Album: Cassandra Wilson, Silver Pony (Blue Note)

This part-live, part-studio quintet recording might mark time more than break new ground, but it's still easy to succumb to Ms Wilson's charms.

A rather uninspiring opening is soon forgotten after a slinky instrumental work-out leads into "Silver Moon", with Ravi Coltrane on sax. It's followed by Charley Patton's "Saddle Up My Pony", then Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic". By the time we get to Louis Bonfa's "A Day in the Life of a Fool" and the Beatles' "Blackbird", you're smitten, with a John Legend cameo still to come.