Various: Verve Remixed

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Playing catch-up to rival jazz label's Blue Note's rejuvenation efforts, Verve has let quite a mob of dance stars into its vaults to remix songs by many of the vocal greats in its back catalogue.

The result is a largely intoxicating album that skirts neatly the sacrilege suggested by the likes of having Tricky (accompanied by members of Tool) reworking Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit, or Germans De-Phazz taking to Ella Fitzgerald's Wait 'Till You See Him, or UFO thinking they can improve on Sara Vaughan's Summertime.

Those are among the most memorable of the dozen tracks, though Tricky's is predictably an acquired taste, and among the other highlights are Masters at Work's shades-of-St Germain take on Nina Simone's See-Line Woman, and local jazz-dance export Mark De Clive Lowe recasting Shirley Horn's Return to Paradise as an electronically enhanced, conga-happy, late-night shimmy. Nice.

Label: Verve