A new Ann Hampton Callaway album is always a cause for celebration and break out the champagne because ‘Jazz Goes To The Movies’ We always know to expect something great from her, but we are always offered something much much better than what we imagine. Like fine wine, Callaway just gets better and better with vintage, and her voice has gotten deeper, and richer, and more velvety, and more earthy. It’s just always better. She is in fine swinging form in this album, finely accompanied by Ted Rosenthal on piano, Martin Wind on base, Tim Horner on drums and Jimmy Greene on saxophone. You can tell how well they all play off each other, there is a natural camaraderie between all the instruments, including the vocal. And I love all the arrangements – they feel fresh and new without trying too hard to be different. I love the soft and caressing tracks most, like ‘Long Ago and Faraway,’ and any tender version of ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ is more than fine for me. But she is as engaging on the swing tracks, like  in ‘This Can’t be Love’ where she does so much more with some scatting and rhythmic vocal arranging. This is a solid jazz album, but you also experience lyrical expertise here – in every song she tells a story, and you are enraptured.