The Glory Of Gershwin

VARIOUS ARTISTS: “The Glory Of Gershwin” (Mercury)

HIM and his big mouth! Larry Adler that is, doyen of the harp in all its colours and shapes. The sleeve notes tell of how he and George Gershwin “had known each other intimately as friends” in the ’30s and ’40s, its coy allusions to Adler’s sexuality a reminder of the blushing behaviour that polite society insisted on in those days. Thankfully times have changed and both Gershwin and Adler are enjoying a second bloom, albeit a tad late for ol’ George!

Sting was the instigator of the idea, asking for Adler’s elastic lungs and lips to fill the gaps with his harmonica on Ten Summoner’s Tales. Adler obliged and decided to spread his PR net beyond the classical pale he’s planned upon for the album that would mark his own 80th summer tales.

So here it is. Eighteen classics by what producer George Martin claims is “the single best popular composer of the century,” performed by unquestionably the most acrobatic harpist in the past 50 years. And the beauty of the union is not just in that inspired partnership but in the visionary choral backdrop peopled by everyone from the old reliables like Sinéad O’Connor and Peter Gabriel, to relative novices (at least in the tribute album stakes) like Courtney Pine and – sharp intake of breath – Jon Bon Jovi.

Gabriel transforms, and is transformed by Adler’s ‘Summertime’, with the mournful harp harking back to cooler, cleaner days of wine and roses and drawing more depth and colour from the singer’s voice than he’s allowed to seep through on any of his own work. Lawdy, but he almost sounds like a full-blooded black man at times.

Lisa Stansfield airs ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ as one would figure Gershwin wrote it – strings lush and lavish, harmonica lipcurling to its heart’s content, a pitch-perfect shadowing of Stansfield’s vocals smothered in diamonds and pearls: this is a consummate accessory to her earlier contribution to the Red Hot And Blue Cole Porter collection, the magnificent ‘Down In The Depths’.

Adler shines brightest on his own adoptee, ‘Rhapsody In Blue’, a piece that Gershwin was heard to opine that he was doggone if it wasn’t written just for him. Adler fits the harp with lips, tongue and a mighty fine set of teeth – almost – before he’s through, and leaves the entire orchestra, percussion, horns ’n’ all labouring to catch up in his wake.

As for the rest read: more, thanks. Adler’s palette is as broad as it is long, as chockablock with shade and spirit as the glossiest of Dulux Matchmaker charts.

Anyone with half an eardrum cocked towards intricate melodies and rhapsodic rhyming couplets won’t want to bypass this belated Adler offspring. A beauty to be sure.

• Siobhán Long