Bryan Ferry Orchestra: The Jazz Age – review

It is sometimes said that a really good song will survive, even thrive, with a radical rearrangement. It's a flawed argument, but one to which albums such as The Jazz Age add seductive heft. Here are 13 classic tunes from the Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry back catalogues – from Virginia Plain to Don't Stop the Dance - reimagined as big band soiree music from the tootling 1920s, to mark 40 years of Ferry's career. Most arresting of all, Ferry has chosen not to sing. Although the odd track - Slave to Love, say - is laugh-out-loud funny, this is emphatically not a novelty record. Every note is perfectly placed, the sense of bygone breeziness lovingly accurate.