Following their two previous duo albums, When Lights Are Low and Witchcraft, Say It Isn’t So presents a final third chapter in the remarkable musical partnership of Claire Martin and the late Richard Rodney Bennett (pictured above). Like Witchcraft the new album is a songbook, focusing here on the work of the great Irving Berlin. Such is the rapport between the duo that every one of the 12 songs strikes vocal jazz gold: the emotional honesty, the perfect pacing and the genuine warmth of the music-making is heard in every phrase, not to mention Linn’s superb recorded sound. Martin sprinkles her magic over everything she touches here, from an effervescent ‘Steppin’ Out’ to a heart-melting ‘What’ll I Do’. I’ve never heard the latter sung more beautifully. Bennett really shines in a terrific arrangement of ‘He Ain’t Got Rhythm’, clearly having a ball with the lyric (‘He attracted some attention/When he found the fourth dimension/But he ain’t got rhythm’). A magnificent finale to a unique collaboration.