Album Reviews : Central Avenue Sounds Adorn ‘Blue Dress’

*** , VARIOUS ARTISTS, ‘Devil in the Blue Dress”, soundtrack , Columbia

In an era of supergroup soundtracks striving for the Big Hit (no matter how incongruous), “Devil in the Blue Dress” is a refreshingly well-appointed collection of carefully arranged heirlooms--blues, jump, jazz, R&B;, shout--pulled from old 78s and snapping with so much life you’d swear you can hear the dust pop on them.

Combined with “urban realism” vet Elmer Bernstein’s textured noir score, the music becomes a character in its own right--the lively, sinewy rhythms that served as the heartbeat of Central Avenue in its ‘30s-’40s heyday.

These are the city sounds that shadow reluctant private eye Easy Rawlins’ wanderings through black L.A.--its living rooms and good-time joints.

Many of the cuts were recorded in Los Angeles and pay homage to the city’s rich but often overlooked jazz and R&B; recording history and once-lively club scene--like Pee Wee Crayton’s wistful “Blues After Hours,” L.A. R&B; pioneer Roy Milton’s teasing stroll “Hop, Skip and Jump” and Amos Milburn’s sly, Louis Jordan-esque “Chicken Shack Boogie.” Most evocative, as if written for the film itself, is “West Side Baby,” T-Bone Walker’s 1947 telling of a cross-town, hush-hush romance, a mystery of its own revealed in a confidential plaint, through blue light and curling smoke. New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).