ALBUM REVIEWS / JAZZ : THE TERRY TROTTER TRIO “Sweeney Todd . . . In Jazz�** <i> Varese Sarabande</i>

Pianist Trotter’s second recording of variations on the music from a Sondheim show (his first was the justifiably praised “Passion�) works better than one might expect. Sondheim’s music can be thorny, but Trotter manages to sift through the complex passages of one of the Broadway composer’s most operatic scores to reveal some exquisitely graceful melodies.

The best-known themes from the musical are “Pretty Women� and “Not While I’m Around,� and each is handled beautifully--the former via Trotter’s subtle, understated piano, and the latter in a coolly elegant reading by singer Lorraine Feather.