Like all of you, I like to think I take my jazz seriously. But you know what? Sometimes I just like to kick off my shoes, pour myself an espresso martini and just relax and have some fun. And to have fun, I like to listen to albums like Pure Desmond Play James Bond Songs, just released in the UK for the first time. Pure Desmond, a quartet from Germany, formed in 2002 with the aim of ‘bringing the original sound of 1960s cool jazz into the modern era'. That's quite a claim, but the group go a long way to validating it, especially as leader/founder/altoist Lorenz Hargassner's tone has much of Paul Desmond's mentholated cool, and, like his great forebear, takes a ‘less is more’ approach to the material, leading to a focus on melody; an approach completely suited to the tunes here – ‘From Russia With Love’ becomes an airy samba, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ morphs into a jazz ballad, while ‘Die Another Day’ by Madonna is, mercifully, rendered unrecognisable (and rather good). PDPJBS really is just great fun. And sometimes that's all this girl needs.