Lee Konitz/Grace Kelly: GraceFullLee

Considering Lee Konitz's considerable age, some might double-take this album and wonder if it could be a long-lost 1950s relic revealing Princess Grace Kelly as a closet bebopper. In this incarnation, however, she turns out to be a US-raised Korean alto saxophonist who was just 15 in 2008 when she recorded this superb set, with a buzzing Konitz and a fine group including guitarist Russell Malone. Those who have heard Konitz's unquenchably inventive, tirelessly curious improvising will relish his cliche-purged style. But the formidable Kelly's grasp of that approach, and twisting of it with wayward diversions and rhythmic surprises, brings the sometimes laconic Konitz to the boil. For devotees of the classic cool school style, this is an exquisite contemporary example – with Kelly and Malone toying playfully with Konitz's exit notes on his famously devious SubconsciousLee; a gorgeous unfolding of the melody of There Is No Greater Love over arco bass; a gambolling two-sax dialogue on Alone Together; and at times some fearless free improvisation.