A whirl through the old and new

Tuesday's release of "We All Love Ella," a salute to Lady Fitzgerald, caps a month of eclectic new jazz albums, from a sendup of the Andrews Sisters to a lost Charles Mingus gem.

VARIOUS ARTISTS We All Love Ella (Verve)

Ella Fitzgerald would have turned 90 this year, so longtime label Verve and producer Phil Ramone assembled an all-star lineup for this hit-and-miss tribute. Fitzgerald's genius was her ability to swing, to bring a sense of playfulness to uptempo numbers, while imparting genuine tenderness to ballads. Sounds simple, but it's not, as quite a few big names in R&B, pop , and even jazz struggle here to get it right. An underrated Natalie Cole, on "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" and "Mr. Paganini," does the best job of capturing Ella's sunny buoyancy, while k.d. lang brings a smoky lusciousness to the noirish "Angel Eyes." Michael Bublé, the lone male entry, nicely turns out an impish "Too Close for Comfort." But Gladys Knight is a major letdown on "Someone to Watch Over Me," as is Dianne Reeves, who offers a tepid, overly polite rendition of "Oh, Lady Be Good." The frosty Diana Krall plods through "Dream a Little Dream of Me," while Etta James, whose raspy voice is now nearing a baritone, turns the girlish "Do Nothing Until You Hear From Me" into an off-putting command. Others, like Chaka Khan's "Lullaby of Birdland ," "Lady Is a Tramp" with Queen Latifah , and Linda Ronstadt's "Miss Otis Regrets," never get beyond ho-hum.

[Christina Pazzanese]

ESSENTIAL "Angel Eyes"

THE PUPPINI SISTERS Betcha Bottom Dollar (Verve)

There's not enough three-part harmony in pop music these days. Which helps explain why the Puppini Sisters' auspicious debut, "Betcha Bottom Dollar," might be the freshest album of the year, even though most of its music and all of its aesthetic are more than 60 years old. The Puppini Sisters are what the Andrews Sisters would sound like with better recording equipment. The references are overt: The Puppini Sisters -- Marcella Puppini, Kate Mullins, and Stephanie O'Brien, who are not sisters -- perform the Andrewses' arrangement of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," the Boswell Sisters' arrangement of "Heebie Jeebies," the Chordettes' arrangement of "Mr. Sandman," and the Ink Spots' arrangement of "Java Jive" -- plus swinging versions of "Jeepers Creepers" and Irving Berlin's "Sisters." Just as much fun is hearing more recent pop songs -- Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights," Blondie's "Heart of Glass," the Smiths' "Panic," and Gloria Gaynor's disco classic, "I Will Survive" -- transformed into World War II-era swing, gypsy swing, and Parisian-cafe music. But the jaw-dropping numbers are among the oldest: a breakneck version of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy " and a finger-snapping, foot-stomping, a cappella "In the Mood" that recalls the work of the Puppini Sisters' producer, Benoit Charest, on the soundtrack to "The Triplets of Belleville."

[Steve Greenlee]

ESSENTIAL "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy "

CHARLES MINGUS In Paris: The Complete America Session ( Sunnyside)

The Charles Mingus vaults have been opening wider, and "In Paris: The Complete America Session" gives us one of its best documents yet. Recorded in October 1970, the album (originally released on two LPs) caught the bassist's sextet at an important time. Mingus hadn't recorded much since the 1964 death of his longtime flutist and alto saxophonist, Eric Dolphy, and this date brought him out of hiding. Charles McPherson filled the alto chair, joined by tenor saxophonist Bobby Jones, trumpeter Eddie Preston, drummer Dannie Richmond, and pianist Jaki Byard, who plays here with astonishing urgency. The group stretches out with long, uninhibited takes of "Reincarnation of a Lovebird," "Peggy's Blue Skylight," "Blue Bird," and "Pithecanthropus Erectus," and sprinkles in short takes of "Love Is a Dangerous Necessity" and (the one non-Mingus tune, included perhaps with a wink) "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." A second disc includes the requisite false starts, rehearsals, and alternate takes, but in this case they are historically illuminating. We hear Mingus explain his ideas and admonish his musicians, and it helps us understand how his genius worked. [Steve Greenlee]

ESSENTIAL "Pithecanthropus Erectus"