominated by guitarist Steve Freund whose sharp, swinging lines and subtle fills augment Hardlman's fiery style, and establish him as a force. These two rookies, who've actually been around for years, have created a fine and full bodied blurs album that's among the year's best. Afatthpui fkirfon ALLEN COLLINS BAND HERE, THERE AND BACK MCA After three combative years, and two mediocre albums with the Rosslngton-Collins Band, former Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins returns here with a vengeance and a new lineup Including vocalist Jimmy Dougherty.

Also back are keyboards whiz Billy Powell and bassist Leon Wllkerson, both Skynyrd and RCB alumni, and Barry Lee Harwood on guitar and vocals and Derek Hess drums, formerly of RCB. The seventh man Is guitarist Randall Hall. On this album the band establishes a distinguishable sound with credit to Dougherty's potent vocals. "Chapter One" and "Hangln Judge" are two of the more power-ladened gultar-orl-ented cuts yet vocalists Dougherty and Harwood don't allow the boys to go overboard and turn this Into Just another southern rock album. "Just Trouble" Is the standout combining Harwood's vocals with a pleasant chooglln' beat, and even a guest horn section, resulting In a slightly bluesy sound.

This Is a definite must for Skynyrd fans. Kevin Connal PENOUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA PENQUIN CAFE MINI-ALBUM EDITIONS EQ The all-Instrumental "The Penquln CafcMlnl-Album" Is the most compelling collection of atmospheric music released this year. The orchestra, a brainchild of English multl-lnstrumcntalist Simon Jcffcs, mostly acoustic music that both soothes and stimulates. Although "Salty Bean Fumble" Is a Jaunty little penny whlstle-and-vlolln romp, there's no sense of urgency; these six songs are to listen to as you're lying back watching the river flow, or wishing you were. Violin, viola, cello, acoustic guitar and piano lines gently Intertwine, drawing upon varied world folk traditions and Jcffcs' classical avant gnrdc background.

There are some odd, but not Intrusive, twists along the charming melodic paths. The music Is llghthrartcd. but not lightweight, evocative of nostaltc moods and heady delights. "The Penquln Cafe Single" Is the catchiest and most whimsical; "Numlxrs I -4 Is the most stirring, but there's not a dud on the record. Rarely has the art of provocative ambient music been practiced more successfully.

Jim SutUmn I Ierahla Is actually doing It. For comparison I did something no one ever should -1 followed this new record with Schnabcl's Op. 90 (newly available In a very superior 5 transfer on Arabasque, the first of two 3- disc sets devoted to all the Schubert re- cordlngs made by this master of the mu- i sic) and with Edwin Fischer's Op. 142. In all of the Impromptus, Perahla holds his own, though one might feel that his Op.

142, No. 3 seems a bit deliberate com- pared to Fischer's and No. 4 has too little I of the older pianist's Irresistible gypsy elan. But Schnabel doesn't get cltwe to Perahla In that E-flat Impromptu. And llii Imivirtant Ihlnrf la Hint IVrnhl.i Htir is his own way In everything, and demon- strates that more than a century and half after the Impromptus were published I there are still new ways to hear and com- munlrale the poetry of the music.

Richard DierJ.