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In Brief

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* * * Mel Torme-Cleo Laine, “Nothing Without You,” Concord Jazz. Here are two voices that were seemingly made for each other. The teamwork is a total delight as they cruise through a Latinized “I Thought About You,” John Dankworth’s daffy “Birdsong” (he also wrote most of the arrangements) and a “Girl Talk” that skirts the male-chauvinist issue by ditching the lyrics in favor of a wordless rendition. But things do get a tad too clever on “Two Tune Medley,” in which Torme squeezes 19 overlapping tunes into 4 1/2 minutes, mainly by using songs that have similar chord structures. All in all, though, this vocal conjunction truly works.

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