“RHAPSODY IN BLUE/WESTSIDE STORY.” Carlos Barbosa-Lima and...

“RHAPSODY IN BLUE/WESTSIDE STORY.” Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Sharon Isbin, guitars. Concord Records, CC-2012. The duo’s second recording finds them in fine form, with very attractive, idiomatically arranged cross-over material. The “Westside Story” selections have the snap, the unsappy sentiment and the instrumental glee of Bernstein’s own “Symphonic Dances” arrangements; the Gershwin numbers--including Prelude No. 3 and “Jazbo Brown” from “Porgy and Bess”--do not work quite so well. The playing is irresistible throughout, varied in timbre and texture, wonderfully supple in rhythmic freedom and smoothly integrated.