Monty Alexander/Ernest Ranglin: Rocksteady

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * )

The old jazz hands from the ska-into-reggae generation team up again for interpretations of classic Jamaican tunes such as the classic Double Barrel, Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey, Desmond Dekker's The Israelites, the Congos' melancholy Row Fisherman, a soulful Pressure Drop (featuring its writer Toots on vocals) and Brother Bob's Redemption Song.

Pianist Alexander offers melodica on Augustus Pablo's East of the River Nile and elsewhere, and guitarist Ranglin brings that summer-jazz sound to these pleasant if hardly earth-shattering proceedings.

But further proof -- 30 years after their first album together and having played on some of the original sessions for these songs -- that reggae lends itself easily to jazzy interpretations.

(Telarc/Elite)