A Batch of Holiday Treats From Connick to Cole

If you’re looking for last-minute holiday gift ideas for a jazz-loving friend, Billboard magazine’s weekly list of the nation’s best-selling jazz albums is a handy guide.

The chart in last Saturday’s issue of the trade publication offers a surprisingly strong group of albums, most of them containing high-quality music without a lot of unneeded frills or enhancements.

Topping the Top 10 list, as it has for seven weeks, is Harry Connick Jr.’s “Blue Light, Red Light” (Columbia Records). Singer-pianist Connick, a now version of a young Frank Sinatra but without the latter’s indefinable magic, delivers these originals with plenty of style.

Here’s a look at the rest of the Top 10 in order of their position on the chart:

“The Gershwin Connection” (GRP Records)--featuring pianists Dave Grusin and Chick Corea, clarinetist Eddie Daniels and others--is an appealing look at many classics from the George and Ira songbook.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis’ rambling “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” (Columbia) spotlights mostly structureless improvisations. Despite a zesty, driving beat, these selections lack feeling and substance.

What’s missing from Marsalis--emotion--is at the heart of saxophonist Maceo Parker’s blues-R&B; oriented “Mo’ Roots” (Verve), an agreeable foot-tapping melange of instrumentals and vocals that is influenced by the early bands of Ray Charles and James Brown.

Pianist Kenny Kirkland’s self-titled debut (GRP) is an uneven assortment ranging from the soothing “Midnight Silence” to an angular take on Bud Powell’s “Celia.” Dissonance predominates.

Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” (Elektra) is very listenable. Her honey-toned alto is perfectly suited to versions of tunes recorded by her father, the late Nat King Cole, and there are superb arrangements by Johnny Mandel, Michel Legrand, Bill Holman, et al.

Earl Klugh’s “Trio, Volume One” (Warner Bros.) finds the acoustic guitarist with the serene sound performing such standards as “I’ll Remember April.” This material is far superior to the unmemorable pop-oriented tunes Klugh is known for.

Another spark-plug release is guitarist Mark Whitfield’s “Patrice,” where pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Ron Carter help the youthful musician dig into a variety of songs that have a rock and hard-blues essence.

Abbey Lincoln’s “You Gotta Pay the Band” (Verve) spotlights the late Stan Getz’s last recorded performance. He provides solos and obbligatos to the distinctive singer’ eclectic program of poignant, poetic originals and singular standards, such as Mandel-Webster’s “A Time for Love.”

For “Saturday Night at the Blue Note” (Telarc), the ever-swinging pianist Oscar Peterson gathers such former cohorts as Herb Ellis and Ray Brown to offer a blues-bitten approach to seven ditties.