Michael Fremer

As old-fashioned ear candy, David Gilmour’s On An Island is difficult to beat. Produced by seasoned studio pros intent upon making you stop what you are doing and actually listen, the record is a rich minefield of sonic surprises and delights, beginning with impressionistic musical sound effects mimicking foghorns, sea-gulls and the like, after which enters Gilmore’s familiar feedback-drenched, crescendo-capped guitar, and archetypal mid-tempo woozy balladry.

Bop clarinetist Tony Scott (born Anthony Joseph Sciacca in Morristown, NJ), who plays on this Sarah Vaughan album as part of an octet that includes Miles Davis (then 24), passed away the day before this was written, on the last day of March, 2007. An obit I read says that the eclectic Mr. Scott also arranged “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” for Harry Belafonte. As I write this sentence, his velvety clarinet sings prettily behind Vaughan at the end of “It Might As Well Be Spring.”