Buckinghamshire -raised, LA-based guitarist Chris Standring has written a lot of original material across the past 30 years or so, but on Wonderful World, his 14th release as band leader, he’s left the compositional duties to others – those others mostly being contributors to the Great American Songbook. So we have ‘Night and Day’, ‘My Foolish Heart’ and – inevitably, given the album title – ‘What a Wonderful World’. The latter is the only tune to be delivered complete with words, here delivered with smoky charm by Kathrin Shorr. ‘I chose these songs because I like them but also because they could be arranged for a full orchestra or a trio setting,’ explains Standring. ‘I think there’s something magical about the sound of a guitar and orchestra playing together, but I won’t always be in situations where it’s possible to use an orchestra. So the arrangements had to be flexible enough to work in a trio setting.’ For the album, Geoff Gascoyne arranged the tunes for a 19-piece orchestra, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, while Standring played his parts in a variety of trios, the rhythm sections being made up of a mixture of bassists Chuck Berghofer, Darek Oles and Gascoyne, and drummers Peter Erskine, Harvey Mason and David Karasony. The songs are delivered at a stately pace, and the arrangements are reassuringly lush. There are no guitar histrionics from the leader – it’s mostly easy picking for an easy listening experience. The gentle interplay with Randy Brecker on the one Standring own-composition, ‘Sunrise’, buoyed with strings, is a highlight.