Jack Wood: Movie Magic. Great Songs from the Movies

Someone could be forgiven for thinking that everyone loves music from the movies. After all: Jule Styne; Leslie Bricusse; Johnny Mandel; Sammy Fain; Harry Warren; Richard Rodgers ; Henry Mancini; Johnny Mercer; Antonio Carlos Jobim; Michel Legrand; Bernice Petkere; and Isham Jones is hardly a list of minor talents, but all are represented on Movie Magic. Is it the music itself, the associated film or both that are compelling? Perhaps an emotional connection to a moment, a time, a person or a place. It may very well be all of those things.

Neither Jack Wood nor Nichaud Fitzgibbon are exactly household names, but both are good singers, either taken separately or in a duet. Wood, from Southern California, has a pleasant voice reminiscent of the better-known band singers of the 1930s and 1940s. Fitzgibbon, who is from Australia is an all-around artist who sounds comfortable in any register and at any tempo. Here, the two combine to produce a selection of songs from films whose approximate midpoint is about 1970. So they cover some older classics and a few more recent gems, all accompanied by a galaxy of first-rate studio and session musicians who frame their efforts perfectly. Some, like South Philadelphia born guitarist Joe Lano, are well known, while others less so. But they can all play and their combined effect is graceful and melodious.

It is not easy to pick a favorite because all the songs are tastefully done, but "How Insensitive," done in both Portuguese and English is pretty, and "The Shadow of Your Smile" is hard to spoil, even if it has been done nearly a thousand times (literally) since 1965. So, too, "Make Someone Happy."

Obviously, someone disinclined to admire standards well-done is not the intended audience for this effort, but too bad. Plenty of listeners have no such reservations.