As pleasingly idiosyncratic as ever, vocalist Mina Agossi has always fished in the slightly more offbeat byways of jazz, and Red Eyes is no different. I can't think of any other jazz artist who would kick off an album with a Billy Idol cover (‘Eyes Without A Face’) but that's Agossi for you. Jimi Hendrix is one of the singer's most important touchstones and she offers a typically forthright take on his slow 12-bar blues ‘Red House’ (a staple of his live shows), transformed here into a blowing feature for her friend and mentor Archie Shepp. There's also a rather touching vocal duet with Shepp and Agossi on the former's self-penned ‘The Stars Are In Your Eyes’ (Shepp also overdubs tenor and some bracing, at times Monkish, piano). Of her four originals, it's the evocative power of the concluding title track that lingers longest in the memory.